‘Expect messiness’ – pastor with 12-steps ministry

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.’