Addiction Deliverance Outreach...how it started

-

Nearly twelve years ago, I was burdened to do something for the drug problem in my community. Within a few months, I wrote a four step program called Addiction Deliverance Outreach, or better known as ADO. A lot of people ask me, “Why only four steps?” Well, I had never been to an AA meeting, so I had no idea there were supposed to be twelve steps. In a very short time, ADO became an icon of hope in our community. We seen hundreds of people go through it and recover. Other pastors began to send us people from their church who were struggling with addiction and soon, we had more than we could handle. So I began to write down what I was doing and handing it out to pastors, so they could help their own people. At the end of the day, and over about four years, I accidentally wrote a book and a workbook. 

Today our church has three recovery homes; we serve men and women off the streets and straight out of prison. Other churches have jumped on board as well. The ADO is now used in churches of every denomination and size all around the country. 

The ADO is unique in that it can be used exclusively or alongside AA, Celebrate Recovery, or other recovery programs. There are two things that make ADO unique; it is based on a one on one relationship and it empowers lay people (regardless of whether or not they’ve had a history of drug abuse) to help those who struggle with addiction. Here’s a snapshot of how it works.

  • Lay people are provided with a counselor’s book. In the book, I teach the steps of becoming a mentor or counselor. The mentor takes the client through four steps; each step has a number of sessions. The client reads a "session prep" chapter and then reviews the session. The mentor and the client meet for one hour per week. The book equips the mentor with relevant conversations, Bible verses, and counsel that points the client towards recovery and Christ. In the midst of mentoring, a relationship is formed. It's one on one; it's  life on life. In other words...it’s discipleship at it’s best. 
  • The client has a workbook. It also has four steps with the same number of sessions as the counselor’s book. The workbook challenges the client to take a hard look at addiction and the damage it's caused. Yet, it also introduces the client to God's word;  the client learns about the hope and love of God. They learn God never created drug addicts, therefore, no one has to buy into the "once an addict, always an addict" mentality. The workbook collaborates with the book, creating a simple, yet healthy and effective platform for discipleship and life change. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Creating a Healthy Leadership Board in your Church

-
Image
Healthy churches have healthy boards. Regardless of the term (elder board, board of directors or leadership board, etc), it is invaluable to have a team of men and women who keep their finger on the pulse of the church. Leadership boards should be made up by individuals who love Jesus, the mission of the church and the pastor (in that order), who are called and gifted to help the church move forward. One of the greatest challenges of creating healthy boards is determining who should be on the board. There are scriptures that define what the heart of church leadership should look like (1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:7), but selecting the right people can certainly create anxiety, especially due to the decisions they are tasked with. For example, most leadership boards hire or fire the lead pastor, determine the salary of the lead pastor, approve the annual budget and sign off on building projects or acquiring property. So yeah, it's a lot of responsibility.  Whether your church is install
Read more

Staying Alive in a Growing Church

-
   There's lots of things in the world that creates energy and excitement; a championship basketball game, the Super Bowl, or even a good movie. Yet I believe there's hardly anything that can compete with the excitement of a growing church, especially if you're a pastor or serve on staff at a church. Every pastor wants his church to grow; and when it does, it is exhilarating. However, with success comes stress and when a lead pastor and staff ignores the stress, the season of success can be short lived. Typically growth-related stress hurts us because it causes us to neglect crucial areas in our own personal lives.      Here are three train-wrecks you want to avoid as your church grows. As a lead pastor, you need to make sure your staff is aware of these as well.  If you'll take care of these, chances are, you and your staff will stay alive and endure the stress that comes with the success of every growing church.  Grocery-Store Death : Too often pastors and le
Read more

Building an Invite Culture in your Church

-
Image
Growing a church isn't easy. It takes dedication, hard work and good planning. Even though there are tons of books and blogs out there about it, many  churches  still struggle in  attracting new people.  Despite the latest greatest growth strategies, friends inviting friends is still the most effective way to bring new people to church. When people become intentional about bringing their unchurched friends to church, they get to witness life change up close and personal...and when that happens, the church moves into a culture of invite.  Here’s three things to help build an invite culture in your church:  Design a gospel-centered invite culture Determine  your invite platforms Develop  people to be path leaders  Creating the Design  A healthy invite culture must be designed around the why more than the what . When we focus on the  why , it removes us from the what and automatically answers the who ,  because  the why is always about people who aren'
Read more