How Pastors Can Minister to People with Addictions

My guess is that many pastors find the idea of ministering to people with addictions to be daunting. There are a couple of obvious reasons for this. 

First, in service to their addiction, many substance abusers and alcoholics will engage in other sins – things such as deceit, theft, and sexual immorality. It can often seem unpleasant or even dangerous to wade into their lives or allow access to yours. 

Second, many addicts don’t come forward for help until their lives are at “rock bottom,” and they have experienced devastating physical, relational, financial, and professional consequences. Thinking about the time, energy, and resources required to meet their needs can be daunting. 

In light of these two factors, it might seem like most pastors are not equipped to help these kinds of people – that it would be best to leave their care to counselors, rehabilitation centers, and recovery groups. But surely, that perspective fails to do justice to our high calling as pastors. Counselors, centers, and groups may have their place in an addict’s restoration, but as ministers of Christ, we have the unique privilege and responsibility to bring God’s life-giving gospel to bear on people’s lives in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

You may lack expertise in the physical and psychological complexities that an addict faces, and you may do well to acquaint yourself with some of the common grace and wisdom that is out there on those topics. But you can be sure that the one thing an addict needs most is the same thing that every human being made in God’s image but in rebellion against him needs most – the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that happens to be the one tool that pastors have ready at hand.  

If we are going to minister the gospel to people ensnared in addiction, then we will need to think in Biblical categories more than we think in psychological terms. Two ideas stand out in particular:

• First, addiction is idolatry. At its root, addiction is a matter of worship. The object of addiction – be it drugs, alcohol, or something else – serves as a substitute for God in a person’s life. The Bible shows us that God alone should be our hope, comfort, and solace. When we experience loneliness, boredom, anxiety, depression, or pain, we worship God by fleeing to him for solace and comfort (see Psalm 71 for an example of what this looks like). But the addict has trained himself to look to something destructive, something other than the God who created him, for help and security. If you have ever seen the desperation in the eyes of an addict who is denied the object of his desires and the consequent joy when they receive it, then you have seen the worship of their heart.
• Second, addiction is slavery. This is one of the hallmarks of addiction. Many people overindulge in vices like drugs, alcohol, and illicit sex, but what makes the addict unique is that he feels like he is unable to stop himself when he wants to. The addicted person lives in cruel bondage; his life is ordered by and centered around the demands of his addiction. 

Those two categories represent a very different paradigm for thinking about addiction than that which we find in the wider world. The psychiatric and medical communities usually consider addiction to be a disease. This often has the effect of making the addict something less than fully accountable for their actions. A Biblical understanding of sin and human nature, however, makes it clear that we are all responsible for our choices and that acknowledging our culpability is an essential part of God’s prescription for change.  

Understanding addiction biblically (as idolatry and slavery) helps us bridge the gap we may feel between ourselves and the addicts to whom we minister. If you haven’t experienced addiction, you might not feel like you can understand and speak to someone who has struggled with substance abuse or compulsive behaviors. And that sense of distance can make it difficult to know how to minister to such people. 

But when we look to the Scriptures, we see all humans are fundamentally alike – dead in our sin, in rebellion against God, and heirs of eternal judgment. We are all idolators, living for our own desires and glory, delighting in creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:18-32). We are slaves to sin (John 8:34), rebelling against God because it is what comes naturally to us. Apart from Christ, those things are true of you, me, and every addict we will ever encounter. Understood that way, we see we have much common ground with an addict, no matter how self-destructive their life pattern. 

Once we understand that the problem of addiction in someone’s life is just the problem of sin, we can see how the normal tools of pastoral ministry (prayer, hospitality, gospel proclamation) can be brought to bear on someone’s life to great effect. An addict’s heart is hell-bent on the object of its addiction, but the gospel of Jesus Christ applied by the Holy Spirit has the power to transform our hearts and re-order our loves. The gospel calls all sinners – addicts and otherwise—to repent of their sins (and, in so doing, take responsibility for their behaviors) and set their love and hope on Christ. 

This is the only ultimate hope for addicts, but it’s a hope that can transform their lives and bring them out of the Hell of addiction into eternal life. And this is the only ultimate hope for pastors working with people enslaved to addiction. We don’t need some special gift or extra wisdom to undertake this kind of ministry – God knows how to save sinners, and he has given us all we need in the gospel message applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit.  

Now – don’t mishear me. I am convinced that bringing the gospel to bear on the lives of addicts doesn’t require some extraordinary ministry, but I’m not saying that it is easy or uncomplicated. Caring for people ensnared in addiction (or those who are in recovery but dealing with the wreckage of addiction in their lives) does come with some unique problems and challenges. Experience can be a great teacher, so here are a few things that I have learned along the way that may be useful to you: 

1. Sobriety and salvation are not the same thing. When working with an addict, our goal is more than merely helping them to get and stay sober. It’s not less than that, but it is certainly more than that. We don’t want to help people trade in the object of their addiction for some other, less destructive idol. We want them to experience true life in Christ, so we can’t settle for changes in external behaviors alone. God forbid our ministry should settle for making people more competent sinners on the road to Hell. Call people to repentance and faith, not just behavior modification.  
2. Addiction normally creates a wide debris field. When an airplane crashes, the wreckage often gets scattered all over the surrounding area. That’s a pretty apt picture of addiction – there’s a crash in the center of someone’s life, but the debris and damage go all over the place. This means that an addict’s family – their spouse, parents, and children – are often hurt, angry, and hopeless. They may very well need pastoral care, and they may be slow to accept that Christ has brought real change to the addict’s life. 
3. Change often comes in fits and starts. I don’t know about you, but when I look at my life, I see that change happens in an incremental and non-linear way. If that’s true of me, why would I expect that an addict wouldn’t experience setbacks as he changes? Pastoral care for addicted people must be patient, persevering, and hopeful.  
4. Addicts need the church. Addiction often makes a person’s world very small, alienating them from healthy friends and family and only putting them in regular contact with other people who are similarly addicted. This means they will need the church to be a welcoming community, a family where they can be known and loved despite their sin and struggles. It’s in the church that addicts will learn to walk in the gospel and live for something other than their addiction. 

©2024 Michael McKinley. Used with permission.