FROM PULPIT TO PRESENCE
A Memoir of Losing Faith, Finding Recovery, and Learning How to Stay
by Don Phelps
Now Available
From Pulpit to Presence is a recovery memoir by Don Phelps exploring addiction, loss of faith, and the process of rebuilding a life grounded in mindfulness and presence. It speaks to anyone navigating recovery, uncertainty, and the challenge of learning how to stay.
When the old way stops working
Not because you failed.
Because what used to work doesn’t anymore.
From Pulpit to Presence is a memoir about recovery, identity, and learning how to stay when everything in you wants to escape.
It begins with addiction, but it’s really about what happens after certainty breaks.
Below is a short excerpt to give you the tone.
A Moment in From Pulpit to Presence
My first thought wasn’t about myself.
It was about my son.
I scrambled up, heart pounding, calling his name into the chaos.
“Dad, I’m over here! I’m all right!”
Only then did my body release the breath it had been holding.
Firefighters rushed toward me asking if I was injured. I brushed off the dust and insisted I was fine. Those two words — I’m fine — had become the quiet refrain of my life. The rallying cry of someone who didn’t yet know how to admit fear, confusion, or pain.
What took me longer to understand was that the explosion that threw me backward wasn’t the only backdraft building in my life.
Another had been quietly gathering pressure for years.
If I’m honest, the fire didn’t break me.
It revealed the breaking that was already underway.
From Pulpit to Presence is a memoir about addiction, identity, and the difficult work of beginning again.
What Early Readers Are Saying
“Don’s story shows there’s no shortcut in recovery. When you bring all of yourself to the process, you discover a new friend: yourself.”
— Andrew P.
“A courageous and heartfelt memoir of real-world struggle and inner turmoil on the way toward healing and inner peace. What stood out most was how mindfulness shows up in everyday situations we can all relate to.”
— Lisa W.
