Table Of Content

RECOVERY LEADERSHIP IN THE CHURCH A THESIS-PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GORDON-CONWELL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY KENNETH EDWIN SCHEMMER II GRADUATION JANUARY 2021 Copyright ©2020 by Kenneth Edwin Schemmer II. All Rights Reserved. To my loving wife, Pamela Schemmer and my wonderful children: Kenny, Ryan and Abigail Schemmer. I believe that every person in leadership of the church could be better trained for ministry by focusing on these four unique styles of leaderships that Jesus taught and modeled for us. -Kenneth Edwin Schemmer II CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT .............................................................................................................. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................................... vi ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 2. Biblical Leadership ................................................................................................... 14 3. Literature Review on Leadership .............................................................................. 53 4. Two Recovery Models .............................................................................................. 86 5. Conclusion.............................................................................................................. 125 Appendix A. Oral Form for Interviewing A.A. Director Survey ................................................... 150 B. Oral Form for Interviewing CR Director Survey ..................................................... 151 C. A.A. Recovery Form on Leadership Development Survey ...................................... 152 D. CR Recovery Form on Leadership Development Survey......................................... 153 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 154 VITA ....................................................................................................................................... 158 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT I have to acknowledge my faithful family, friends, church members and co-laborers in Christ, who have supported me through this thesis-project. I would not have finished this project without you. My family for giving me the time to study and write. My friends who have written and spoken encouraging words. Church members who have taught me how to be a godly leader. And co-laborers in Christ, who have led by example on how to be a godly leader and faithfully restore the broken back to Christ. Thank you to my dear friends who have helped me edit this project. First to Mark Welches who I worked under as an elder at Yorba Linda Friends Church, who has a gift for editing. Second to my dear friend, Lynda Elkin, you have put in countless hours editing chapter by chapter and then re-editing over and over again. You were my strength when I needed to finish this project. Third, to my dad who has faithfully listened and helped me think through this project for years and years even before I knew what I was writing. Fourth to my patient wife who faithfully served me by working hard even when I was not working because I needed to finish my degree. Fifth, to Joel Kirscher for all the formatting and computer programing help. And most importantly, to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, who is my example for developing Godly recovery leadership in the church. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS A.A. Alcoholics Anonymous CR Celebrate Recovery NASB New American Standard Bible T.E.A.M. Training, Encourager, Assimilation, and Ministry Leader 12 Steps The Twelve Steps of Recovery 24/7 Twenty-Four hours a day/ Seven days a week vi ABSTRACT Developing strong recovery ministry leadership within a church setting is important to overall church health. Based on Biblical leadership and two recovery ministries, the need for a solid foundation for developing recovery leaders is clear. By comparing and contrasting these different views, a way of maturing, equipping, and even restoring church leaders begins to emerge. An analysis of data from interviews and surveys of leaders in Alcoholics Anonymous and Celebrate Recovery shows that Christlike recovery leaders should reflect four distinctive characteristics seen in Jesus’ leadership style: Disciple-Making, Shepherding, Seeking and Saving the Lost, and Sacrificial Service. vii CHAPTER ONE RECOVERY LEADERSHIP IN THE CHURCH Introduction What should the recovery leadership look like in a local church setting? What are the structures and guidelines for leadership? Is recovery leadership different than other church leadership as far as development and when a leader is not faithful to the guidelines? These are the questions I was asking myself, when I worked as the Pastoral Care Director in a large church (5,000 people each weekend) called Yorba Linda Friends Church. Example 1 I was challenged in leadership when I took over the supervision of the recovery ministry at Friends Church. I adopted leaders from the previous supervisor of the recovery ministry. When he left the pastoral staff, he passed on to me several leaders who helped lead the small groups in our recovery programs. After working with these individuals as well as adding several new leaders, we came to a point in which one of the small group recovery leaders lost his sobriety. He came forward, in a private meeting, to talk about his relapse into his addiction, and said that it was not something he was going to continue to do. I was thankful for his honesty, but as I talked about who should become the new leader of his small group, he was resistant to stepping down as the small group leader. This did not seem right to me as the supervising pastor of this ministry, especially in a recovery leadership setting. It would seem that if a person in recovery leadership lost his or her sobriety, that would disqualify them from leadership, at least for a period of time. 1 Example 2 Some years back, I had a volunteer leader working in Care Ministries who was a recovering alcoholic. He seemed to be doing really well and was in his 5th year of recovery. One day, I walked into the office and learned from his wife that he was no longer sober. Up until that point he was someone, I thought, who was really working his recovery program, because he was doing so well. When he come into the office a few days later, he said he was fine and it was just a one-time thing, and that he was good now. But over the next couple of weeks he kept drinking and became more and more defensive when questioned about his drinking. This situation brought up a lot of questions. What made him lose his sobriety? How could I have helped him to be accountable in his recovery? What steps might be helpful to him in becoming sober again? Once he has regained his sobriety, and I feel he can handle returning to a leadership role, how and when do I restore him to leadership? Example 3 The last example was with a man in leadership who cheated on his wife. Both the husband and wife were in recovery leadership at the time, each running a different small group. She came to me one day and said she was going to divorce him because she had found him in bed with another woman. When I talked to him he said that was true, and that this was not the first time he had been caught. He quit his position in leadership and they divorced. I tried to help him but he did not want any help, he was done. How could I have seen this coming? What does leadership look like when a person does not want any accountability and leaves? How might it look different when the person is willing to be restored and is open to accountability? This made me ask some leadership questions: What are the guidelines for the recovery leadership at Friends Church? How would continuing as a leader affect him if there were no 2