---
title: Why the Church Needs Recovery Coaches
description: Explore the vital role of recovery coaches in churches, bridging the gap in addiction support between Sundays and offering essential peer guidance.
image: https://marktwelverecovery.org/hubfs/R1_blog_1600x900.png
---

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[Articles](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles)

 Oct 9, 2026, 4:41:18 PM

# Why the Church Needs Recovery Coaches

[Kevin D. Flynn, RCP](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/author/kevin-d-flynn-rcp)

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**Here is the short version.** Addiction is already in the congregation, and a pastor is often the first person to hear about it. Most churches answer with prayer, and they should. What is usually missing is someone with the time, the training, and the lived experience to walk beside that person between Sundays. That is the work of a recovery coach.

**A recovery coach does not replace the pastor, the counselor, or the doctor. A coach covers the long stretch of ordinary days that falls between them.**

## How much addiction is in the church?

More than most Sunday mornings show. The federal government’s 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimates that 44.6 million Americans aged 12 or older, about 15 percent, had a substance use disorder in the past year. No survey counts this congregation by congregation, but nothing suggests the church door keeps it out.

Pastors say as much. When Lifeway Research surveyed 1,004 pastors, 64 percent said a family member of someone in their congregation had been affected by opioid abuse, and 45 percent said a member of the congregation had been. That survey asked only about opioids. Alcohol, which the federal survey finds is far more common, was not part of the question.

## What are churches doing about it now?

Mostly praying. In the same survey, 72 percent of pastors said their church offers spiritual support, such as prayer or discipleship, to people with opioid addiction. Only 32 percent said the church offers a twelve-step program or another support group for substance abuse, down from 40 percent in 2018. About one in five said the church offers none of the three kinds of help the survey asked about.

That is not a shortage of compassion. It’s a shortage of people who know what to do.

## Why can’t the pastor carry this alone?

Because people come to the pastor first, and the work that follows is long. A national study published in Health Services Research found that one in four people who had ever sought help for a mental disorder went to a member of the clergy, more than went to a psychiatrist or to a general medical doctor. The data are from the early 1990s, but few pastors would say the knocks on the office door have stopped.

Recovery is not settled in one of those conversations. It takes many: the ride to a first meeting, the phone call after a bad day, the plan for getting through a family wedding sober. A pastor with a whole flock cannot be present for all of them.

Scripture is plain about this. When Moses was hearing every dispute in Israel from morning until evening, his father-in-law told him the work was too heavy and that he could not do it alone (Exodus 18:17–18). The answer was not a stronger Moses. It was capable people sharing the load. Paul describes the same design when he writes that pastors and teachers are given to equip the saints for the work of ministry (Ephesians 4:11–12).

There is a second reason. People tend to hide addiction, and a pastor’s good opinion can be the hardest one to risk. Someone who has been there is easier to tell. We wrote about that silence in “[Shame Is Not Conviction](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/shame-is-not-conviction).”

## What is a recovery coach?

A recovery coach is a trained peer. Most are in long-term recovery themselves. The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) describes peer support workers as people who have been successful in the recovery process and who help others in similar situations.

A coach listens, helps a person build his or her own recovery plan, and clears obstacles: finding a meeting, getting to an appointment, making the call to a treatment program. One widely used training, the CCAR Recovery Coach Academy, is a 30-hour course in those skills, along with ethics and boundaries.

A coach is not a counselor, a sponsor, or a pastor. A coach does not diagnose, treat, or prescribe.

## What does a Christian recovery coach add?

The language the church already speaks. A Christian recovery coach has the peer training and has also been trained to bring Scripture and prayer into the work, for people who want that. Faith is not something the person has to explain or set aside at the door.

Paul gives the theology in two verses: God comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received (2 Corinthians 1:3–4). That is peer support, written nineteen centuries before anyone used the term. A person God has brought through addiction is carrying something the church needs. Many congregations already have that person. Often no one has asked.

## What can a coach not do?

A coach is not emergency care and is not treatment. Withdrawal from alcohol or sedatives can be dangerous and needs medical attention. Thoughts of suicide need a crisis line, not a coaching session. A good coach knows where the role ends and helps the person reach the right care.

No coach can promise an outcome, and none should. If the kinds of treatment are unfamiliar, we mapped them in “[Detox, Inpatient, IOP, Outpatient: A Plain-English Map](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/detox-inpatient-iop-outpatient-a-plain-english-map).”

## How does a church start?

Start before the next crisis. Find out who in the congregation already has years in recovery. Learn what help exists nearby; our guide to “[Recovery Resources in North Central Massachusetts](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/recovery-resources-in-north-central-massachusetts)” lists where to begin. Then ask any coach you are considering four questions:

- What training have you completed?

- What do you do when someone needs more than coaching?

- What stays confidential, and what would you bring to the pastor?

- What do you charge?

In Mark 2, four people carry a paralyzed man to Jesus. The house is full, so they open the roof and lower him down on his mat. Mark never gives their names. He says only that Jesus saw their faith. Every congregation has someone on the mat. The church needs people at the corners.

## If you or someone you love needs help right now

**Emergency or overdose —** Call 911.

**Thoughts of suicide or emotional crisis —** Call or text 988. Free, confidential, 24/7.

**Substance use treatment and recovery —** Massachusetts Substance Use Helpline, 800-327-5050. Free, 24/7, no insurance required.

**Mental health and substance use care —** Behavioral Health Help Line, 833-773-2445 or [masshelpline.com](https://masshelpline.com). Free, 24/7.

*This article is educational and is not medical or clinical advice, and it is not a substitute for crisis care. Recovery coaching is peer support and does not replace medical care, clinical treatment, or licensed counseling. Sources: the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2025 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and its guidance on peer support workers; Lifeway Research, survey of 1,004 pastors conducted August 29 to September 20, 2023; Wang, Berglund, and Kessler, Health Services Research, 2003; and the Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery (CCAR).*

## For pastors and ministry leaders

Mark Twelve Recovery Foundation equips churches in North Central Massachusetts with free recovery Bible studies and meeting materials and connects them with independent Christian recovery coaches through the Mark Twelve Coach Network at [**marktwelverecovery.org/coach-network**](https://marktwelverecovery.org/coach-network). Coaches in the network have completed the CCAR Recovery Coach Academy and Christian recovery coach training. They are independent practitioners who set their own fees, and the Foundation does not employ, supervise, or bill for them. Call **(978) 947-7701**. A first conversation costs nothing.

[Christian Recovery Coaching](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/tag/christian-recovery-coaching), [Church Partners](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/tag/church-partners)

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[RecoverySupport](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/tag/recoverysupport), [Addiction Treatment](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/tag/addiction-treatment)

## [Addiction Treatment that Insurance Does and Doesn’t Cover in Massachusetts](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/what-insurance-does-and-doesnt-cover-in-massachusetts)

[Kevin D. Flynn, RCP](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/author/kevin-d-flynn-rcp) 

 Oct 2, 2026, 5:12:40 PM

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## [Recovery Resources in North Central Massachusetts](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/recovery-resources-in-north-central-massachusetts)

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 Sep 1, 2026, 3:48:21 PM

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## [How Do I Know If I Have a Problem?](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/how-do-i-know-if-i-have-a-problem)

[Kevin D. Flynn, RCP](https://marktwelverecovery.org/articles/author/kevin-d-flynn-rcp) 

 Aug 11, 2026, 4:51:27 PM

Questions worth sitting with, and why the fact that you are asking at all is the part most people...

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