By SARA CLIFFORD and SUZANNAH COUCH, [email protected], [email protected]

The congregation swayed and clapped and raised their hands in prayer as the women sang:

“If you don’t come to my rescue / If you don’t come to my rescue / If you don’t come to my rescue/ I’ll be lost, I’ll be lost.”

“This place is a hospital for the lost and the hurting,” preached Faith Full Gospel’s Randy LaVere.

Reaching out to the sick — especially those sick with addiction — is a ministry that Faith Full Gospel and other area churches have embraced, as they’ve seen members of their own church families struggle.

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“I think that’s our call. That’s what we’re supposed to do,” LaVere said after worship.

His message that January morning spoke directly to the power of the church in breaking the chains of addiction.

He asked how many people in that room had been delivered from alcohol or drugs, depression or anxiety, and a clear majority of the adults raised their hands, to claps and cheers and praise.

“Look around this church. … God brought you through all of that because he has a purpose and a plan for your life, and right now … it’s time to get into position,” LaVere said.

Lisa Palmer was one member he singled out. Palmer had attended Faith Full Gospel until she went through a divorce. She began to bandage her loneliness with alcohol, then drugs, which she was introduced to by a boyfriend who didn’t share her beliefs.

“He was like, ‘Don’t go to church; stay home with me.” Eventually, she did.

“The people at church, of course, always tried to get me to come back and always tried to be there, but I was always so proud,” she said.

After years of drug use, physical abuse and a two-year stretch of being homeless, Palmer attempted suicide by overdose.

She said she felt like she had no one to come rescue her. “I guess I did, but I didn’t know I did,” she said, talking about her church family. “I didn’t know how to ask for help, especially because by this time, I’m using drugs so regularly that I can’t even think.

“Especially when you get out there and you do all this bad stuff, you think nobody’s going to want to help me. Everybody’s going to think I’m a lost cause.”

That’s not the case, said Pastor Tim Conboy of New Life Community Church. He, too, can speak from experience.

In his early 20s, Conboy was living in a tent in the woods. He was addicted to alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, LSD, psychodelic mushrooms and Quaaludes.

“People ask me, ‘How did you get out of the drug scene?’ I said, ‘I didn’t go cold turkey, I went hot Jesus.’

“That’s what made the difference. I tried quitting a lot of times and always found myself back into it,” he said.

“If you just rely on your own strength, you can’t kick the habit; the habit will kick you almost every time. But if you rely on the Lord’s strength and his spirit’s strength, he can make you a new person.”

Conboy has preached at jails in Pennsylvania and prisons in New York. “It’s impacting me in a sense that, one, I don’t judge the person, first of all. … The other thing is, the Lord welcomed all people, and the Lord came for the sick, as he said, not the healthy,” he said.

Two years ago, New Life started the recovery ministry Battlefield for Freedom. Melissa Tatman and other family members had stood up at a service to share their testimony on how the God had been working in their lives as they dealt with their addictions.

“I have a philosophy of ministry that is very simple: You’ve got the burden, you’ve got the job,” Conboy said. “I said, ‘Melissa you run with it.’”

New Life bought special “recovery Bibles” for the ministry and other materials. Between 18 and 23 people attend the ministry every week, Conboy said.

New Life also hosted Help on the Homefront for family members of people who were addicted to any substances, but that ministry is currently inactive, he said.

“Sometimes family members will come out, and their family members do better, so they don’t continue. Other times, they feel like they are just working harder on their recovery than their own family members are working on recovery,” Conboy said.

Not alone

In February, the New Life congregation was asked to stand up if they had an immediate family member who struggled with addiction, including opioid addiction, pornography or other problems. About 200 people were in attendance. “I don’t hardly think there was 10 people who were still seated,” Conboy said.

“I think it was eye-opening for everyone to look around and go, ‘Wow, virtually a whole congregation is standing.’”

One of the foundations of the ministry that Palmer and other members of Faith Full Gospel are working on — inside the church and out, including in the jail — is building a support system to help youth and adults make the right choices when they’re faced with temptations.

“Everything has to do with who you’re around,” Palmer said.

“My husband tells me all the time, if you’re purple and you hang out with someone who’s green, eventually you’re going to be green.”

Faith Full Gospel, New Life Community Church and Bean Blossom Community Church have all been communicating about youth programming and trying to build a bigger network of kids in school, “so if they’re ever in a situation where it’s in front of them, but they turn this way and they see a peer that they know as a support system, they can go this way instead of that way,” Palmer said.

It’s also important for adults to have a group in which they feel comfortable talking openly, in which they won’t feel judged, she said.

“You have to be able to voice it. You have to be able to get real. And it is ugly sometimes,” Palmer said.

“One of the biggest mistakes I made was lying with people and saying ‘I’m clean, I’ve been clean,’ when I could have just kept it real and then I would have gotten the help that I needed, but I lied about it.

“Faith Full Gospel tried to do that. They knew I had started doing bad things, and they said, ‘Do not quit coming, whatever you do. Just keep coming back.’ They said, ‘If you’re out on a Friday night drinking, that’s more of a reason for you to be here on a Sunday. … Just keep coming ’til you get it right.’”

“As a church you have to help people, help them accept these are fellow human beings who are in need of help,” Conboy said. “You can’t be afraid to help people. As I say, ministry is messy.

“You’re going to be picking up and cleaning up behind them. You’re going to have issues that you have to take into consideration … you just go forward, because it’s more important to reach them.”

“Church folks have to be open. The church, as I see it, is a hospital, a spiritual hospital,” he said.

Growing flock

Over the past year, Palmer estimated one new person a week would come to Faith Full Gospel who was struggling with addiction. It’s slowed down some, but she’s encouraged that many of them have stayed.

“There’s like a whole section. Most of them have kids,” Palmer said.

Some children come without their parents, she said. The church welcomes them, too.

“There’s kids in our youth (group) that their parents don’t come to church because they’re strung out, and their parents even give them a hard time for coming to church. They want to be there all the time. Some of them are in foster homes pretty much permanently. A lot of them are my cousins that are a victim of the curse of addiction in our family. But they’re coming out of it completely different.

“If you don’t keep your kids busy with positive activities, they’re going to find something, and you’re not going to like it.”

About three weeks ago, New Life Church had a meeting with Teen Challenge, a network of Christian faith-based corporations intended to help teenagers, adults and families with problems such as substance abuse.

Conboy was pulled out of the meeting because someone was in a car in the church’s parking lot and had passed out.

“She looked dead,” Conboy said.

“She was white. She had marks all over her face. (I) pounded on the window, and at first there was no movement at all, then you saw her move a little, so you realized she was alive, but you don’t know what kind of medical condition they are in.”

More than once, people have parked in the church’s parking lot off State Road 135 North at night and passed out.

“We find them the next day. There are other times they show up on foot and they are here,” he said.

“This is one aspect of our ministry we didn’t necessarily anticipate, but it’s not really a problem either. That’s the fact that because people come here for recovery, and the word is out they have a recovery ministry here, then they kind of see it as a safe haven,” he said.

One night, a woman came into the church who was under the influence of drugs. “She actually frightened some other girls who were here. They actually stayed across at the annex. They were a little freaked out, but they just called Melissa (Tatman). Melissa came and picked her up. Melissa Tatman is like the backbone of the recovery ministry here,” Conboy said.

Conboy also has served as a reserve deputy with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department for about a year, which allows him to connect with people who are struggling with addiction in a different way.

“You know how there’s good cop, bad cop? I always play the good cop. I don’t handcuff them. I let them know we have a recovery program for them if they want to come to it,” he said.

“Some will show up whether they stick or not. We try to keep it all anonymous as far as who comes.”

Reaching out

Lately, Faith Full Gospel has been talking about transitions. LaVere told his congregation that though you need to look back and see where you’ve been, it’s important to not get stuck in the past.

On a bright and cold Sunday in January, he preached about the Apostle Peter and his encounter with Jesus on the stormy sea, when all the apostles in the boat were afraid to reach out to their Lord when he was walking on the water.

“Peter stepped out of the boat. … He took a stand when everyone else sat still. What I want to ask you this morning is, ‘Will you take a step when everyone else is comfortable? Will you move forward?’

“If (the others) don’t want to do anything, that’s fine; leave them sitting there, but as for you, God has called you to take a step out from among them,” LaVere said, to claps and cheers.

“God has called you to greater things, to bigger things. That’s why you survived the accident. That’s why you survived the overdose … You made it through things that other people would have lost their minds, because he’s got a plan. … You’ve got to get some people out of your life if they’re stopping you, if they’re hindering you, if they’re holding you up. They will sit there in that boat for the rest of their lives.”

New Life has been talking about other recovery programs it can get its members into, like the Teen Challenge, a 12-month, residential and study program for teens and adults that focuses on substance abuse and other life-controlling problems.

“We feel like we’re really just starting. I think there’s going to be a lot more effort, and not just effort, but people getting more involved, just trying to figure out not just what to do, but have a multi-prong approach,” Conboy said.

They believe that God, though, needs to be at the center.

After LaVere delivered his message, a line of children, teens and adults came to the altar and kneeled, while a woman sang, ”Jesus, Jesus, without him, how lost I’d be.”

“Will you take a step out … from the people who’ve had you trapped … and say, ‘I am stepping out of this boat today?’” LaVere encouraged them. “I might sink, I might stumble, I might fall, but I will get back up again, because Jesus is right there with his arms outstretched to lift you up as you sink.

“You don’t have to be perfect. You can’t be perfect on your own. Jesus is the only way to perfection.”

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Anyone who wishes to donate to New Life Community Church’s recovery ministry, Battlefield for Freedom may send checks to the church at P.O. Box 654 Nashville, IN 47448. Write that it’s for the recovery ministry in the “memo” line.

Money will go toward materials for the program, including purchasing recovery Bibles, and paying a person to watch children during the meeting. Childcare is free for those who attend, Pastor Tim Conboy said.

“They’re human beings. We just want to do what we can to help them out,” he said.

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Addiction: Addiction is considered a brain disease and a chronic, relapsing condition. Opioid drugs change the brain.

Stigma: Families affected by cancer, Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease get help and support from the community. Families affected by addiction often struggle in silence due to the stigma attached to addiction, which is an obstacle to recovery.

Number of drug-related deaths: 3 in Brown County in 2017, 1 in Brown County so far in 2018, not including people who die at hospitals in other counties.

Prescription rate: For every 100 residents in Brown County, 40 opioid prescriptions were written in 2016.

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