By Janis Fontaine
Some people call it Drunk Church. Or Addiction Church.
Whatever the name, the Recovery Church Movement is saving the lives of addicts and alcoholics one soul at a time. Recovery churches hold worship services that incorporate Jesus Christ into the familiar 12-step recovery program with great success.
Recovery Church was imagined in Lake Worth in 2010 by Philip Dvorak, a Palm Beach Atlantic University graduate, and a few other men and women who recognized the need for a church where alcoholics and addicts in any stage of recovery could continue their walk with Christ without fear of being judged.
Its tagline explains it: “A Church Created BY the Recovery Community FOR the Recovery Community.” And as Dvorak has said, “They can belong before they believe and before they behave.”
Delray Beach’s first Recovery Church, which meets on Mondays at Trinity Lutheran Church on North Swinton Avenue, maxed out with more than 300 people showing up some weeks for Christian worship. So Pastor David Schmidt at Cason United Methodist Church, just across the road from Trinity, opened his church to the movement on Thursday nights at 7.
Mitch Thompson from the Recovery Church Movement has overseen the opening of Recovery Church Delray 2.
Thompson’s official title is “Discipleship and Operations Pastor,” which means he’s active in all aspects of running a Recovery Church and spends his time fine-tuning the churches and the 20-step process for opening a new church.
The system provides all the support a new church could want. Over several months, church leaders like Thompson, Jeff Waycott and Dave Wise travel to the sites to train new worship leaders in the ways of the RCM.
In December, the RCM opened its 85th church with plans to open at least five more in the coming months.
As anyone familiar with the 12-step method of treating alcoholism knows, the first step is for addicts to acknowledge their lives are broken. (“I admitted I was powerless over alcohol — that my life had become unmanageable.”)
But the second step delivers hope. (“I came to believe that a Power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.”) And the third step is to surrender to that power. (“I made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understood him.”)
Many people find comfort in the ambiguity of a “higher power” and one that accepts “God as I understood him.”
This opens the door for people of all faiths — and those without any faith at all — to work the 12 steps. For those with a Christian background, the unaffiliated Recovery Church provides a way to ease back into building a more intimate relationship with God.
But Recovery Church doesn’t just minister to addicts living in sober houses or on the street.
The leaders do what Thompson calls “the H&I tour” — the hospitals and institutions tour — where they bring church into the facilities where the sickest are suffering. “We’re very much connected to the recovery community,” Thompson said. And RCM has certain expectations.
“One of the key components or requirements is that the individual be of service to others. It’s fundamental to us,” Thompson said. Parishioners are expected to volunteer to help in any way they can. It may be something small at first, but in most cases, they want to give back, Thompson said. “Addicts tend to be selfish people and it’s important that they grow and look outside themselves. The root of service is spiritual.”
It’s a way of saying thank you for the grace that they’ve been given, because it’s by the grace of others that Recovery Churches exist. Most of their money comes from donors and fundraisers.
It takes from three to six months and $10,000 minimum to open a new church, Thompson said. “In every location, we take care of all the set-up costs and training of the people.”
Thompson said that the demand for Recovery Churches keeps growing, so 2025 shows no sign of slowing down. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a testament to the success of the church.
The attendance, which sometimes tops that of “normal” church, is proof there’s a need.
It’s easy to get burned out, and even with God’s support, Thompson, a married father of two kids ages 3 and 8, said he’s careful to take time out for self-care. “I have a mentor I meet with who helps me, and I guard my evenings and weekends closely. Family and balance come first,” he said.
Inside a church service
The service at the new church in Delray Beach kicked off on time, right at 7 p.m., with about 50 people scattered on hard, slippery wooden seats. But right from the start you knew the acoustics were first-class.
Worship leader Kermit Kruger welcomed everyone. He called out his team of prayer warriors and invited anyone present to come up to receive a “surrender cross.”
These crosses represent the start of one’s journey walking and working the steps at Recovery Church. They are a bit like the AA chips that people in recovery receive.
Parishioners earn crosses of different colors for the time they’ve spent on the path.
The music portion was first. Singers Stacy Hinz and Bobby Cumming took the stage to perform Brandon Lake’s “Hard Fought Hallelujah,” a heartbreaker of a song.
The words to the songs are displayed on a huge video screen, karaoke style, so that you can sing along and don’t need to remember all the words.
The duo followed that with the stirring song “I Speak Jesus,” written by Jesse Reeves, Abby Benton, Carlene Prince, Dustin Smith, Raina Pratt and Kristen Dutton.
With lyrics like “I just want to speak the name of Jesus/ ’Til every dark addiction starts to break/ Declaring there is hope and there is freedom/ I speak Jesus,” the song touches many hearts.
Hands go up in praise all over the venue as people at various points in their sobriety journeys pass healing energy back and forth. The duo finished with a lovely rendition of the classic Christmas hymn “O Holy Night.”
Kruger returned to the stage with a few messages of his own before introducing the guest speakers. He impressed upon the audience that when we don’t want to do something (like go to church), that’s the time to do it.
He said that what spinach is to Popeye, Jesus is to him. And most touching, he admitted, “I finally found the high I’ve been searching for my whole life.” Then he turned the stage over to Will and Jose, the guest preachers for the night.
The duo testified about their recent experiences spreading the Recovery Church message. Pastor Will told a story about a woman with a withered hand and asked the congregants, “Without Jesus, where is your hope?”
Then speaker Jose turned up the volume and told his story, which had themes including “God loves a grateful heart,” “keep on praising” and “God doesn’t change.” He reminded his audience that we have “a big God for our little problems.”
As the show ended, audience members were invited forward for a meet-and-greet and prayer session, and when they began putting chairs up on tables an hour later, prayers were still going on.
Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at fontaine423@outlook.com
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