Every single person who walks through our doors has a story. While that story is different from person to person, we often see addictions as one of the barriers to wellness. We desire to help each individual break free from those addictions and walk in the freedom that Jesus has for them.
While UGM offers multiple programs to help people break free from addictions, we encourage our guests to get plugged into programs outside the Mission. This way, they will be surrounded by people who truly care about their success and can support them as they transition back into the community. It’s all about creating healthy relationships.
Salem Heights Church’s Most Excellent Way program is just one example of how the church community helps men and women at the Mission. Pastor Matt MacCollin and Pastor Justin Greene implemented The Most Excellent Way program at Salem Heights Church 6 years ago with a desire to help others strive to live a spirit-filled life with an “attitude of love, acceptance and forgiveness.”
The church has seen God work in people’s lives through this program. “We sought out using The Most Excellent Way because we really saw biblical Christianity. That is: Christ sets you free, you’re a new creation, you’re a new person in Christ, (Romans 6:1, 2 Cor 5, John 8). Because it’s not recovery, it’s victory! What people need is not to be told they are an addict or an addict for the rest of their life, but that they can literally be set free, a completely new person.”
The group’s core is the Ten Attitudes of Victorious Living, which are themes taken from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the gospel of Matthew: Humility, Repentance, Submissive, Honesty, Merciful, Obedient, Reconciliation, Faith, Perseverance, and being a Loving Servant. Each week participants dive into one of the ten attitudes.
“Some of them, they start going – ‘I’m not just free, I am accepted!’ Which changes everything for them now that they’re getting ready to leave the program at UGM. I see this program being a connection point to help these guys get mentors or ladies get mentors to ongoingly give them support where they can say they have Christian community now, I have brothers and sisters in Christ who are family.”
To learn more about Salem Height’s Most Excellent Way, visit https://www.salemheightschurch.org/ministries/the-most-excellent-way
To learn more about UGM’s recovery program, visit ugmsalem.org/services/recovery-program/
1 thought on “The Most Excellent Way Forward”
I’m wanting to know if you have literature for the Ten Attitudes. That takes it one attitude at a time in lesson form