{"id":5925,"date":"2016-05-18T10:44:53","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T10:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/?p=5925"},"modified":"2016-05-18T14:51:41","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T14:51:41","slug":"3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church-and-announcing-a-new-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2016\/05\/3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church-and-announcing-a-new-series.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;3 Hurdles to Recovery-Friendly Church&#8221; \u2014 and Announcing a New Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The aptly named <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Recovery-Minded-Church-Loving-Ministering-Addiction\/dp\/0830841253\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1462997605&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+recovery-minded+church\">&#8220;Recovery-Minded Church&#8221;<\/a> series is next on the horizon here at this intersection between God and life \u2014 and you and your church can be part of this irregular but ongoing series. More specifically, I&#8217;m on the look-out for churches around the country who in their own unique ways are seeking (whether explicitly or more subtly, via commendable spiritual practices) to love and minister to people with addiction.<\/p>\n<p>Often &#8220;those people with addiction&#8221; are in the pews or leading worship \u2014 and they have been for years. They may look nothing like our stereotypes of an addict. They might be your senior pastor, for all you know. And if today&#8217;s opiate epidemic addiction can teach us anything, it&#8217;s that <em>anyone<\/em>, regardless of faith or creed, can get hooked on a doctor-prescribed painkiller and fall into a cycle of compulsive drug use. So addiction in the church, however hidden, is a reality \u2014 one that, like other realities of the human condition, can benefit from an educated and effective spiritual response on the part of &#8220;recovery-friendly&#8221; communities of faith.<\/p>\n<p>There are at least three hurdles to &#8220;recovery-friendly church.&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/wellness\/health\/3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church?p=2\">This article<\/a>, which went live last week, shares what these hurdles are and how to scale them \u2014 and I&#8217;m grateful to my employer, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beachhouserehabcenter.com\/\">Beach House Center for Recovery<\/a>, for the opportunity to write the piece. (Beach House is a detox and substance abuse treatment center that is leading the nation in evidence-based interventions for addiction.)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The aptly named &#8220;Recovery-Minded Church&#8221; series is next on the horizon here at this intersection between God and life \u2014 and you and your church can be part of this irregular but ongoing series. More specifically, I&#8217;m on the look-out for churches around the country who in their own unique ways are seeking (whether explicitly&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2428,140,119,2429,187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12-steps","category-addiction","category-church","category-recovery","category-saints-and-sinners"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;3 Hurdles to Recovery-Friendly Church&quot; \u2014 and Announcing a New Series - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2016\/05\/3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church-and-announcing-a-new-series.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;3 Hurdles to Recovery-Friendly Church&quot; \u2014 and Announcing a New Series - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The aptly named &#8220;Recovery-Minded Church&#8221; series is next on the horizon here at this intersection between God and life \u2014 and you and your church can be part of this irregular but ongoing series. More specifically, I&#8217;m on the look-out for churches around the country who in their own unique ways are seeking (whether explicitly&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2016\/05\/3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church-and-announcing-a-new-series.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fellowship of Saints and Sinners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kristina.robbdover\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-18T10:44:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-05-18T14:51:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kristina Robb-Dover\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@saintplussinner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@saintplussinner\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"3 Hurdles to Recovery-Friendly Church\" \u2014 and Announcing a New Series - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2016\/05\/3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church-and-announcing-a-new-series.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"3 Hurdles to Recovery-Friendly Church\" \u2014 and Announcing a New Series - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","og_description":"The aptly named &#8220;Recovery-Minded Church&#8221; series is next on the horizon here at this intersection between God and life \u2014 and you and your church can be part of this irregular but ongoing series. More specifically, I&#8217;m on the look-out for churches around the country who in their own unique ways are seeking (whether explicitly&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2016\/05\/3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church-and-announcing-a-new-series.html","og_site_name":"Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kristina.robbdover","article_published_time":"2016-05-18T10:44:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-05-18T14:51:41+00:00","author":"Kristina Robb-Dover","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@saintplussinner","twitter_site":"@saintplussinner","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2016\/05\/3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church-and-announcing-a-new-series.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2016\/05\/3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church-and-announcing-a-new-series.html","name":"\"3 Hurdles to Recovery-Friendly Church\" \u2014 and Announcing a New Series - Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-18T10:44:53+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-18T14:51:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#\/schema\/person\/4c3cdf7104b785db2790c0ea54388e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2016\/05\/3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church-and-announcing-a-new-series.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2016\/05\/3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church-and-announcing-a-new-series.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/2016\/05\/3-hurdles-to-recovery-friendly-church-and-announcing-a-new-series.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"&#8220;3 Hurdles to Recovery-Friendly Church&#8221; \u2014 and Announcing a New Series"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/","name":"Fellowship of Saints and Sinners","description":"Beliefnet Voices...thoughts at the intersection between life and God for anyone converted, unconverted or under conversion","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#\/schema\/person\/4c3cdf7104b785db2790c0ea54388e75","name":"Kristina Robb-Dover","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/dcf\/dcfc687b5670420584dc52026042422ax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/dcf\/dcfc687b5670420584dc52026042422ax96.jpg","caption":"Kristina Robb-Dover"},"description":"Thoughts at the intersection of life and God from one saint and sinner for anyone \"converted,\" \"unconverted,\" or \"under conversion.\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/author\/krobbdover"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/461"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5925"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5931,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925\/revisions\/5931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}