Interview of Lewis Johnson, Director of Open Door Recovery

INCITE: Tell us a bit about your story, upbringing, then your journey into addiction and recovery.

LJ: Absolutely. You know my journey has been a long one. I was born and raised in a typical family; a Christian family, we went to church every Sunday, that kind of thing. I was baptized at 12 years old. I took my first drink of alcohol at 13 years old, and the downward spiral for my addiction started there, but I was able to get through school and got into the automobile business. And I became very successful in that business; I owned, at one point, 3 dealerships. Or I was part owner in 3 automobile dealerships. I lived in big houses, had cars, had everything I thought that I needed in life, but I was drinking and drugging the whole way through. That journey took me from living in a 3600 sq ft house to basically being homeless. I lived in a 91 honda Accord when I finally got sober. I had no place to go.

In 2012 I was arrested and convicted of a bank robbery. They charged me with common law robbery because I didn’t have a weapon; I actually did it in a blackout. I didn’t know it was done until I woke up with my car surrounded. There were 63 police officers and a helicopter involved in taking me into custody, but I came out of that blackout at a stoplight, and there I was. They arrested me, carried me to jail, charged me with armed robbery. I did 11 months in prison for that. I thought that was my bottom. I got out of jail, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. I took care of her until her death. When she died, my addiction really took off again, and that took me to where I ended up on Sept. 14, 2018, when I died on my daughter’s living room floor. I was clinically dead for 5 minutes, I was on life support for 5 days, and I was in the hospital for a total of 16. When they took me off life support, I was lying in bed, and I just prayed. I said, ‘Lord, if you are up there, please don’t turn your back on me. I don’t know why you saved me but tell me what you want me to do.’ and from that day forward, I have done nothing but throw myself into recovery and recovery ministry. It’s been a long journey, but it’s been an incredible journey.

INCITE: How would you say that your faith and “Celebrate Recovery” (CR) affected and is affecting your recovery?

LJ: What I did was get involved in recovery groups that weren’t Christ-centered. They were the “God of your understanding,” that kind of thing. I maintained some sobriety through that, but I really didn’t feel good about myself. So 2 years back, I decided to help start a CR meeting at Midpoint church in Middlesex, NC. I went through the leadership program there, a Christ-centered 12-step program. I really liked it. I spun off and did my own recovery program, “Open Door Recovery” (ODR) in Bailey, NC; directly from CR.

INCITE: So Open Door is based on CR but not affiliated with it?

LJ: It’s not affiliated with CR; we use materials from what’s called Life Recovery. We use the LR Bible the LR workbooks, and it’s basically the same, a little different, then CR. It is a 12-step program based on the 12 principles and 12 steps; it is worded slightly differently but basically the same concept.

INCITE: You said that you had tried some secular or traditional recovery programs, and you didn’t feel good about yourself? How did going through a faith-based program affect that, and what was the key difference there?

LJ: Well, the key difference is that I could grow spiritually quicker in a Christ-centered program. Addiction is basically… drugs and alcohol aren’t our problems. Drugs and alcohol are the solutions to our problems, and that’s how we live life. But in CR and Open Door Recovery, being Christ-based or a Christian-based program allows me to look at recovery as a whole and through the eyes of spirituality. We study both the Word and the steps at the same time. So it has allowed me to grow spiritually. I got very involved in the church where we started CR, which has helped me grow in my spiritual journey.

INCITE: What stories have you seen in your life and those people around from CR and Open Door and really just having a faith-based program.

LJ: Well, what I have found is everybody that has come and gone through either CR, or Open Door Recovery is the results are much greater. People that go through these programs can interview. I’ve got probably two-dozen people right now that you could talk to that’s been through ODR, and they would tell you that they’re much better people for going through it. Same with me and my life, I mean miracles continue to happen in my life and the people around me. I’ve seen relationships healed. I’ve seen people that were homeless that now own homes. I’ve seen people jobless that couldn’t get a job. These people went through the program, started feeling good about themselves, and got employed. So I’ve seen miracles happen. I’ve seen families struggling with addiction that lost their kids because of their addiction reunited with their children.

INCITE: It sounds like I understand you correctly. The program ODR and CR are not just focused on the recovery itself but what happens after you’re no longer physically addicted to those substances. How do we continue to give them a better life and get them jobs? Is that correct?

LJ: Absolutely. And I’ll tell you ODR’s mission is to provide compassionate Christ-centered 12-step from anyone suffering from the wrath of addiction. But we believe that treating the underlying core problems is what it takes to help them heal physically, mentally, and spiritually. And we strive to instill the tools necessary for them to get and keep long-term recovery. And that is nothing but growing spiritually day by day.

INCITE: You mentioned that you wanted to free them from the grip of addiction. Is that just substance abuse or any form of addiction?

LJ: No. We deal with a multitude of addictions. We deal with pornography addictions, food addictions, and people with low self-esteem and gambling. That’s another one we deal with occasionally is gambling. We deal with a wide ride range of addictions.

INCITE: Outside of the absence of God, what are the differences between secular programs and faith-based programs? What is the difference, if any?

LJ: The only difference is that it is Christ-centered. Period. Other than the outside groups that say choose your own conception of God. We teach God out of the Bible. That’s who we teach. And this program is not for everybody, don’t get me wrong. I’ve turned Atheists around. I’ve had atheists come into my program that didn’t want to hear the Word God. This gentleman, Billy, was an atheist when he came in, but after going through about 3 months of our program, he started to believe. Now he’s living happily without drugs and alcohol. I have had people who will come into a recovery group like mine that is Christ-centered, and as soon as they hear the Word of God, they cringe up because most addicts and alcoholics are people struggling with any kind of life issue. A lot of times, they come in, and they’re mad at God. They’re angry at God because of their situation, so they don’t want to hear God’s Word. And those people are the ones that we have to gently let leave but keep our hand out and let them know we’re here if they’re ready to come back. We don’t beat people in the head with the Bible. We have a Bible and a workbook, and each step is something related to it in the Bible. We read what is associated with that step in the Bible. We talk about both, about the action and about the Word. However, I’ve seen a lot of people come that don’t want to do that.

INCITE: What then differentiates the ODR program from and even CR from different programs? Why would someone choose this? What makes it attractive to people?

LJ: I’ll tell you what makes it attractive to people. When we teach recovery, we teach people how to live life and do things without drugs and alcohol. We do a lot of events. We carry a group to the beach, we go out to eat. We don’t just sit in a room and have a meeting. We get people involved outside to show how to do things out here in the world without those substances. Your routine meetings, AA and NA don’t do that. They teach recovery, and you get a sponsor, and

you go out on your own or whatever. There might be a core group of people that will go out and do things. Our group is the entire group. We plan trips. We have a trip working right now for everybody to go to Kings Dominion for the day. So, yeah, we teach them how to live life out here and have fun without alcohol and drugs.

INCITE: Getting life experience, getting the same experiences they have, but there is still fun without their substance.

LJ: You hit it on the head. Absolutely.

INCITE: So, it sounds like, from my understanding, that it’s a relatively new program at BCOG.

LJ: Originally, we started working on this concept in 2019. In 2020 we were going to launch, in March of all things, and COVID hit. We had all our literature printed, banners, and we had to tuck that back in a little bit. We got started on Oct. 16, 2020, but we have touched many people

since then. We have helped many, many people get on their feet. ODR and BCOG, are involved in recovery groups all over Nash county. We work with the Nash county Recovery Alliance Center, as well as many different groups. When leaders get together, we talk about what’s happening with drugs and alcohol and that type of thing. What can we be doing better with each other? As a matter of fact, some of the ideas we rolled around were what we just talked about: have outings for these people to show that they can go out and have fun. They don’t just have to sit in recovery meetings. If people just come to a recovery meeting every week for an hour…. that’s not enough, right? We let those people go on Saturday night, and they go out about their lives throughout the week, and if we’re not told them the other side of it: that this is how we live life without our substances, we’ve not done an excellent job. People will get tired of coming to an hour of recovery class and just sit there talking about recovery. They need more. And that’s what our program provides – more.

INCITE: You mentioned earlier the atheist gentlemen who moved. Have you found that people who leave the community after the program relapse more often than otherwise or not, as long as they’re finding a new community someplace else? How important have you found it to be the program’s community to maintain some semblance of that community when they leave?

LJ: We Zoom our meetings too, so yes, the guy who moved still attends our group by Zoom. We will continue to provide that for people who leave the area that really like our program, but I do tell people when they’re leaving the area: The first thing you need to do is find an excellent Christ-centered 12-step program. There are so many out there now. I have found in other instances that some of the people have done that. They’ve moved, they’ve discovered Recovery Alive, or they’ve found CR in another state, and they’ve continued on. We still touch our people through Zoom. I’ve got 4-5 a week that sign on from out of town. We continue on whether they’re here physically or not. But the relapse rate happens a lot when people leave and don’t seek other recovery groups. If we don’t walk along spiritual lines daily, we’re going to revert back to our old habits.

INCITE: You mentioned Recovery Alive, and we’ve mentioned Celebrate Recovery. Is there somewhere else to go if RA or CR isn’t in their area to find another faith-based program?

LJ: Absolutely. It’s as simple as going on google and typing in ‘recovery groups close by.’ I’ve been out of town before, speaking at a place, and I wanted to go to a meeting it was as simple as googling it on my phone. When you google them, they announce them as Christ-centered programs.

INCITE: Is there a curriculum for the ODR? My understanding is that you’re always in recovery? Is there a curriculum you go through and then at a point you’ve graduated, or are we living life together constantly?

LJ: Oh no, you never graduate. If you’re in recovery, you’re in recovery. The people, everybody I know that’s relapsed, have gotten out of recovery. They think they’ve got it, and they will stop going to meetings and stop being around like-minded people. They stop going in and sharing what’s going on in their life. Those people do relapse. But recovery is a 24/7/365 commitment. As long as we remember that we can grow spiritually, that’s what people in our recovery group teach, that there is always room to strengthen your relationship with God. And yes, they understand. People who get in the know that this is a commitment. If they want to continue a life without drugs, alcohol, or behavior, it must be spiritually based.

INCITE: You’ve kind of mentioned a few things (going on trips to show this is how we live life without substances). Are there other things you do to reconnect people to the world to help them live their lives in a ‘normal way again?

LJ: Absolutely. We have gratitude days, we have cookouts, we have all kinds of things. We invite not only the people that are struggling to come to these things but families as well. This is a family disease, so we try to bring families together. For example, people have been reunited with ex-wives and children. They were invited by ODR to come to a cookout or a function. So yes, we help people get their lives back together, especially the family’s inner circle life. Those are the ones that seem to hurt the most. We try to get that mended within that family circle, and then they can carry that experience into the outside world and try to heal outside as well.

INCITE: In my experience, there has been a lot of stigma in the church around addiction. Is there something that church leaders can do to address that in their congregations and the community?

LJ: Absolutely. Thank God, I’ve got a pastor – he never preaches a sermon that he doesn’t talk about addiction. He knows what kind of a problem it is. More pastors need to take control and understand people are dying out here because of it. My pastor mentions my recovery group every Sunday and Wednesday night when we do our services. He always announces our group, inviting people to come and find out what we’re all about. So to run a recovery group within a church, you have to have the pastor’s approval and commitment to helping you grow in that program. And if you don’t have that, it’s going to fail eventually.

INCITE: Is there anything I can do to talk to my pastor to become more aware and active? Obviously, I go talk to them, but if I wanted us to be more involved in the community?

LJ: That’s a tough one because before I started ODR I was on a mission to start a recovery group somewhere. I talked to several pastors within a 10-15 mile radius of my house. I got some of the responses, ‘We don’t want those kinds of people in our church.’ And I’m thinking, ‘what do you go to church for? Jesus didn’t pick all the great people to be his disciples. He chose the drunkards, the prostitutes, the thieves, and tax collectors. I kept trying, and finally, I did get there. If you go talk to your pastor, they’re either onboard or not; there’s not a whole lot you can say to change their mind. Other than the importance, other than how many people are dying daily from overdoses of opioids and fentanyl, they need to hopefully do their part to curb that.

Then the problem within the church is finding somebody that can lead the group. And if you don’t have anybody in recovery or know about recovery, programs are not going to work. You can’t take a deacon and put him in front of a bunch of people suffering from addiction and expect him to know what they’re talking about. I can sit in front of a group full of people that suffer from addiction, and I know exactly how they’re feeling. I know what they’re talking about. The key to that is to find a pastor that is willing to listen, speak to them about the importance, and you have to leave the ball in their court. That’s what I did with several pastors until I finally found the one I’m at now. I thank God that I waited because God led me to his doorstep. When I told him my story, I said, “I’m looking to open a recovery group,” he sat back in his chair and said, “my prayers have been answered.” He had been praying for someone to come into the church to start and lead a recovery group. So it was God. It was an honor to meet him and see his compassion for recovery. So it’s been a perfect fit. We do a lot of work together, we’re in communication daily about what’s going on in our group. If I need something, the money is there. I’ve never been turned down when I’ve asked for money for our group. We’ve been lucky enough to have grants from Nash county here a little bit ago 75 thousand dollars, the church community has funded us.

INCITE: Suppose you’ve got a pastor, as you said, who’s all in as your is but doesn’t have anyone in the church who can lead the group. Is there something else a church can do to be actively involved instead of passively involved?

LJ: Absolutely. I’ve had churches that started recovery groups and had the people from the outside that didn’t attend the church actually came in and ran the recovery meeting, which was awesome. Some of them eventually went to that church. Some of them went to another church but opted to do recovery at this church. Yes, they can reach out to the recovery community, and as a rule of thumb, if a pastor was to reach out and say ‘I need somebody’. If they go on my Facebook page and post ‘Looking for somebody to run a Christ-centered recovery group,’ you’ll get tons of responses from people who are willing to go in and do that. If you don’t have it within the church, you can reach outside and find someone.

INCITE: What can I do as a parent to help prepare my daughter for the dangers of addiction? Is there anything I can do, or does it have to be a lived experience?

LJ: Education is the key. We have to talk to our children just like it’s life and death because it is. We have to explain the dangers. I mean, sometimes it’s talking to them and saying, ‘Do you really know that 580 people are going to die today because of opioid overdoses? People are dying.’ We need to let them be aware of what the dangers are. After that, it’s a life experience. All we can do is load them up with knowledge and send them out into the world and hope that knowledge sticks. Education is critical upfront, but after that, it’s life experience only.