Some of you know I’ve been buried in revisions on The Lie That Kills Us: We All Have Elephants.
That book is personal. Theological. A deeper reckoning with denial, in ourselves, in the Church, and in our culture.
It’s still coming.
But something keeps happening while I am writing it.
Pastors. Lay leaders. Parents. Ordinary people sitting in pews pull me aside and say some version of the same thing:
“We care about addiction. We just don’t know where to start.”
That sentence has haunted me.
While I am wrestling with the deeper “why,” question, congregations are asking for the “how.”
So I paused. And I wrote something practical.
Faith Communities and Addiction Recovery: A Practical Guide for Faith and Community Leaders is now out.
It is not the Elephant book.
It doesn’t tell my story.
It doesn’t dig as deeply into theology.
It’s not a manifesto.
It’s a field manual.
It walks through:
What addiction actually is (and isn’t)
Why stigma quietly shapes our congregations
How to form and train a ministry team
Concrete steps any church can take
It’s written for pastors and ministry teams, yes, but it’s also for anyone who is part of a faith community and senses we can do better.
You don’t have to be clergy to care about this.
If you’ve ever loved someone struggling with addiction…
If you’ve wondered why churches often stay quiet…
If you’ve felt unsure how to respond…
If you’ve wanted your congregation to become a safer place…
This book is meant to give you language and direction.
The Lie That Kills Us will go deeper. It will ask harder questions about denial, theology, and the forces shaping us. That book is about learning to see the elephant.
This one is about what to do once you’ve seen it.
I’m grateful to finally place something practical in your hands while the larger work continues.
The deeper “why” is still coming. For now, this is the “how.”
If this resonates and you’d like to explore how your congregation might begin, just reply here. I read every message. Pastored@addictionandfaith.com
The Elephant Chronicles are meditations based on my upcoming book “The Lie that Kills Us: We All Have Elephants.” It explores the elephants we avoid: denial, addiction, trauma, death, and grace.
If you’d like me to let you know when it’s released, send a note to: Pastored@addictionandfaith.com
I’d be honored to keep you in the loop.
The book is now available here: Amazon
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