James Howell knew there was trouble when several teenagers arrived at a church dance drunk and had to be treated for alcohol poisoning.
Starting in 2009, he urged his flock at Myers Park United Methodist Church, Charlotte, N.C., to give up drinking for Lent and donate instead to a "spirit fund."
Myers Park raised more than $34,000 for local substance abuse programs, and seven parishioners sought treatment for alcoholism.
Now the denomination's General Board of Church and Society is pushing a churchwide Alcohol Free Lent campaign.
© 2013 Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
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