The aptly named “Recovery-Minded Church” series is next on the horizon here at this intersection between God and life — and you and your church can be part of this irregular but ongoing series. More specifically, I’m on the look-out for churches around the country who in their own unique ways are seeking (whether explicitly or more subtly, via commendable spiritual practices) to love and minister to people with addiction.

Often “those people with addiction” are in the pews or leading worship — and they have been for years. They may look nothing like our stereotypes of an addict. They might be your senior pastor, for all you know. And if today’s opiate epidemic addiction can teach us anything, it’s that anyone, regardless of faith or creed, can get hooked on a doctor-prescribed painkiller and fall into a cycle of compulsive drug use. So addiction in the church, however hidden, is a reality — one that, like other realities of the human condition, can benefit from an educated and effective spiritual response on the part of “recovery-friendly” communities of faith.

There are at least three hurdles to “recovery-friendly church.” This article, which went live last week, shares what these hurdles are and how to scale them — and I’m grateful to my employer, Beach House Center for Recovery, for the opportunity to write the piece. (Beach House is a detox and substance abuse treatment center that is leading the nation in evidence-based interventions for addiction.)