Faith imperatives in steps to recovery

Faith Imperatives in Steps to
Recovery
Charles Luke, Ed.D.

Tarrant County Spiritual Care
Network
www.tarrantscn.org

How Has Faith Affected You?
Pair up with a partner and discuss

an event in your life where your or
another person’s faith affected you
deeply. (5 minutes)
Share your experience. Choose
one word that would express how
you felt at that time. (5 - 10 minutes).
Record the words on a sheet of
paper.

 “When our hearts turn to Him, that is opening the

door to Him, that is holding up our mirror to Him;
then He comes in, not by our thought only, not in
our idea only, but He comes Himself, and of His
own will. Thus the Lord, the Spirit, becomes the
soul of our souls, becomes spiritually what He
always was creatively; and as our spirit informs,
gives shape to our bodies, in like manner His soul
informs, gives shape to our souls.” - From
Creation in Christ by George MacDonald

Objectives for Today
• Determine connections between strong

personal faith and the 12 steps to recovery.
• Learn concrete steps to include faith-based
approaches in the prevention/recovery
processes within the confines of the
establishment clause (separation of church and
state).
•Understand how post-residential involvement
in communities of faith can provide strong

12 Steps– Road to Strong Personal Faith
Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless
over our addiction - that our lives had
become unmanageable
Faith Imperative – Acknowledge Personal
Sin
“For all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God.” - Romans 3:23
“For I know my transgressions and my sin
is always before me.” – Psalm 51:3

Step 2 - Came to believe that a Power
greater than ourselves could restore us to
sanity
Faith Imperative: - Belief in God’s
Redemption
“Then they cried out to the Lord in their
trouble and He saved them from their

12 Steps – Road to Strong Personal Faith
Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and
our lives over to the care of God as we
understood God.
Faith Imperative – Personal Redemption
“And without faith it is impossible to
please God because anyone who comes
to Him must believe that He exists and
that He is a rewarder of those who
earnestly seek Him.” - Hebrews 11:6

Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless
moral inventory of ourselves.
Faith Imperative – Self Awareness
Let us examine our ways and test them,
and let us return to the Lord. (Lam. 3:40)

Kohlberg’s Moral Development

Step 5 - Admitted to God, to ourselves and
to another human being the exact nature of
our wrongs.
Faith Imperative –
Confession/Accountability
Therefore confess your sins to each other
and pray for each other so that you may be
healed. (James 5:16a)

Step 6 – We were entirely ready to have God
remove all these defects of character.
Step 7 - Humbly ask Him to remove our
shortcomings.
Faith Imperative - Humility
“Humble yourselves before the Lord and He
will lift you up.” – James 4:10

Step 8 - Made a list of all persons we had
harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
Faith Imperative – Recompense
“Do to others as you would have them do to
you.” - Luke 6:31.

Step 9 - Made direct amends to such people
wherever possible except when to do so
would injure them or others.
Faith Imperative - Reconciliation
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at
the altar and there remember that your
brother has something against you, leave
your gift there in front of the altar. First, go
and be reconciled to your brother; then
come and offer your gift.” Matt. 5:23-24

Step 10 - Continued to take personal
inventory and when we were wrong
promptly admitted it.
Faith Imperative – Growth and Spiritual
Awareness

“So if you think you are standing firm, be
careful that you don’t fall.” - 1 Cor. 10:12


Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to
improve our conscious contact with God, as we
understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His
will for us and the power to carry that out.
Faith Imperative Intimacy/Conformity/Transformation
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be
conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He
might be the firstborn among many brothers. “ Romans 8:29
“Do not be conformed to this world but be

Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the
result of these steps, we tried to carry this message
to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all
our affairs.
Faith Imperative – Discipleship
“Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who
are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch
yourself, or you may also be tempted.” - Gal. 6:1

Implementing Faith-Based Recovery
Why Consider It?
 DSP’s with strong faith are perceived by clients as
more dedicated and better at their jobs (Dilulio, 2000).
 “Programmatic faith is a useful concept that can
connect … belief and values with …implementation.
(DeJong & Horn, 2008).
 Faith-focused programs have been estimated to
reduce recidivism rates in prisons and re-entry facilities
by as much as 50-60%. (McKean & Ransford, 2004).

2012 Governor’s Criminal Justice Volunteer Award

Doris Zercher receives award for her work with
TDCJ Parole Office for her faith-based Substance
Abuse classes taught to parolees.

Engaging Faith-Base Partners:
 Identify Need and Opportunity (Don’t do it just
to do it.)
 Identify the Faith-based Partner that Best Fits
Your Needs
 Engage in Discourse
 Establish Credibility – Background Checks,
etc.
 Collaboratively Develop a Program –
Approve Curriculum
 Create Written Documentation (MOU) - Set

Engaging Faith-Based Partners Continued:
 Provide appropriate training - Practical and

regulatory.
 Ensure Consistent Monitoring
 Provide Ongoing Reports

Using Faith-Based Partners to Extend the COC:
 Residential clients connect with Faith-Based
Volunteer and provide location of release.
 Volunteer identifies and connects with a
willing, capable faith-community in that location
that fits the client’s profile.
 Faith-community provides client support after
release.
 Volunteer consistently connects with faithcommunity and client for one year after release.
Data collected on recovery becomes useful as

What It Looks Like @ Tarrant County Spiritual
Care Network:
 Volunteer provides group facilitation and
individual spiritual counseling 1-2 times per
week.
 Volunteer obtains and keeps records and
permissions related to individual post-release
information (to connect them with post-release
support).
 Volunteer reports via telephone or in writing
bi-weekly to TCSCN.

Value Proposition
 There are multiple key faith-imperatives

embedded in the 12 steps.
 Faith-based recovery can improve both
relapse and recidivism rates.
 Partnering with a faith-community for faithbased recovery approaches is do-able.
 The right program can extend the continuum
of care.

Conclusion

“Human greatness does not lie in our ability to
remake the world. That is the myth of the
atomic age. Our greatness lies in our ability to
remake ourselves.”
Mohandis K. Ghandi

Contact
Tarrant County Spiritual Care Network
Office:
Mail:
3800 S. Hulen, Suite 230
3131 Sanguinet
Fort Worth, Texas 76107
Fort Worth,
Texas 76107
Charles Luke, Ed.D. – Executive Director

O: 817-510-2525
8594

F: 817-510-2585

C: 940-768-

References
DeJong, F.J. & Horn, C (2008). Opening the black box
of faith-based services: Measuring program
components and treatment dose. The Center for FaithBased and Community Initiatives: Washington, D.C., p.
160.

Dilulio, J. (2002). The three faith factors. The Public
Interest, 129(4), 50-64.
McKean, L. & Ransford, C. (2004). Current strategies
for reducing recidivism. Center for Impact Research:
Chicago, Il.

Faith imperatives in steps to recovery

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (17)

En vedette

En vedette (11)

Similaire à Faith imperatives in steps to recovery

Similaire à Faith imperatives in steps to recovery (20)

Dernier

Dernier (20)

Faith imperatives in steps to recovery