ABSTRACT RECOVERING RECOVERY: TOWARD A NEW MISSIONAL UNDERSTANDING IN THE LOCAL CHURCH by David Calhoun In my experience as a church planter for the past five years, I have encountered a major disconnect between the secular culture and the church culture. In personal situations and through community surveys, I have discovered that, by and large, unchurched persons have a negative perception of church. This perception serves as an obstacle to engaging the unchurched with the message of the gospel. The reverse is also true. Persons connected to the church culture who desire to engage in mission to the secular culture do not know how to do so. The result is an ever-widening gap between two cultures that, in a certain sense, desperately need each other. The disconnect between the secular and church cultures seems particularly pronounced in the area of recovery. A sense of distrust, even suspicion, toward the church exists from secular recovery programs I have encountered. For the church a reluctance to engage in meaningful ministry to the recovery community is too often the norm. In my experience the only contact churches have maintained with the recovery community has been to offer use of a room for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, usually at a time when nothing else is scheduled. This dissertation focused on the relationship between the recovery community and the church community and explored the effect a church-based recovery ministry had upon the missional understanding of the church. The project described various recovery ministries in the neighborhood and beyond, both secular and faith-based, to understand the program of each and how it relates to the church. The study surveyed two models of the Celebrate Recovery ministry, one at Grace United Methodist Church in Cape Coral, Florida, and one at Cokesbury United Methodist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. Leaders and participants from each of the recovery programs and churches were interviewed using a protocol to guide the questions. The networks formed and the connections that exist between the church recovery ministries and non-church-based programs were explored with particular interest in the churches’ effectiveness in building bridges to the recovery community. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements.......................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 PROBLEM ....................................................................................................1 Understanding the Problem......................................................................................1 Biblical and Theological Foundations .....................................................................5 The Purpose ...........................................................................................................13 Research Questions................................................................................................13 Research Question 1 ..................................................................................13 Research Question 2 ..................................................................................13 Research Question 3 ..................................................................................14 Terms Defined .......................................................................................................14 Disconnect..................................................................................................14 Recovery Community ................................................................................14 Celebrate Recovery....................................................................................14 Methodology..........................................................................................................15 Participants.................................................................................................16 Instrumentation ..........................................................................................16 Data Collection ..........................................................................................17 Delimitations and Generalizibility.............................................................17 Overview of the Study ...........................................................................................17 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE.............................................................................................19 Mission of the Church............................................................................................19 State of the Church.....................................................................................19 iii Identity Theft .............................................................................................23 Toward a Renewed Missional Identity ......................................................25 The Community of Faith as Witness .........................................................27 An Opportunity for Mission...................................................................................28 A Field Ripe for Harvest............................................................................28 Spiritual and Biblical Foundations.............................................................31 Early Warning Signs..................................................................................34 A Growing Separation ...............................................................................35 To an Unknown God..................................................................................39 Resources and Methods .........................................................................................44 Bridging the Gap........................................................................................44 Methods of Research..................................................................................47 Conclusion .............................................................................................................49 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................51 Summary of the Problem .......................................................................................51 Summary of the Purpose........................................................................................52 Research Questions................................................................................................52 Research Question #1 ................................................................................52 Research Question #2 ................................................................................53 Research Question #3 ................................................................................53 Participants.............................................................................................................54 Instrumentation ......................................................................................................55 Data Collection .....................................................................................................55 iv Data Analysis.........................................................................................................56 Research Ethics .....................................................................................................57 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS...................................................................................................58 Summary of Procedures .........................................................................................58 Twelve-Step Groups ..............................................................................................59 Church-Based Recovery Ministries .......................................................................59 Profile of Participants .............................................................................................60 Recovery Programs (Non-Church Related) .....................................................60 Recovery Programs (Church Housed) .............................................................61 Recovery Programs (Church Sponsored) .........................................................62 Churches (No Recovery Connection) ..............................................................63 Churches (House Recovery) ............................................................................63 Churches (Sponsor Recovery) .........................................................................64 Celebrate Recovery—Cokesbury .....................................................................64 Celebrate Recovery—Grace ............................................................................65 Findings of the Study .............................................................................................66 Research Question #1—The Nature of the Disconnect ...................................67 Lack of Understanding .....................................................................................67 Suspicion ..........................................................................................................70 Pseudo-Respect ................................................................................................73 Grateful, Indifferent, Hostile ............................................................................79 Toxic Christianity ............................................................................................81