Addicts: An Unreached People Group?
By Mark E. Shaw, D.Min.
This post originally appeared on the Biblical Counseling Coalition by Mark E. Shaw on April 29, 2015. It has been reposted with permission.
With over 2 billion people worldwide lacking access to a Christian person, an evangelical church, and even a Bible, there is a serious need for the missional work of global evangelism, disciple-making, and church planting. That’s why I believe biblical counseling is a tremendous tool for a church plant or an already established church to use to reach hurting and lost persons, especially those enslaved to addictions of all types. Addicts are everywhere, even overseas. We are losing opportunities to preach the Gospel when we fail to address the heart issues driving addicted, idolatrous behavior. It is a problem that trained biblical counselors can address for the purpose of disciple-making within the local church and evangelism in our communities and the world.
WHO ARE THE UNREACHED?
I deeply appreciate Dr. David Platt’s work to mobilize the body of Christ to be mission-minded because reaching the lost is a daunting task for an often apathetic church. Missional work is a primary work of the body of Christ. While I know some of my more literal friends may get angry with my broad use of the description “unreached people group” when describing persons in the struggle with all types of addictions, I truly believe the label applies to addicts in several ways and I will explain why.
In a Radical Together blog post entitled “Who Are the Unreached?” on January 6, 2015, Dr. Platt answers this question in the following way:
The unreached are people groups among whom there is no indigenous community of believing Christians able to engage the people group with church planting. Now you’ll notice in that definition the term “people group.” And just to remind you what that means . . . When Jesus commanded the church to make disciples of all the nations, the word He used for nations there is “ethnē,” from which we get words like “ethnic groups.” And this is important, because when Jesus was talking about nations there in Matthew 28:19, he wasn’t referring to nations like we think of nations today – 200 or so geopolitical nations in the world that, quite frankly, didn’t exist 2000 years ago, when Jesus said this, in the way they do now. No, Jesus is specifically talking about ethnic groups: groups of people that share common cultural and language characteristics. And among 200 nations today, there are a plethora of people groupings. And not just among nations, but in cities… So think about 200 nations filled with a diverse array of peoples. Most anthropologists and missiological scholars say there are over 11,000 different people groups. So unreached peoples, then, are people groups who don’t have “an indigenous community of believing Christians” – and what that means is that there is not a church made up of men and women from that people that is sufficient to engage that people with the gospel . . . that has enough presence to make the gospel known among that people. Technically speaking, when we say “unreached,” we’re saying that the percentage of evangelical Christians in this people group is less than 2%. And why that’s important is because what that means is that if there’s not a substantial church presence among a people, then not only do over 98% of the people not believe the gospel, but because there’s no church around them, and no Christians among them, then most of them have never even met a Christian (i.e., a person who would share the gospel with them). They are “unreached.” Most (if not almost all) of the people in that people group have not been reached by a Christian . . . and Christ has not been named/preached among them.HOPE FOR ALL PEOPLE How can we read this quote and not have broken hearts for those without access to the Gospel? As believers prospering by God’s generosity to us in America, we have been entrusted not only with great monetary riches but with the greatest of all riches: the Gospel. Yet the call to make disciples of all nations starts in our own backyards. To paraphrase a former pastor of mine: “If you are not already doing the work of ministry and evangelism here in the United States, then you certainly won’t do it if we send you out on the mission field,” because it starts at home. In like manner, local churches must stop automatically referring addicts of all types out to secular entities for so-called help. If local churches refuse to serve the spiritually lost people of their own country who are struggling with heart issues leading to addictive behaviors, how effective will they be in serving those overseas? The Bible clearly addresses alcohol, drug, and other addictive problems as moral choices rather than some medical disease since the problem is within one’s own heart. For example, Proverbs 23:25b ends an unusual portion of Scripture with a statement of the heart: “When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.” Clearly, it is a desire of the heart and an act of the will to leave one drunken stupor in search of the next drunken stupor by seeking alcohol. It is sin and often likened to the idolatry. Passages such as Matthew 24:49; Luke 7:34; I Cor. 5:11 & 6:10; Eph. 5:18-21; and I John 5:21 are just a few Scriptures that address drunkenness and warn against idolatry. The call is for Christians to reach out to help the enslaved idolater in the community who is crying out for help. Most people turn to the church last, not first, for help. “I’ve tried everything else so now I will try God,” is often the thought that brings an addict to his knees, and yet what the addict finds in a secular, self-help meeting is an introduction to a Higher Power of one’s own choosing. Let me remind you that if I can choose my Higher Power, then I am really the highest power in that I am crafting this god into my own liking and my own understanding – which is the definition of idolatry (Isa. 44:9-20). Here is what I have observed with the unreached people group of idolaters/addicts who are lost and need Christ: 1. They do not have access to the Gospel if they go to the vast majority of the treatment and rehabilitation programs available today. If there are believers in those programs, then they are bound by the policies not to initiate faith discussions. Dr. Platt wrote, “The unreached are people groups among whom there is no indigenous community of believing Christians able to engage the people group with church planting.” [1] Church attendance in lieu of attendance at 12 step meetings is often discouraged among most programs because, as it is commonly said, church is for “religious people” while self-help groups are for “spiritual people.” (In many churches in America, this may be an indictment of a culture that needs to be taken into consideration and changed.) My point is, however, that addicts will not be pointed to the evangelical church or the Bible for help at the majority of addiction programs. 2. There are not many addiction resources to make Christ known since it is discouraged in treatment and rehab programs that teach a different message that any higher power will do. A common phrase among self-help meetings is that, “Any God will do as long as he’s higher than you!” Well, any god won’t do and only the One True God will do. You won’t hear that message at the majority of addiction programs. 3. Addicts share a common culture and language, not only in their underground drug-seeking world, but also, as I’ve already alluded to in the points above, in their treatment and rehab circles. The drug culture is its own widespread community. It is hard to break into that sense of belonging and community when you are a biblical counselor working in a residential program that is disconnected from the local church. Many well-meaning programs are 501c-3 non-profit programs that are NOT under the direct authority of the local church; therefore, they help temporarily in the short-term but cannot offer the lifelong community that a local church can offer. For this reason, we see many substitute churches that have risen in the form of self-help groups all over the world. 4. Finally, the remedy taught by most programs is based upon the assumption that addiction is a disease not a sin nature problem from the heart (Mark 7:20-21). As I’ve said in my many publications on this topic, we acknowledge the physical ramifications of putting poisons into your body and take measures to have that addressed by medical professionals where needed, the message of most addiction programs is one that does violence to the Gospel and makes addicts hopeless victims of a so-called medical problem when the problem is one of sinful desires and idolatry (Prov. 23:35). Why would a local church send a lost soul to a secular entity where they will
- not hear the Gospel,
- not going to be held responsible for their choices in terms of their relationship to God, [*] and
- not be encouraged to read and study the Bible?