Dr. Mark E. Shaw introduces listeners to his long-time friend, Tim Brown, from His Steps Ministries in Georgia. He is active in his leadership roles as teacher/trainer for The Addiction Connection and serves as an elder at Faith Community Church in Woodstock, Georgia. I Samuel 12:24 is Tim's life verse and he clearly remembers the first time he read that verse which caused great rejoicing in his heart. "Out of the darkness of addiction and into the light," is the ministry theme of His Steps. Tim shares the story of his son's drug use being uncovered and how he and his wife went to their local church. Seeking help for their son's addiction problem, they trusted the referral their local church gave them, but sadly there was nothing Christian about the program. After spending $1000 per day out of their own pockets for their son's so-called "treatment," all they received from their son's caseworker upon his dismissal was that the crux of his problem was all rooted in the way they had raised him. So it was "all their fault" he was an addict.
Thankfully, being enrolled in a biblical counseling training class with Lou Priolo, a biblical counselor, Tim's thinking on the identity of the sinner being totally transformed became clear by the teaching of the past tense word, "were," in I Corinthians 6:9-11. And Tim's view on addiction was changed forever. He subsequently picked up the phone to call the founder of the modern biblical counseling movement, and author of the book Competent to Counsel, Jay Adams, to ask for a good biblical referral for people struggling with addictions. Listen to the podcast to find out what happened next and hear the rest of Tim's story.
Tim and his wife Kit live in Woodstock, GA.
