ALTAI – “The rehabilitation ministry is an instrument to evangelize people suffering from alcohol and drug addictions. Rehabilitation centers should be a place of healing, new life, discipleship, and commitment to Christ.”
This was the message shared by Alexey Ivshin, head of the rehabilitation ministry of the, at a seminar held in the town of Turochak, in the Altai Mountains in Siberia.
20 ministers from rehabilitation centers in Altai, Kuzbass, Novosibirsk, and Omsk came to the three-day seminar to learn about ways to achieve outcomes in rehabilitation ministry.
According to Pastor Ivshin, a training curriculum based on biblical principles is a guarantee that rehabilitation will be successful. When people enter a rehabilitation center, they should not just work and pray. “They pray in the morning, then work all day, pray again in the evening, and go to bed. This is not the way to transform people” — the minister says. Dependent people must be taught to understand spiritual truths, reflect on them and apply them in their lives. Therefore, the staff of the centers have a great responsibility: they must be able to teach the Bible and have the skills of spiritual counselors.
The second, related to the previous topic, was the sustainability of the rehabilitation center success. Speaking about it, Pastor Alexey Ivshin emphasized that it is important to raise the quality of services provided by rehabilitation centers: “Why not set such a goal that people would come to our Christian rehabilitation center and understand that here is the best attitude to them, that here is the highest quality of services. And on the other hand, team members need to have good conditions, everything they need.
The speaker used practical examples of how to achieve such results and maintain a high level.
The seminar program included a briefing where Alexey Ivshin answered questions from leaders of Siberian rehabilitation centers. Some of them concerned legal aspects of ministry. The minister noted that for the last two years he has been conducting such seminars throughout the country. According to him, the meeting went well: “People welcomed it. And that's great!”
Bishop Sergei Potapov, who participated in the organization of the seminar, has no doubt that three days of teaching and fellowship will help rehabilitation centers’ leaders become even more effective in fulfilling the biblical call that has become the spiritual credo of this ministry: “Save those who are taken to death, and will you refuse those who are condemned to be killed?” (Proverbs, 24:11).
The Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith Pentecostals
