Kingdom Pursuits, where you hear from ordinary people instilled with an extraordinary passion. Together we explore the stories of men and women who take what they love and let God turn their passion into Kingdom Pursuits. Now live from the Truth Booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore.
Welcome to Truth Network Service. I'm the body shop guy from Christian Car Guy Radio. I'm filling in for Robbie this morning.
He is at the man retreat with Nikita Kolov. Just pray that they're having a blessed time and I know they are. I know God is moving amongst those men and I always love hearing some of the stories when they get back and stuff. So we're just filling in, trying to fill those shoes and they're big shoes to fill. This morning I have, I'm going to let him introduce himself, but have Dale Davis.
He's going to introduce himself in just a moment and he's involved in a ministry at Pinedale that is just, I know there's other churches that do this ministry, so I can't really speak on those, but I just know the impact it makes at Pinedale Christian Church, which is in Winston-Salem. And we're going to kind of dive into that ministry, which is Celebrate Recovery. But before we do, I just want to just take a moment to mention suicide and suicide prevention training that Fonda Bryant does. I don't know, it just seems like every week you just hear more and more of suicides and attempted suicides that are touching so many people's lives. It's gotten now where it's almost like a cancer where everybody you talk to has been touched by suicide one way or another. And that's a, you know, too many times we don't recognize and part of the problem with suicide and find a part of our training is getting people to get over that stereotype that, you know what, if you commit suicide or attempted suicide or thinking of suicide, you're crazy or, you know, you're just not right. There's something wrong with you mentally. You know, mental illness is a illness. It's just like it is with cancer and everything else. And I think it's something that we as a society need to look at and make sure that we do everything to start putting it on the front burner, making it where it is a disease that we can talk about, an illness that we can talk about, because I think that's the only way we're going to kind of bring those numbers down because they're just staggering.
But I'm just going to throw out Fonda Bryant. You can put her name in on a search engine. It's going to bring you to it. She does free training. Also, her nonprofit is Action Wellness and Recovery or actionwellnessrecovery.org.
I encourage you, if you know somebody or you're touched by that or just kind of stirs your soul to pull that up. Fonda does free online training and does it once a month. No sign up.
You just get the login information and then you're certified gatekeeper at that point and you can read that information and stuff. But also she does in-person training. If you're an organization that kind of, you know, is creeping into the organization or you hear a lot of that and stuff, man, I encourage you to contact her to get her to come.
It's very reasonable. But, man, the knowledge and the insight that it will give you and also just the ability to help somebody who's going through that is priceless. So, again, Fonda Bryant and it's Celebrate. It is suicide prevention and her nonprofit is Action Wellness Recovery.
I encourage you to just go online and look it up and just read what she's doing and stuff because it is an area that I think is kind of a silent killer in this country. And that kind of is going to bring me over to Celebrate Recovery. Dale, I tell you what. Go ahead and just take this time first to introduce yourself. Introduce me a little bit about your background accepting Jesus Christ and also your church life. And then we're going to just sort of dive into one of the ministries that you're involved in and you're heavily involved in it. And also I'm going to say I am proud and fortunate enough to serve as an elder at Pinedale with Dale. And I look forward to a lot of many more years of serving with him and seeing what God has got in store for us. Dale. Well, as you said, my name is Dale Davis and I'm a grateful believer in Jesus Christ.
And I have struggled in the past with drug addiction and bipolar disorder. A little bit about myself, just a just a quick background. I've been involved with church since my early teens and was heavily involved in our youth group at Pinedale Christian Church baptized in our youth group. And from there, I actually stood in front of our congregation and dedicated my life to full time Christian service.
And that's actually not what happened from that moment forward. I did a complete 180 and ran just as hard as I could from from the Lord and just just living life my way and not inside of God's will and got myself into a drug addiction and found myself just stuck and held hostage by drugs. So I always knew that that I wanted God. And once I found myself in that drug addiction, I knew at that point that that I needed God. And at the at the moment of surrender, that that addiction is what brought me to my surrender to Christ.
And I surrender to the Lord. And and I just remember being in that addiction and just just feeling alone, you know, like like nobody understood. Just just in that addiction to and just remember crying out to God and just just looking for a way out of it. And I remember the the whole the Holy Spirit speaking to me and just telling me that, you know, that there was there was absolutely no way out that Christ was the only way in. And, you know, it took a little while, but I just completely surrendered to God. And I remember telling God that that no matter what, that that I was his holy. That that either he either in life or death, that I belong to him and whatever he he wanted to do from that point forward.
That he had full control. And you mentioned something that I think is so so important, I think, with a Christian walk, sometimes we go through struggles in our life and we don't understand how you know how God can possibly use that for to build the kingdom or how he can find any good in it. You know, in James scripture, you know, talks about, you know, we're going to go through hardships and trials and stuff in that.
What are we called to do? You know, we leaned on, you know, if God got us through that, then we're to be that instrument that people can bring people to Christ because we, you know, I had breakfast with a group of guys on Wednesday mornings. And out of those group of guys, four of them have lost their wives.
They've passed away. And I always struggle, you know, with, you know, I can't really I can hurt for them. I could feel for them. But really, they've been able to minister to each other because they've gone through that and they can can bring hope and joy in situations because they've been through it and they've came out on the other side.
Jesus got them and God got them through it was the same thing with you. I would think I think all of a sudden when you're talking to somebody, it's a whole lot different from you saying, oh, you can you can get through this me saying it and you say in it. Yeah. Yeah.
And that's what it is. I mean, it's an instant connection. And, you know, God gets credit for that.
There's just I like to call those like God bonds and they're pretty instantaneous. And that's that's what we do and celebrate recovery. And for those that don't know, celebrate recovery is a it's a 12 step recovery program.
And it was started by John Baker at Saddleback Church in California years ago. All right, we're fixing to go to a break again. This is a calling show.
If you would like to. You've got a question for Dale or for me. Just give us a call at 866-348-7884. Again, 866-348-7884. We'll be back in just a moment.
Welcome back to Kingdom Pursues again. Call in if you'd like to give us a call. I've got a question for Dale.
866-348-7884. As we left, Dale was just kind of tell a little bit about celebrate recovery. And I'm going to before you go, I'm going to read. I got the pamphlet here and thought it was just interesting.
One of the bottom of the paper has a scripture out of Matthew passage on Matthew 11. Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Lean on me, for I am gentle and humble of heart in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You know, that's when you start breaking that passage down. That's powerful. Yeah.
Yeah, it is. And that's that's exactly the spot that we're all all in. One, you know, when we submit to the Lord and so we're all tired, we're all weary.
And and it's it's an amazing thing to to just submit to him and and and crawl up into his lap, you know, and just let him hold you in and keep you there. So, yeah, I'm going to ask you a question that you probably didn't that you didn't know I was going to ask you. But as you're telling your story a little bit, and I think it's so I think we all had some point in our our walk, especially early on, we don't we underestimate the power and the depth of God's grace. Your story. Was there a time where you didn't understand God's grace and the depth of it?
Oh, oh, yeah, most definitely. I mean, you know, when I was talking about, you know, being baptized and when I was young and and committing my life to, you know, to full time Christian service that I didn't understand, understand what that was and that grace. And even even going through drug addiction, you know, it was there was a lot of teaching there from from God to show me that grace and that his his grace is sufficient. And his grace is always a step ahead of anything that that we do or could do.
You know that. And as we go back to celebrate recovery, if someone is out there, some listener or somebody inside, inside a pond there or just in the community, and, you know, Pando isn't the only church that that does this program. So, I mean, how would you look to see if you're hearing this in Richmond, Virginia, or wherever it may Charlotte or wherever it may be? How would how would somebody be able to find this help?
Yes. So you could go on celebrate recovery's Web site and there's usually all the celebrate recoveries in particular areas that are listed. There's there's over twelve thousand celebrate recoveries in churches around the world. So there's there's no issue finding a celebrate recovery in those celebrate recoveries in all the churches.
You know, they're all follow a core curriculum from celebrate recovery, which is the twelve steps and the eight principles that that are based on the Beatitudes Sermon of the Mount. But but each one of those celebrate recoveries all have their own personality to them. So celebrate recovery is easy to find. And I would encourage anyone that's that's looking and needs help.
You can reach out and jump in one of those celebrate recoveries. And the really neat thing about celebrate recovery is, you know, a lot of folks think that it's that it's just for addictions. And that's what I was going to ask if I'm if I'm struggling with something. And then I want you to to mention that also the different types of struggles that it just addictions. But if I'm I'm struggling with something and again, I want to explain how it's everything, broad base of it. But also my next question would be, well, what's the difference between this from the Alcoholics Anonymous or are some of those other organizations out there?
Right. So so the biggest difference is, is that celebrate recovery is Christ centered recovery. And and it's it's it's 12 steps. And they are really similar to AA or NA.
But the the the biggest difference is that it's it's Christ centered. And it's actually, you know, the 12 steps is the 12 steps that Jesus Christ walks everyone through to start a relationship with him. And what what type of what what kind of why says hang ups and addictions? I'm a little bit of everything.
What what do you have? Is there anything that somebody walk in and say, you know what? What are you here for? Yeah.
Yeah. So that's what I was alluding to just a minute ago is that it's for it's not just for addiction. It's for anyone who has a we call them hurt, habit or hang up. And that's each and every one of us. So we've we've got folks with addictions, anxiety, depression, you know, addictions to pornography, you name it. If if you're hurting and you're struggling with it, then then celebrate recovery is is for you.
And you can step in there. And like I said, Satan's really good about isolating us and telling us, you know, we're the only ones who were all alone. And one of the main things for celebrate recovery is you step into that and you realize that, oh, I'm not I'm not all alone. And that you find a community, if you will, of folks that that are just struggling with things. And and if we can all come to the realization that that anything that that any of us struggle with, you know, because of sin, that these are only symptoms of a bigger issue. And, you know, that bigger issue is our deceitful and wicked hearts. And, you know, these addictions or depression or anxiety, all of these things are just symptoms of that.
And when you can come to understand that, then you can really jump in and leap into a relationship with with God and you understand why he had to come, you know, to save us and release us from from all these things. Yeah. No.
Also, I'm cheating here because I have a brochure in front of me. I did look and one of the things I thought was kind of interesting if I can find it now, where it had things we are and things we are not your if you look at it stuff, because I thought that was just interesting. It was interesting to me to just kind of read over that and stuff kind of put a put a light little bit on the on what what you would expect from it. Yes. So what what we are is, like I said, a 12 step recovery program. And to be honest with you, I really hate using the word program because it's a ministry and a program sounds really institutionalized. And that's not who the body of Christ is. You know, the body of Christ is a movement.
But but it's it's 12 step recovery program. And basically, we are, you know, focused on Christ and we teach the word of Christ and preach the word of Christ. And and we base it all off of these these eight principles.
The main things. It's more importantly, what we're not to because what we're not is is a therapist or so. We always tell everyone that, you know, we're not here to fix you.
We can't even fix ourselves. So basically what we are is just a group of folks that love Jesus Christ. And we're here to pull up alongside of you and hold your hand and and walk with you and and encourage and, you know, speak, speak life into you and into your situations. And and pretty much just connect you to Jesus Christ and let him start doing his work, you know, through through your willingness to let him start working.
Yeah. Sort of this really plays in for if anybody happened to listen to Christian Karga radio earlier, who was talking about just the body of Christ and stuff. You know, what you're saying speaks into that is the fact that, you know, as followers of Jesus Christ, one thing we need and that is a support system. And that is to know that there's other people that that care for us and love us. But the only reason that, you know, is because part of it is we're called to do that, but we're also called to do it to reflect Jesus Christ into people's lives. And to me, it's just something that that is so I think when I sit there and see situations like that and stuff and like like what goes on to celebrate recoveries probably throughout this country is you have people who are afraid to take that step because they're ashamed or don't want people to look down on them or think less of them. You know, the body of Christ, we're supposed to be there to walk, as you mentioned, walk alongside them. And I think I mean, I'm sure there's many people that walk in there that that that are doing it with looking over the shoulder, hoping they don't know anybody.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, that was one of the issues I had, you know, an addiction that's and that was that was really one thing that that kept me for a little while from from coming to celebrate recovery because it was at our home church. And that was a big issue for me was, you know, I don't want I don't want anybody to see me here or whatnot. But and to be honest with you, when I first came to celebrate recovery, I didn't really want to be there just to be completely honest. But but I kept coming and it was a struggle. And, you know, Jesus was was working. And but the more I came, the more I heard God's word, you know, and the Bible tells us, you know, consequently, faith comes from hearing the word and that's the word about Jesus Christ. So the more I came, the more that word was was being being put into me and and his word is alive and it's active. And I found myself wanting to come and wanting to be there. And and the more I came to, you know, just that willingness to take the step to let God work is the most important thing in any of our walks with Jesus Christ. And I think that's where we as as Christians really have a downfall in.
Absolutely. Be back with more of Dale's story and talk a little bit about the Celebrate Recovery and also going to kind of go to the specifics of the local body that does it that Dale's involved in and stuff. We're going to give out some information how to get plugged in again. Again, love to hear from if you have a question, give us call 866-348-7884. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com.
Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits before we get back to our hero, Dale Davis. I'm going to just take a moment to mention another ministry that we are heavily involved with here and through Kingdom Pursuits and also Christian Cargile Radio is Jesus' Labor of Love, whereas the opportunity is a ministry where we help single moms, widows and it's kind of branched out from there, but it's with transportation. And as I say often is we've became a society that you just about can't function in without transportation. And so many of the people that we help are single moms that have to work to be able to support the family.
Or they're single moms that also have children that have either disabilities or illnesses that you need to take over the doctor and back and forth. And it was just a heavy, heavy need for transportation. So many times people find out all of a sudden that they don't have that transportation.
And it just it just just really makes a huge hardship. And we through Jesus' Labor of Love, Robbie Dilmore, which was the is he God laid it in his lap and he has done some wonderful things. And Scott, with with his help in that ministry and stuff are impacting the lives of a lot of people, not just through giving them an automobile or getting their automobiles repaired, but also just taking time to pray with them.
So I'm going to throw out the opportunity. If you're listening, there's a couple of things you could do to help that ministry one go to Jesus' Labor of Love. Or you can go to a Christian car guy and it has a link to get you to Jesus' Labor of Love and just read about the ministry, what it's doing.
But you can also you can contribute. You can monetarily give give give money. And one thing about that organization, every penny that is given goes to help somebody with an automobile.
There's no administrative fees anywhere that's coming out of it. It 100 percent goes to that. If you've got that vehicle in your driveway that's eyesore and the neighbors are saying, I wish you'd get rid of that thing. You know what? Give us a call.
We take it off your hands. It could be something that you know what? You may not think it's not a pretty car or something you want to have your wife drive or you drive, but it may be something that could be a huge blessing to somebody else. I encourage you to to give us a call or maybe just have that clunker and we can turn those things into cash to be able to use to repair people's vehicles. So you can give money, give a vehicle.
You know what? One thing that everybody can do, and that is also pray for the ministry. You can go online and get part of the prayer team.
I encourage you to do that. It's Jesus' labor of love. Also ministry. And again, I'm going to say it because so many people are worried about when you donate to charities, how much really goes to that charity. One hundred percent.
Jesus' labor of love goes to assisting people with transportation. Well, Dale, back to you. And I just want to just one thing, just take a moment to as we talked and I think it's just so important to hit on the point of one is don't be embarrassed about it. It's you know what? If you if you've got an illness, that's the same thing I said about with the with mental illness.
And these are the, you know, this addictions, mental illness or some of those things that people are struggles they have that they're ashamed of. You know what? Seek help.
If you have the you think you're having a heart attack, you're going to get to the hospital as soon as you can to get get medication, get help, get get therapy or whatever it may be. But sometimes with addictions and those struggles or even just just just whatever the hardships you're going through or, you know, it's easy to say, you know, I don't want anybody to look down on me because of that. You know what?
Just understand God's grace. And there's people out there who want to help. Yeah.
Yeah. And, you know, that's one of the biggest things with addictions or mental illness, any of that stuff is as we feel ashamed. But the truth is, there's there's tons of people out there that have felt that same thing and actually took that step and and just pushed through that part. And, you know, that once you do, you realize that that there's others out there that, you know, I'm not the only one with this and that there's others out there that will walk with you and and help you.
And, you know, the main thing is, is as you seek God and and seek his help and and surrender to him and and and he begins to to work through others and and through your willingness and and you taking the step, you know, because this this thing with Jesus Christ is not a religion. It's a relationship. So, you know, it's not a one way street. He requires us to do some things. And one of those things is to take a step forward towards him.
Yeah. You know, you said something that is just powerful. And one little sentence is the fact that, you know, relationship with Christ should be about a relationship of Christ. And too many times we allow it to we think it's the structure of a structure of some kind. And sometimes religion gets put into that structure and we lose that relationship piece where, you know what, God wants to change us. And God didn't make a mistake when he created us. And God knows our potential. Now we have that free will so we can choose to take a different path. And sometimes we choose to take that different path. But then God will keep God didn't turn his back on us. So many conversations. And as an elder at Pine Dale and also Dale has had these conversations, I'm sure.
But people will be in the midst of something. And the first thing they'll say is, well, I just feel like God is distant. I feel like he's turned his back on me. Who turned who's back on who?
And God didn't win anywhere. And he's, you know, we go through it. All of a sudden, we're able to see how God is able to to work through people who have gone through that stuff. And you know what? That's that's inspiring to me. Yeah.
Yeah. It's an amazing thing. I know just that the celebrate recovery at Pine Dale. I know I know that we've had ministers that have come through to celebrate recovery. I mean, not ministers come through it, but folks come through, celebrate recovery and become ministers. We've had folks come through that have gone into the mission field. We've had folks that have come through our celebrate recovery and who are elders in the church. So it is a powerful thing to see what God can do and how he can change someone.
You know, when when they begin to to walk with him and spend time with him. Yeah. I'm going to step back 20 years. Dale, did you think God would be doing and using you the way he is today, 20 years ago? No, absolutely not.
Yeah, not at all. It's a it's it's it's a humbling and it's it's joyful. I mean, there's so many things that come to mind that that we don't really have time to to talk about today. But yeah, it's it's I'm involved with a lot of ministries at church, involved with a lot of classes, you know, teaching classes at our local church. But I mean, even more than that is is one thing that that I've really come to understand is that, you know, the great commission that Jesus Christ gave us was was to go into all the nations and create this, make disciples and baptize in his name. And when you can really grasp on to the fact that, you know, it doesn't mean going, you know, to another country.
And although it could, but, you know, is is you live with him. And, you know, in the original text, when he says go into all nations, he says, as you go, you know, so that that is is as we live our everyday life. And, you know, my full time job, I work at Admissions Pottery in Lexington, North Carolina. And the owners there actually have that little part of the business to support the mission field, which is really cool. And we memorize Bible verses and celebrate recovery at our Pinedale, celebrate recovery. You know, I started writing those on the on the chalkboard at work. And now I've got others involved memorizing scripture to just just at work. And and outside of that full time thing, I'm a chainsaw artist and I do love carvings in Midway every Saturday at Timber Creek Trading Company. And I was on hold.
I must stop you there because I want you to make mention that because as you said it, I really think. Tell a little bit where they can see you if you're here in Dale, you'd like to meet Dale. There's an opportunity on Saturdays. But if you want to see his work in the parking lot of Pinedale Christian Church, the between the parking lot and Peter's Creek did a owl carver. I think he did it in one day or something. It was it was actually like a couple hours. Wow. We'll be right back again. This is a Kingdom Pursuit call in show eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four.
Be back in a moment. You're listening to the Truth Network and Truth Network dot com. We're back with Kingdom Pursuits. I'm Jerry Matheson raised body shop and record service in the studio with Dale Davis. And we just left. And there was still a little bit about also is a chainsaw chainsaw artist.
I guess you would call it that. I know one thing. There's nothing with art.
If I got a chainsaw on my hand, you can't even confuse that with this. Put those two words together. But you do an event on Saturdays. Go ahead and just tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah, I do. Just most Saturdays I am at Timber Creek Trading Company in Midway, North Carolina. And I'm doing love chainsaw carving. So it's just it's really cool. And I love meeting everybody that that comes out and just talking with folks and and and that's where I was going earlier. It's just so cool that God's blessed me with with a really neat platform to to, you know, to grab and reel people in. And, you know, maybe the door opens up to to talk about Jesus and. Yeah, I think you missed this moment ago and one of the segments is, you know, so many times we think when, you know, the Great Commission. You know, it's as we go and you know what our mission field may be in our own home, own the same home.
You know, maybe one door down in the same house we live in or it could be a workplace. You know, God doesn't necessarily have to send us, you know, for those who God does send. Praise God for him and stuff. And we should support that and stuff. But also, sometimes we forget that our mission field may be in our in our own backyard. Yeah. Yeah. And just real quick, I know, you know, a lot of us think that we had to be a preacher to to fulfill that that Great Commission. But the truth is that it's it's all you have to do is live your life for Jesus Christ and your life in submission to God speaks volumes, you know, without words.
Yeah. And one of the areas that that Dale is heavily involved at Pinedale Christian Church is the ministry of Celebrate Recovery. And if if I'm hearing this or I know somebody that needs this, do I need to call the church office and get signed up to be able to come? And when is it? And what what is the day? What does that evening look like? I mean, is it, you know, just kind of kind of go through that walk through that?
Yes. So there's nothing you really need to do other than just show up. And we have celebrate recovery every Thursday night. And if you want to eat, we'll provide a meal that starts at six. But other than that, our our large group meeting starts at seven o'clock. And you can call the church if you want to get more information and call Pinedale Church and they'll give you more information. Or they will give you my number or phone number to a couple other leaders that can give you more information. And then we have small groups at eight o'clock from about eight o'clock to eight forty five. So all you need to do is just come.
Yeah. And I'll tell you now, because I've been in there on Thursday nights going to a meeting or something. Food always smells pretty darn good. So I think the food's really good. One thing about one thing about Pinedale, I will say, is we like to eat. Everybody likes to eat at Pinedale Christian Church, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah, that's that's definitely.
And if you said, OK, you have a meal and then you have the large gathering. What is that? I know because also they have a one night a month is the I've got what we call it. Our worship worship service.
Yeah, that is. So our large group is that's pretty much where we're all together. And and what we do is we preach and teach the word of God and just give you tools that you can use to to just to walk through life and help you push through some of those struggles. There are small groups or their gender base. So we'll split up in the men and women's groups. And that's that's really where the rubber meets the road. It is in those small groups.
And it's just kind of like you're stepping out and you're creating relationships there. Every second Thursday of the month, we have a worship service and we call that cornea. And that is open for anyone that is open for folks from different churches, folks from different ministries. And that is why we had the intentions with that worship service is to bring all folks together as one as the body of Christ.
You did. It's not a celebrate recovery specific thing. It's just to bring everyone together and in fellowship.
And that's basically what the word cornea means in Greek. So and then every last Thursday of the month, we always have a testimony of someone that's that's come through a struggle or they might still be, you know, in some struggles. But they've got to the point where just what God is putting in them is is beginning to overflow.
And and they want to share it with someone else that that it might help someone else. And I think that's a that's a big, big thing to me when you what you just said, because if you're out there and you've been through that struggle and you're looking, where can I get plugged in to be part of the body of Christ and serve and stuff? You know what? Come on Thursday night and get plugged in to be somebody else's support. Just like Dale mentioned, you know, we've gone through it.
You've got a different perspective. And one of the things on Thursday, which I always hear that, you know, because that the praise part about it, because I think sometimes we don't we don't understand, you know, that, you know, it seems to me that that sort of gets the mood set because we need to give praise to Jesus Christ and stuff. And again, Pinedale Christian Church, you can give them a call at 336-788-7600. Make sure I got that number right.
Or go online at Pinedale.Church. Again, Celebrate Recovery Thursday nights. Dale, man, I was excited to have you in here this morning.
Yeah, I was too. Thanks for having me. And I'm going to tell you right now, I'm going to tell Mark at Pulliams Hot Dogs to get ready. I'm coming up to get my hot dogs here in a minute and stuff. So again, thank you for listening. God bless and go out and share your story. It could change somebody's life.
