This YouTube interview excerpt captures Dr. Jake Porter describing how his personal recovery and participation in 12-step meetings and group therapy revealed a growing role for him: attendees began looking to him, and he sensed God using his presence. He notes pragmatic beginnings (as a pastor he hoped to earn an extra $200/week) and then a deepening conviction as demand grew that this was the work the Lord wanted him to do.
When I got into my own recovery and noticed that in the 12 step meetings I was a part of and the group therapy I was a part of, people were turning and looking to me and it seemed like my presence in these spaces was being used by the Lord. Maybe I do want to do this work. There was sort of a several goals in mind there. One, I was a pastor and I thought, you know what if I could make 200 extra bucks a week, that would be awesome. Yeah, I mean, that was literally what I thought. Yeah, yeah, like, oh man, that would be incredible. And the demand grew and it was like, okay, God is in this. Because of my own experience, my own recovery journey, just observing what God was doing around me, it became clearer and clearer that, you know, I think, I think this is what the Lord wants me to do.
