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Addiction affects a wide circle of people and causes exponential pain. Jerry Nance, board member of Global Teen Challenge, joins the Truth and Grace podcast to discuss how God offers hope to individuals and families suffering from addiction. Even in the face of overwhelming circumstances, our Father gives a way of escape and healing.

Key Points from the Podcast

• Jerry Nance, board chairman of Global Teen Challenge, shares briefly about David Wilkerson and the history of Teen Challenge, a ministry helping addicts find lasting freedom in Jesus Christ.

• Some people may look down on addicts, but when you hear their stories of pain, loss and abuse you realize they are in desperate need of God’s love, mercy and grace.

• For many, addiction begins as casual use that gradually becomes an uncontrollable habit often leading to lying, theft and loss of relationships.

• One of the biggest hinderances to addicts finding freedom is when family members enable them—giving them money, bailing them out of jail, giving them a place to stay, etc. They need to feel the pain of not changing so they can start to move toward healing.

• If you have a friend or loved one who struggles with addiction, have hope in knowing that there is no one who is so deep in addiction that they can’t be freed through Jesus Christ.

• Not every addict needs to go through a Teen Challenge program. There are other options available for addicts and their families, like Living Free and Sober Peer.

• For many struggling with addiction, learning to see God as their loving heavenly Father can be challenging because their earthly father was abusive or absent.

Bible Verses Referenced in the Podcast

2 Corinthians 9:6; Galatians 6:7–8; Proverbs 22:8; Hosea 10:13; 1 John 3–5

Resources Mentioned in the Podcast

• Global Teen Challenge

• Living Free

• Sober Peer

About John Bailey

Pastor John Bailey serves as the Chief Operating Officer at World Challenge. John came to know Christ in jail after some difficult struggles as a young man, and God has done a powerful work of transformation since! Spending 13 years in Next Gen ministry, he excelled in discipleship and helping young leaders discover giftings to serve God. John was called next to serve as a missionary and pastor in Western Europe. John and his family then returned to plant the Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida. Today, the church is a thriving body of believers excelling in outreach and missions. John has now brought his giftings and vision to World Challenge, accelerating the spread of the gospel in America and around the World.

About Mark Renfroe

Mark married his college sweetheart, Amy, with whom he has four adult children—one girl and three boys. The Renfroes have been involved in field missions work for 30 years. They served in the Arab community of San Francisco for four years before becoming foreign missionaries in 1995. Mark was asked to serve as the Area Director for Assemblies of God World Missions in 2007. As part of his role, he led missionaries and interfaced with national church leaders in the 18 countries of the Arab World. In 2017, Mark created Reaching Africa’s Muslims, an initiative to mobilize, equip, and deploy indigenous African missionaries to reach Muslims on the continent. Mark has graduate degrees in Intercultural Studies and Executive Leadership. He currently serves as the Chief Missions Officer for World Challenge in Colorado Springs.