New Life Dream Center Interview

Please provide a brief overview of the New Life Dream Center:

The New Life Dream Center (NLDC) is a 12-month men’s and women’s discipleship program specializing in drug, alcohol, and substance abuse treatment. Established in Contra Costa County in the State  of California in 2012, the New Life Dream Center, formerly The New Life Center, officially opened its doors in 2004. It was owned and operated as a ministry of Family Worship Center, a 501 (c)(3) organization established and incorporated in the State of California in 2001. In April 2011 Pastor Jonathan Gee met with Pastor Matthew Barnett, founder of the Los Angeles Dream Center, a nationwide ministry that is the model for all Dream Centers in the U.S. Pastor Jonathan, with the blessing of Pastor Matthew, renamed the facility The New Life Dream Center (NLDC). 

The New Life Dream Center emphasizes the importance of treating clients with dignity while helping them reintegrate into society as productive, drug free individuals. The efforts of the staff, volunteers, and recently rehabilitated individuals whose lives have been dramatically changed are paramount to the success of New Life Dream Center.  NLDC walks in the spirit of love in the presence of whomever, wherever, forever.  Before you can discover God’s plan and purpose for your life, you must first love yourself and know “God loved you first.”

How did the vision start for the Dream Center?

Twelve years ago my wife, Laura, and I were called to pioneer a new work in Brentwood, CA. We started by doing what we knew, youth and children's events, feeding the hungry, and reaching out to the less fortunate. In doing this, the church began to grow and God was sending a lot of people to us with life-controlling issues, such as drug and alcohol addiction. These people came from all backgrounds, race, and economic positions. However, we were not seeing long term success due to a lack of discipleship. We felt called to have a ministry that provided that discipleship. We actually started by taking a 52-year-old woman into our home. My mom, Diana Gee, had started ministering to her through a Bible study at a run-down trailer park our church had been ministering to every Saturday with a message of hope, grocery giveaway, and activities for children. Seeing the transformation that came from discipleship ignited the dream to have a place where others could get their lives back from life-controlling issues. We found a house to rent, but unfortunately, after pouring our lives into the woman for four months, she walked away for a cigarette, which led to a drink, and then that drink led her back to the destructive life she came from. My wife and I were devastated. The following Sunday morning, God sent three men bound by addiction to the altar where they gave their hearts to the Lord and cried out for help. We put those three men in that little green house, and so began the NLDC in 2003.

Please provide a brief snapshot of what the program looks like:

The New Life Dream Center discipleship program is structured as a four (4) level Christ-centered program.  Each potential disciple goes through an intense intake/interview process.  The Levels Program is designed to give unique opportunities to disciples based on their behaviors and attitudes. This method provides the disciple with an understanding that the choices they make directly affects the benefits and rewards they receive in life. Those not interested in progressing forward with healthy positive choices will not reap the benefits and privileges that accompany positive choices. All disciples enter the program at Level One (1).  They have an opportunity to move forward to greater rewards and responsibilities, or regress to fewer privileges and less responsibility. 

The disciples are guided through the following four (4) program Levels: 

a) Scripture Memorization

b) Christian Counseling

c) Guidance to Understanding God’s Principles

d) Teachings on How to Live in God’s Will. 

The discipleship program provides the following services:

1)     Accommodations

2)     Comprehensive substance abuse counseling and education (intense daily counseling).

3)     Transportation

4)     Assisting clients with appropriate referrals to a vast network of community resources.

5)     A transition home upon graduation if there is no stable drug free environment available to them. 

6)     We also assist clients with job searches, training, and viable employment.

7)     Providing in-depth Drug and Alcohol education.

8)     Helping reduce the stigma of the alcoholic/addict through education and community outreach.

9)     Effectively represent the interests of substance abuse treatment to clients, the community, referring agencies, and other involved parties.

10)  Life Coping Skills

11)  Hands-on job training

In addition, NLDC provides work therapy for disciples that encourages a strong work ethic, gives the disciples a chance to learn marketable job skills, and obtain sustainable employment.  Disciples are also encouraged to participate in community service in the areas of neighborhood beautification, graffiti removal, and elderly assistance with yard work.

Our disciples also have the opportunity to become world leaders by attending our affiliate Messenger College. Messenger College is committed to developing world-changing Pentecostal leaders for the 21st century. Disciples are challenged in their studies as they learn more about God and His creation and mission.  They also have the opportunity to gain skills and experiences necessary for leadership in the changing world.

How many current residents do you have?

Currently we are able to house 12 men and two staff members in the men’s division and 7 women and 1 staff member in the women’s division. They come to us from desperate families, churches, jails, prisons, as well as the people we sweep right off the streets.

Please share the story of your new property:

As more people hear about the success of the program, we are receiving calls and letters from all over the nation. Unfortunately we have no space available. Our church has stepped out in faith and purchased a brand new 50-unit hotel, which will house the men and women of the NLDC, as well as families in crisis. We will now be able to help over 100 people and house staff as well. The building is built and furnished. We still need to finish the parking lot and some utilities and electrical.

What advice/counsel would you give a local church/pastor considering starting a similar program?

We have found drug addiction is no respecter of persons. It affects rich, poor, educated, uneducated, black, white, and everything in between. The church as a whole has a misconception that somehow these people are drug addicts and alcoholics because they want to be.  We say things like “this is their choice; they’ve made their bed, let them lie in it.” The fact is, they are too weak to fight for themselves and need the hope that we have in Jesus to believe that God has a plan and a purpose for their life. The enemy has stolen their dreams and they find themselves in captivity much like the children of Israel when the prophet Jeremiah delivered them a message of hope: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV). 

Anyone can start this ministry. We started with little or nothing, and just began to love people the world had given up on. We can’t wait for these people to come to us. We must take the message of hope to them. As the church, we hold the key to their freedom through Jesus Christ.  This ministry will be the toughest in your church, but in turn is the most fruitful. Paul called us to share in Christ’s suffering that we might also share in His glory. We have found no case too big or too drastic for transformation to occur. Jesus works every time. God doesn’t make junk.  Every man, woman, or child that you will ever come in contact with are God’s creation designed with a plan and a purpose. In every case, when people receive the hope of Him, the gem that God has created them to be is uncovered.

Share some testimonies from the program:

Alex Riggs: “I was born Memorial Day, which should have been a day of celebration, but in reality it was the day my mother left me at the hospital. My grandparents, who owned a bar, raised me for several years until they died. I went into the Foster Care System and was bounced from home to home and made to feel expendable. The only constant in my life was school, and I was good at it. I graduated, and even went to college a while and obtained a good job in the defense industry. I started to party with coworkers, and the substance abuse started taking hold of my life. I continued to have other jobs and succeed through the world’s standards and even owned my own home. Drug and alcohol abuse escalated and I ended up losing everything and was sleeping under a bridge a stone’s throw away from Family Worship Center. I would come out regularly to try to bum beer money from Pastor Jonathan. He would give me food and tell me to come see him when I wanted to get my life back. One rainy Sunday I was tired of it all and remembered the invitation. I washed my muddy shoes in a mud puddle and went to church. As I sat in the back of the church and heard Pastor say, “God doesn’t make junk!” I surrendered my life to Christ that day and entered the NLDC. That was 5 years ago, and I now have a great job in the computer industry and am on staff at night at the NLDC. I give back to men in the program for the life the program gave back to me. I have since been reconciled to the mother that left me at the hospital that Memorial Day and have siblings and family that are a big part of my life.

 Jacob Luna: “I was raised in a good Christian home with parents involved in ministry. In high school I was a rising basketball prospect. A serious car accident ended that hope. After several operations and an addiction to pain killers, I landed at University of Tennessee. There my addiction advanced to include alcohol. In spite of my lifestyle, I graduated an empty person with no direction that had given up on any dreams I once had. Thankfully, my parents wouldn’t give up on the son they knew and loved. They called the NLDC and I went to California to see what God had in store for me. What did I have to lose? I am happy to say that after graduating the New Life Dream Center Discipleship program I went on to acquire my Masters in clinical psychology. Today I am married to my beautiful wife and we are expecting our first child.”

Melissa Loon:” I was born into a middle class Nazarene family in South Dakota. I loved church, loved the Lord, and never missed a youth camp. After moving to Colorado with my family and a few bad choices, I ended up a pregnant teen. I was sent away from my family and a youth group that I loved to have the baby and give it up for adoption to a nice family. I returned home to carry on as if everything was normal. I went on to graduate high school and then attended a Nazarene University for a couple of years. While everything seemed to be fine on the outside, inside I was screaming, “How could you just give your baby away?” I met a young man that introduced me to marijuana and ended up pregnant again. I married him, and after having my second daughter, my substance abuse started. After never dealing with drugs before, within 6 months I had progressed to a level that I had lost everything. My job, my marriage, and yet again I had abandoned another child. This led to 10 years of serious abuse and destruction in my life. I ended up in California with my mom and sister, knowing that it was only a matter of time before they found out I was using daily. I attended Family Worship Center with my sister and saw the transformation in the men of the NLDC and thought for the first time there could be hope for me. I entered the NLDC and the journey to get my life back had begun. I now find myself as the house leader in the women's division with a hope again of ministry and reconciliation with my children. The sky’s the limit.”