Podcast Ep. 69: Opioid Addiction and the Church
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
Today is a hard topic but a necessary one. I want to talk about something the church needs to be more aware of than I think we are and that is the topic of opioid addiction. You will also find later in the podcast that this is a very personal subject for me as I choose this podcast to share publicly about my own struggle some years ago with dependance on prescription pain medication. READ MORE
Podcast Ep.67: The Pastor and Pornography (Pastor Mark Danzey)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
It’s Interesting how this podcast turned out. I asked around for someone I could interview on the subject of addiction, mainly the issue of addictions to opioids and how the church should understand it and respond and so someone was recommended to me. His name is Mark Danzey. I sat down with Mark and as we began this conversation the addiction we ended up mostly talking about was on pornography. And I agree. This is a needed conversation and one that few are willing to talk about. I sat down with a young man some time ago who said something like this. It’s weird to me that this is probably the biggest struggles guys face, but probably the one struggle no one talks about. So we are talking about it today, with Pastor Mark Danzey. Before we go to the interview let me in introduce Mark.
Mark has been providing pastoral counseling for the last 25 years. Passionate about his work, Mark has spent the last 10 years focused on working with couples in various scenarios from premarital counseling to crisis counseling. Mark is eager to help people looking to make positive changes in their life through personal relationship coaching, career coaching and executive coaching. Additionally, as a Certified Civil, Domestic and Divorce mediator, Mark helps to mediate difficult situations toward a path of peaceful and amicable resolution.
Mark holds a M.A. in Pastoral Ministries, ordination in the United Methodist Church, as well as certifications with the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals, the International Coaching Federation and the State of Georgia Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
Mark and his wife Tammy, have been married for 16 years and have four grown children and one amazing grandson!
Check out the websites that highlight Mark’s different ministry offerings:
Podcast Ep.43: Sexual Identity and the Gospel Response
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS
This is a needed conversation, especially as the church, as we believers find ourselves trying to figure out our response to the moral dilemma impacting our society. We are no longer just preparing our people on how to respond to the issues of our world, but now we are the ones struggling ourselves with these issues. Many of the issues the world now gives in to are the issues many in our churches are fighting against. It was amazing to me to watch a change take place in my last ten years of pastoring. I remember so well begging a young college girl who attended our church not to abort her baby. I even promised that our family would adopt the baby. She went through with her plans, and for the first time this was no longer a statistical crisis for me.
I remember too well the conversations I had with same sex couples who, while attended our church, struggled to find a way through and live obedient to the message of the gospel. Others who attended found it too difficult to live under the continuous invitation to embrace the gospel message.
I cannot count how many conversations I had with young men struggling with the ravages of pornography, many of them deeply addicted. I really don’t think we can have too many conversations about these many issues on what I am titling for this podcast; Sexual Identity and the Gospel Response. The big question we are going to wrestle through today is how can the church remain committed to the gospel and in a loving and caring way speak out against the ravages of sexual addiction while at the same time speaking for the person who is caught up in these issues.
I had the privilege of meeting Gene Shroeder several years ago through a mutual friend and because of his expert training and experience in counseling people with sexual addictions I asked him to sit down with me for an honest and open conversation on exactly this; What is the gospel response to sexual addiction.
Gene Schrader, founder and director of North Atlanta Counseling Services (NACS), is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors (A.A.C.C.). He has been in private practice since 1977 with extensive experience in individual therapy, marriage and family therapy, teenage problems and sexuality. He brings God’s truth to those in conflict within their marriages, adjusting and grieving to losses in life, and depression.
A frequent speaker for church groups, he has conducted seminars on sexuality, bonding and true intimacy, parenting and fathering, overcoming affairs, and loyalty. Gene earned his masters degree in counseling from Georgia State University concurrently while attending Psychological Studies Institute (a Christian psychological institute). He has been in Christian related ministries since 1972.
Married since 1963, Gene and his wife, Eldeen, have two daughters, a son, and five grandchildren.