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RU Recovery Ministries · Fridays, 7:00 PM
Some chains are more literal than others.
Every Friday night at seven, a room in this building fills with people who are done pretending. No dues. No waiting list. No requirement to be sober, religious, or presentable when you walk in.
Currently paused
RU Recovery is on pause while we find a new director. Friday night meetings will resume once a new director is in place.
Until then, the church is still here for you. Call us any time, or send a private prayer request and our prayer team will pray for you.
“For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”Galatians 5:13 · New King James Version
Interested in leading RU?
If God is leading you to serve as director of RU Recovery, we would like to hear from you. Call 484-401-0285 or reach out through our contact page, and tell us a little about yourself.
Walk in. That’s the whole process.
There is no intake form, no referral, no insurance question, and no one at a desk deciding whether you qualify. Friday, 7:00 PM, the main doors.
Delaware County has been hit hard. We are not going to pretend otherwise, and we are not going to talk around it with soft language because it makes a church website more comfortable to read.
Addiction. Alcohol. Pills. Anger that scares the people who live with you. Things nobody at work knows about. Habits that started as relief and turned into a landlord. If you’re reading this at eleven o’clock at night because you searched for help and ended up here — you’re in the right place, and you don’t have to explain yourself to anyone before Friday.
What RU is for
If it has a hold on you, it belongs in this room. Here is a start, and it is not the whole list.
Substances
- Alcohol
- Prescription pills and painkillers
- Heroin, fentanyl, and other opioids
- Meth, cocaine, and crack
- Marijuana
- Sleeping pills and anxiety medication
- Nicotine, vaping, and tobacco
- Huffing and inhalants
Sex and relationships
- Pornography
- Sexual sin and lust
- Affairs and infidelity
- Sexting and online chat
- Unhealthy relationships and codependency
Habits and compulsions
- Food: overeating, bingeing, or starving yourself
- Gambling and sports betting
- Video games
- Social media and your phone
- Shopping and spending
- Overwork
The heart
- Anger and rage
- Bitterness and unforgiveness
- Fear, worry, and anxiety
- Grief and loss
- Lying and secrets
- Self-harm
- Anything else that has a hold on you
What RU actually is
RU Recovery Ministries is a Christ-centered discipleship program. That word matters. It is not a lecture series and it is not a meeting where you say a sentence about yourself and leave. It is a structured program built on the conviction that Jesus Christ has the ability to lift the chains of addiction and every other stronghold in a person’s life — not manage them, lift them.
That is a real claim and we make it on purpose. Plenty of people in that room tried everything else first.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me… he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”Luke 4:18 · King James Version
Why this church, of all places
Our pastor did not come to this from a seminary classroom. Michael Wilps was a roofer before he was saved, and after God called him to preach he ended up leading what grew into the largest prison ministry on the East Coast — years spent inside, with men whose worst decisions were a matter of public record.
There is nothing you can say in that Friday room that is going to change how anyone looks at you. Most of the people in it have a story like yours, and the man who leads this church has heard harder ones than both of you put together.
Family members are welcome too
If you are the wife, the mother, the brother, or the grown child of someone in this — you are carrying something heavy of your own, and you are welcome Friday night whether or not they ever come with you.
Before you come
What you’re probably worried about
Do I have to be sober to come?
No. Come as you are — that phrase means something specific here. Nobody is going to test you, smell your breath, or turn you away at the door.
Do I have to be a Christian, or go to this church?
No, and no. RU is Christ-centered, so you will hear about Jesus — we would be lying to you if we hid that. But you do not have to believe anything, join anything, or attend on Sunday to sit in that room on Friday.
Will I have to talk in front of everyone?
Not on your first night, and not on any night you don’t want to. You can come, sit, listen, and leave without saying a word. A lot of people do exactly that for weeks before they say anything.
Who is going to find out I was there?
Nobody. There is no sign-in sheet, no records kept, and no report filed anywhere. What is said in that room stays there.
What does it cost?
Nothing. There are no dues, no fees, no materials to buy, and no offering you’re expected to contribute to.
How long does it run?
Friday nights, every week, all year. It does not break for summer and it does not have a session you have to wait for. Start this Friday.
I’m not the addict — my son is. Can I come?
Yes. Bring yourself whether or not he ever comes with you. Loving someone through this is its own kind of exhausting, and you need somewhere to put it down.
One important thing
RU Recovery is a discipleship ministry. It is not a detox facility, a medical program, or a substitute for professional treatment, and we will never tell you to stop taking medication a doctor prescribed you.
If you are in withdrawal, overdosing, or in immediate danger, call 911 first. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, call or text 988 — the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — and then come see us. Getting medical help first is not a failure of faith. It’s wisdom, and we’ll still be here Friday.
Why the name fits
This church is named for a verse about setting captives free.
Leviticus 25:10 — the words cast into the Liberty Bell twenty minutes up the road — commanded a year when every debt was cancelled and every slave went home. We did not pick that name to sound patriotic. We picked it because it is what we believe God still does.
Friday night is where that stops being a nice idea and starts being someone’s actual Tuesday morning.
This Friday
7:00 PM. 3210 Concord Road. Come through the front doors.
You do not need to call first, prepare anything, or be ready. Being ready has never been the requirement.