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Recommended Websites
Center of Addiction & Faith
The Center of Addiction & Faith exists to awaken faith communities to address addiction. Through webinars, conferences, online recovery meetings, training programs, educational resources, and a growing online community, CAF equips clergy and congregations to better understand addiction and support recovery.
Whether you are seeking help personally, supporting a loved one, or leading a congregation affected by addiction, CAF provides practical tools and hope-filled resources.
Center for the Restoration of Impaired Clergy (CRIC)
The Center for the Restoration of Impaired Clergy (CRIC) is an ecumenical ministry dedicated to helping bishops, district presidents, judicatory leaders, church executives, and denominational officials better understand addiction, mental health challenges, trauma, and the recovery process among clergy and church leaders.
Recognizing that many church bodies lack clear policies and training for responding to impaired clergy, CRIC provides education, consultation, resources, and guidance designed to help denominational leaders navigate these situations with greater wisdom, compassion, accountability, and hope. The ministry seeks to move beyond punitive responses toward approaches that support healing, restoration, and, when appropriate, healthy return to ministry.
CRIC works to bridge the gap between addiction professionals, recovery communities, and church leadership so that clergy and church leaders receive the care, support, and recovery resources they need while maintaining appropriate standards of accountability and professional conduct.
Mastering Recovery
Founded by recovery advocate Barry Lehman, Mastering Recovery offers practical tools, coaching, education, and encouragement for individuals seeking long-term recovery and personal transformation.
iTHIRST Initiative
Founded by Executive Director and Center of Addiction and Faith board member Keaton Douglas, The iTHIRST Initiative empowers dioceses, parishes and communities to become a resource for those suffering from addictions and their families. At the heart of iTHIRST is an understanding that there is a spiritual dimension to the disease of addiction that cannot be met by clinical professionals, but only by the spiritual consolation and guidance that the Church can provide. Certified through Seton Hall University, iTHIRST's Spiritual Companionship online training seeks to provide a spiritual remedy to those suffering from addiction through the development and implementation of programs designed to educate and prevent, to provide support to treatment facilities and those incarcerated, and to develop an aftercare community for the afflicted and their families. iTHIRST is an initiative of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity a religious community of priests and brothers who serve the poor and abandoned.
Recommended Reading
The Lie That Kills Us: We All Have Elephants
By Ed Treat
An exploration of addiction, denial, trauma, grace, and recovery through the lens of personal experience, faith, and pastoral ministry.
We tend to think of addiction as someone else’s problem—something that happens on the margins. But what if the real danger is closer to home? What if the most destructive force in our lives isn’t the substance—but the silence? The denial? The need to keep pretending?
In The Lie That Kills Us, pastor and recovery advocate Ed Treat offers a deeply personal and unflinchingly honest exploration of addiction, denial, trauma, faith, and the human patterns that keep us stuck.
Faith Communities and Addiction Recovery: A Practical Guide for Faith and Community Leaders
By Ed Treat
A practical field guide for congregations, clergy, faith leaders, and community leaders who want to respond faithfully and effectively to addiction. The book helps faith communities understand addiction, reduce stigma, support recovery, and take concrete steps toward becoming places of healing, welcome, and hope.
Our Stories of Experience, Strength & Hope
By the Fellowship of Recovering Lutheran Clergy
A collection of personal stories from Lutheran clergy who experienced addiction and found their way into recovery. This book offers hope to clergy who are new in recovery, reminding them that their lives, ministries, and faith are not over. It is especially helpful for clergy, judicatory leaders, and church bodies seeking to better understand and support pastors in recovery.
The Pastor
By Ed Treat
A warm, humorous, and theologically uplifting cozy mystery about a recovering alcoholic Lutheran pastor who solves a crime in his parish. Blending faith, recovery, humor, and suspense, the novel is a good fit for church book clubs and readers who enjoy thoughtful fiction with a redemptive heart.
Recommended Videos
Faith+Lead Video Series: God Addiction and Recovery
Faith+Lead Video Series: God Addiction and Recovery
Discover the complex science of addiction, ways to support people in crisis and over the long term, and the spiritual dimensions of addiction and recovery in God and Addiction and Recovery. You’ll cultivate the spiritual grounding needed for the long-term work of culture change, as you learn to make the church a safe and welcoming space. Fee based.
Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong, Johann Hari
What really causes addiction — to everything from cocaine to smart-phones? And how can we overcome it? Johann Hari has seen our current methods fail firsthand, as he has watched loved ones struggle to manage their addictions. He started to wonder why we treat addicts the way we do — and if there might be a better way. As he shares in this deeply personal talk, his questions took him around the world, and unearthed some surprising and hopeful ways of thinking about an age-old problem.
The Center of Addiction & Faith offers a growing YouTube library of more than 112 videos covering a wide range of topics related to addiction, recovery, faith, trauma, mental health, family systems, harm reduction, clergy care, congregational ministry, and healing. These videos feature theologians, clinicians, pastors, recovery leaders, authors, and people with lived experience who help faith communities better understand addiction and respond with compassion, wisdom, and practical care.
This library is a valuable resource for pastors, ministry teams, adult forums, recovery ministries, small groups, denominational leaders, and anyone seeking to learn more about the intersection of addiction and faith. Videos may be used for personal learning, congregational education, leadership training, or group discussion.
​Podcasts
My Story of Addiction & Grace
Addiction takes many forms and knows no boundaries — even among clergy. In this podcast from the Center of Addiction & Faith, you’ll hear honest and powerful stories from clergy who were caught in addiction and, by the grace of God, found a way into recovery.
Each episode explores what addiction was like, what happened that helped bring change, and what life is like now in recovery. These testimonies offer hope, reduce shame, and remind listeners that healing is possible.
The views expressed by individual guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Center of Addiction & Faith, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Minnesota Podcasting, or any other organization.
How To Become a Recovery Friendly Congregation
This guide helps congregations take practical steps toward becoming welcoming, informed, and supportive communities for people affected by addiction and recovery. It includes a process for becoming a Recovery Friendly Congregation, suggested ministry actions, a sample welcome statement, worship ideas, and first-year next steps.
A Practical Guide for Faith Communities
This free booklet from the Center of Addiction & Faith helps pastors, ministry leaders, and congregations respond to addiction with greater clarity, compassion, and confidence. It offers practical guidance on understanding addiction, supporting families, responding to overdose risk, using harm reduction wisely, making referrals, and building a more recovery-informed faith community.
Designed for real-life ministry situations, this guide does not offer easy answers or quick fixes. Instead, it provides thoughtful language, pastoral wisdom, and concrete next steps for faith communities seeking to become places of honesty, healing, and hope.
