Bangor church to start addictions ministry

BANGOR – A local church is launching a new ministry aimed at those in recovery, people struggling with addiction, and friends and families affected by addiction.

The Addictions Ministry of Hammond Street Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, will hold its first program on spiritual life and recovery on Saturday, April 26, in the church basement.

It will begin at 9 a.m. and conclude with a healing service at 3 p.m. The event is open to those in any of the recovery programs and those interested in learning more about spirituality and recovery, the Rev. Mark Doty, pastor, said last month.

“The idea is to get addictions out of the cellar of the church and up into the sanctuary so people can celebrate recovery as a gift from God,” said the Rev. Maury Landry, 55, of Bangor Pastoral Counseling and Addictions, who is also a church member.

Landry and Bill Lagerstrom, 66, of Hampden are the experts who will lead the new ministry. Landry is a counselor and part-time minister who is the pastor of a church in Aroostook County.

Lagerstrom retired to Maine nearly three years ago from New York City where he ran Lazarus Ministries. He is not a minister but has a background in running spiritual development programs for people in recovery.

One of the things that provided the springboard to create an addictions ministry program is the rising number of people whose lives have been touched by addiction.

“From the pulpit one Sunday, the pastor asked, ‘How many of you have been personally affected by addiction or know someone who has been?'” Landry said. “Of the 200 people in church, three-quarters of them stood up. It’s just overwhelming how many lives it touches.”

Lagerstrom and Landry will train a group of church members, who have volunteered to be part of the Addictions Ministry Team. Team members would offer spiritual support to people affected by addictions.

“Eventually we will have a team of frontline people who can be called up to deal with people who are suffering,” Landry said.

The church program is not intended to replace professional counseling services but wants to “plug up the hole that has been missing for so many people,” he said.

The concept is well-established nationally. Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, credited his own spiritual experience with helping him recover. Five of the 12 steps include a reference to God and Step 2 states, “We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”

Some 12-step meetings bear a strong resemblance to Christian worship services, complete with opening words and a prayer of meditation, Scripture readings, expressions of faith, the confession of sins, offering repentance and atonement, a closing prayer and the passing of a collection basket. Like most Protestant church services, meetings often end with a social hour and coffee.

The point, said Doty, 60, is not to evangelize people who attend meetings in a church basement, but to let them know that the congregation is capable of understanding and welcoming them when and if they wish to attend services or become involved in other church activities.

Plans include offering a special monthly service for people recovering from addictions, he said.

“I find that people often feel so much shame about their addiction that they feel they don’t belong in church,” Doty said. “We want to reassure them that, yes, they are a child of God and they have a place at his table.”

The church is following the Faith Partners model from the Rush Center of the Johnson Institute in Austin, Texas. Since the mid-1990s, the group has worked with clergy and congregations of all faith traditions, mobilizing them to do alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse prevention and addiction recovery support in Dallas, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., and Shawnee, Okla.

For information, call Lagerstrom at 862-5448 or the church at 942-4381.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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