Iowa Churches Grow and Sustain an Active Ministry

The Reverend Don Burket, pastor since June, says of the Faith Partners ministry, “I learned about this ministry from the committee who met with me before I came to serve these two churches. It is a unique and awesome ministry and I look forward to seeing it go beyond our churches.”

Rev. Burket serves two small United Methodist churches, Grace and Faith, which form the West Davenport Alliance in Davenport IA. Grace averages 100-125 in worship weekly and Faith 30-50. Working together they began to address alcohol and drug issues after receiving funding for a project from the Iowa United Methodist Annual Conference in January 2006. At about the same time they learned of the Faith Partners approach through a colleague who attended the Rush Center Summit in Texas. In August 2006 several members from the Alliance team traveled to Lincoln NE to attend the Faith Partners team training.

The Founding Pastor

The Reverend Doug Reynolds, pastor of the West Davenport Alliance when the Faith Partners ministry was initiated, says, “Addiction is an epidemic health problem in America. One in ten people suffer from alcoholism alone. But the odds are 50-50 that you or someone significant to you is a ‘holic of one kind or another. At the core of the problem for all ‘holics who struggle with addictive or compulsive behavior is a pattern of continually misusing something or someone in order to avoid emotional pain and difficulties.” Doug continues, “Alcoholism is just one of many addictions. Chemical dependency, eating disorders, co-dependency, and other obsessive and compulsive behavior patterns are equally as ‘serious and destructive.’”

Mission and Vision

The mission of the West Davenport Alliance Faith Partners ministry is to provide support through education, intervention, and recovery to those afflicted or affected by addiction. Their vision is to first reach out effectively to the alliance churches, then to the greater Quad Cities church communities. They are starting with United Methodist churches and then want to expand to other faith traditions through Churches United, an organization that serves “Quad Cities” (Davenport IA, Bettendorf IA, Moline IL, and Rock Island IL.)

Team Facilitator

Mike Salter, team facilitator, says, “We want to promote the idea that churches can be places of healing and hope. By working with the community resources the Faith Partners team does not need to offer treatment but can offer support through education, intervention and recovery.” He and his wife, Willo, are very active church members. They are also good at getting others involved. A goal is to continue to recruit people from the congregation to participate in specific projects, thus extending the reach of the ministry.

Making the Congregation Safe through Personal Testimonies

Marti Crane, the newest team member, says the positive congregational response keeps her involved and committed, “We have many members in recovery and several have given their testimony in worship. I personally shared how AlAnon had been a life saver for me after growing up with an alcoholic father. I had no idea how much alcoholism was continuing to affect my life until AlAnon”.  Marti says there is more openness to this issue in the congregation because of the team activities and testimonies.

Trained Team Members create new Projects

Nancy DeHaven became a team member because she accidentally signed the wrong clipboard. She stayed because she saw the potential for this ministry. “I went with others to the team training and the light bulb went on.   We got it. We came back and told the pastor we lay people are on fire and ready to carry the ministry.” 

The team influenced the church to offer the effective LOGOS after school program not just to member’s children but also to children in need in the community. Here the children experience several hours weekly with caring adults who eat, play, study and sing with them. Nancy tells about two other ministries that originated out of the Faith Partners team ministry. 

Youth in Need of Justice

One such ministry is called the “Youth in Need of Justice Ministry.” Willo Salter provides leadership for this effort. Team members decided to have a “presence” at a large skate park in Davenport. They started by giving away bottles of water at the park and just “hanging out” with the kids. When the kids called them the purple shirt people the adults embroidered PSP on their purple shirts.

Trusting relationships between church members and the young people have grown because of this presence. When the youth realized the adults did not have an agenda other than to get to know them and be with them they opened up and began having conversations, even asking the adults to pray for them. This relationship has led to a powerful alliance between the PSP adults and the youth. They have gone together to the local alderman and city council to ask for restrooms, lighting so they can skate at night, and refreshment stands. Early signs of graffiti were converted to murals.  This caring supervision has been so successful other churches now want to participate.

Puppet Ministry

Team members are preparing to carry prevention messages through a new puppet ministry. The stage and six puppets will be used initially for a presentation on peer pressure. Members say that the adults as well as youth and children are excited about this project.

Importance of Capturing Team History and Activities

Nancy and Marti Crane gathered pictures, articles, and stories of their team activities. They made a three ring notebook, capturing their history.

Mike Salter, the team facilitator, said putting together the notebook rejuvenated the team. They were amazed at all they had done which included:

• Wrote a grant proposal and received funding from the annual conference;
• Conducted a congregational survey and shared the results;
• Asked community mental health specialists to speak to team/congregation;
• Developed a mission statement, brochure and a call referral list;
• Created nametags, banners, Sunday video clips, monthly newspaper articles;
• Gave several personal testimonies during worship and team was dedicated;
• Press release to community with follow up newspaper article;
• Worked with youth at a large skate park;
• Started a women in recovery Bible study; and,
• Writing to prisoners and preparing to support them upon release.

This compilation of activities both renewed the team and sustained them as they began to plan for the next year. Congratulations to the West Davenport Alliance Faith Partners team!

Contact the team through their website at faithpartnersquadcities.org

Mt Zion UMC Faith Partners

Chartered in September 2007, Mt Zion’s Faith Partners Recovery ministry works to educate, support, and transform the congregation and communities in which we live, the families whom we love, and the those directly afflicted and  impacted by addiction disorders.

These are whom we embrace by accepting them where they are, at their point of need and loving them as Christ loves. Faith Partners serves as a conduit for opening the dialog regarding alcoholism\addiction, a center for helpful resources and knowledge, a trained team that bridges the faith and recovery communities, supports local treatment practitioners, and reaches out to both those incarcerated and their loved ones. Healing through God’s grace becomes a genuine and realistic outcome. Link to Mt Zion UMC Faith Partners on Facebook.

Welcome

We’re happy you found us.

We have been busy relaunching Faith Partners as an independent nonprofit. With this new website we want to reassure you we are moving forward, committed to continuing our work of initiating, nurturing and sustaining the faith community’s efforts to address alcohol, drug, and addiction issues.

For five years we collaborated with the Johnson Institute, functioning as the Rush Center of Johnson Institute. During those years we hosted a national summit and expanded our efforts. We are grateful we had this opportunity. And when the Johnson Institute closed their doors the end of February we knew we wanted to continue this important work. So our trademark name for our teams – Faith Partners teams – became our organization’s name again. Our location didn’t change, though – we are still in Austin, Texas, where the teams began over 20 years ago.

It is a challenging yet exciting time for us.

This year we received a grant from the Center on Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) to enhance our evaluation capacity. We are working with wonderful colleagues – friends from the University of Texas School of Social Work and staff from the Gulf Coast Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) to carry out this effort. Our hope is to become an evidenced based environmental strategy. Thanks to our teams for their dedication to this process, particularly the scheduling of a second congregational survey.

Other exciting things are happening.

We recently participated in a webinar with our friends and colleagues from Harford County, MD, Faith-Based Coalition, thanks to Michael Koscinski from SAMHSA.  It was a new and good experience for us, using this method to reach others interested in faith community involvement with coalitions. We’ve posted that online here under the topic,  Awareness. We will also make a presentation at the mid year CADCA conference in Louisville this summer.

Our work is cut out for us.

The faith community has an important role to play in prevention and addiction recovery support. Congregations who have connected to community resources including community coalitions are in a better position to help the people they serve find the resources and services they need. Clergy are aware, lay people come with expertise and life experience and with training and support we can mobilize the religious community to be a big part of the solution to this challenging problem.

Lastly, we want to thank KD & Company for their generous technical assistance and support, under the direction of Rick Drewien. Thanks to Rick, facilitator for the Mt Zion United Methodist Church Faith Partners team in Marietta, GA, for all that he has done to help us launch this website. Rick has provided important leadership for his team and this site would not be possible without the many hours of expertise he has given us out of his passion for this ministry.

Take your time reading through this site and learn what others are doing. It is not only possible but many of our teams are making a big difference. Won’t you let us know what you are doing and how we might support you?

United Methodist Agencies Endorse and Support Faith Partners Team Ministry

General Board of Church and Society Endorses Approach

The General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, the nation’s third-largest denomination, has endorsed the Faith Partners Team model for local congregations to help solve America’s number one health problem – alcohol and other drug addiction.

James Winkler, General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, said in a support letter sent to all Bishops and Church and Society Chairpersons in the U.S. Annual Conferences, “I believe that the team approach for congregations is an effective and sustainable way to provide prevention, education, early intervention and recovery support.” Winkler said the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church is encouraging all members to promote attendance at Faith Partners Team Leadership Training Events offered by Faith Partners Inc.

General Board of Global Ministries Partners to Bring Training to Five Jurisdictions

At the request of its Inter-Agency and Standing Committee Task Force, the Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence (SPSARV), a general church initiative housed at the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church has partnered with Faith Partners Inc to offer its series of Faith Partners trainings. In 2007-2008, SPSARV offered the training to each of the five United Methodist jurisdictions. A leadership team composed of United Methodist clergy and lay people met in Nashville with the General Board and Faith Partners staff to work together toward this historic denominational partnering to make resources available across the country.

The leadership team explored the church’s role from a theological perspective, examined the Faith Partners approach, identified ways to make the church more aware of the need for this ministry and provided guidance on how to initiate the Faith Partners model across the denomination.

For more information on the SPSARV-sponsored Faith Partner trainings, go to www.umsparv.org.

Hope for Recovery

“Hope for Recovery” is the name that our team at St. Alban’s chose for itself.  It’s the perfect name: it reflects what we’re all about, and it does so in three succinct words.  But those three succinct words are not the most important three words in the sentence. The words chose for itself are.  Because while choosing a name may seem like an insignificant detail, it reflects a highly significant and much larger reality: that the life of this ministry has been-and continues to be–developed and shaped by its lay members, not me!

When I was called to St Alban’s six years ago as a newly ordained priest with seven years in recovery, I had already made the very personal decision that wherever I served, I knew recovery would be an important part of my ministry, and I wanted folks to feel safe coming to me for help.  But I had no idea then just how many families are touched by substance abuse issues!  Before long I found myself wishing I has time to put together a team of parishioners to start a substance abuse ministry, so I’d have others I could refer folks to for help.  Occasionally I’d refer someone to one of the parishioners I knew from “the rooms” of AA.  And fortunately, because of St. Alban’s long history of hospitality to 12-step programs, there were a lot of those parishioners-folks who came here for the meetings in the basement first, then gradually discovered the services in the church upstairs!

When I heard about Faith Partners it was prayer answered. I took the Leadership Training, then identified potential team members in our congregation and invited them to watch the Faith Partners video with me after church. Before the screening, I made it clear that coming to see the video was about exploring the ministry, not committing to it; after the screening, I made it clear this ministry called for lay leadership, for which training would be provided.

The response to the video was so positive, all I had to do was make arrangements for those committed to doing the Team Member Training with me.  I can’t describe how valuable that training was!  It gave us the confidence and energy to launch this ministry and fabulous materials with instructions on every aspect of introducing, developing and sustaining it.

Two members serve as co-chairs, another is our publications person, yet another is our community resource person, and we all attend our monthly brainstorming meetings.  My particular usefulness as a team member is as a liaison-after all, I’ve got the “best” contacts with the church!  So as a team member I advocate with church staff on behalf of Hope for Recovery events, newsletter articles, and other ways of making this ministry visible; and as a member of the clergy, I make referrals to the team, provide pastoral support, and give it its “St. Alban’s Stamp of Approval” in the eyes of the congregation.  But most important of all, I take advantage of opportunities like this to thank our team for the amazing grace, dedication, creativity and passion they bring to this ministry.

Thank you Hope for Recovery!

Rev. Margot D Critchfield,

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, Washington DC

Photo Credit: Patrick Smith Photography via Flickr

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