Saturday, August 15, 2009
Reformers Unanimous ministry reaches out to addicts
Representatives from Reformers Unanimous, a faith-based addiction program, make a stop in Vinton.
JORGE VALENCIA The Roanoke Times
Billy Barton, 16, sings "Victory in Jesus" with the Joy Belles, singers from Reformers Unanimous, a faith-based addiction program. The group visited Heritage Baptist Church in Vinton last month.
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Steve Curington's near-death experience came after years of education in Christian schools. He said he was 28 and was driving while intoxicated when he flipped his car over a ditch.
"I had all the information, but I missed the personal relationship with God," Curington said. "I would even quote the Bible to other people when I was sitting at the bar."
Curington, now a clean-shaven 44-year-old, founded Reformers Unanimous, one of the country's largest faith-based addiction programs. On July 31, he told a crowd of more than 80 people at Vinton's Heritage Baptist Church, on South Pollard Street, how he hit bottom before he found a way to a better life.
Reformers Unanimous, like some secular programs, uses a 12-step process for addicts. On Friday nights, members of its more than 600 chapters -- including the one at Heritage Baptist -- meet to talk.
It's simultaneously an outreach ministry and an example of one of the many services that faith-based groups offer as an alternative to secular counseling programs.
Tim Price, a Norfolk Southern locomotive electrician, leads the Reformers Unanimous group at Heritage Baptist and says he and his family got involved in the cause by working with a similar group at the Rescue Mission in downtown Roanoke.
"God has laid in our hearts people who are hurting with an addiction," Price said. "If they allow it to happen, Christ can save their lives."
When the group meets on Friday nights at 7 and Sundays at 9 a.m., people first watch a recorded message, then they split into three groups, and later meet as a large group before ending the evening. Participants write daily journal entries, and they follow 10 principles.
Tom, a man in his late 40s who wanted to remain anonymous, said he struggled with addictions to alcohol and cocaine starting in his early 20s. He said that programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous were helpful, but not as fulfilling as this faith-based one. He has been attending Reformers Unanimous meetings for about a year.
"It seems to be the more godly way, and it teaches you how to allow the Holy Spirit to work with you," he said.
Curington said his company tracks a success rate of more than 80 percent in participants. In his tour of Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina, he traveled with his wife and children and a group of recovering addicts from the Reformers Unanimous headquarters in Rockford, Ill. The group of women, called the Joy Belles, sang at the end of their visit in Vinton:
"I heard an old, old story ... of his precious blood's atoning, then I repented of my sins and won the victory."
