Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Liz Swanson is the Project Director for Tango Family Initiative, an organization committed to helping build healthy families and marriages through changed lives. Before coming to Tango, Liz served for five years with Leadership Network as the National Leadership Community Director for Recovery Ministry.  As a result of her research into recovery, Liz lead and convened 55 churches who are leading the charge for recovery in the church. Liz taught Communications at Colorado State University and Front Range Community College. Before embarking on her teaching career she served for 22 years  with Campus Crusade for Christ.  She resides in Louisville, Colorado with her husband Eric.

Teresa McBean is the Executive Director of the National Association for Christian Recovery, an organization providing resources, training, and hope to Christian organizations and individuals serving addicts and their families. Her passion for recovery is expressed through her service as minister of NorthStar Community (NSC), a position she has held since 1999. NSC is a recovery ministry of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. She and her husband, Peter, have three children.

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Bridges to Grace

Zondervan

Contents

PREFACE..........................................................................................1IN APPRECIATION..................................................................................7INTRODUCTION: The Tattoos Tell the Story.........................................................111. IT ALL BEGINS WITH YOU: Christian Assemblies Church...........................................212. WHAT THE MRI REVEALED: Woodcrest Chapel.......................................................313. CANCER, ADDICTION, AND A MEXICAN DUMP: Henderson Hills Baptist Church.........................494. THE CHURCH, A PLACE OF HOPE AND HELP: Salem Alliance Church...................................635. IT'S ALL ABOUT THEM, NOT ABOUT US: Bon Air Baptist Church.....................................776. CRISIS IN A SMALL TOWN: Caveland Baptist Church...............................................937. THE PEOPLE EVERY CHURCH WANTS: Grace United Methodist Church..................................1058. A FAMILY OF TRUST: Golden Gate Missionary Baptist Church......................................1199. A CHURCH WITHIN A CHURCH: Mercy Street Church.................................................131CONCLUSION: Where We Go from Here................................................................145APPENDIX A Alcoholics Anonymous's Twelve Steps..................................................159APPENDIX B Celebrate Recovery's Twelve Steps and Biblical Comparisons...........................161APPENDIX C Celebrate Recovery's Eight Recovery Principles.......................................163APPENDIX D Understanding the Twelve Steps.......................................................165APPENDIX E Henderson Hills' Theology of Christian Recovery......................................181APPENDIX F Recovery Ministry Leadership Communities: Participating Churches.....................185HELPFUL BOOKS....................................................................................191NOTES............................................................................................193

Chapter One

I became more desperate to follow Christ than to pastor a church, so I began to preach from my own broken life as I taught the Scriptures.... I had learned to do church but had forgotten how to do Christ. — Pastor Mark Pickerel

WHEN YOU LOOK AT IT FROM THE OUTSIDE, the church building that houses the congregation of Christian Assemblies Church in Eagle Rock, California, is really nothing to brag about, but as I (Liz) entered the sanctuary that morning for worship, it was packed out. Those in the gathered body, standing and sitting, reflected the surrounding neighborhood in age and ethnicity. Located on the edge of downtown Los Angeles, this is a church filled with Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, Middle Easterners, Pacific Islanders, and Caucasians. Christian Assemblies isn't your typical, homogeneous church, yet it is growing and thriving as a multiethnic community of faith.

I had been traveling around the United States and Canada for almost three years at this point, visiting churches and sitting in services, and yet when I arrived at Christian Assemblies in Los Angeles, something struck me as different. "They get it," I thought. "They really get it!" I knew very little about the church apart from what my niece, Sunny, had told me when she invited me. "All I can tell you is that this church understands recovery," she had said.

She was right.

Authenticity and Grace

As we worshiped together that morning, it was almost as if you could sense the presence of God in the atmosphere of authenticity and grace. After the ser vice, I found some time to meet with Mark Pickerel, the senior pastor of Christian Assemblies, and listen to him as he shared the story of the church and how God was working to bring freedom to people's lives.

It all started about twenty years ago when the church was going through a very difficult transition. Much of the church's structure was being changed at that time, and the entire congregation was going through a time of "great searching." Mark said that he too had been trying to figure out what was going on in his life. "I had learned to do church but had forgotten how to do Christ." About this time, he became fascinated by a group of alcoholics who began attending the church. "They wouldn't compromise at any point. They were so honest, even ruthlessly so, about their own lives and failures." Mark later found out that these men were faithful members and regular attenders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).

At the time, Mark was also meeting regularly with Dr. Archibald Hart, a renowned psychologist and Christian leader who was teaching at Fuller Seminary. He had been helping Mark work through the issues that had caused such chaos in his church. Mark explained to Dr. Hart his fascination with this group whose members were so honest and devoted to AA. Dr. Hart suggested that he attend a meeting to see what he might discover.

So one Thursday night, Mark drove out to the San Fernando Valley to attend his first AA meeting. As he walked into the room, he began to realize that he was truly anonymous. Nobody there knew he was a pastor. Nor did they care. "They assumed I was just another drunk who needed to get sober, and they embraced me with a grace that was truly overwhelming." One of the guys, who didn't look as if he could rub two nickels together, even came up and offered to buy Mark a "Big Book" (the book Alcoholics Anonymous, which is the framework of AA, including the Twelve Steps to recovery). Mark thanked the man for his kind offer, amazed that a man with far fewer resources than Mark had was willing to buy a book for a complete stranger. Mark decided to buy the book himself, and he sat down to see how the rest of the meeting unfolded.

Everything that happened was very new for Mark. He didn't know the rules, and he felt out of place when everyone stood up and repeated a mantra declaring that they were a mess and needed help. Then, when everyone sat down, a nicely dressed, successful-looking businessman went to the podium. He began to talk about how his week was going, and at one point he became very quiet and said, "I felt so pressed ... but I didn't drink." The group began to clap and cheer as they shared in his victory. He then received a "ninety-day chip," indicating that he had gone almost three months without a single drink.

After he sat down, a woman stood up to speak to the group. She too was nicely dressed and quite articulate, but Mark could tell as soon as she began to speak that her story was headed in a completely different direction. As she reflected on the ups and downs of her week, she ended by confessing her failure to the group: "But damn it, I drank this week," she said. Unlike her predecessor, she had relapsed into her old ways of coping.

Mark wasn't sure what would happen next. After all, the woman had failed. Would they yank her off the stage or boo her for her mistake? Much to his surprise, the crowd again stood up and applauded. The small group of people there surrounded her with love and encouragement. Why? Well, simply because she had shown up that night; it didn't matter that she had failed. She was there and...