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Recovery in the News
Need for accountability births support group
Linda Leicht
News-Leader
June 16, 2007
Blue Eye — When Kary Kingsley "got saved" two and a half years ago, he quit doing drugs and started going to Ozark Mountain Community Church.
But he knew that he needed others to help him stay "accountable," so he asked a man he recognized from the "party scene" years earlier to help set up a group for him and others to "keep us from falling back into the lifestyle."
Kingsley and Ron Hutchins and about a half dozen other recovering alcoholics and addicts started the accountability group, which later became Freedom Seekers — a program that combines a recovery plan, drop-in center, counseling, work preparation, prison outreach, advocacy, transportation and care coordination.
Hutchins, now director of the Freedom Seekers ministry has incorporated Celebrate Recovery, a program started in 1991 by Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California, into Freedom Seekers. It uses a 12-step program that mirrors the traditional Alcoholics Anonymous model, with biblical imperatives and Christian messages.
He works with the Church Army in Branson, another faith-based recovery program, and has meetings in Hollister on Tuesdays, as well as Wednesdays and Saturdays in Blue Eye. Soon, he hopes to start meeting in Harrison, Ark.
As a former drug user and partyer himself, Hutchins has a connection with those who come to Freedom Seekers. He shares his own story as he encourages them to share theirs. He admits his own failings, as he encourages them to admit theirs. He works the 12 steps every day, just as he encourages them to do the same.
"It's changed the face of our church," says Hutchins.
In a community of about 130 in Stone County, Ozark Mountain Community Church has a regular Sunday attendance of about 200. About the same number attend Wednesday nights. Many of those people came to the church through Freedom Seekers and a youth outreach.
Kevin Kueck, 44, has been pastor of the church since it started in 1997 as a mission of First Baptist Church in Branson. The church has grown in that time, but Kueck admits that since 2005 — when Freedom Seekers started — has been the "most exciting."
With a call to be a church that is welcoming to everyone, OMCC began to see a need for evangelism right under its nose, says Kueck.
"We didn't plan this," he says. But the church discovered that God was opening opportunities through people like Hutchins and his wife, Kim, who were eager to start an addiction recovery ministry.
"There has been a culture change. For the most part, it has been good," Kueck says. "When God's at work, you have to follow."
Kueck has always wanted to provide a "full-family" ministry at the church. Through Freedom Seekers and a youth outreach, he discovered something important.
"There is no perfect family," he says. "But when we're in Christ we're all family."
The church members are what Kueck calls "experienced survivors" who have learned to share their experiences with others.
"We're all a bunch of misfits in this together."
© 2007 Springfield News-Leader