On Apr. 6, at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Spring Meetings, the International Health and Temperance Association voted to accept Adventist Regeneration Ministries as an associated health ministry. What joyful news for this Christ-centered 12-step recovery ministry! This decision provides great opportunities for Adventist Regeneration Ministries to serve church members and friends.

Adventist Regeneration Ministries began in the mid-1980s when Hal Gates, a recently returned Adventist serving in the Washington Conference as a pastor in training, listened to God's call. The ministry was for people like him who were ready to allow Jesus Christ to be "The Highest Power" and deliver them from drugs and alcohol. Through Jesus they came to know their identity as a "new creation" recovering from their addictions.

Ray Nelson, executive director of Adventist Regeneration Ministries, states: "Christ-centered 12-step recovery ministry is for all who recognize a need to 'lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us'" (Hebrews 12:1). Addictions are not just someone else's challenge. As Adventists, we often find inappropriate thoughts and behaviors concerning food, sex, work, religion and many other activities damaging to our relationships with God and others. Therefore, Adventist Regeneration Ministries has expanded its focus from drug and alcohol related recovery to include whatever processes damage our relationship with God and others.

"True temperance teaches us to dispense entirely with everything hurtful, and to use judiciously that which is healthful" (Patriarchs and Prophets, page 562).

For more information, visit www.adventistregenerationministries.org, or call 301-680-5225.

Ray Nelson, M.Div., MSPH, executive director, Adventist Regeneration Ministries