Our Vision

Church Army’s heartbeat is for the least, the last, and the lost; the misfit and the misunderstood; those with broken lives, broken dreams, and broken hearts.  We know this road well, for in some form or another it has been the path we’ve traveled.  We are as Sam Shoemaker once remarked, “Ordinary men and women with great need who have found a great answer, and do not hesitate to make it known wherever they can – a trained army of enthusiastic, humble, human workers whose efforts make life a different thing for other people!”

Church Army’s story began in 1882 when a clergyman in London saw that the church had become disengaged and out of touch with the vast number of the lower class and the poor, as well as the violent and the criminal.  Though his tactics would be scandalous to many of the upper class and ‘respectable church folk,’ Wilson Carlile took his heart and mission to the slums and the streets, and Church Army was born.

Today Church Army exists as a worldwide fellowship with independent societies in places such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Canada, Jamaica, Barbados, and others.  Church Army Fort Wayne is the newest branch organization of Church Army USA, headquartered in Branson, MO.  Our mission is the same as it was 129 years ago: where the addicted feel hopeless, where the hurting feel alone, and where the misfit feels abandoned…it is there that we seek to be, for it is there that Jesus walks in the midst.

What We Do

Church Army Fort Wayne offers the fundamental message and planned program of action offered to the world of alcoholism and addiction. The Common Solution Recovery program meets two hours weekly over a five week period and takes each person step by step through the program of action and recovery.  The Way Out Workshops are a one day intensive presentation of the program.  Trained and experienced peers present an in-depth study and hands-on assistance in the understanding and knowledge of “How It Works” to new members of the addicted community, many of whom return to become instructors in this life-changing course to recovery.

Who We Are

A native of northern Michigan, Shane was raised on a dairy farm and lived as an extreme sport junky. From racing motocross across the state of Michigan to snowboarding in the Rockies, life consisted of the thrill of the day. Unfortunately, by the time he graduated from high school in 1994 he was what he defines as a poly-addict (as many kinds of drugs and alcohol as often as you can get them).

When Shane was nineteen he moved to Florida where he was trained as a stuntman with the dream of being rich and famous, but as he says, cocaine has a way of changing your priorities. He returned to Michigan due to a warrant for his arrest. Life continued on its downward spiral until May of 1997 when all of that would change. “It was as if divine intervention showed me the cesspool of my life, while simultaneously revealing to me the epic journey that was planned for me since the foundations of the world.” All of life began to change, and a new storyline began to emerge. This began by way of the fundamental principles that are now taught in Church Army’s “Way Out” workshops.

Now married to his wife, Tana, they have six children. Shane has been a pastor for the last eight years. He has recently left full-time parish ministry to establish Church Army Ft. Wayne with the same heart and passion that Wilson Carlile had when he established Church Army in England in 1882. “I’m still a misfit,” he would say as one who has never fit the traditional church mold, “but this epic gets bigger and deeper and grows with daily anticipation the longer I walk it.”

Testimonies

Like most people, I didn’t really get into full blown addiction until my early teens. As a young child I was around addiction all the time. I was passed around between aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents. I never had a place to call home. When I dropped out of high school, I started roofing with a local methamphetamine dealer. It was a perfect job for an addict. Get as high as you could, and go to work. At 19, I married my high school sweetheart. We spent the first couple of years having a great time, with no responsibility. Then, she gave her life to Christ, and everything changed.

I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal to smoke a little pot or do a little meth. I wasn’t hurting anybody, right? Our first son was born October 12, 1997. My wife started pressuring me to stop using. I just started hiding it. The more I hid it, the worse I got. I started my own roofing business around the birth of our first son. It was very successful, but I was using more and more. May 6, 2000, I fell 26′ to a concrete floor. I had been smoking a lot of meth that day. It put me in the hospital with a severely broken pelvic bone and lower vertebrae compressed. I knew things were getting out of control, but I wasn’t willing to admit it. I ended up on Oxycontin for the pain. I loved the way it made me feel! It wasn’t long before I started using the needle. Everything went crazy then. I couldn’t stop! I lost the business, lost a full ride scholarship to U of Arkansas. I broke into my wife’s Grandpa’s house to steal his medicine. They charged me with breaking and entering and stealing controlled substance. I went to the methadone clinic in Springfield, MO to try to control it. I just abused that, too. My family tried to help me any way they could think of – interventions, treatment centers, hospitals, psychiatric wards. You name it, they tried it.

Eventually, my parole officer got sick of me testing dirty. She sent me to a local treatment center called The Larry Simmering Recovery Center. Something was different about that place. People were happy to be there. Saturday morning, a guy came to teach a Big Book study. He was from a place called Church Army Branson. I had never heard anyone talk like this guy. He showed me something called the cycle of addiction. It was like he told my whole life story in an hour. A couple of weeks later, they took us to the Way Out Workshop. They broke down the Twelve Steps straight out of the book. They told us it was a new design for living. When I got out of treatment, I started taking classes at their office called Common Solution Recovery. Basically, it was the workshop, only in more detail. I found someone to help me through the steps and worked them right away. Everything in me changed. I had a relationship with a Higher Power who did for me what I could not do for myself. I started working with others, sharing the message of hope with the still suffering, and started teaching the classes, as well. Now I’m the guy who goes into the treatment center to do the Big Book Study. Thanks to God for using Church Army to show me the Way Out!

After checking my husband into several treatment centers and mental hospitals we were losing hope. Nothing could keep him from using. The doctors tried methadone, anti-depressants, anxiety meds… you name it, they tried it. He still continued to abuse whatever got into his hands. I could see the torture in my husband’s eyes – he was a slave to drugs. He was in a pit, and no one knew how to help him get out.

Then one day, Church Army stepped into our lives. He started taking classes that showed him the cycle of addiction. They showed him how to work the steps, and I watched as my husband started to change. For the first time in ten years of marriage he didn’t get high. He was happy, full of joy, and peace was beginning to return to his life. Now, six and a half years later, God is using my husband to share the message with others, in order to set them free from the chains of addiction. Our family is so thankful to God for using Church Army to save my husband’s life and the life of our family.

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