How can a Christian get help in a secular group?
by Dale Wolery
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We encourage you not to dismiss lightly the possibility of finding a secular support group that will be helpful to you. Until recently, of course, finding an explicitly Christian support group was not really a possibility because so few existed. That means that most Christians in recovery today began their recovery journey in a ’secular’ support group – and most still find that participation in ’secular’ support groups is essential to maintaining their recovery!
The kind of help you need is probably NOT available at your church. Does your church have 90 meetings in the next 90 days? Probably not. But you may need that. So that means you are going to be attending ’secular’ groups.
Remember these points:
- You can be sure that there will be other Christians at any group you attend. Guaranteed.
- The fundamental principles of the 12 steps are thoroughly Christian in character. Is it really a non-Christian meeting if everyone there is practicing basic Christian spiritual disciples like confession and testimony? If people are seeking to increase their conscious contact with God?
- Imagine for a moment that you were seriously injured in an automobile accident and God arranged things so that an athiest who was a medical doctor ‘just happened’ to see the accident and stopped to help. Would you refuse the help God had provided and say ‘I need a Christian doctor.’ Probably not. So think of it like this: you have been in accident. You are going to die if you don’t accept the help God has provided. If you need help, get help. It’s really simple. Do it.
- AA and other ’secular’ twelve step programs are ’spiritual kindergardens.’ Their literature acknowledges this. But you are ready right now for spiritual graduate school? Probably not.
It is true that, in some situations, participation in a ’secular’ group may mean tolerating some constraints on what you can say about your faith as part of the group process – try to remember that these constraints serve an important positive purpose for many other people and that you can always supplement your ’secular’ group experience with other kinds of Christian fellowship in support of your recovery. It is also true that many Christians who struggle with spiritual abuse issues may find it helpful to begin their recovery in a setting which is completely free of religious connections.
Getting help in a secular setting does not mean that your recovery is any less Christian!
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Nearly five years sober, supernaturally delivered from the desire to use Crystal Meth, after having to admit defeat in the face of failing to quit despite all my own efforts, and progressively and supernaturally delivered from the desire to use other drugs and alcohol, I came to believe in a Power Greater than me that could restore me to sanity through spiritual healing, though I wasn’t sure how. With little to no Church experience, but exposure to some AA and some of God’s word, I knew it was Him when His Word is what came to my rememberance during the most difficult night of my life. I asked the Lord Jesus to be my Savior and have spent the last five years trying to know Him and His will for me more and more, but have, during this time of seeking, built up resentments even with the church and find that I have been unable to practice effectively, “letting go and letting God” with these and many other past resentments. By His grace alone I remain abstinant from all drugs and alcohol, but my spiritual growth has ceased, an overwhelming sense of isolation and loneliness has progressively grown, and the desire to use has snuck up on me for the second time within this nearly 5 years of abstinance, so I’ve sought help in AA. Thank you for publishing this article. I needed to be exposed to the scenario about the physician in order to get a better perspective on receiving help from someone who may not know or confess the name of Jesus Christ or believe the same things about Him as I do. I know I need the steps, but I don’t know how to be a good witness for my Lord and Savior, while at the same time admit my desperate need for help to grow spiritually and my desire to do it through these steps. I am still uncertain about that, but the scenario of the physician is a good one, and has helped me to become more willing to be open minded. Thank you.
Sinner, Alcoholic and Addict
Jennifer – Five years!
Congratulations! It began with you and has been sustained by Him.
You, because you asked in your brokeness – Him because He promised.
Keep at it, one day at a time.
I pulled out of my secular step program because I was freaking out that if these people died tonight they may be in for a rude awakening and I don’t know how to say believe in Christ. I’ll work it out and this article was very helpful. Thank you.