Ministering to Messes (the addicted)

by Ronnie Crocker

The purpose of this article is to address the difficulties of ministering to messes.  The messes under consideration here are souls struggling with addictions. 

This will explain my approach to restoring men who have been “overtaken” (Galatians 6:1) by sins and have messed up their lives. 

Another reason for this article is to show why we desperately need mentors to listen to, comfort and encourage our program members.  We now have 21 men living in the Project Rescue facility.   At this time, only one man has a dedicated mentor who visits him frequently.  Please let me know if you can help in this regard.  

For the Beltline elders, Project Rescue board members, Project Rescue teachers, and Beltline members who have already been helping, this article should serve to help you understand what a troubled program member is going through and why.   

As we minister to souls who have messed up their lives with drugs, we must remember that Jesus has a special place in His heart for messes (Mark 2:17).  Our Lord came especially to minister to messes! (Matthew 11:28-30).  When the Pharisees became upset with Jesus for ministering to messes, He told them the parable of the lost sheep, coin and boy (Luke 15).  With these parables, Jesus illustrated the rejoicing in Heaven when a mess (sinner) repents and turns to Him for help! 

I have 15 years of personal experience with drug abuse that made a mess of my life.   In prison, I surrendered to God.   He helped me overcome my mess, and I never turned back to it (2 Peter 2:20-22).  I also have 25 years (since 1986) of experience ministering to messes (the addicted).  In 1989, when I was released from prison, I established Project Rescue.  Through this ministry I have reached out to thousands of men and women struggling with various addictions.  Since 2007, hundreds of addicts have lived in our apartments while they participated in our program of recovery. 

Ministering to messes is the most difficult mission field.  I believe this is why it is the most neglected mission field.    

Addiction's damaging effects are what make it so hard to minister to addicts and alcoholics.

Let me explain what has to be addressed after the addict stops using the drugs and has gone through a 30-day detoxification process   I will use my story to illustrate the problem and the solution:

My wife Jeanie and I have lived two drastically different lives!  Figuratively speaking, I am a pickle and Jeanie  is a cucumber.

You saturate a cucumber long enough in vinegar, it will become a pickle.  You can never turn that pickle back into a cucumber.

During those years of abusing drugs, I was pickled in a jar (world) of vinegar (sin).  I had spent years being saturated with evil thoughts, evil words, evil actions, and evil habits.  Those bad thoughts, words, actions, and habits changed (pickled) me forever.   This is what I mean when I say, I am a pickle.

On the other hand, my wife Jeanie grew up on the mission field of Africa, the daughter of a Gospel preacher.  She attended Christian schools and universities.  She did not experience the extent of sin which I did.  She did not experience the evil pickling process which I did.  Hence, Jeanie is a cucumber and I am a pickle. 

Now, I stopped abusing drugs in 1984, when I was arrested for the last time.  On June 1, 1986 my sins were washed away when I was baptized into Christ.  I came up out of that watery grave of baptism to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:1-4).  When I obeyed the Gospel, I became a new creation.  Old things were passed away, and all things became new (2 Corinthians 5:17).  However, my experience with the devil and sin, and my memories of those 15 years in the pickle jar were not washed away.  For the rest of my life, I have to be aware of, live with and even fight against my past pickling process (Galatians 5:1; Romans 6:17,18).  In this regard, my fight of faith is very different from Jeanie’s fight of faith!  She is a cucumber, and I am a pickle.

When you are ministering to a recovering addict, you must realize they have a past pickling process to overcome (John 8:32, 2 Peter 2:20-22).  Some have been more pickled than others, and they will need more attention.  The pickling process is what makes it so hard to win them back to the Lord.  The devil has such a hard grip on them, it is almost impossible to pry them out of his clutches (Colossians 1:13; John 8:32; 2 Peter 2:22).

Some Scriptures can be applied to the pickling process: Some of the members of the church in Corinth were pickles:  "⁹Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor ^£homosexuals, nor sodomites, ¹⁰nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  ¹¹And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”  1 Corinthians 6:9-11

The vinegar (sins)  they were pickled in were fornication, idolatry, adultery, homosexuality, thievery, covetousness, drunkenness, and partying.

I believe this is why the church in Corinth was such a mess.  Paul spent about a year and a half ministering to the messes in Corinth.  Paul is the example I look to for help in ministering to messes. 

The hardest stage of ministering to a recovering addict is the beginning stage (first 3-months).  The pickling process corrupts one’s character (1 Timothy 4:2; James 3:14,15).  I once heard a preacher who ministers to addicts say, “An addict can talk a cat off the back of a fish truck!” This corruption of the conscience is not permanent.  It can be overcome (1 Peter 1:22; Ephesians 4:28). 

Galatians 6:1 speaks of the restoration process needed to reverse the character damage caused by the pickling process of addiction:   “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness…”

James 5:19.20 also speaks to the conversion (“turns him back”) process needed to repair the character corruption created by the pickling process of addiction:  "Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”  

Paul instructed the ministers in Thessalonica on how to handle the messes in their care:  “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.”  1 Thessalonians 5:14

At times recovering addicts are "unruly" (rebellious) and need tough love.  At times they are “fainthearted” (quick to give up the fight), and need to be encouraged.  At times they are so spiritually “weak” that they need the highest level of attention and support.  This is why we need mentors!

On occasion, a soft approach is needed: “But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children.” 1 Thessalonians 2:7

At other times, a hard tough love approach is necessary: “As you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God…” 1 Thessalonians 2:11,12

“For also when we were with you we enjoined you this, that if any man does not like to work, neither let him eat. For we hear that [there are] some walking among you disorderly . .  . But if any one obey not our word by the letter, mark that man, and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed of himself; and do not esteem him as an enemy, but admonish [him] as a brother.”   2 Thessalonians 3:10-15

To restore one from the damage of the pickling process, intense attention (teaching, reproof, correction,  instruction in righteousness, rebuke, and exhortation) is needed (2 Timothy 3:16,17; 2 Timothy 4:2).

Before restoration can begin, the pickling process must be stopped.  Let me explain:

Quitting the drugs and alcohol is a beginning, but it does not necessarily stop the pickling process.  Many come into our program and continue the evil thoughts, words, actions, and habits.  They continue to resist God instead of the devil (James 4:7).

Many of the souls in our care are like the prodigal son (Luke 15) who went out to conquer the world and the world conquered him.  Most of them come to us after having destroyed almost every good thing in their life.  Some have already surrendered (Romans 12:1,2), but the typical program member has not.  

The prodigal son surrendered (“came to himself”) only after all the money was gone, a famine hit his life, he was living with the pigs and considered eating the pigs’ food.   It was at this point he thought of returning to his Father and then actually returned to the Father!

There are a few who come to the program already sick and tired of being sick and tired and in total surrender to God.  These enjoy the program and prosper.

My objective with the ones who have not surrendered is to provoke them to give up to God (Romans 12:1,2)!  The process for the ones who have not surrendered to God can become very messy and even ugly.  They usually hate me with a passion!  This is a critical point, when a mentor is needed most to exhort and comfort the man, to help him through the crisis (Hebrews 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:11).

My intent is to help them to reach the bottom David describes in Psalm 51.   I cannot make them surrender.  I can only show them the way and how I reached the place of brokenness. 

The fruits of repentance (surrender) I look for in our program members are described in 2 Corinthians 7:6-11.  They are earnest desire, mourning, zeal, Godly sorrow, diligence, indignation, fear, and a vehement desire for godliness. 

Most of the men who come to us are suffering but they are not profiting from the “chastening of the Lord.” 

The writer of Hebrews explains the problem we face and solution we seek as ministers to our program members:  " ⁵And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: 'My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; ⁶ For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.'   ⁷If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?  ⁸But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.  ⁹Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?  ¹⁰For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.  ¹¹Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”  Hebrews 12:5-11 

It has been my experience (25 years) that only a few (Matthew 7:13,14) will reach a place of brokenness and begin to profit from and be trained by “the chastening of the Lord.”  This is why we must reach out to many to win a few!

The few successes are worth the heartache & frustration over those who refuse God’s narrow way which leads to life! 

As mentors to messes and preachers to pickles:

We must remember how important messes are to Jesus (Luke 15).

We must follow Paul’s approach (soft & hard) of ministering to messes (1 Corinthians 5; 1 Thessalonians 2:7).

We must be longsuffering and patient (2 Timothy 4:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:14).

We must be tough (2 Timothy 2:3).

We must be dedicated (2 Timothy 2:4).

We need to look for the fruits of surrender (Psalm 51 ; 2 Corinthians 7).

We must help them to the place of brokenness as Paul did (2 Corinthians 12).

Once broken, we must then lift them up (2 Corinthians 2:6-8).

We must give them hope in this life and in the one to come (Jeremiah 29:11).

We must remember that the Lord is with us always (Matthew 28:18-20).

We must pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17)!

In Christian love,

Ronnie Crocker , a former mess, a pickle and a minister to pickles

PS: please call me if you would like to mentor a man in our program (256-616-1522).