Praxis To Practice: Living Theology with the Recovery Community Open Access

Ratliff, Jason (Spring 2024)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/j6731518r?locale=en
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Abstract

.My research question is: How does incarnational theology function in the integrative transformation of the local church and the Recovery Community? On January 3rd, 2023, our congregation began an exciting partnership with three local recovery leaders and launched Recovery United. As their pastor, I was interested in ministry “with”, not “to”, and I wanted to fully explicate a robust view of the incarnation, as well as what it looks like for us to live into an understanding of “God with us” as God with ALL of us. I believe God’s redemptive and restorative work is an integral part of incarnational theology, and living our faith, living “God with us”, in this context, is being part of God’s doing a new thing, the work of tasking two communities (the local congregation and the Recovery Community) and blending them into one new community. In this paper, I identify drug-related deaths as the problem to research and propose Just Show Up as innovation. I conduct interviews with people in recovery, recovery leaders, and also church members who want to foster community-building. I also create a survey and give it to thirty-six people in the recovery group, studying the importance of presence, non-judgmental stance, compassion, and empathy.  I outline several objectives for the future, including the creation of Grace, Grit, and Gratitude, a non-profit that will serve as a central location that offers services for long-term success, including helping people in the recovery community have access to counseling, interview skill-building, and more.

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