tom_shipp_dallas_texas_alcoholics faus 1st United Methodist Church Dallas

Editor AA Bibliography:

I began researching my family tree
 in 1994 a year or two before my mother died.
by 1998 I had met with
Shipp/Faus Relatives in Dallas Texas
and exchanged much genealogy information.

I had my last drink June 15 1995

1999 I found Tom Ship while working and researching for
this aa history aa bibliography website

Later after finding in Dallas an
autographed copy of one of his alcoholic books
I found the info relating him to the
 Lovers Lane United Methodist Church
and I realized Tom Shipp and Myself
are related through the Faus Lineage.
Shipp died in Dallas in 1977 I moved to Dallas 1979
I wish I could have met him.

Tom Shipp Helping Alcoholics pastoral couseling

In his book The Trouble With Alcohol, Tom Shipp lists the three sets of questions that he has used in his work with alcoholics to determine whether drinkers are in the initial, the intermediate, or the final stages of alcoholism.

Here is the first set:

1. Do I have an intense personal reason for drinking? In other words, is my reason for drinking something other than social?
2. Am I experiencing a meaningful change from the use of alcohol? Do I drink to relieve tension, fears, anxieties, or inhibitions?
3. Do I find myself involved increasingly in thought about alcohol? Am I thinking about the problem of supply when I should be thinking about other things?
4. Are most of my friends heavy drinkers?
5. Has my drinking become more secretive, more guarded?
6. Am I drinking more often and more heavily than in the past? Am I kidding myself that by drinking beer and wine I am cutting down? Do I tell myself that I am handling my problem because I maintain periods of not drinking at all in between alcoholic bouts?
7. When I start drinking, do I end up drinking more than I intended to drink? Do I find drunkenness occurring at closer intervals?
8. Have I failed to remember what occurred during a drinking period last night, yesterday, or even a longer period ago?
9. Do I feel guilty, defensive, or angry when someone wants to talk to me about my drinking?
10. Am I sneaking my drinks?
11. Have I stopped sipping my drinks and instead find myself gulping or tossing them down quickly?
12. Do I lie about my drinking?

tom shipp

Here are excerpts from our October 16, 2006 interview:

Steve: Irene, tell us about the first time you met Tom Shipp.

Irene Shipp: It was 1941 when I met Tom for the first time. I was visiting my boyfriend, Bill Shipp at Camp Robinson, Little Rock, Arkansas, where he was deployed. Bill and I had met in college at Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, Missouri, but when his National Guard unit was mobilized, he transferred to Camp Robinson. We visited each other as much as possible and it was on this first trip to the Army Base that I met Tom.

Steve: What did you talk about?

Irene Shipp: Bill and I had talked about getting married and I remember Tom pushing us in that direction, so that he could officiate the ceremony. So I went back the next weekend and Bill and I were married. Tom had arranged everything for us with the local Methodist minister – for us to be married in the parsonage in Little Rock. It was this same minister who had married Tom and Dee just a few months before, so he and Tom had a good relationship and he was happy to help provide space for the ceremony.

Steve: Bill, what was the ceremony like?

Bill Shipp: It was simple but very nice. We put off the honeymoon because of an upcoming deployment. We decided we would wait for my two-week furlough. So, we were really looking forward to our honeymoon. My furlough was granted on December 5, 1941. I didn’t make it home until Saturday, December 6. The next morning, after the news of Pearl Harbor was known, we were all immediately called back to duty. So, our honeymoon was a lot shorter than we had planned.

Steve: Bill, what distinguished Tom from the other ministers of his day?

Bill Shipp: Two traits come to mind right off, his strong faith and his love for people. He loved all people. He visited the hospital every day and was involved in every community event in Dallas. He knew everybody and served on many boards and committees throughout our city, he was also always in demand as a speaker. Another thing about Tom is that he just couldn’t say no. Near the end of his life, even though he was still very much involved with the recovery community, this area of ministry was already established so his interest shifted to world hunger. This was the passion of his ministry at that point, to help put an end to hunger here in the United States and around the world.

Steve: How did his involvement in the recovery community come about?

Irene Shipp: Tom was serving as the Associate Pastor at Highland Park Methodist Church with Dr. Steele. As young service persons returned home from the war, there was increased evidence of alcoholism. Because Tom was so outgoing and caring, Dr. Steele asked him to take over this area of ministry in 1943. Tom worked with medical doctors and others to help establish Alcoholics Anonymous and other programs like that in Dallas. This ministry continued as Tom left Highland Park to begin Lovers Lane Methodist Church in 1945. Tom took this ministry to heart, even to the point of bringing people home with him who needed extra care and help. Dee often wouldn’t know who might arrive with Tom at the end of a day. As an aside, Dr. Steele was criticized for having so many alcoholics on his Administrative Board. He replied, “These days, if I didn’t have them on the board, I wouldn’t have a board.” Tom went on to have a major impact on not only Dallas but our entire country in the area of recovery. He wrote two books on the subject, Helping the Alcoholic and His Family, published by Prentice-Hall in 1963; and The Trouble With Alcohol, Fleming H. Revell Co., 1978.

Steve: Bill, not only did you grow up with Tom but you served with him in ministry on a number of levels. What memories can you share with us?

Bill Shipp: You’re right, Steve, there are so many stories about our life together. Here are just a couple of stories for you. As you know, I owned a print shop in downtown Dallas and we would print the bulletin for Lovers Lane. One Sunday morning Tom called a little before 7am and asked, “Bill, where’s the bulletin?” We had produced the plates and they were ready to be printed, but things had gotten so busy at the shop we forgot to print them. So, I rushed down to the store, put the plates on and opened the machines up full blast. I printed them, folded them and then rushed over to the Church and arrived just in time to hand them to the ushers. I’m sure some white gloves got some ink on them that morning, because the bulletins didn’t have time to dry.

Another time, Tom called me about 11:30pm and said, “Bill, could you come down to the office and help me, two guys just beat the fool out of me.” So, I rushed down to the office, just above the Chapel, at our original location and saw Tom’s office upside down. Two guys must have been burglarizing the office and Tom stopped in to do some work after a speaking engagement and they jumped on him. They were trying to get his car keys, so he threw them out the window of his office. After things had settled down a little bit and I was sure Tom was okay, we spent a long time with flashlights out in the grass trying to find his car keys.

Steve: Those are some amazing experiences. What do you think Dr. Thomas Joel Shipp would say to us today if he could speak to us for just a moment?

Irene Shipp: I believe he would say, “Don’t be afraid to set goals because you can reach them. Nothing is impossible with God.”

Steve: How are you continuing the Shipp Legacy?

Irene and Bill Shipp: This November 12 we will celebrate the 62nd Anniversary of Lovers Lane UMC with Heritage Sunday. For this special event, in partnership with you, we are producing a CD of selected sermons from Dr. Shipp. They will be available for purchase on Heritage Sunday for $10. Or for advance orders, persons may call us at 214.368.7071 or Ruth Smith at 214.350.5385.

Steve: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?

Bill Shipp: Here are words that Tom spoke in 1975. They say so much about who he was and who we as a Church strive to be: “We live in a world in which it is easy to get lost, but regardless of who you are, it is important that somebody find you. You are important. Jesus said that the shepherd will go out and search until he finds the lost sheep. God will not give up on you.”

Steve: Thank you so much Bill and Irene for your friendship, your legacy of faithfulness and for all you mean to us at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church. I know that Dr. Shipp would be so proud of the way both of you have served and continue to serve our Lord Jesus Christ.

Stephen Lowell Swisher

clinbell book
the third type of preparation for counseling alcoholics is an acquaintance with the insights contained in the literature dealing specifically with this kind of counseling. There is a growing amount of this literature. Almost any issue of the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol contains an article dealing with the subject written by a psychologist or psychiatrist. Fortunately for the minister, there are several helpful discussions of pastoral counseling with alcoholics available. Thomas J. Shipp, a Methodist minister with wide experience in helping alcoholics, has produced a practical book entitled Helping the Alcoholic and His Family.¹⁴

12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, August 24, 2006

Bob Dicken calls the 12th Step Ministry of Lovers Lane United Methodist Church a gift from God to people in Dallas who are recovering from addictions.

The mission evolved from the work of Tom Shipp, Lovers Lane UMC's founding pastor. Dr. Shipp had two callings in life – ministry and helping alcoholics, said Mr. Dicken, the 12th Step Ministry's executive director.

He had a burning passion, a calling, to help alcoholics, Mr. Dicken said.

Dr. Shipp died in 1977, but his church remained committed to the cause. It's part of our heritage, the backbone of our church, to reach out to the recovery community, Mr. Dicken said.

The 12th Step Ministry started about 11 years ago with seven groups. Now about 70 groups meet at the Center for Spiritual Development across the street from Lovers Lane UMC.

It's just grown and thrived, Mr. Dicken said. There's usually a waiting list for a meeting room.

The 12th Step Ministry brings together various groups for addiction recovery, Bible study, support, counseling, education and spiritual fulfillment.

Licensed counselors provide drug and alcohol abuse assessments and resource referrals. The ministry also organizes workshops, lectures and training for participants and counseling professionals.

Many churches offer recovery groups and similar kinds of outreach. But Lee Jagers, director of counseling services for Dallas Theological Seminary, said, I don't know of anything that is as broad and well-organized.

Dr. Jagers routinely refers clients to the program. He wishes more churches would take on humanitarian projects of similar scale, saying, It shouldn't be so unique.

Mr. Dicken became a licensed chemical dependency counselor while working on his own recovery from drug and alcohol abuse. He was on the search committee for a full-time 12th Step Ministry director 91/2 years ago when he realized he wanted the job.

One morning I woke up and knew I was meant to do it, he said. I ended up hiring myself.

Mr. Dicken's job allows him to assist hundreds of people facing the same struggles he faced. As a sponsor in a 12-step group, he said, he might have worked with three or four.

I'm so blessed, he said.

E-mail elangton@dallasnews.com

aa grapevine june 1968

lovers lane united Methodist church

A Surprise Hidden in Plain Sight

For more than twenty-five years, Dr. Thomas Shipp was pastor of a great and caring congregation that began in his living room and grew to more than eight thousand members. Although in constant demand as a speaker, Dr. Shipp often went to small churches on preaching missions.

One Sunday evening he drove from Dallas to a small town to preach at 8:30. Some people standing around in front of the church said, “Preacher, see that house over there? (next-door to the parsonage, which was next-door to the church). A woman lives there with her seventeen-year-old daughter. A man drives up at ten o’clock every night. He leaves the next morning at two-thirty.” They told Shipp that the girl was going to Kansas City and that everyone knew why she was going she was “in trouble.” Furthermore, they implied that the man who came each night was responsible. Shipp watched. Sure enough, at exactly ten o’clock, a man drove up and went inside. But he was gone in the morning.

Next day, almost everywhere Dr. Shipp went, people talked about this girl. Shipp asked the local pastor: “Have you ever been over to see the family that lives next-door?”

The pastor protested, “Man, I wouldn’t be caught dead in that house!”

So Shipp decided he would go himself. He introduced himself at the door, “You don’t know me; I’m Tom Shipp from Dallas, Texas. I’m over here preaching in the church. I understand that your daughter left town this morning. I just wanted to come by and let you know that I was thinking of you this must be a difficult day for you. I don’t even know your name, but I’m saying a prayer for you today.”

The woman broke down in tears. When able to regain her composure, she explained, “I don’t know what I am going to do without my daughter.” Once inside the house, Tom discovered a third person, the eighty-five-year-old grandmother. The girl’s father had died some years back. So the mother and daughter had come to this house to live with Grandma because Grandfather was also dead. Then Grandmother suffered an illness that demanded round-the-clock care lest she strangle to death. So the mother was completely confined to the house. No one in the community saw her. The daughter did all the shopping.

The woman by the church must have felt some of the same feelings as the woman whom Jesus watched trudge up the trail to Jacob’s well. Because of social constraints, it was risky to help such people. No one would have blamed Jesus if he had pulled his robe over his face and ignored her. After all, he was tired. The disciples were gone, so who would have known? Besides, if he taught her anything, she probably wouldn’t have the brains to grasp it or the spiritual framework to retain it. And even if she did, she had no credibility to influence other people with his message.

But our Master saw a person who mattered to God. As weary as he was, he quickly sensed a wounded soul badly in need of bandages, and he gently moved her into a nonthreatening conversation. But since he was talking to an outsider, he knew he would need to be unusually creative

Lovers Lane UMC to break ground on Tom Shipp Memorial Chapel

2:48 PM Thu, Jun 05, 2008 |
Sam Hodges

Tom Shipp founded Lovers Lane United Methodist Church, and he also made it a leader among churches in tackling alcoholism. Kirk Dooley has done a piece for The Dallas Morning News about Shipp and a new chapel named for him:

Lovers Lane United Methodist Church to dedicate chapel to founding pastor

By KIRK DOOLEY

As World War II was coming to an end, a young associate pastor at Highland Park Methodist Church, Tom Shipp, was asked to oversee a new ministry to serve those with alcohol dependencies.

Dr. Shipp was one of the early leaders in helping Alcoholics Anonymous bring its 12-step program to Dallas.

In 1945, Dr. Shipp became the founding pastor of Lovers Lane United Methodist Church. He guided it to become one of the largest Methodist churches in the nation. He died in 1977 while attending a church building committee meeting. He was the guiding force behind building the sanctuary on the corner of Inwood Road and Northwest Highway.

On June 15, the church will host the groundbreaking ceremony for the Tom Shipp Memorial Chapel and Hospitality Corridor. The ceremony will be a continuation of the church's four 11 a.m. worship services.

The chapel is being dedicated to the founding pastor, who grew the congregation from a handful of Methodists in his living room to more than 5,000.

There will also be a note-burning, symbolizing the church's financial status as debt-free.

It was said that Dr. Shipp had two callings in life. One was to be a minister. The other was to minister to alcoholics.

He was good at both.

Not only is the church his legacy, but so is the church's successful 12th Step Ministry.

Don Benton, Bill Bryan and current minister Stan Copeland have followed in Dr. Shipp's large shoes. When the church moved from Lovers Lane to its current campus, the decision was made to keep the name. Northwest Highway Methodist Church just didn't have the same ring to it.

The original church building on Lovers Lane was purchased by the Shelton School and today is the home of Providence Christian School.

In 1992, Terry Price started a jazz band at Lovers Lane UMC, and it became a musical sanctuary for SMU band members just out of school and living in Dallas.

Today the 25-piece band is led by Alan Wagner as part of the church's music ministry.

In 1995, Dr. Bryan officiated the funeral of baseball legend Mickey Mantle at the church. He shared the pulpit with broadcaster Bob Costas, baseball standout Bobby Richardson and country music star Roy Clark.

As CNN broadcast the service nationwide, more than 2,000 people squeezed into the church's sanctuary, chapel and hall.

On June 15, another large crowd will gather to help launch the Shipp Chapel and honor the church's beloved founder, who died more than 30 years ago.

Kirk Dooley is a freelance writer in University Park.