A Hertfordshire minister who took his church through the 12 steps of addiction recovery has challenged other churches to do the same – but expect messiness and ‘lots of joy’.
After several recovering addicts joined the growing Life Church, Cuffley, William Wade adopted ‘the 12 steps’ as a discipleship tool, basing a Sunday morning series on them.
When he started his ministry at the church in 2019, two sponsors – from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Cocaine Anonymous (CA) – were already attending. Wade explained: ‘They then began to encourage those they sponsored on 12-step recovery programmes and also those who attended both AA and CA meetings in the local area to come to our Sunday services.’
They were motivated to invite others because of his ‘easy to understand preaching’ and the welcoming culture.
New life and new ventures
Many newcomers from a recovery programme gave their lives to Jesus, were baptised and stayed. Wade said: ‘Two people from the “recovery group” (they are mature believers) felt called to start a weekly gathering called Jesus and Recovery.’ The group is testimony-based with worship and prayer, has just celebrated its one-year anniversary and continues to grow.
The ‘big book’ of recovery – the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book – was written by Christians and based on the Bible. Wade commented: ‘As you go through the 12 steps of recovery, you soon realise how Biblical these steps are. You are led into such areas as admitting personal powerlessness; handing your will over to God; making an inventory of your own failings; making a list of others you have hurt and actively making amends (where appropriate); and spreading the message of recovery to others.’
But it is not without its challenges. ‘Those going through the 12-step programme have to be ruthlessly honest,’ added Wade, ‘and as a church, we went along with that level of honesty. It helped shatter any areas of religiosity we may have been enamoured with and allowed us to truly confess our sins to one another “that we may be healed”.’
‘We can also be overtly welcoming of those struggling with addiction,’ added Wade, ‘such as the obvious ones (alcohol and drugs), but also food, pornography, relationships, gambling and buying.’
As for those going through addiction recovery, many come and are converted – making Jesus their ‘Higher Power’ – baptised and ‘become messengers of grace within the recovery world’.
So how can other churches adopt a similar approach? Wade said: ‘The greatest preparation a church can have is to treat addicts and those in recovery with bundles of grace. Be prepared for a little messiness at the beginning.’
