Lexington—If it was up to Eric Allen, a conference like Reclaiming Our Communities would never happen. A day of workshops designed to help church leaders minister to those caught in the grip of drug abuse is not something he wants to have to coordinate.

“The reason we’re having it is because there is a drug problem,” said Allen, Kentucky Baptist Convention’s mission services and ministries director. “It would be nice if drugs weren’t out there, but they are.”

The reality, of course, is that hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians are affected by drugs and alcohol daily. And Kentucky Baptists must know how to help those who need the hope of Jesus Christ the most.

Last weekend, more than 150 people participated in the KBC-sponsored Reclaiming Our Communities conferences at two locations in the state—Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, and First Baptist Church of Madisonville.

The conference featured several breakout sessions with speakers from churches and ministries across the state who know about helping substance abusers and their families recover.

Allen told participants he hoped they would “take back some resources that will help you to be more effective in reaching out to those in your communities who are hurting from substance abuse.”

And it is for those like John Skidmore that these conferences exist. Skidmore is a former alcoholic and drug addict who found Christ and sobriety through a church-based drug treatment program.

Skidmore formerly was a police officer in Eastern Kentucky’s Powell County who stuggled with alcohol from the time he was a teenager. Following a car accident in his 20s, he developed a dependency on pain medication.

Two years ago, at age 35, he was completely hooked on drugs and alcohol and his marriage was in trouble. “I had to have the alcohol, had to have the pain pills,” Skidmore said. “It wasn’t to get high, it was to feel normal.”

That was when he said he prayed for the first time since he was a child.

“I said, ‘God I need your help. I can’t keep living like this. Something’s got to change and I can’t do it myself,’” he recalled.

Soon after, Skidmore’s family urged him to check into a faith-based drug treatment program. It was an interdenominational church ministry formed in Powell County, with help from several local KBC churches and state Baptist leaders.

Skidmore spent two weeks as a resident at the treatment facility, and attended 10 months of follow-up meetings at local churches. During that time, he accepted Christ as his Savior, thanks to the love and support of church members.

“I just couldn’t get that out of my head why someone would care enough to take time out of their day to help me when I was at one of the lowest points of my life,” Skidmore noted. “I didn’t know it, but I guess God had plans for me, because maybe I was worth something.”

According to Eric Bruns, John Skidmore is a perfect example of how churches can help addicts move to an “abstinence-based lifestyle with grace and mercy.”

Bruns, an associate professor of Psychology at Campbellsville University and a clinical psychologist, discussed the psychological factors of addiction. In a breakout session, he urged conference participants to learn and be able to recognize “the process that brings people into addiction so that we can help love them out of addiction.”

“A church-based paradigm is so vital, because just like John testified, he was loved into a sobriety-based lifestyle,” Bruns explained, “and that is why God has to be in the forefront and center of (our) efforts.”

Bruns described the five stages of change that each addict must move through in order to attain a sobriety-based lifestyle. They are:

Pre-contemplation. “They don’t yet have a conscious awareness that what they’re doing is a problem,” Bruns noted, “because perhaps the consequences for their drug and alcohol abuse has not caused them sufficient misery to get their attention.”

Contemplation. This is the stage where addicts become aware that they have a problem, mostly because of consequences like divorce, job loss or jail, Bruns said. Addicts in this stage “are on a teeter-totter, weighing the pros and cons of quitting or modifying their behavior,” he noted.

Preparation/determination. This is where “the person wakes up and says, ‘I’ve got to do something,’” Bruns pointed out. “This is where (churches) have to be prepared to hook them and get them into the treatment process.”

Action/willpower. “This is the stage where (addicts) finally believe they have the ability to change and they become actively involved” in treatment, Bruns noted.

Maintenance. This stage “involves (the addict) being able to successfully avoid the temptation to return to the bad habit,” Bruns said. This also is where relapse will most often occur, he added, and if it does, the addict’s old lifestyle may reawaken.

“This recovery process is … just like the journey of our salvation: It’s something that we’re always going to be on,” Bruns added. “So, as Christ’s body, … we’ve got to work diligently to rescue souls and to save souls, and to let people know they have the image of God within them. They don’t have to be stuck in this world.”