Photo by Brett Dunlap Carles is currently undergoing addiction treatment through Recovery Point. He has been coming to the Thrive Worship Center (and when it was still Cornerstone) in Vienna since December. He is involved in the church’s Celebrate Recovery program, a faith-based addiction recovery program which includes programs at the church.

VIENNA — A new church in Vienna is reaching out to those recovering from addiction.

The Thrive Worship Center (the former Cornerstone Gospel Church), located at 3100 17th Ave., opened about four months ago and has a congregation of around 30 people.

“Everyone here is dedicated to helping the recovery community,” said Pastor Bill Frey.

Around five years ago, Frey moved to the Mid-Ohio Valley area from California and was attending church at New Hope Baptist Church where he served as a worship leader.

“I noticed a need for recovery ministry in this town,” he said.

Photo by Brett Dunlap Pastor Bill Frey of the Thrive Worship Center (the former Cornerstone Gospel Church), located at 3100 17th Ave. in Vienna. One of the church’s main focuses has been on providing faith-based services for people being treated locally for addiction. The church’s congregation of around 30 people wanted to focus on helping the recovery community.

Frey said he had never seen anything like the drug abuse and alcoholism that was present in this area. It might have been where he was in California, but he never really saw it.

“It was almost like it was hidden, but here it was obvious,” he said.

He helped organize the Celebrate Recovery program at New Hope, a program he knew about from his time in California. He became the ministry leader of it for two years.

Cornerstone needed an associate pastor and worship leader so Frey came to the church and moved Celebrate Recovery to the church.

After a senior leader resigned and the church underwent a transition with people dispersing, a small group remained at the church and the decision was made that they were going to focus on recovery, he said.

With that change, it was decided to change the name of the church. The church members have moved out of the main chapel area and into a smaller room to better create a sense of community.

Frey wants the church to build up its numbers to around 100 people or so before they utilize the chapel again.

“We feel like we need to build community and relationships,” he said. “What is happening is the people are coming in and they are starting to talk to each other and get to know each other.

“It is really working.”

The church’s regular Sunday morning service is a non-denominational contemporary church service with music and Bible teachings. Sunday school and adult prayer starts at 9 a.m. with the service starting at 10 a.m.

Frey has been in ministry for 25 years, but has no formal training to have become a minister, learning as he went.

“I teach the Bible, chapter by chapter and verse by verse,” Frey said. “However, on Friday, it is all about recovery.”

They have 50-70 people come with a number of people from local recovery programs and facilities. They are able to bus in 30-35 people in for programs each Friday night from Recovery Point. They send cars to Amity, the Fellowship Home and others to bring people in.

“The treatment centers know we are here and we will send a car if they want us to,” Frey said.

The Friday programs concentrate on worship and recovery.

They have a band that performs and every other week there is a lesson that is part of the Celebrate Recovery program. There are 25 lessons so it takes a year to complete. On the off-weeks they have a testimony. The fourth week they have a dinner where people will bring food or a restaurant will donate food.

Then they also have a Chip ceremony where people begin the process of recovery from alcoholism, drugs, overeating, pornography, anger and all kinds of addictions that are called “hurts, hangups and habits.”

” A person takes a blue chip and they begin the journey,” Frey said. “If the person is able to stay through the whole program, you have a transformed soul.

“It is amazing.”

He feels the Thrive Worship Center offers effective tools to help people, much like the 8-12 step programs do.

“People who come here feel loved,” Frey said. “There is no condemnation and no judgment.

“There is a household that is being built. Everyone feels that and they sense a relationship is being built.”

He also feels it is a safe place where people can come and air out some of the things on their heart.

Carles is a recovery patient at Recovery Point. He has been there for seven months and is on Steps 8 and 9 of the program. His next three months will be served in the peer/mentor office working with clients.

“I have been coming here since my second day at Recovery Point,” he said. “The Celebrate Recovery program really caught my eye because it works the eight principles and is almost identical to a 12-step program and it coincides with the Bible which really helps me get through it.

“It is faith-based and you have to depend on a higher power, a power greater than yourself to help restore you back to sanity.”

His higher power is Jesus Christ who he believes brought him to the Thrive Worship Center to help build it into what he believes it could be.

“I haven’t left it since I got here,” Carles said. “I have seen some big improvements just since I have been coming here since December.”

He said when he started he felt hopeless and that he had no purpose which allowed his mental obsession to grow. Since starting with Celebrate Recovery, he feels hope and there are ways to get him out of that state of mind that allowed him to fall to addiction.

“It is a new journey and a new way of life that I never knew existed before,” Carles said.

He admits he was self-centered with everything revolving around him. It was his opening himself up to a higher power, over his own self-interests that allowed him to begin the recovery process.

Carles experienced love at the church and felt it was somewhere where he could make a difference, instead of always feeling hopeless and useless.

“I feel like I belong here,” he said.

He is planning to finish the program at Recovery Point.

Frey said they want people in recovery to come and learn how to be leaders through mentoring programs and more. The Celebrate Recovery program starts at 6:30 p.m.

“We try to keep people talking and be focused,” he said. “Our main focus is the ministry that is happening on Friday evenings.

“A lot of men and women are coming to Christ. We believe that without a faith-based program it is going to be difficult to recover.”

For more information, call 949-981-9561.

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com