The call to ministry naturally brings pastors face to face with an array of unexpected challenges and situations.
Seminary training can prepare students intellectually and spiritually for these scenarios, but there’s often a necessary element of experiencing things firsthand as well.
For example, dealing with addiction in a congregation is something we’ve found many pastors ill-equipped to handle. From learning how to manage conversations with someone struggling with addiction, to understanding your role as a preacher, and managing the heaviness that comes with this particular affliction, we saw a need to provide guidance for pastors on this subject.
This sparked the idea for a multi-part podcast series, which we’re calling, “Care of Souls.” The first five episodes will focus on addiction, and upcoming series will focus on other topics related to pastoral care.
To begin the conversation, we connected with Pastor Nate Hanson and Bob Bogue, colleagues and friends of LHOS, each with decades of experience working with addicts in recovery. They got to know each other at Keystone Treatment Center, where Bogue worked for years as a clinical supervisor and Pastor Nate served as a visiting clergy member.
“Pastor Nate would come up every Tuesday for about 19 years, and I’d get an hour of his time,” said Bogue.
“I was out of my element, learning the ropes,” said Pastor Nate. “Bob was a great teacher, and we spent a lot of time talking about theology and outreach.”
Dr. Chris Croghan and Scripture First host, Mason Van Essen, sat down with Bogue and Pastor Nate to record “Care of Souls: Addiction.” The five-episode series is available now for free on our website, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and aims to provide guidance for preachers and lay people alike about how to preach to, support and address addicts, particularly alcoholics, in their congregations.
Bogue and Pastor Nate reflect on their time working together at Keystone, Pastor Nate’s ministry experience and the Lutheran theology of the cross to provide this guidance and perspective.
Keystone operates on the Minnesota Model of Addiction Treatment, which is based on the 12 Steps program of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), but Bogue adds that there’s an added element of spirituality that most people notice about Keystone. In his opinion, it’s a critical component to recovery.
Pastor Nate adds that spirituality is naturally a part of AA, whether or not the program explicitly acknowledges it.
“People would say, ‘There’s something different about this place,’ and I think it’s the spirituality,” Bogue said. “There’s an aspect of those spiritual relationships of self to self, self to others, and self to God, and all have been damaged by addiction.”
He continued, “The clergy would tell you to listen for the confession, it won’t take long. Almost always, it was around that second or third week of treatment that people would come in and ask about God.”
When it comes to hearing those confessions, Bogue says there’s value to having both a counselor and clergy member involved.
“Clergy are often poor referrals to treatment,” Bogue said. “They think they’ve got the Bible and Jesus, and they don’t need anything else to be successful. But it’s a two-step deal. Counselors help you break through that denial, and then the clergy gets to come in and be the person that says, ‘I forgive you in the name of Christ.’”
It’s something Bogue, who is himself a recovering alcoholic, understands firsthand.
“Over years of sobriety, I’ve needed AA and the church. I need the ‘That’s B.S.’ message and the Gospel.”
They also reflect on the importance of being a theologian of the cross rather than a theologian of glory.
“People who have chemical dependency are yearning for people who will be genuine with them. The harder you try to be cool, the less cool you are, but if you’re real, you can be with people who are searching for that,” said Pastor Nate.
“Luther figured this out 500 years ago,” Bogue added. “A theologian of glory calls evil, good and good, evil. A theologian of the cross calls evil, evil and good, good.”
The challenging aspect of this for preachers is often letting go of the responsibility, and thus the glory, of an addict’s recovery.
There is only one message of repentance and forgiveness, and it’s up to God to determine what happens.
“We have a God that elects, and we don’t always like that,” said Bogue. “You have no idea what the words you’re saying are doing to someone. God’s determining that.”
Pastor Nate likens it to the parable of the sower — you have no idea where, or if, the seeds you’re planting will land.
Whether it’s a matter of ego, or of the pain and heaviness that goes along with watching an addict struggle, Pastor Nate says it’s critical as a pastor to find people or resources that will remind you that you’re not in charge. That could be a devotional, or, in his words, “someone you know will shoot straight with you.”
“Nate knew he could come into my office and say anything he needed to get off his chest. It can be hard to find that — lots of pastors don’t have friends — but you need to find somebody,” Bogue said.
This is just a taste of one of the topics we cover in the new “Care of Souls” series. We pray these conversations will be supportive to those facing pastoral care challenges in their lives and in their congregations, and we welcome feedback and suggestions as to how we can continue this ministry.
