Matt Kelley has been sober now for more than 20 years, but before that, he was in “a bad place” for 14 years.
“I’m a preacher’s kid, and I knew what I should’ve been doing,” Kelley said. “But I made some bad decisions.”
Kelley’s work these days is in substance abuse prevention through his organization, Equip Ministries. He works hand in hand with churches like Moundville Baptist Church in Hale Baptist Association to share the gospel with the hurting.
“As a former addict Matt has a tremendous testimony of God’s grace,” said Jason Duckett, pastor of Moundville Baptist. “Now God is using his story to transform others. He has partnered with our church for community outreach events.”
Kelley has “unique methods” of sharing the gospel and has developed a curriculum designed to help the local church minister to addicts who have come through his ministry, Duckett said.
Every teenager
Because Kelley himself was a preacher’s kid who fell into addiction one of the mottos of Livingston-based Equip Ministries is that every teenager is at risk, Kelley said. He travels around the Southeast speaking to thousands of middle school and high school students, teaching them to recognize the temptations of substance use.
“We also speak in churches … to awaken the congregants on the ever progressive advancements of teen addiction, depression and suicides, then to inspire them to maturity and willingness to [push] back against these temptations,” Kelley writes on his website.
For more information visit equiponeministries.org. (Grace Thornton)
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