I would like to follow up CJ’s announcement that he is leaving The Refuge to accept a new ministry position in Michigan with a few thoughts about CJ and his impact at The Refuge. I won’t hide from the fact that CJ leaving is a big deal. CJ is the founder of The Refuge, it was his burden and vision that led to The Refuge becoming a reality. CJ is the guy who has the natural connection with people enslaved by addiction because of his own battles with addiction before coming to know Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. CJ is the guy who is in the trenches and walking closely with many of the men we have ministered to. CJ has also led the Gospel Centered Recovery group at Redeemer Church that meets on Friday nights. GCR was the Bible study that The Refuge was born out of. So it is with a heavy heart that I watch CJ and his family make plans to move to Michigan, but at the same time I am so thrilled to see God working in their lives and fulfilling CJ’s desire to do addiction ministry full time. I am confident that CJ will be used by God in big ways up in Michigan just like he was used by God at The Refuge. There will be a big hole to fill at The Refuge, and we trust that in God’s time and in God’s way the right man will come along to join the team.
I am excited to see the ministry at The Refuge continue to grow, and I know this will only be by God’s power and leading. The mission of The Refuge stays the same, we are called by God to take the light of the Gospel into the darkness of addiction. There is only one eternal answer for addiction and that answer is a total heart transformation that comes by the power of God working through the Gospel. I see two main areas of focus for ministry at The Refuge. The first is to equip and mobilize local churches to minister to people who are struggling with addictions. There is a wide open door for churches to fulfill the Great Commission by reaching out to people struggling with addictions. Typically churches allow their facilities to be used by outside programs who offer help for addictions but these outside programs are not biblically based and they do not give people the Gospel as the true answer for the need. If churches are not hosting an outside program they might just give people looking for help a referral to someone else. I believe it is time for the church to get involved! The Bible has real help to offer people, and God’s people in God’s church need to begin to actively offer this help those in need.
The second area of focus is on developing a residential ministry for men whose lives are dominated by addiction. This actually was one of the first visions we had at The Refuge. We quickly found out this was a big task and that it would be a process. I believe that as local churches begin to minister to people struggling with addiction they will quickly see the need for a Bible based, gospel centered residential program. As I have been involved in addiction ministry I have worked with many men who were in need of drastic help, their entire lives were built on sinful habits that needed to be torn down and replaced with godly habits. They needed more help then we were able to provide through a Bible study on Friday nights and a mentor from the church. Over and over we saw men continue to struggle and knew they needed to be sent a program that would remove them from normal life for a period of time long enough to begin to restructure their lives in a biblical way. Just recently we sent a man to Restoration Men’s Ministries in Lafayette Indiana after working with him for around a year and watching him make little progress. So far, after being in the program for around a month, it has been a total life changing experience, it is just what he needed. I believe that the need for a residential program will become a reality only as local churches begin to get engaged in addiction ministry and begin coming across men who need more help then their ministries can offer.
We desire, by God’s grace, to have a Bible based, gospel centered residential program for men in Winterset that could minister to men in central Iowa and beyond. We know that there are already several residential programs in Iowa, and we desire to have our program be set apart by being Bible based and gospel centered. We believe in Biblical Counseling and will have our program built on a foundation of Bible classes and Biblical counseling. We also want to set our program apart from other programs by being connected with local churches. In phase 3 of our program men will enter a transitional phase where they will leave The Refuge and go back to normal life. Men will not be able to enter phase 3 unless they have an approved local church to go back to and a mentor to walk with them as they transition back to normal life. We also want local churches to be able to send men to the program and be involved with them all through the process.
You can check out our website and find out more about the plans for our residential men’s program.
If you would like to know more about what we do at The Refuge you can send me an email at benfunkhouser@gmail.com.
Ben Funkhouser