Koinonia at Prodigals Community

My friend, Jim Walker, talks constantly about the importance of Koinonia - the idealized state of fellowship and community - shared communion. One of our consulting projects these days has us spending time with a community that long ago established koinonia in an intentional Christian community comprised of newly recovering addicts and alcoholics. Not exactly the type you expect to find in an intentional Christian community? Well....let me tell you!!!!!...

Last Monday night, I attended the Prodigals Community "Step Up" (or graduation) worship service. Their stories varied in details, but their message of hope was the same. "I came to experience freedom from my addiction through the transforming power of Jesus Christ as shown to me in this community...in this "family"... in this collection of broken brothers and sisters who walk together." They spoke of their desperation upon joining the community. They spoke of the pain they had caused others. They spoke of the total and complete despair caused by addiction. They spoke of the same they felt about themselves and their doubt that they would ever deserve anything because of how they'd lived their lives in addiction.

But they also spoke of their determination to stay on the recovery road because NOW they have finally come to believe that they can have hope. They spoke of how it feels to know that they have succeeded in a program that only graduates 1-2 people a year. They singled out those who had specifically helped them succeed - including some they didn't like, some they learned to respect, and some who had pushed them, challenged them and refused to be manipulated by them along the way. They praised the program at Prodigals, but most of all, they praised God.

I had so hoped to be able to share this message and experience with Pablo & Jan Feliciano while they were visiting in NC, but they were not able to join me. The message of hope that is shared by someone who has been so hopeless is truly different from messages of hope pronounced by someone who simply navigates the usual troubles of life. The message of gratitude that is shared by someone who has stolen from, abused and crushed the spirits of those who love them is different from messages of gratitude from those whose family and friends have never questioned their love or commitment to them. The messages of faithfulness from someone who FINALLY came to believe that only God could save them from themselves (not man, not self, not pills, not money, not anything) is different from messages of faithfulness from those who have never waivered in their belief that God is real and present and working in their lives.

You see, those who have made it through 18-24 months at Prodigals Community are truly like the phoenix --- having gone down to death in utter flames and now reborn thanks to the redeeming love of Jesus Christ and the presence of brothers & sisters in Christ around them to support, love, encourage, challenge and show the love of Jesus. These brothers in Christ are still on their journey of recovery and will be for the rest of their lives. But today, they are able to walk that journey with the knowledge that they are never alone, have people to support them, and are capable of living without drugs or alcohol to get them through their pain. One of those who graduated, did so for the 2nd time --- an important reminder to all that the journey of recovery requires setting recovery and relationship with God as the most important things in their lives.

I felt honored and humbled to be in the presence of those who have come so far. If I measure my journey against their's, they have come much farther, under much more challenging circumstances, and with so many strikes against them for so long. But this isn't a contest or a race. We CAN choose to be in this together, especially when we allow those opportunities for koinonia with those from all walks of life.

To learn more about Prodigals, go to their website. To learn more about their 3-fold model of 12-step, therapeutic, Christian community, email me for more information. There's a story to be told here - a program to be replicated - and wonderful reasons to praise God for his power to redeem even those who seem too lost to be found.