Recovering Drug Addict Finds His Way Back to Pulpit

Six years after stepping down as senior pastor of Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas, Rev. Skip Ryan is now returning as an associate pastor. His story is appeared in yesterday’s Dallas Morning News. Here’s a bit of it:

Outwardly, Ryan seemed a model of success. Park Cities Presbyterian was formed in 1991 as a more conservative offshoot of Highland Park Presbyterian. Ryan was called to be the new church’s first senior minister.

And in just a few years, the church had grown from 1,000 to 5,000 and had purchased the former Highland Baptist Church facilities on Oak Lawn Avenue.

But inwardly, Ryan said, he felt less and less capable and ever more burdened by all his responsibilities. One day in 2002, he was suffering from a pounding headache. Instead of the usual remedies, he took some leftover pain pills.

“Alarm bells should have gone off in my head, but they didn’t,” he said. And at first, the painkillers were great, seeming to cure all that ailed him. “The pills helped with more than one kind of pain,” he said.

But before he knew it, he was addicted — lying and conniving to keep the supply coming. And his dual life led to even more pain than he had felt before.

I am really grateful to read how to have read how this story ends. Read the rest here.