The Recovery-Minded Church: Loving and Ministering to People With Addiction by Jonathan Benz

Author:Jonathan Benz [Benz, Jonathan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2016-01-08T05:00:00+00:00

Rat Park—and the Land of Milk and Honey

Spiritual and emotional resilience, formed in the crucible of a relationship with Jesus and with one another, is the pathway to finding freedom, wholeness and abundant life. These are the outposts of a land that flows with milk and honey. They are the fulfillment of our deepest human longing and an expression of humanity at its best.

And as the pathos-ridden words of one alcoholic illustrate, addiction at its heart is a misguided effort to find the “land of milk and honey”: “When I reached a certain point in a drink, I felt as though I was on the edge of a beautiful land. I kept drinking to try to find it, even though I never did.”30

Churches can help people with addiction stay in recovery by encouraging them to seek the land of milk and honey that will not disappoint them: the kingdom of God. Churches do this work of witnessing to God’s shalom—the ongoing work of Jesus in the world—through a ministry of word and deed—not just by preaching unconditional grace on Sundays but also by seeking to live it daily in the world.31 In this way, churches can embrace the reality of the kingdom and its fruit. Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness and self-control—these byproducts of a life fully surrendered to God are far more persuasive appeals than the guilt-laden, fear-inducing measures that emphasize judgment over grace and mercy.

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