Program at FBC, Jacksboro, is a ‘light in the forest’
- Apr 26, 2008 - comment
JACKSBORO — Celebrate Recovery of Campbell County, which has been in operation for about two years at First Baptist Church here, has made an impact in one of the counties with the highest number of reported methamphetamine labs in the state, according to its leaders.
Celebrate Recovery (CR) is “a light in the forest for those who are entrapped by drug addiction,” said Annie Margaret Caldwell, a member of FBC, Jacksboro, and CR assimilation coach and one of its facilitators. “CR is somewhere to go for help.
“We are sitting in a very disparate situation in the hold of drugs over the county. The drugs are evident in the welfare reports, disability claims, and the unemployment rates. All of these are the ingredients that lead to low self esteem and drugs.”
Caldwell noted that the country’s drug epidemic leaves entire families trapped in dependent cycles.
“Those serving sentences in the jails are only released back into the same hopeless circumstances from which they came. But at CR participants are finding support, new relationships, and possibilities, and the life changing reality that Jesus can rescue them and set them free,” she said.
According to Caldwell, the county has the “closed tradition of Appalachia in its churches and culture” but noted that CR is “breaking out and progressing to meet the needs of the community.”
Others in Campbell County also agree with the overwhelming drug problem. “We have a big meth problem here in Campbell County,” said Glen Petree, director of missions of Campbell County Baptist Association, based in LaFollette. “Every week in our county somebody is being busted even in the Wal-Mart parking lot.”
In addition, the Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force, Chattanooga, identified Campbell County as the second highest county in the state for reported meth labs in 2007. Its neighboring county, Anderson County, had the highest number in the state for reported Meth labs.
Petree also sees CR as an element of hope for the county with its “very low key worship style, and then they break up into small groups from everything to overeaters, substance abusers, sexual addictions, and more.”
CR meets every Thursday night for large group at the church and then in seven small groups that address specific areas of addiction. CR also meets eight times a week for step studies in the church. Large group averages around 35-55 people at the meetings. Around 50 people are involved weekly in the small groups and step studies.
CR is a recovery program for people with hurts, hang-ups, and habits in life, which was created as a ministry program of Saddleback Church, Lake Forrest, Calif. There are several CR programs across the state in Tennessee Baptist Convention churches and other churches.
Several churches are involved within the leadership of CR, but those in the program come from churches all over the Jacksboro community and the unchurched,” said Christine Morris, CR team coordinator for the county, church ministry leader for First Baptist, Jacksboro, and wife of the pastor, Bill Morris.
“We don’t feel like the program is a denominational thing. We feel like neat things are happening here. We want people to be aware of it.”
The need of the program was explored about four years ago when Caldwell and Margaret Faulker, a member of FBC, LaFollette, were introduced to the reality of the severity of drug addictions in the county.
The sponsor church is First Baptist, Jacksboro. Other local churches participating in leadership roles are First Baptist, LaFollette; Cedar Hill Baptist Church, Cedar Hill, and Fincastle United Methodist Church, LaFollette. Supporting role churches who supply meals for CR each Thursday, donations, music, etc., are Forkes Grove Baptist Church, Fincastle; Mt. Paran Baptist Church, Jacksboro; and others.
“They seem to have a great ministry at CR,” remarked Petree. “Some of the people who attend CR are court mandated to attend as part of their sentences especially on the women’s side.”
About 20 women in the Campbell County Jail in Jacksboro are participating in a CR women’s study, Morris said.
“The women in the jail are mostly in for drug addictions,” said Caldwell. “Our jail ministry is a huge undertaking. The jail ministry is one of the most important ministries of CR.”
“If a 1 percent success rate in any or most addiction programs does not seem like much, just remember how important the one lost sheep was to the Shepherd in the Bible. That is true today as then,” she observed.
“It’s one person at a time,” added pastor Bill Morris. “If it is for one at a time, it is worth it.”
For information on CR of Campbell County, call the church at (423) 562-5168 or the CR 24-hour hotline at (423) 912-5311.
This article is reprinted from the April 16, 2008, issue of the Baptist & Reflector, the newsjournal of the Tennessee Baptist Convention.
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