Faith-based programs add extra dimension to help fight addictions

As a Christian, Joyce enjoys sharing her faith.

As someone with a history of crack cocaine use, she participates in 12-step groups to help her stay sober.

But Joyce, who asked that her last name not be used, said groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous aren't the best forum for talking about spiritual matters.

"When you mention that God name, people look at you all crazy," she said.

That's why Joyce prefers Accent on Christ, a faith-based recovery program that blends the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous with Christian principles and Bible teachings.

It's one of a number of Tri-State programs that use Christian beliefs to help those struggling with addictions and compulsive behaviors.

Accent on Christ meets four times a week at the Evansville Christian Life Center on South Kentucky Avenue.

Meetings begin and end with prayer. In between, attendees pass around a notebook to write down prayer requests. They read the 12 steps and their biblical parallels. There's a time for discussion and

sharing, and a recognition of those who have been sober varying amounts of time.

Unlike some other 12-step programs, Accent on Christ deals with all manner of addictions and issues within the same group. Any given gathering may include people who struggle with substance abuse, compulsive eating, sex addiction and gambling.

"We're all sinners being saved by grace, no matter who walks through these doors," said Larry Davis, an Accent on Christ board member who said his addictions were work and money, though he also used drugs and alcohol.

Accent on Christ uses materials from Celebrate Recovery, a Christian program that began in 1990 at Saddleback Church in California. Saddleback is a megachurch whose pastor, Rick Warren, wrote the popular book "The Purpose Driven Life."

Celebrate Recovery uses the 12 steps of AA and relates them to passages from the Bible.

For instance, the AA step that reads "(We) came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity" is linked with Philippians 2:13: "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."

Celebrate Recovery also uses what it calls eight recovery principles based on the beatitudes from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

Jeff Stucke, director of counseling at Christian Fellowship Church, said faith-based programs such as Celebrate Recovery are powerful because they rely on a belief in something larger than human suffering.

"The most important objective for me is to give a person hope. When you bring the faith component into it and bring God into it, there is hope where before there was no hope," Stucke said.

Christian Fellowship Church will begin offering Celebrate Recovery classes each Thursday at 6 p.m. beginning Feb. 1.

South Gibson Apostolic Chapel in Owensville, Ind., offers a different faith-based recovery program, ACTS (Alcohol Chemical Treatment Services). The program, affiliated with the United Pentecostal Church International, operates throughout the U.S. and abroad.

ACTS sessions are held both at the church and with inmates at the Gibson County Jail.

The structured program teaches how drugs and alcohol affect the body, how to identify and handle "trigger issues," how to use coping skills. Participants study Bible stories that are relevant to substance abuse and recovery.

The story of the Good Samaritan, for instance, tells of a man who fell into trouble but also found help from a kind stranger.

"We teach a relationship with God that is real, genuine and is better than any substance that a man can find. ... It's what people are looking for in drugs and alcohol," said the Rev. J.D. Mullins, pastor at South Gibson Apostolic Chapel.

Gibson County Sheriff Allen Harmon said ACTS has been well-received by inmates, who can choose whether to participate in the program.

"We always have more wanting to take the class than they have openings," Harmon said.

"I think it's a very worthwhile program."

But Harmon, and others, say faith-based programs aren't a magic solution.

Vanderburgh County Superior Court Judge Wayne Trockman, who presides over the county's drug court program, said 12-step programs - whether secular or faith-based - show results when used in concert with other methods. Drug court participants are required to attend daily 12-step meetings (either secular or faith-based), along with supervised probation and other conditions.

"I don't think that any one single program is as effective as a combination of approaches, and that's what we use," Trockman said.

Bible Center Cathedral on North First Avenue started Celebrate Recovery at its church last year.

The Rev. Ray Brown, assistant minister at the church, said many of the participants with substance-abuse issues use Celebrate Recovery as one of several tools toward recovery.

That's as it should be, Brown believes.

"We don't try to be in competition with AA. We're glad that people are going to AA," Brown said.

"I'm a little bit timid to say, 'Hey, just do this (Celebrate Recovery) and this is going to totally fix you.'"

Harmon said he has known some habitual offenders who cleaned up their lives with the help of ACTS, but acknowledges the program doesn't change all inmates.

"Does it work every time? No. Does it work sometimes? Absolutely. ... Any time I can keep someone from coming back to my jail, I think that's a plus."

Evansville Courier Press