We took our church through the 12 steps of recovery, and here’s what happened… 

With several people joining Life Church in Cuffley from local recovery groups, pastor William Wade wondered if it might be helpful to go through the 12 steps of recovery programme as a discipleship series on Sunday mornings

As soon as Life Church could return to gathered worship after the lockdowns, we found that the whole church quickly returned to the building, looking for fellowship and a sense of community worship again. What we also found was that the church began to rapidly grow. A part of this growth came from local recovery groups (recovering from addictions), looking to see if Jesus might be their ‘Higher Power’.

They found a church that embraced their need for recovery and pretty soon we had a large number of baptisms and further growth from this section of our community.

We then started a ‘Jesus and Recovery’ weekly gathering, as many in recovery who had made Jesus their Higher Power found that they ‘didn’t get enough of Jesus in their recovery and didn’t get enough recovery in the church’. This meeting has helped the wider church to understand the dynamics of recovery and how recovery can dovetail with Christian discipleship.

As I attended this weekly meeting, I began to wonder if it might be helpful to the church to go through the 12 steps of recovery as a discipleship series on Sunday mornings. As I was thinking this, our worship team leader asked me in our church café one morning if I had considered doing a series on the 12 steps for Sunday mornings.

Confirmation duly noted, we embarked on a journey with the church that has helped shape us.

The format of teaching on Sunday mornings was broken up into three sections: I would lay the biblical foundation for each step for 10 minutes, we would have someone in recovery sharing for 10 minutes on their recovery journey and then I would finish with a 5-minute ‘so what now?’ ending.

Here’s what we learned…
 

1. The 12 steps of recovery can be a powerful discipleship programme (handled in the right way). The ‘big book’ of recovery was written by Christians and therefore has a biblical basis for each of the steps. Tapped into, this can develop into a dynamic teaching series that goes beyond the superficial.


2. The 12 steps of recovery programme utterly slays the ego. As we started our 12 step journey, we agreed to lay our egos at the door. This meant that everyone was on a level playing field around the cross. We all needed to embrace this sense of ‘powerlessness’ in order to fully engage with the programme.


3. The 12 steps of recovery are hard. For those that wanted to fully commit to the programme, we had to respond by being brutally honest about ourselves. All traces of religiosity were shattered. We had to make personal inventories of resentments, of how we have hurt people, of ongoing character flaws and of people we needed to potentially ‘make amends’ to. This was hardcore discipleship, but it was powerfully liberating, too.


4. The 12 steps of recovery are not meant to be a substitute for biblical Christianity; they are, for many people, a required concurrent programme. We have had people in our church be told (by people from other churches) that once you have Jesus, you don’t need a recovery programme. We have learned that this is akin to suggesting to those in the church who have not suffered with addiction that if they have Jesus, they do not need the church. Recovery is vital for many Christians who have a history of addiction. Some do go without it and have done well. Many others are surviving because of Jesus and recovery. We choose to celebrate this choice.


5. The 12 steps of recovery are not solely for those who struggle or have struggled with alcohol or drugs. We have heard from those who have been addicted to unhealthy food choices, unhealthy shopping patterns, unhealthy relationship choices, gambling addictions and other areas of addiction. This series brought some of our church members to a point of realising they should do the 12 step programme more fully with a sponsor.


6. The 12 steps of recovery have helped all of us to have moments of honest introspection and have also inspired us to move forward with a passion to see others set free from addiction, and in a wider sense to see others find Jesus as their Lord or Higher Power. We have experienced a renewed impetus for mission and community transformation.


7. The 12 steps of recovery have uncovered a number of leaders coming out of an addictive background. We do not have a two-tier understanding of leadership regarding those who have or have not ever been addicted to anything. God can use, and is using, those who have been powerfully set free from an addiction background to be some of our best evangelists and leaders. We baptised around 20 people last year at Life Church and we baptised another group of people this Easter, many from a recovery background. To quote a worship song a friend of mine wrote a while ago, ‘Those that know mercy cannot stay silent.’

So, our 12 step journey on Sunday mornings is now over. It has challenged and changed us and we have sensed the breath of God on us as we walked on the water with Him.

Would I encourage other churches to do the same? Without question – but be prepared – you may not come out the other side the same as you went in!


Image | Michael Skok | Unsplash

 

William Wade is the senior pastor of Life Church in Cuffley, Hertfordshire. 

The 12 Step Programme, originated by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), is a spiritual foundation for personal recovery from the effects of alcoholism.

For more about the programme, visit Alcoholics Anonymous UK.
 

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