In 2011, an alcoholic pastor felt called to start a new kind of church: One run by addicts for addicts. Called Recovery Church, it blended the teachings of two life-changing books: The Bible and “The Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Philip Dvorak of Jupiter is that pastor. Today his tiny movement is spreading across the United States and to Canada and Costa Rica. At the end of 2024, the Recovery Church Movement (RCM) had 81 congregations under its umbrella.
“We are on the verge of surpassing 100 locations any day,” said Dvorak, a licensed mental health counselor and ordained minister. There are more than 30 meetings across Florida. His team’s goal is to see 150 Recovery Church locations by year-end.
Recovery Church began when the reluctant preacher was recruited by a secular addiction treatment facility to establish a Christian program within its walls. Members conducted their first service in the middle of the work week, and the response was good. Dvorak said he was surprised by the number of people who had never heard the gospel.
His parishioners started calling the weekly meeting “Drunk Church,” telling others, “You may have been to church drunk, but you’ve never been to Drunk Church.”
Dvorak took Drunk Church out of the treatment center and into the public. The first services packed Common Grounds coffee shop in Lake Worth Beach. Alcoholics and addicts in varying stages of recovery spilled onto the sidewalks. Pastor Phil and his team baptized dozens of faithful in a kiddie pool in the alley behind the building over the next few months.
When the church outgrew the coffee shop, it found a new home across the street. The church that catered to ‘partiers” briefly took over the Bamboo Room, a live music venue on J Street, its floors still sticky with the residue of spilled drinks.
The church continued to grow. The work was hard, Dvorak said. “There was rarely a week when we didn’t lose someone we deeply cared about. You see people get well, but you’re also there in the midst of absolute desperation.”
Blending the big books
The success of Recovery Church can be traced to its message, Dvorak said: Follow Jesus, read the Bible and work the 12 steps outlined in Alcoholics Anonymous.
AA and its related programs have been helpful for decades to people battling addiction. The classic 12-step program guides addicts to surrender to a higher power.
Experts say AA works because of its fellowship and its spiritual focus. A 2011 study by the Journal of Religion and Health found that levels of spirituality were associated with greater confidence to resist substance abuse. New members share the burden of addiction with a sponsor who has walked the path. Recovery Church amplifies the fellowship and the spirituality, teaching members how to ask for help from their church mentors and God.
AA is not allied with any group, cause or religious denomination. The higher power — or “God as we understood it” — is open to interpretation.
To members of the Recovery Church Movement, it means surrendering to Christ.
As the Christian addiction ministry gained momentum, Dvorak politely declined people who urged him to start a second location. Dvorak had a wife and growing family and more work than he could do.
Finally, a group of men who drove down from Vero Beach every week begged Dvorak to start a church farther north. He still said no, but he agreed to help them start their own location.
Dvorak put together a team and joined forces with the Timothy Initiative, an international church organization founded by David Nelms “to plant a church in every village.” With its help, RC grew to three sites by the end of 2017.
Today, more than 4,000 people attend Recovery Church services each week, Dvorak said. Last year, the church baptized more than 900 people. The church has recruited more than 800 weekly volunteers. More than 900 people have received training to be church leaders.
The organization just completed a national conference of 300 church leaders and members in May in Asheville, N.C.
What makes Recovery Church different
The RCM is thriving among people who feel too raw to attend a conventional church. At RC, you are welcome to come as you are; you don’t have to wait until you’re “better.” Church members say RC worships a God who overlooks flaws and forgives imperfections as long as your intention is true.
“It was the first time — in my faith and in my recovery — I felt fully myself,” Max Ingram, who became a Recovery Church pastor near Philadelphia, said about the experience. “I hear that again and again from people who have been a part of Recovery Church.”
Addiction is an enigmatic foe: It crosses all racial, religious and socio-economic boundaries and attacks its victims with a voraciousness that is baffling to those on the outside. And it’s extremely deadly. More than 100,000 people in the United States died from overdoses in 2021, Dvorak noted. “That there are people dying without faith, without having heard the word, continues to motivate us.”
The worship experience
Services are typically conducted in properties owned by other churches.
Recovery Church services aren’t that different from a conventional church service. They both feature music, prayer, a sermon and fellowship.
But at Recovery Church, the music is a little louder and the songs are a little edgier. Many have themes of fighting addiction with God’s help, like “I Speak Jesus” with lyrics saying “I just want to speak the name of Jesus/ ’til every dark addiction starts to break/ Declaring there is hope and there is freedom/ I speak Jesus.”
Many services begin with an opportunity for newcomers to receive a surrender cross, not unlike AA’s symbolic sober chip. The crosses represent the start of one’s journey working the steps with Christ. Parishioners earn crosses of different colors depending on the time they’ve spent on the path.
Then, messages are shared before the primary speaker. Sometimes it’s a guest who has been doing mission work, other times it’s one of Recovery Church’s leaders. Almost always, the theme is how to live a life free from addiction.
There is no passing of the offering plate. At the end of the service, the congregants are invited forward to pray with the speakers. The line is often long, but no one complains.
What it takes to grow
Money is the biggest hurdle.
“We’re growing and it takes resources. Everything has a cost associated with it,” Dvorak says. It costs about $20,000 to launch a church, and RCM receives between five and 15 requests per month.
Michael Fashoda, RCM’s communications and logistics pastor, said, “We’re entering a season of multiplication, where existing locations are beginning to send out teams to start new Recovery Churches in their own communities.”
RCM has developed a process for new churches. Decisions are made by the leadership team, “prayerfully and collectively,” Fashoda said. “If we do not sense a clear direction from God, we are not moving forward.”
The process includes training and coaching church leaders in the essentials of Recovery Church. “A designated coach walks alongside them and a representative attends each launch and conducts follow-up visits throughout the year to support the new location.”
Once established, each Recovery Church location operates with autonomy within broad guardrails, Fashoda said. “We ask them to remain focused on recovery and Jesus, align with our core values and beliefs, and otherwise lead with local freedom. We stay connected through our Care Team and through site visits, as well as through regular communication and training opportunities.”
Most churches operate independently, supported by their congregations. Some churches drift away, while others thrive. “More churches are reaching the point where they can help plant additional locations,” Fashoda said.
But it’s the local community that truly supports RCM. “We depend on generous supporters who catch the vision. Some churches see us as a mission partner and give to the movement. But mostly it has been people who have seen and heard what we do and who want to help the message.”
Dvorak’s role continues to change as the church has grown. “Now it’s more making sure the vision is promoted and we’re all heading in the same direction. We have a team in the trenches. Originally, I was the one teaching every week and now we have 700 to 800 volunteers. There’s never a week that I don’t minister to people, it’s just not non-stop anymore.”
In 2022, the RCM published “Recovery Church His Story,” a collection of testimonials by members that begins with Dvorak’s story.
“God is doing so much more than we could ever imagine,” Dvorak said. “We’re still refining and learning and trying to stay humble and true to the vision God put in front of us.”
Dvorak says being surrounded by addicts is a blessing. “The surest way to maintain recovery is to work at it. Seeing the newcomer find the door is a gift,” he said. “People say, ‘Recovery Church saved my life,’ and I know it’s true.”
Where does Recovery Church meet?
Like AA meetings, you can find one in Palm Beach County most nights of the week:
- Monday at 7 p.m. — Trinity Lutheran, 400 N. Swinton Ave, Delray Beach. 561-927-4000 or mitch@recovery.church
- Monday at 7 p.m. – A Spanish-language service meets at a private home, 4327 Hernden Drive, Lake Worth Beach. (561) 319-6508
- Tuesday at 7 p.m. — French American International School of Boca Raton, 2500 NW Fifth Ave, Boca Raton, 561-714-5599 or boca@recovery.church
- Tuesday at 7 p.m. — Grace Fellowship at Berean Christian School, 8350 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach, 561-972-4142 or grace@recovery.church
- Wednesday at 7 p.m. — Community Life Center of Palm Beach at Church of the Palms, 3812 S. Jog Road, Greenacres. 561-502-5655.
- Thursday at 7 p.m. — Sunlight Community Church of Lake Worth, 1325 N. A St, Lake Worth Beach, 561-972-4142 or lakeworth@recovery.church.
- Thursday at 7 p.m. — Cason United Methodist, 342 N. Swinton Ave, Delray Beach, 561-276-5302 or d2@recovery.church.
- Friday at 6 p.m. — RCM Office, 10100 W. Indiantown Road, Room 6, Jupiter. 561-350-3216 or jupiterfarms@recovery.church.
- Friday at 7 p.m. — Urban Youth Impact, 2823 N. Australian Ave, West Palm Beach, 818-691-4566 or downtownwpb@recovery.church.
- Saturday at 7 p.m. — West Pines Baptist Church, 4906 Melaleuca Lane, Greenacres, 561-963-9150 or greenacres@recovery.church.
- Sunday at 4 p.m. — Tropical Sands Christian Church, 2726 Burns Road, Palm Beach Gardens. 561-777-3330 or gardens@recovery.church.
The church also hosts meetings for incarcerated worshipers at the PBC Criminal Justice Complex, 3228 Gun Club Road, West Palm Beach, and at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s West Detention Center, 38811 James Wheeler Way, Belle Glade. 201-661-3430 (West Palm Beach) or 859-229-2367 (Belle Glade) or hipalmbeach@recovery.church.
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
