The Thursday June 28th Radio
Interview by Dick B. of Recovery Pastor Matt Pierce of Golden Hills Community
Church, Brentwood, California
A Project of International Christian
Recovery Coalition
on
______________________________________________________________
Here’s how you can listen this program (which is also archived) right now
You may hear
Dick B. interview Christian Recovery leader Matt Pierce on the June 28, 2012,
episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with DickB" show here:
http://goo.gl/7HwpD
or here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2012/06/28/dick-b-interviews-christian-recovery-leader-matt-pierce
Episodes of
the "Christian Recovery Radio with DickB" radio show are archived at:
Synopsis of the Matt Pierce Interview
Today’s radio interview with Matt Pierce, Recovery Pastor at
Golden Hills Community Church
in Brentwood, California brought out several refreshing
facts.
First the ChristianRecoveryRadio.com radio interviews are
offering a great diversity of speakers and subjects.
Second, our objective of bringing in representative,
personally known, world-wide Christian recovery leaders, workers, newcomers,
and concerned participants in International Christian Recovery Coalition is
exceeding in practice our fondest hopes.
Third, today’s speaker represents a growing number of
unusual Christian church leaders who are first and foremost devoted to spreading
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They tend to be young. They spring from a background
of drug and alcohol abuse. They also have recovered from their maladies.They
have had favorable experiences in A.A. and other 12 Step fellowships. They
favor daily Christian fellowship in the nature of that found in early First
Century Christianity as reported in the Book of Acts and in the early Akron
A.A. Christian Fellowship.
And they speak to our audiences as garden variety drunks and
addicts, Christian clergy or recovery pastors, Christian counselors, Christian
intervention specialists, Christian treatment program directors, chaplains,
psychiatrists, addiction medicine specialists, professors, historians, pharmacists,
psychologists, sober living and residential living owners or directors, and
people with outreach into prisons, the homeless, veterans, military, legal and
judicial arenas, 12 Step groups, and professions such as nursing, therapy, and,
social work.
Now to Matt and the Golden Hills campuses, programs, and
visions.
Matt had his own struggles with alcohol and drugs at an
early age. He did not enter A.A. until he was 31. He entered A.A. with little
religious experience. He was just plain
sick. He entered A.A. in 1991 and believes it saved his life. He read the Big Book.
But he did not grasp the spiritual side which he defines as knowing who God is and having a relationship with Him
through His son—just expecting God to reveal himself. And, as he says, he was
not disappointed. For he met a man who witnessed to him about God and His son.
He began attending church and grasping the truth of the Gospel. He accepted
Jesus as His Lord and Savior. Then he went to Bible School and pursued the
pastorate.
But he hit a snag. He decided he didn’t need recovery and
could do what was needed through religion. He spent eight years in the midst of
legalism, he says; and he sought righteousness through works. He married and
had two kids. But he hit bottom. He was burned out.
Back he went to his recovery roots. As a Christian pastor, he
got a sponsor and worked the Twelve Steps. He got an understanding of the sin
issues that were controlling his life. Then he became a College Pastor and was
appointed Recovery Pastor five years ago. And the church program is called “New
Hope.”
There began a series of recovery activities he still loves
and pursues. The church program had a Friday night program somewhat similar to
that of Celebrate Recovery. It enabled “Open
Share” groups—some 15 to 20 groups on specific issues. But they needed more
than these. Participants are directed to the many A.A. meetings on Fridays. A
relationship with Christ is poured in. There is a Leadership Training emphasis
in the church, and it has a steady flow of leadership students There is a new
campus about 5 miles away, and another New Hope program is slated for Mondays.
A recent expansion has been the establishment of a resident program about
ninety miles away. It is located in a town called “Rescue.” The main street is “Mercy
Way.” And the facility is called “Bethesda Way.” They will bring in young men
between 18 and 25, have two mentors and a program director. The church is now
sponsoring a non-profit fellowship hall where all kinds of meetings to “honor
God” are held.
And Matt says his most refreshing resource has been his
finding of our own emphasis on old school, old style, A.A. meetings with A.A.
Conference-approved literature and traditional early A.A. approaches. He
expects to have the church start one of our suggested “Stick with the Winners”
meetings in mid-July. He is very supportive of the many projects of
International Christian Recovery Coalition. His church is now a member of the “Agape
Circle” which supports our worldwide work. It sponsors
ChristianRecoveryRadio.com. And looks forward to working with Ken and myself to
learn and teach more about old school A.A.’s Christian fellowship, principles,
and practices.
Matt may be visiting us in Maui some of these days, as we
urge all Christian Recovery Leaders and Workers to do sooner or later. To that,
we say and offer “Aloha.”
Gloria Deo
No comments:
Post a Comment