If you are interested in helping people with addictions, the Crossroads series may be of help to you. It is designed as a 10 step small group study and has both a participant and facilitator’s guide. This week we are posting two sections from the facilitator’s guide: Getting Started and Step 1: Listen. These sections are the same in both guides – only the facilitator’s guide has some additional notes in the margin to help in leading a group. If these materials would be helpful to your ministry, click on the image of the book for ordering information.

Read our previous excerpt from Crossroads

GETTING STARTED

Do any of these statements fit?

• You feel out of control. What began as an escape from the hassles of life has become hazardous. Something—drugs, alcohol, gambling, food, sex—is taking over. You feel like its slave.
• You still love your addiction, but it is no longer friendly. You think it is time for a change.
• You think it is time for change—you want to leave your addiction—but you aren’t sure how to change. You have already tried a few strategies, and they didn’t work.
• Someone told you that you’d better change.
• You are sick and tired of the lies, broken relationships, and nagging conscience that accompany all addictions.
• You are already off and running, already leaving your addiction behind.

Whichever fits, welcome to reality. You are closing in on it.

Reality is not as bad as you think. Yes, the world around you can be miserable at times. It can be miserable most of the time, as a matter of fact. You have known that misery. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have preferred an altered reality. But there is more to reality than what you see. Usually you are looking through glasses that are smudged, scratched, and out of focus, and things don’t look good. But reality—true reality—is better than you think.

Read the entire chapter of "Getting Started," including margin notes (PDF)

Read "Step 1: LISTEN" (PDF). This PDF also includes the Table of Contents for the Facilitator’s Guide listing all ten steps in the program. This will give you a sense of the direction Ed Welch is taking with the study guide

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This article is excerpted from Crossroads A Step-by-Step Guide Away from Addiction Facilitator's Guide, copyright © 2008 by Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation. Used by permission of New Growth Press and may not be downloaded and/or reproduced without prior written permission of New Growth Press. The Crossroads series may be purchased from New Growth Press at newgrowthpress.com

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Edward T. Welch, M.Div., Ph.D., is a counselor and faculty member at CCEF and holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology with a neuro-psychology specialty from the University of Utah as well as a Master of Divinity degree from Biblical Theological Seminary. Ed has been counseling for over twenty-six years and has written many books and articles on biblical counseling.