Joel, left, a recovering Heroin addict walks and talks to Eric Light, director of Reach Ministries, after dinner at a recent Thursday night gathering at Ooltewah United Methodist Church.An addict who broke free of his own addiction is now helping lead a faith-based program to free others.
"Nobody wants to talk about it," said Matt Peterson, director of Recovery at Ooltewah, who has been free of his addiction for 16 years. "It's the elephant in the room. There are people in the church (with addictions) whether it's a chemical addiction, alcohol or drugs."
Ooltewah United Methodist Church aims to help.
The congregation celebrates its one-year anniversary of Recovery @ Ooltewah, a faith-based program created to support people as they detach from destructive dependencies. Unlike many faith-based recovery programs, Recovery @ Ooltewah welcomes people even if they're in the midst of addiction. Participants do not have to be a member of the church to attend recovery services.
The program celebrates its first anniversary Thursday with a program at 6:15 p.m. The church will serve a light dinner at 5:30 p.m.
If you go
› What: Recovery at Ooltewah 1-year celebration› When: Worship and Recovery service begins at 6:15 p.m. Sept. 21. Free light meal served at 5:30 p.m.› Where: Ooltewah United Methodist Church, 6131 Relocation Way› Cost: Free› For more information go to www.oumclive.org or call (423) 238-9216.
The Rev. Mark Beebe, director of Recovery at Cokesbury United Methodist Church in Knoxville, will speak during the anniversary event.
Beebe live-streams messages to small group and recovery programs throughout the Southeast from Lebanon, Va., to Ringgold, Ga. In his recovery message to the Ooltewah group this month, he talked about using faith in God to help people recover from addictions.
"I meet people all of the time. It's not that they don't have a desire to be out of the hell that we're in, but they don't know the way out," said Beebe.
Addicts may find hope and healing by following the teachings of Jesus Christ, he said.
Recovery @ Ooltewah follows a 12-step program similar to Alcoholics Anonymous, said Eric Light, director of connectional ministries at the church. But in addition to weekly reviewing the steps, people also review Bible verses with the steps.
Recovery @ Ooltewah participant Joel, who didn't want to give his last name, said he started using drugs in his early teens and was a heroin addict for 10 years. He said he stopped using four years ago when he ran out of options and was faced with "prison or death."
He was so determined to free himself of addiction that he left his hometown of Muscle Shoals, Ala., to leave his temptations behind.
He married his nurse a year after sobriety and is now studying at Chattanooga State Community College to be a structural engineer. The couple have two children, 1 and 3 years old.
Joel led the recovery group during a weekly service this month. He read the AA steps, and the audience of about 40 people read the accompanying Bible verse.
"Step 1," he said. "We admit that we are powerless over our addictions and impulsive behaviors, that our lives have come unmanageable."
Then the audience responded.
"I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out, Romans 7:18."
"Step 2," he said. "We have come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity."
The audience responded, "For it is God who works in you to will and act according to his good works, Philippians 1:13."
The 1,100-member church considered the recovery program about two years ago after senior pastor Dwight Kilbourne did a series on addiction and acknowledged that he wasn't always sure how to help addicts.
Peterson, a member of the congregation, talked to the pastor about how they could make a recovery program work.
The church launched Recovery @ Ooltewah in September 2016.
The program also helps people overcoming gambling, sexual addiction, divorce and grief.
"The big message from us and Mark Beebe is anybody and everybody is broken," said Peterson "It's very difficult to say you've turned your life 100 percent over to God, so you have to strive for that every day."
Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.