Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church in Rocklin, CA will host Pastor Donavan Riley for a Saturday seminar on Friday, September 13, 2025, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Donavan will present sessions on the theme, The Impossible Prize: Addiction, Grace and the Unfree Will.
This event is free, but registration is kindly requested as lunch will be provided. To register, please email the church office at staff@holycrossrocklin.org. You may also call the church office at (916) 624-8185
Join us for a stirring exploration of the deep entanglement between the human will, addiction, and divine mercy. Drawing from Martin Luther’s bold teaching on the grace and unfree will, this lecture will uncover how the grip of addictive behavior is not merely a matter of poor choice, but a spiritual condition of captivity. One only grace can break.
Through his experiences as an addict, convert, and priest, Pastor Donavon Riley will guide hearers through Scripture, theology, and lived experience. This is not self-help dressed up in religious clothes. This is about death and life, about the cross of Christ that meets us in the ash heap, not after we’ve cleaned ourselves up.
Whether you wrestle with addiction yourself or love someone who does, these talks will offer clarity, courage, and the comfort of a God who works not through power and pride, but through weakness, wounds, and mercy.
Come with your weariness. Come with your doubt. Come with your questions. There is hope here. Not cheap hope, but blood-bought, cross-shaped hope.
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