Montavilla Neighborhood Association

They Shall Overcome (New Beginnings Church)...

Apr 10, 2000

Overcomers, New Beginnings' 12-step program.

BY RACHEL GRAHAM
Willamette Week, March 29, 2000
rgraham@wweek.com

Every Thursday evening, 50-some people file into an old, converted gym at New Beginnings Christian Center on Northeast Glisan Street.

People wander in and greet each other, while a preppy guy tunes his guitar. There's no majority here, attendees are young and old, black, white and Latino, well-dressed and shabby. Some are regulars at these weekly meetings; others are about to admit for the first time they have an addiction they can't control.

They come to Overcomers, New Beginnings' 12-step program, because they know the pastors here can identify with them and have tailored this meeting to them. Pastor Larry Reed, with faded tattoos covering his forearms, was a junkie for 18 years before getting saved in San Quentin. Assistant Pastor Peter King, a car dealer by day, was in and out of prison seven times before getting saved. Assistant Pastor Joe Wilkins became an alcoholic after his father was murdered and his mother died. He testifies often about crying out to God when he was "hog-tied and bleeding after being beaten by the police" in a Texas jail.

Clearly, they don't constitute the traditional pastoral trinity you'll find at mainstream churches, but neither are they tending to the most traditional flock. "We've had dysfunctional lives," Reed says to the group during one meeting. "We have our own walk, our own culture and you can't expect to just walk into a normal church and have it work. We're not gonna ask you to be 'religious,' just to be yourselves."

At times Overcomers resembles an old-fashioned tent revival, as Reed, 70, falls into the cadence of a circuit preacher--pacing in front of the congregation, pumping his arms and adding emphatic syllables: "And-eh, somebody here today-eh is going to be-eh released...."

Several people speak in tongues during prayers. Others recount miraculous healings for Hepatitis C, STDs, AIDS. Every week people testify to their lives being turned around through 12-steps and Jesus. According to Reed, Overcomers averages an 80 percent success rate.

Overcomers is at once central and incongruous to New Beginnings' ministry. The defeat of demons provides authenticity to New Beginnings' message of religious victory, but the rawness displayed in the old gym also seems at odds with the church's polished image.

People here don't talk about new cars and gifts of real estate. They talk about a craving-free day, living through withdrawal and landing a minimum-wage job. "I kept coming back here," said Chadwick Thomas, 23, before one meeting, "and nobody criticized me. They care about me and want to see me get better."