Addicts can see the light

Jeremy Halcrow | 2 October 2007

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Experienced

Ian Metz hails from mid-West tourist mecca of Branson, Missouri which is nick-named ‘the family friendly Las Vegas’.

Like most cities with a large transient population, illegal drugs are a major social problem.

“I lived in addiction myself for about 8 years,"he says. "When I couldn’t go on in that kind of darkness anymore I began to reach out for help and entered into a residential program with Church Army in Branson. Having re-established a connection with God through the Church Army community I began to help others, first as a volunteer and then as an employee in a rehabilitation centre. Coming to help Church Army in Australia is a great way to keep me focused on God and others.”

Mr Metz says he has not seen much difference in the drug culture between Australia and the US, but says ‘gambling addiction is a bigger factor here’ in Sydney.

“Gambling is not as prevalent or as widely legalised in America,” he says.

Mr Metz adds that the biggest lesson he has learnt from the drug ministry in Missouri is the ‘importance of growing in Christ within community’.

This is why both the fellowship and residential models are based on Christian community.

“It is through the community that people recovering addicts can rediscover the life skills that most of us would take for granted,” says Mr Metz.

A US specialist in drug ministry has been engaged to help the Anglican Church establish ‘restoration fellowships’ for people recovering from addictions.

Ian Metz is resourcing Church Army funded Local Mission Bases to pioneer targeted programs for addicts. There are currently three Bases operating in Sydney Diocese, with plans for another to open next year dependant on funding.

Surfers Church, which ministers amongst Marouba’s hard core surfing community, has already begun a restoration fellowship which meets weekly.

The plan has a national scope, as Church Army has already taken their Recovery workshop to Forbes and have begun a restoration fellowship in Western Australia.

As Sydney Anglican churches gear up for the Connect 09 mission, Tim Scheuer, head of Church Army Australia, hopes their expertise in restoration ministry may assist local churches who have made contact with people seeking healing from addictions.

“If you are serious about doing mission that connects with the wider community, then it is inevitable that you are going to come across people with drug and alcohol issues,” Mr Scheuer says.

Local restoration fellowships will be supported by a residential program that Ian Metz is already running at Church Army’s headquarters at Kihilla in the Blue Mountains.

Mr Metz explains that the fellowship model is appropriate for ‘someone who is ‘still able to manage the rest of their life’ while the residential program suits someone who ‘has lost everything through addiction’ and ‘needs to start life again from scratch’.

The Church Army program follows a similar 12 steps process to AA, however it goes beyond merely encouraging addicts to rely on ‘a higher power’ to explain that God is found in Jesus Christ.

“The aim is to help addicts be honest about the things in their life that have been blocking them off from God,” says Mr Metz. “We encourage them to pray and ask for God’s help.”

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