The following is a transcript from the video below on how to do an intervention from a Christian perspective. Doing an intervention on an alcoholic is certainly worth the effort. One of the things the creator of the video points out is that the bible teaches that if your brother has sin in his life go and speak to him about it. If he accepts what you have to say, great! If he rejects you, let him go.
Transcript:
It’s difficult at times to admit that we’re wrong. It’s more difficult at times to face the truth that we need to change and that would be true certainly of those whom we love. Now there is an interesting plan that God presents. From a Christian perspective this is scriptural. It’s called a crisis intervention.
In Matthew 18:15, you will see that there is power in numbers. That’s what the bible is saying.
“If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you’ve won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”
The first meeting takes place without the alcoholic/addicts knowledge. You will go around and rehearse four things – the personal appeal, the past, the pain and the plea.
I, by the way, led a crisis intervention with a man who was an alcoholic. He was a doctor. I had a very, very close friend and it was her son and he and I had the best relationship. We had such respect for each other and yet I saw him cry to her and so I pulled various people. I had his mother to help decide who would be a part of this crisis intervention and there were key people. There were between 8 and 10 people there and each one knew which order in which they would speak for the second meeting.
I will tell you it made a difference and he did accept the plan. He did go to a treatment center and he came back and he had learned so much about himself, and learned what he needed not to do in order to be the person God created him to be.
Sometimes we have to get help. In other words, it’s not an issue of what we know that’s true. But the bible says there is wisdom in many counselors and at that time of the crisis intervention, you can be a part of being one of those many counselors to give wisdom, and prayerfully to change another person’s life.
The bottom line is we need to be ready to help those who at the time cannot help themselves. The reason we do that is because there is hope for everyone’s heart for full recovery.
JC: I’ve personally participated in an intervention that worked. The alcoholic family member was desperately in need of help. We met with professionals who coached us through the entire process. We actually did a few practice runs of some of the things that we were going to say to the alcoholic/drug-addict. The results of our efforts is that the person decided to go into treatment. When they got out, they continued to attend Alcoholics Anonymous and have maintained their sobriety for several decades now. Had we not tried to convince the addict they needed help, they could have very well died from the disease of alcoholism. Crisis interventions work and are worth trying at least once.
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