Is addiction a disease? If so, is it unloving to exercise church discipline for someone who is in unrepentant drug use? Are we lacking understanding and compassion? If addiction is not a disease, why does drug addiction feel so hopeless and consuming. In this episode, the Stoop crew talk addiction. Listen as Joel, Stephanie, and Eric work through these questions and more. The word “addiction” needs to be defined. As does the word “disease.” Sometimes, the very words we use are unhelpful and don’t communicate what is to be meant. Additionally, we have to understand the church’s role in the life of the sinner. What role does the church play in the life of a church member who has fallen back into drug addiction? Listen, shoot us an email, and share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you.

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In this episode, Marla Walker, a member of The Garden Church and ONE HOPE intern, shares her story of addiction, shame, and feeling not good enough to go before God. Being introduced to alcohol at only 8 years old, Marla was put on a path to drug dependency and a series of recoveries and relapses. From trap houses to recovery houses, Marla’s life represents the cycle of so many. Yet, unlike many others, Marla has found forgiveness and healing in Christ. No depth and no transgression could hide her from the reach of God. Through the love of Christ and the church body, listen to how God has set Marla on a new path of reconciliation and redemption.

In this episode, our continued conversation on addiction looks at how the church should respond to the broken and downcast. Churches can become structured only for the “clean-cut” of a certain socioeconomic status, neglecting those who may disturb our comfortableness. Discussed are ways in which the church can be a community that humbly works towards restoration for all, knowing that God’s grace reaches to all. How to love the addicted with Biblical wisdom, in the hope that they will experience the community of church, and find it more loving than the community of the street. 

When the subject of addiction enters a conversation, it is easy to deflect and downplay its gravity. It is easy to dehumanize those caught in substance abuse, failing to recognize their worth; people made in the image of God. Addiction is both willful rebellion and simultaneously held in bondage to a substance. It devastates, not only the individual, but families and communities. Substances can alter the mind and mute suffering, but suffering plays an important purpose in our lives.

This episode seeks to define addiction and humanize the addict. It looks at the hard realties, necessary humility, and hope of a savior for the addict. Jesus knew the pain of living in a world broken by sin, and took on suffering greater than any of us face. Jesus is the only hope that offers an eternity free from the bondage of all sin.