Springs Rescue Mission: Spiritual Recovery Through Love, Not Force

A Springs Rescue Mission (SRM) document declares, “Our faith is why we do what we do, but faith is never required of others to receive basic relief services.…We believe it is God’s job to change people, not ours.”

Old-style missions often thought they could change people by requiring attendance at chapel services. SRM does not have a campus church or any required service. SRM’s Christian statement emphasizes that God is “the one who transforms. Therefore, when guests make bad choices, it’s up to God to work with them. It’s God’s job to change people. It’s our role to help in the project, not own it.”

Last March, though, The Gazette — Colorado Springs’ daily newspaper — reported criticism of SRM during public comment periods at city council meetings. Some homeless people or their allies complained that SRM varies its offer of food and lodging as part of an incentive system that urges residents to move from one-night stays to a long-term relationship.

SRM leaders acknowledge differences but stipulate that all residents get the basics. The entry point for everyone is the Relief Shelter, which accepts all who seek warm beds and are not so drunk or drugged up that they threaten others or themselves. Everyone goes through a metal detector. (I saw in the office of SRM’s director the collection of knives and other weapons that aren’t allowed in.) Everyone can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everyone can do laundry, leave stuff in storage bins, and schedule showers, with soap and shampoo provided.

Those who stay away from public intoxication, and don’t scream or punch others, can then join a program that includes movement to the Next Step Shelter. Each Next Step resident gets the same bunk night after night, and a locker with access anytime. One big incentive is eggs and bacon for breakfast at 7 a.m., instead of a wait for oatmeal or cold cereal at 7:30. Next Steppers can get physical, mental, and behavioral health checkups. They can visit a case manager, address legal issues, and get identity documents.

The next tier is the Advanced Shelter Program, a step towards independent living and working that also gives them access to a TV, a shared kitchen, and no curfew. The Advanced have moved from a survival mode of no control over anything to one where they have agency and can gain both hope and executive function. There is no religious requirement to advance, and I’ll show next week the mixed content of one required course.

On the other hand, SRM’s New Life Program for addicts and alcoholics does feature explicitly Christian content, along with medical intervention and help from a case manager. Joining the program is voluntary, with no one kicked out for not joining, but those who enter “address the spiritual aspects of recovery” by attending church and participating in Bible studies.

The religious connection has triggered some complaints at city council meetings. Jack Briggs, the former Air Force major who was SRM’s CEO from 2020 to 2024, stipulated at the meeting last March that SRM spends government money on its basic relief services rather than its faith-based restoration programs: “We don’t comingle that money.”

An SRM tax return filed last April shows the pattern. Annual shelter and food costs totaled $5.6 million. SRM received $2.2 million in government grants that funded lodging and food. SRM received $11.3 million in other contributions, gifts, and grants. Some of that pays for explicitly Christian programs that the tax return notes, including the Men’s Recovery Program, a “10-17 month no-cost men’s residential rehabilitation program which comes alongside men who are on a journey from brokenness and addiction to a transformed life of wholeness based on a relationship with Jesus Christ.”

The tax return also acknowledges the Intensive Outpatient Program for “individuals on a journey from brokenness and addiction to a transformed life of wholeness through short term counseling curriculums facilitated in a relationship with Jesus Christ.” Briggs emphasized that no one has to do or say anything to receive shelter and food, and all religious tutelage is voluntary: “We don’t force it on people. We have plenty that come voluntarily.”