Additional information
by Aaron White (Author), Jason Byassee (Editor), Bob Ekblad (Foreword by)
This book provides a theologically rich commentary on the challenge of addiction and the long road to recovery. Written by a minister with extensive experience working with people who struggle with addictions, this book helps pastors understand the roots and realities of our universal human struggle with addictions and attachments while showing that together we have great hope for freedom, wholeness, and recovery. Readers will learn how to create and foster a Beatitude Community, the kind of environment Jesus prescribed for his people, to help addicts and those who love them heal from brokenness. Foreword by Bob Ekblad.
About the Series
Pastors are called to help people navigate the profound mysteries of being human, from birth to death and everything in between. This series, edited by leading pastoral theologian Jason Byassee, provides pastors and pastors-in-training with rich theological reflection on the various seasons that make up a human life, helping them minister with greater wisdom and joy.
Back Jacket
Addressing a major public-health crisis, this book shows pastors how to foster the kind of environment that Jesus prescribed for his people, one that helps both those who struggle with addictions and those who love them heal from brokenness.
"Aaron White is a sharp-minded practitioner, a long-term pioneer on the frontlines of addiction--and boy can he write! I recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone engaged in patterns of addictive behavior. It is a book of hope."
--Pete Greig, 24-7 Prayer International
"This is a brutally honest but ultimately hopeful book. Aaron White understands that addiction isn't mainly an individual problem; it's a problem of community. Using the Beatitudes as his guide, White shows us how addiction is a symptom of dislocated and broken communities, including churches. Drawing on a wealth of experience, he describes the alternative Beatitude Community, and he shows us how to take steps to get there. I hope this book will be widely read, especially in churches that are ready to take addiction seriously."
--Kent Dunnington, Biola University; author of Addiction and Virtue: Beyond the Models of Disease and Choice
"Aaron White and his lovely family have been in ministry for many years. They have lived the contents of this book and continue to do so. Their lives are grace filled, freedom filled, and Spirit filled. As is this book."
--Cheryl Bear, Nadleh Whut'en First Nation
"From his experience living and serving in one of the most desperate neighborhoods in the world, White helps us realize that the root of our addictive and destructive behavior is pain. The only way forward is acknowledging the pain, and the only way to do that is by living in a new kind of community--one that embraces the pain and brings it to the Great Healer. What an inviting picture of that community White paints! He can paint it because he lives it. I will be rereading this book for a long time--until I finally live it too."
--Darrell Johnson, author of Discipleship on the Edge, Experiencing the Trinity, and The Beatitudes: Living in Sync with the Reign of God
Author Biography
Aaron White (MTS, Tyndale Seminary) lives and ministers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, one of the most destitute areas in North America. He serves as the Vancouver representative for the International Association for Refugees and as national leader of 24-7 Prayer Canada. He previously worked with the Salvation Army for over 20 years.
