Our Mission

Mission Statement: To minister the Good News of Christianity to individuals caught in the cycles of poverty, hopelessness, and chemical addictions by meeting their spiritual, physical, social, psychological, and vocational needs.

SPIRITUAL – We are a Christian recovery program. We believe that with Jesus Christ as our higher power, recovery from any addiction is possible. We provide Biblically based counseling, we share the gospel of Jesus Christ and encourage worship through chapel services and Bible studies.

MENTAL – We strive to conquer feelings of shame, worthlessness, inferiority, defectiveness, and powerlessness by providing our clients a safe place to begin to trust and exhibit openness.

PHYSICAL – We address drug and alcohol abstinence with licensed and certified substance abuse counselors. We provide opportunities for physical education and recreation. Our nurses assist clients in dealing with other health issues they may have.

SOCIAL – Since individual maturity stops at the onset of addiction, our goal is to provide an environment where the client may improve relationships with friends and family members. We also provide counseling for family members with our trained staff.

VOCATIONAL - Training, through therapeutic job placement, is provided to the client, enabling them to reenter society as a productive member.

Our History

Founded in 1938, the Charlotte Rescue Mission has a long history of reaching out to the homeless and to those battling addictions. Today, the mission provides an intensive drug and alcohol recovery program to homeless or about to become homeless men and women. Our goal is to address the spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, social, and vocational issues of addiction with each person and return them as contributing members of society.

Over the years the Rescue Mission has been located in several different uptown Charlotte buildings. It also has had several different names but the commitment to serving the homeless and sharing the gospel of Christ has never changed.

During these years many of the homeless that came to the mission had problems with addictions. In 1990, the Mission made a commitment to have a Christian staff trained in substance abuse. This began a 90 day residential program to help the clients change their lives and become productive citizens in the community. This program is known as Rebound and has served thousands of men since it began.

In 1992 our women’s program, Dove’s Nest, was started in a Dilworth location. Dove’s Nest currently provides similar training and counsel for twelve women battling addictions.

1995 saw the opening of a men’s halfway house further providing opportunities to men to get their feet on the ground and to continue the support they need to stay drug/alcohol free.

In 2008, we re-opened our Dove’s Nest Continuing Care Division adding 8 long term program beds for the women.

Our Philosophy

We accept the American Medical Association’s definition of alcoholism (and other drug addiction) as:

“…an illness that is characterized by significant impairment in the emotional, psychological, spiritual, physical, and social areas that is directly associated with the persistent and excessive use of alcohol and drugs. Impairment may involve psychological or social dysfunction. Alcoholism and other drug addictions also are manifested as a type of drug dependence of pathological extant and pattern, which ordinarily interferes seriously with the patient’s mental and physical health and his adaptation to his environment”.

We recognize alcohol and drugs as powerful and addictive chemical substances. We further believe that alcoholism and chemical dependency has a genetic basis in many individuals. In others, it is the result of repeated heavy drinking and drug abuse, even in the absence of a genetic predisposition.

Concerning the spiritual implications of alcoholism and chemical dependency, we believe it has its roots in alienation from God and the violation of conscience. We accept the Biblical definition of “drunkenness” as a sin, which prohibits those who practice it from entrance into the Kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21). We believe that God’s power is able to deliver individuals from the compulsion to drink and abuse drugs, and to set them free from the emotional, psychological, social, spiritual, and physical consequences of a chemically abusive lifestyle.

Although an individual may be delivered from the compulsion to drink or abuse drugs (and is no longer an “abuser” in the spiritual sense), we recognize they are still an alcoholic or chemical abuser in the therapeutic sense. We believe the continued use of alcohol or drugs results in changes in the emotions, mind, and body that do not disappear upon an alcoholic’s or drug abuser’s salvation. On a physiological level, they will always be “sensitized” to alcohol or drugs. Total abstinence, therefore, is a must – any use of alcohol or drugs can “activate” the chemical mechanisms of addiction leading to compulsive drinking or drug abuse. We believe this physical aspect of the disease of alcoholism and chemical dependency will remain with the recovering alcoholic or drug abuser until he is glorified and receives his new body from the Lord. With the acknowledgement of this fact, the Christian alcoholic or drug abuser will be all the more diligent to abstain from drinking or taking drugs, recognizing the dire consequences of alcohol or drug use. We further believe that, if the individual never drinks or abuses drugs again, the physical aspect of the illness will have no other actual effect on their life and Christian walk.

We believe that professional counseling and therapy is usually necessary to help individuals to overcome the consequences of alcoholism and chemical dependency. Also, we recognize that alcoholism or drug abuse is a “family illness”, and believe that all members of the abuser’s family need to be a part of the recovery process by receiving specialized help themselves. We accept the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as a reliable and orderly approach to recovery from alcoholism and chemical dependency. We identify the higher power as the person and work of Jesus Christ. We also believe there are some very specific scriptural principles that must be applied to such an individual to assist them in a victorious and fruitful Christian walk.

Many of the attitudes, temptations, feelings, and patterns of thought resulting from the alcoholic’s or drug abuser’s lifestyle are not immediately removed upon the abuser’s rebirth. We believe these things constitute elements of this “sinful nature”, or “flesh”, that they will struggle with as long as they remain in this world. Therefore, through a process of discipleship, he must “transform by the renewing of his mind”. (Romans 12:2) and must learn to “walk in the Spirit that he might not fulfill the desires of the flesh”. (Galatians 5:16)

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