CHURCH COMBINES BIBLE AND 12 STEPS TO HELP ADDICTS

Eight years ago, Gwandell Payne left a drug treatment facility free of the
alcohol and crack cocaine that had plunged her into the crazed life of an
addict.

She didn't just count the days; she counted each precious hour of sobriety
as she searched for a way to stay clean.

Payne found sanctuary and redemption at Serenity Outreach Ministries, an
Oklahoma City church that combines the teachings of the Bible with the
12-step recovery program originated by Alcoholics Anonymous.

When the ministry opens its doors for its annual chemical dependency
conference Thursday through Sept. 26, the Oklahoma City woman will be there
to welcome with open arms former addicts such as herself, along with their
families and other participants.

"I'm not ashamed to tell my story, because I know it was by the grace of
God, and it might help someone else come out of their sickness," Payne said.

Recovery is the premise behind Serenity Outreach, said Ronald Scott, the
church's pastor.

It is something Scott knows about from experience. He said he was a cocaine
addict when he and his wife, Wilma, attended Christian Life Ministries in
northeast Oklahoma City. When Wilma Scott overcame her addiction to alcohol
and marijuana, she began to pray for her husband to be delivered of his
predilection for drugs.

Ronald Scott said he took his family along on his downward spiral as his
addiction began to take its toll on their relationships and finances.

"I never robbed a 7-Eleven, but I certainly stuck up my family every week.
My paycheck never made it home," he said.

"The fact is, by the time you get to the point that you are addicted to
drugs, your life is a mess."

Like Payne, the pastor said he and his wife don't mind sharing their
stories in order to help others. That's why they founded the recovery
ministry and continue to reach out to people with addictions and churches
seeking ways to help them.

"Our life is an open book - we made it through," he said.

"I joke that I'm the 'head drug addict in charge.' I'm in recovery and a
testimony to the recovery process. God can clean someone up so that they
can be of service to the community."

Stepping up to the challenge

Wilma Scott remembers the day her husband came home from a treatment center
and flushed his drug of choice down the toilet. As the swirling water
whisked away the white powdery substance, Scott said she knew her prayers
had been answered.

Eventually, she began encouraging her husband to give back, to find a place
within their church where he could be of help. Christian Life Ministries
pastor Jayel Jacobs added his encouragement.

Ronald Scott chuckled at the memory.

"I told him I didn't want to be in the choir or anything like that, but if
there was someone trying to remain sober, I would work with them," Scott said.

So, for a year, the recovering addict mentored another man trying to escape
the vise of addiction.

>From that one-man "training ground," Scott said, he formed a recovery
support group that met at Mary Mahoney Health Center. Serenity Outreach
evolved from that effort. The church started in 1991 with five people
meeting in an Oklahoma City park.

People were essentially drawn to the ministry in those first few years to
attend meetings of Overcomers, a support group for people recovering from
addiction. Scott said he focused on helping people stay clean through the
12-step process and also offered a spiritual viewpoint.

"Our purpose then was to try to get people sober and lead them to the
Lord," Scott said

The recovery success of those attending the church quickly spread. Payne
said she attended a Cocaine Anonymous meeting not too long after leaving
drug treatment, where she met her future husband, Ralph Payne, who invited
her to an Overcomers Stepping with Christ meeting at Serenity Outreach.

She said she met many people there who had been drug-free for a long time.

"What attracted me to the ministry was the length of 'clean time' the
people at the meeting had listed on the sign-in sheet. I knew something had
worked for them. My biggest desire was to stay clean for 24 hours, and I
didn't think it was possible for me, because I had been addicted to crack
for 10-plus years."

Surrendering to the process

The Scotts said people such as Payne make the church the welcoming ministry
it is today. The church has a drug counselor on staff and offers a DUI
School and recovery support groups. Some of the people attend these
functions because pf a court mandate.

The Scotts said people are often afraid to ask churches for help because of
the stigma attached to chemical dependency and for fear of being judged
harshly.

Not so at Serenity Outreach.

"I didn't have to hide in the shame of where I came from," Payne said. "I
was free to say that I was sick - that I had a drug problem and needed help."

Ronald Scott said, to be fair, many churches want to reach out to people
bound by chemical dependency but just don't know how. He said some clergy
think people don't necessarily need the structured assistance of the
12-step program and should rely on faith to overcome addictions.

But Scott said he believes recovery is a process. He and his wife said they
believe in the miraculous healing of God, but "we also believe in the
process - that's why we have a counselor and support meetings."

Scott recalled the story of the leper Namon chronicled in 2 Kings in the
Bible. The pastor said Namon was told by the Lord to go wash in the river
seven times. Namon had a problem with these instructions at first, because
he wanted an instant healing, Scott said.

"He first had to surrender to what the Lord told him to do. That's how it
is with addiction sometimes. It's not an instant thing. It's a process,
because lives have been destroyed, and things have to be restored."

Wilma Scott said God often will take away a person's craving for a drug,
but the dysfunctional behaviors of the addict are still there. The 12-step
process can help in the transformation and renewal of the mind, she said.

"We call them the 12 spiritual tools that God has given us," she said.

Not everyone who gathers at the church is an addict. Some are people with a
family member or a friend who has an addiction. They come to support those
in recovery and sometimes just to hear God's word going forth.

The whole church celebrates when the ministry recognizes a person's
sobriety birthday. During Sunday services, members sing "Happy Birthday" to
recognize the importance of another year of sobriety.

No one celebrates more passionately than Ronald Scott.

"Sometimes, people say, 'You don't understand. But I tell them I smoked up
seven cars and four houses. I do understand.

"It's all about helping God's people in recovery."