About the Ministry
In 1997 my wife and I were shocked to learn that our son had started using drugs. He had become addicted to crack cocaine in a hurry. We had heard that many people become addicted to crack just after one use!
This was the case with our son. We contacted the church we were attending for help, I believe a Christian should be able to go to their local church and find the answers for all of life’s problems. God tells us in 2 Peter 1:3 that He has given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. The church recommended we contact a local Atlanta organization that was supposed to be a Christian program. We learned that this was a Christian organization that rented a wing of a local non-Christian hospital.
It was the worst advice we were ever given concerning substance abuse counseling. Prior to our going to this organization we contacted a biblical counselor, he advised us not to go to this facility. His reasoning was that this organization though claiming to be Christian integrated God’s Word with secular Freudian psychology, the reason they do this is because insurance companies will pay for substance abuse treatment- as long as it is classified as a disease. He informed us God says that substance abuse is a sin- not a disease.
Regrettably he did not have an alternative for us. He also informed us our son would be on a mind altering drug given by this facility. Sure enough on the eleventh day we went for a visit and were informed that our son was going home with us. I asked if they had found the problem and they said yes, “It is the way you raised him that caused him to use drugs”.
That description fit right into the Freudian model the biblical counselor had told us about. Then they told us they had prescribed anti-depressants for him. Again exactly what the biblical counselor had said they would do. What had actually happened was the money ran out so they sent him home. If there was anything at all Christian about this organization it was that maybe some of the employees were Christians. Our son was using drugs twenty-four hours later.
He continued to spiral downward and after another year he came to us and asked us for help. In the mean time I had done a lot of investigating and found a program in Atlanta that was not a hospital program, but it was a twelve step program, which I was also very uncomfortable with. But, because of no alternative we sent him there.
He did well and stayed nine months. Upon departure he found a new job and had new friends. We thought all was well. Three months later we learned he was using cocaine again and the cycle started all over.
I had done a lot of studying on substance abuse and had learned that this truly is a sin problem- not a disease. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) No scientific or medical proof has ever been discovered that can substantiate the claims that addiction is a disease. The only reason the AMA says that is because the recovery industry has become a multi-billion dollar a year business. If we call it what God says it is, sin, the insurance companies won't pay a cent. The church by and large has bought into this same lie. It has taken the secular Twelve-step program and modified it with Scripture. This is wrong! God’s Word does not need to be modified by any secular humanism.
Christians caught in the sin of addiction do not need a twelve-step program; they need to repent of their sin and follow God. Why are twelve-step programs wrong? Because even with Scripture integrated into them they teach addiction is a disease. Even the very first step of the Twelve-step's directly opposes what the Scripture's teach. The first step tells the addict to admit they are powerless over drugs and alcohol and that their lives have become unmanageable.
If a person is a Christian they are not powerless, they are powerful having all the power God created the universe with living inside of them, so they do have power over addiction. ( Romans 6)The Twelve-steps also teach that once you are an addict or a drunkard you always will be. Again Scripture has so much hope to offer the addict. Scripture say’s if I am a Christian I am a new creation, the old addict is dead and a new creation now exists. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
By this time I was learning that the answer to addiction is not in a Twelve-step program- Christian or otherwise, but in a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. Out of this understanding grew His Steps Ministries, Inc.
His Steps Ministries is a Christian discipleship program reaching out to men who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. We believe that substance abuse is due to an incorrect relationship with God, and hope is only offered through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Tim Brown
Director/Consoler - NANC Certified
His Steps Ministries, Inc.
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