Saturday, December 19, 1998

Church reaches out to people in the grip of addiction

By Maureen Jenkins

Knight Ridder Newspapers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The holidays often are a time of overindulging in food, drink, partying and spending. The season can be especially tough for those who struggle with addictions.

Some have lost their families. Others feel swallowed by financial strain. And the temptation to backslide can be daunting.

For the past five years, The Recovery Church -- a nondenominational Christian fellowship in Charlotte -- has stepped in. Not just a haven during the stress-filled holidays, the church is there 12 months a year, in good times and bad. Sermons, Bible study classes -- even songs -- weave Christian theology and Twelve Step recovery lingo in a way members can understand.

Some skeptics say the road to recovery begins with personal responsibility, not faith in a higher power. But members of The Recovery Church say God's grace helps them break the grip of addiction.

Co-pastors and founders Jim and Ronda Shock know the pain their members are living through. They've been there and back.

Jim and Ronda Shock -- high school sweethearts from New Castle, Ind. -- had drifted apart for decades. When the ordained ministers married 27 years later, they found they shared another bond: addictive behavior. Ronda was attending a Twelve Step program; Jim had been divorced and left the ministry. He felt alienated from the God he knew.

"There was a sense of shame and failure," says Jim, "that I really failed God. Theologically, I knew he loved me, but it was hard for me to believe he could ever use me again."

Jim went to a Twelve Step meeting with Ronda and found he also needed the liberation it offered.

The couple began hosting Bible-study groups at home. In January 1994, they started a church -- but not in a steepled building. Wrought-iron chairs at the Dilworth Coffee House on South Boulevard served as The Recovery Church's first pews.

Word of mouth drew 35 people to that first worship, and within eight months, 85 were coming. The group moved to Park Road Elementary for the next three years, and since spring has been renting Sunday space at Sharon Seventh-Day Adventist.

Nontraditional remains the rule, with Panthers jerseys more common than suits, sing-alongs more popular than hymns.

"I don't want to turn them off," says Jim Shock, "before God can turn them on."

While Twelve Step programs -- of which Alcoholics Anonymous was the first in 1935 -- are founded on anonymity, no one's a nameless face at The Recovery Church. A gregarious redhead with a contagious smile, Ronda offers a hug to everyone she sees, whether she's met them before or not.

Today, about 75 percent of church members are active in Twelve Step programs for problems including substance abuse, eating disorders, gambling and sexual addictions. But everyone is recovering from something, say the Shocks, whether it's a broken heart or long-held fears.

That's why The Recovery Church's goal is to "bridge the gap" between Christianity and addiction recovery programs.

When he preaches, "Jim tries to make sure he has the Bible in one hand," says Ronda, "and the recovery literature in the other."

And they lead their flock one day at a time.

People develop addictions for reasons that vary as much as individuals themselves. But at the root, says Jim Shock, is a "God-shaped void" that begs to be filled.

Joe W., 35, a recovering alcoholic who belongs to The Recovery Church, agrees. He says he "tried everything" to kick his boozing, drugging and smoking. Five years ago, a judge sent him to Alcoholics Anonymous -- and he's grateful.

"I was sick and tired of being sick and tired," says Joe. "I was ready to give up; I was tired of fighting. It was God doing for me what I couldn't do for myself."

Now sober, the Ohio native works with The Recovery Church's children's worship and greeters committee. Paraphrasing Philippians 1:6, Joe believes "He who began a good work in me is gonna finish it."

Some recent studies -- while not large enough to prove conclusively -- seem to confirm Joe's witness. The National Institute for Healthcare Research reports that a 1996 study found the development of spiritual roots was a key to preventing alcoholics' relapse. These roots, researchers believe, give recoverers a sense of self-worth that enables them to "no longer need mood-altering chemicals to feel good about their lives."

Estimates vary, but experts say between 3.5 million and 15 million Americans belong to Twelve Step groups. The Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque estimates 1 in 10 Americans will attend such a program -- whether as an addict, or as a supporter of one -- in their lives.

But not everyone believes spirituality is key to beating addiction.

James Christopher founded Secular Organizations for Sobriety, or SOS, in the mid-1980s as an alternative to the Higher Power-based Anonymous groups. The California-based SOS has more than 20,000 members.

Christopher tried AA years ago but was turned off by its spiritual focus. He says some SOS members are religious, but they don't discuss their faith in meetings.

"We just talk in human talk -- we don't talk in bumper stickers," says Christopher, who has written three books on alcoholism.

"We think crediting ourselves with sobriety is healthy, and I didn't see much of that in Twelve Step programs. I thought it was heavy with dogma. Don't get me wrong -- those programs work, but they're not everyone's cup of tea."

SOS's "free thought" meetings aren't specialized: Gamblers, overeaters, and substance abusers all share their stories. Unlike many Anonymous groups, SOS doesn't have "sponsors," or veteran members who keep newer ones accountable, because Christopher thinks "that fosters guru-ism."

He says treatment experts are finally recognizing SOS as a viable option for recovery. Some SOS members also belong to AA and other groups.

"For us," he says, "sobriety is the thing, not religion or spirituality or anything like that."

Pride, says recovering gambler Ron B. (not his real name), is what keeps people from seeking help -- especially from a higher power.

"I lived in the delusion for a long period of time that I could think my way out of this addiction," says Ron, a Recovery Church member. "I didn't even know it, but I was the God of my own understanding."

He now runs Algamus Recovery Centers, two live-in facilities for compulsive gamblers in York County, S.C., and west Florida.

When addicted men and women come to the Charlotte Rescue Mission's live-in treatment programs, one of the Rev. Anthony Marciano's priorities is "getting them to understand the character of God is so different from what they expect." He talks to them about his mercy, love and forgiveness.

"If Jesus paid it all," he says, "truly God has an incredible plan for their lives." Recovery begins when they release them to a power greater than themselves.

"You come to God with nothing but brokenness and strife," says Marciano, "and that's when you can do business with him."

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