For some Minnesotans struggling with addiction, church is not a place for help.
“We used to say that we tend to shoot our wounded instead of caring for them,” said Rev. Ed Treat, founder of The Center of Addiction & Faith, which is partnering with Washington County’s Opioid Settlement Fund to prepare local faith communities to better respond to addiction.
Treat knows what it’s like to struggle with addiction and how it’s a taboo topic in religious communities.
“I was a full-blown drug addict the first third of my life, then an ordained pastor for the second third, and now God is calling me to be an addiction crusader.”
Treat said he attended church many times while he was still using drugs, looking for hope and help. “I would sit through a worship service and feel like an outsider. I wouldn’t hear anything I could connect with that spoke to my issue. I would leave disappointed countless times.”
So when Treat entered recovery and then became a pastor 5 years later, his mission was clear. “I thought, how can I use the fact that God has blessed me with the gift of recovery to help other people. If it’s not in the church, where can it be?”
In 1990, Treat connected with clergy who were recovering alcoholics. “When we started, if you were a pastor with an addiction problem, you were kicked to the curb,” Treat explained. “It wasn’t an acceptable problem for a pastor to have.” Treat said the group formed a ministry and started reaching out to churches all over the country.
The group understood that most clergy are not trained on addiction, and there is a lot of false information floating around among people of faith, regardless of their religion or house of worship. “There’s a church on every street corner in this country, and they’re not doing much about addiction. What if they started doing a few small things? We could have a huge impact.”
From this need, Treat founded The Center of Addiction & Faith, described as working to awaken faith communities to be places of welcome and healing for people struggling with addiction and those who love them. Its mission is to be a cross-cultural, inter-faith network sought out and supported by faith communities, mental health and addiction experts, religiously inclined people who seek recovery from addiction, and change agents, including legislators and philanthropists.
How does The Center of Addiction & Faith achieve these goals? “We are a virtual support that gives you all the guidance you need,” Treat explained. Faith organizations can access the comprehensive website that offers toolkits, podcasts, webinars, 12-Step groups, books, community resources, and more.
A pilot program in Washington County, paid for by Washington County’s Opioid Settlement Fund, is offering additional resources like help forming a ministry team, naloxone training, education, inspiration, and additional on-site and virtual services to help churches in the county better respond to addiction in their congregations.
Treat says he and his team plan to reach every congregation in Washington County to change the conversations and the outcomes for people struggling with addiction.
Learn more about the resources available in Washington County here.
General details about The Center of Addiction & Faith are available here.
