I once spoke at a church that had a pastor on staff to counsel people in the congregation with addictions. I thought that was pretty brave. A lot of churches wouldn’t want to admit they had people in their congregations with problems like this, which is an issue right there since church should be full of people bringing their problems to each other and Jesus instead of trying to act as if they didn’t have any. But the truly remarkable thing about this pastor to addictive people was the fact that he was once the Senior Pastor of that very church.
I love this story because it has so much to teach us on so many different levels.
The pastor took a hit. Like the Grove City College President defending his goalpost, we all have to take a hit for the team if we want to truly touch anyone’s life with the gospel. And what better person could there be to offer this service than the former pastor? Suddenly everyone in church has permission to have a problem.
The pastor’s right to minister came through his own pain and struggle. It always happens this way. You can’t help someone whose pain doesn’t reach you on some level. I am useless around the homeless women of Isaiah House if I think that I am somehow exempt from their pain.
Where were all these people before the pastor hung out his counseling shingle? The assumption has to be that they were right there all along.
Imagine this: A leading woman in a church stands before her congregation and relates that years ago she had an abortion, that she is still suffering from it, that she is tired of suffering alone, and that she would like to seek healing from the Lord with any other women who would like to join her. How many of you think this woman is soon to become very popular?
Or how about this? A leading man in the church stands before his congregation and relates that years ago he put a woman in a position from which she chose to have an abortion, and he’s never owned up to that responsibility. (Why do we never hear about this? It takes two to tango.) How many of you think he’s about to become pretty popular too?
John Fischer The Catch 
I love this story – it always helps remind me to not be so judgemental, I suffer with that and the good lord always puts me in my place and gets me back on track – thanks John!
I am a partner in a church in the midwest, and during our Saturday night service we offer a light snack/dinner and also during the time of service we have a women who leads a ministry called “Celebrate Recovery”, for those who struggle with addictions, life… We all mingle around the food – and then at 6:15 p.m. we start service, and they start their meeting. It works – it works because of the leadership of our church – because of Christ!
I sat in church for many years hiding myself. It was slowly eating a hole through me until one day I could no longer bear what I had done. I told my Pastor and was helped by women who’d had abortions. I’d never had an abortion, but I’d helped with them but I’d quit my job several years prior. I was the nurse who took these women into the room, told them everything would be fine full well knowing that it was wrong and it wouldn’t be ‘fine’. It was interesting being helped by these same women. Anyway, I still ‘hide’ all this in church. I don’t think others need to know what a rotten sinner I am. I know that I am and the Lord knows that I am, but thankfully, I know His forgiveness now and after quite awhile have managed to forgive myself for what I did to God. I just can’t open all this up to the possibility of ridicule by just one person so I keep silent.
I disagree with you. Others need to know because they are rotten sinners too. Walking in the light is walking truthfully, open and exposed. It has to start somewhere; why not with you?
Well, I guess we agree to disagree. There’s enough hurt in this world without inviting more in. I may have by mentioning any of this. I walk truthfully, I KNOW what a miserable sinner I am. Why expose it? What good would come of it?
John, I love you, man, but you do love to stereotype Christians. In my church, not only do people come forward and confess their sins – some very grievous and egregious ones – but we have a ministry called Celebrate Recovery that is dedicated to helping people overcome past mistakes, and it is one of the most popular ministries in our church. Not only that, but tens of thousands of churches worldwide now have Celebrate Recovery ministries. At the church where it started – Saddleback Church in your state – tens of thousands of people have been helped. Does that sound like churches don’t want to know about the people in their congregations that are dealing with the stinky issues of life? I don’t think so. I think you’ve got this stereotyped view of churches that you formulated back in who-knows-what decade, and you’ve carried it ever since. Time to let it go, brother. Time to become aware of what God is doing through the church today.
I am familiar with Celebrate Recovery (a great program) and was on staff at Saddleback Church for two years. Saddleback and your church are not the norm. And I would venture to guess that at churches that use Celerbrate Recovery there is a degree of openness because of the program, but outside the program, I am sure the same hiding and temptation to hide goes on as goes on anywhere. There are probably people at your church who think they are better than the CR people because they don’t drink or aren’t addicted. Heck, I still think I’m better than the women at Isaiah House because I’m not homeless!
Sinners often have a hierarchy of sins ie. some sins are worse than others. As you so aptly state John that you are better than the homeless because you are not. That notion is an outright lie. From age fifteen to age 41 I suffered from procrastination. Let us call a spade a spade…..I was lazy for 26 years. My symptoms were similar to all the addictions out there. Faith without works is dead. Boy was I dead for many years.
It is the “I am not as bad as those people” attitude that makes it hard to see our own sin.
It was quite a revelation to me when I googled procrastination and found via George Barna that about 40% if us are addicted to laziness. Satan knows that faith without works is dead. Let us look to our own sin and be discerningly vulnerable as John suggests, it is quite an eye opener.
Powerful topic John. It is just what I needed to hear. I have been praying about how I can get involved in my church. What an encoragement. Now I will be asking God exactly what my support group should be about!!!