John Bartholomew, recovery pastor at Splitlog Baptist Church in Goodman, Mo., and head pastor of In Christ Alone Church in Fairview, Missouri, is following Jesus’ example of helping heal others. He is the head of Come As You Are Christian Recovery at Splitlog, a ministry that helps people recover from addiction and leads them to Christ. In the nine years it’s been operating, the ministry has grown from four people to 120 people being brought from darkness to light.
Bartholomew is able to help this many people because he himself knows what it’s like to be trapped in a life of addiction. He grew up in a family that struggled with drug and alcohol addictions. He took his first drink at four years old.
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“My dad would just give me beers while we were backroading,” Bartholomew said. “I started smoking marijuana when I was eight or nine years old. My dad passed away when I was thirteen. I was thirteen or fourteen years old when I’d done my first line of methamphetamine, and an hour later I was learning how to manufacture it.”
His spiritual life at the time was a cycle of trying, failing, and giving up. “Several times in my life, I tried to go to church. I remember the first time I said a prayer of salvation, I was six years old. But every time I tried to go to church and surrender to Jesus, after a couple weeks, I’d feel like I’m not perfect like these ‘church people,’ so God must not want me. So I would just go back to that life.”
In and out of jail
For several years, Bartholomew was in and out of jail for selling drugs, doing drugs and uncontrolled violence. In 2016, he went to rehab. A few days in, he was put in the room where his brother had died from withdrawal. Bartholomew reached his lowest point while he was in that room, wanting to end his life. He felt like he had no hope in his current situation.
He said his response was: “I cried out to God, and I said, ‘Either take me or fix me, because I can’t live like this anymore.’ Immediately, I felt the presence of God. I cried and talked to God all night.”
He described “an overwhelming feeling that I was supposed to check myself out of there and start a Christian recovery meeting.” So the next morning, that’s what he did, despite warnings that he’d get arrested for checking out early.
Eleven days later, Come As You Are Christian Recovery was in operation at Splitlog Baptist. The elders thought the ministry would fizzle out within a month, but Bartholomew kept it going. He held meetings every Friday night. Even after he was imprisoned for checking himself out of rehab, his wife Marilyn hosted the recovery meetings during his five-month-long incarceration.
Bartholomew used that time to study the Bible. “While I was in prison, I read through the whole Bible once and the New Testament two more times,” he said. “The Lord used me to lead seventeen people to Him while I was in prison.”
‘So many doors’
After Bartholomew was released, he continued to run the recovery ministry for six more years. In 2022, he was encouraged to plant a church in Fairview. Despite saying he’d never go back to that town again, God had other plans to send him there. In November, In Christ Alone Church was begun. The congregation is comprised of people from every walk of life, from recovering addicts to law enforcement officers.
Bartholomew’s life and ministry are a testament to the Lord’s amazing work. He expressed gratefulness for being brought from spiritual death to new life in Christ.
“God’s opened so many doors for me. He’s blessed me more than I can even begin to tell.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by L.J. Salzman and originally published by the Pathway.
