RU Recovery Program

What is RU?
RU is a biblically based, Christ-centered recovery program, designed to rescue, recover, and restore those in addictive behaviors with the power of the hidden life found only in Jesus Christ. RU is an addiction recovery class, that started in Rockford, Illinois, and offers residential help for addicted men and ladies, that now has expanded into churches, prisons, and online resources across USA communities and around the world. Hill Village Bible Church meet’s every Friday night from 7:00-9:00 PM at Central Street Mission, 333 Central St, Franklin NH.

To the Addict – RU is the way I found hope and freedom from habits that have held me in bondage far too long.

To the Family/Friend of an Addict – RU is a place where I found hope for my loved one and help for my deepest hurts.

To the Child – RU is the place I found security and happiness, and I got my parents back.

To the Struggling Teenager – RU is a program that reached me with the good news and taught me about dealing with relevant issues teens face.

To the Pastor – RU is the tool that brought hope to my community and revival to my church.

To the Church Member – RU is the pathway God used to expose my personal struggles

To the Inmate – RU is the only place I found freedom, even though I was incarcerated.

To the Chaplain – RU is the catalyst for lasting change among inmates.

To the Correctional Officer – RU helped me understand my position and influence as a minister of God for good.

To the Judge – RU is the program we partnered with to reduce recidivism in our community. Now we see them as productive citizens active in our community.

To God – RU is one of His greatest tools to accomplish His great commission.

The Story Of RU

RU began as a Bible Study at North Love Baptist Church in April, 1996, with just one student. That person left after one week, and the next four weeks were spent teaching the spouses of the teachers. After those weeks, four new people began to attend. These four attended for the next two years. Their addictions became the foundation that the ministry would build on: food addiction, crack cocaine, alcohol, and pornography. Four different people, four crippling addictions, yet only one need: Jesus Christ! Over the course of this little Bible Study began to grow as the Truth began to make people free.

In 2000, this Friday night program, complete with curriculum, began to be implemented into other communities across the country. Today, over 1,000 chapters of RU have been planted across the globe!

Along with our local recovery ministry, RU also runs two residential treatment programs, (one for men and one for women) to restore broken lives. God has blessed us with the acquisition of two former nursing homes where the heart of our ministry resides. These two locations, once broken down and vacated, are now beautifully restored like the lives of those who live there and victoriously graduate the program.

RU Has Three Core Values
What We Believe About Addictions

There are well over 25 million addicts in America. Every addict significantly impacts the lives of at least four people, which means that well over 100 million people in our society are impacted by the devastating results of addiction and are in search of hope and healing. At some point the addicted will look instinctively to our local churches for answers. In order to reach them, we must be ready to minister to the addicted and their families.

Addiction by one definition is “to cause to become physiologically or psychologically dependent on a habit-forming substance.”
Addiction by another definition is “to occupy oneself or involve oneself in something habitually or compulsively.”
Addiction is an unnatural obsession with anything other than God.
Addiction is any appetite on a binge.
Addiction is anything you continue to do knowing it is harmful for you.
Addiction is a disorder caused by sin.
Addiction is anything that brings you into spiritual bondage.
Addiction is being under the rule of anything other than the Holy Spirit.
Addiction is anything to which I run to meet my needs apart from God.
Addiction is any coping mechanism I use to deal with disappointments.
Addiction is any sin, because all sin is addictive.
The word “ADDICTED” is found only one time in the Bible. I Corinthians 16:15 refers to those that “addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.”

Galatians 5 illustrates 4 different manifestations of addictive behavior:

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. – (Galatians 5:19-21)

Immorality – “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,”

NOTE: Addiction reveals itself in many forms of immorality, including, but not limited to: pornography, sex outside marriage, and homosexuality.

Idolatry – “idolatry, witchcraft,”

NOTE: Addiction is a worship disorder. Idolatry is when the object of our worship is something or someone other than God. Witchcraft comes from the Greek word “pharmakeia,” which deals with the use of drugs to alter one’s behavior.

Interpersonally – “hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,”

NOTE: Addiction manifests itself negatively in our relationships. It isolates us from others, leaving us with insecurity issues and a sense of abandonment.

Intoxicants – “drunkenness, revellings,”

NOTE: Addiction is commonly recognized as the party life, involving drunkenness, and drug use. Life becomes about “chasing the dragon” and going after the next high.

At RU, we help individuals overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21) by teaching them to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

The biblical secret to overcoming addictions is found in Galatians 5:16: “This is say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

The goal then is not merely to get out from under the control of an addictive habit, but also to get under the control of the Holy Spirit. How to do this is taught in our Strongholds Study Course in each of the following venues: