Come Join A.A. Spiritual Roots Tour of Vermont - September

A.A.’s Spiritual Roots: They Center on New England

An International Christian Recovery Coalition Fall Leaves Workshop

Informative Visits to Historic A.A.-Related Locations in Vermont

By Dick B.

© 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Come Join Us!

Here are some principal leads:

          www.dickb.com/turning.shtml

          www.dickb.com/drbob.shtml

          www.dickb.com/goodbook.shtml

          www.dickb.com/Akron.shtml

          www.dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml

          www.dickb.com/conversion.shtml

We are planning a Fall Leaves Workshop centered on the New England Area and definitely zooming in on historic A.A.-related locations in Vermont: the Green Mountain territory of Bill W.’s and Dr. Bob’s youth. It’s where my son Ken and I identified and examined in great depth some of the Christian roots of A.A. And we gathered an immense amount of historical evidence, embodied it in our books and articles, posted it on the Web, and included it in our www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com presentations. But there’s nothing like the excitement of seeing it all for yourself with excellent guidance.

If we can get the response and assured funding of our own travel from Maui to Vermont, you will be able to participate in September 2012 events involving:

1.      St. Johnsbury and Dr. Bob’s boyhood home;

2.      North Congregational Church—the Smith Family church and location of the historical collections in Dr. Bob Core Library;

3.      Identifying Akron A.A.’s  “Christian fellowship” program with Dr. Bob’s Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor;

4.      The immense historical resources in the St.  Johnsbury Athenaeum (library);

5.      The St. Johnsbury Fairbanks Museum, the Courthouse where Dr. Bob’s dad was probate judge, the former location of the YMCA building where Dr. Bob’s father was President;

6.      St. Johnsbury Academy—where Dr. Bob’s mother was a teacher and later an historian, where Dr. Bob’s father was an examiner, and where Dr. Bob attended daily chapel and weekly church services and Bible studies, and participated in YMCA events;

7.      East Dorset and Bill W.’s birthplace;

8.      The Wilson House where Bill W. was born and where many A.A. meetings, seminars, and tours and offered;

9.      The Griffith House where Bill was raised by his maternal grandparents for several years and where he studied the Bible with his maternal grandfather, Fayette Griffith;

10. The Griffith House Library which probably contains the largest collection

of A.A. historical books and articles and pamphlets and memorabilia of

any place in the world

11. East Dorset Congregational Church, where Bill, Bill’s parents, and

both sets of grandparents attended; and where Bill attended church and

Sunday school, along with revival and conversion and Temperance meetings;

12. The Bill and Lois Wilson gravesites;

13. Manchester, where Bill attended Burr and Burton Academy, attending its

required daily chapel and four-year Bible study course, and was its president

of the Young Men’s Christian Association during his senior year; and

     14.Your optional personal detour to see the Fall Leaves display.

Want to come? This tour and workshop will give you a take on A.A. history, A.A. historical collections, and A.A.’s Christian roots and origins you’ve probably never heard about or understood. It will provide you with important keys to the Christian upbringing of Dr. Bob and Bill W.  It will show you more about real “spirituality”; ie., the relationship with God that the Big Book talks about. You visit a location with thousands of A.A.-related historical items. It will take you to an area filled with New England charm. It will be far more than just a walk through a memorial building or two. It will be at a time when the Fall Leaves displays and Leaf pickers are about. And Dick B. and Ken B. will be there to show you what’s what.

What is needed to make it happen:

Prayer.

A real interest in learning something very vital about “old-school” A.A. ideas and their applicability today.

A zest for a guided tour to inspect and handle scads and scads of historical evidence, attend meetings if you wish, and hear Dick B. and Ken B. report on 22 years of research as you move about and stop for some short talks.

Benefactors to provide funds for our travel are needed.

Your plans for a car or car pool with friends.

Accommodations at the St. Johnsbury Marriott hotel and in East Dorset.

And an essential willingness to walk, look, listen, and learn.

Since this will be an International Christian Recovery Coalition workshop, we are looking for a cadre of Christian leaders and workers in the recovery arena who want to learn and pass on to others what we’ve found and you have actually seen.

This will be unlike other history and archive conferences, seminars, and forays.

You’ll see and enter the buildings. You’ll pick up and examine the historical items. You’ll explore on your own, too. You’ll hear from two speakers who have researched, written about, and spoken about the whole scene—many times.

This may be the only time in your life that you will have such an opportunity.

July is the month to plan and let us know if you’ll be coming and when. It is also the month to help fund our trip. And then to make your car and hotel reservations.

If the light is green in July, we’ll go. In August, we’ll act. If the light is other than green, at least you’ve had a chance to make the trip or plan a future one.                                  

For more information, contact Dick B. by email at DickB@DickB.com.

Gloria Deo

Bonnie Burke, Managing Director, Tells of Historic Wilson House, VT

Synopsis of Tuesday, June 26, Christian Recovery Radio Interview by Dick B.

of Bonnie Burke (formerly Lepper), Managing Director of Wilson House

Dick B.

Copyright 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved

First, you can hear this tremendous interview of Bonnie Burke right now as follows:

You may listen to Dick B.'s interview of Christian leader Bonnie Burke on the June 26, 2012, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with DickB" show here:

http://goo.gl/H21G0

or here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2012/06/26/dick-b-interviews-christian-recovery-leader-bonnie-burke

The "Christian Recovery Radio with DickB" show episodes are archived at:

www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

The Interview by Dick B.

You are in for a heartwarming treat as you listen to Bonnie Burke, Managing Director of the Wilson House and Christian Recovery Leader, tell of her life, and her meeting her former husband Ozzie Lepper—who restored and founded Wilson House in East Dorset, Vermont.

The features at this unusual historical site are: (1) Wilson House itself is the birthplace of A.A. Cofounder Bill Wilson, who was born in a little room behind the bar, and whose final resting place is located at a nearby cemetery where his wife Lois is also buried. It functions as a non-profit inn, with A.A. and other meetings, and with regular educational seminars on alcoholism, A.A. history, spiritual roots, and other subjects germane to alcoholism. (2) Griffith House and the Griffith Library mark the place where Bill W. received most of his Christian upbringing as a youngster in Vermont. Today it houses a beautiful, well-maintained library containing thousands and thousands of books, articles, pamphlets, manuscripts, news items, memorabilia, records, and papers pertaining to the history of Alcoholics Anonymous and to its Christian origins, history, founding, original Christian Fellowship program in Akron, and its successes. (3) Since the restoration of both sites, Wilson House has become listed in the National Register of Historical Places. The library is open and accessible. Wilson house hosts guests at its Inn and visitors from all over the world. It has morning Quiet Time, A.A. meetings, Town meetings, meals, seminars, and retreats. (4) One of its little known features is the East Dorset Congregational Church which lies between Wilson House and Griffith House. Bill W.’s paternal grandparents were among the founders and officers of the church and owned Pew 15 which the family members occupied as they attended. Bill W.’s grandfather Willie Wilson—a drunkard—became saved and sober there for the rest of his life after a spiritual experience atop nearby Mount Aeolus. Bill’s parents were married in the church and lived in the parsonage for a time. The church covenant, creed, sermons, and teachings which my son Ken and I were privileged to view place strong emphasis on salvation and the truth of the Word of God. Bill attended Sunday school and church there. And he witnessed revivals, conversion meetings, and Temperance meetings. His maternal grandparents, the Griffiths, regarded East Dorset Congregational Church as their family church and regularly attended also.

Bonnie Burke’s own story is inspiring. She is from New Hampshire and Massachusetts, spent most of her life in New Hampshire, was devout in her Christian faith, and spent a great deal of her life as one very much involved in helping disabled. She and her first husband had three children, and her husband was completely disabled for many many years. Following his death, Bonnie was invited to go on a “blind date” with Ozzie Lepper. As she put it, Ozzie arrived in a red jeep, looking like Santa Claus (he had white hair and a long white beard), and a dog in the back. Ozzie explained to her that he was manager the Wilson House which he was restoring; and he told her much about Alcoholics Anonymous, East Dorset, and his dreams regarding the restorations. Before long, he and Bonnie were married; and they toiled long long hoursl developing Wilson House, conducting tours, answering questions, and managing details.

Ozzie explained that the Wilson House was erected to enable people to give thanks to God for the sobriety they had achieved with His help through Alcoholics Anonymous. Griffith House was erected to house thousands and thousands of A.A. items of literature—including the more than twenty-three thousand of my own books and historical papers donated by my benefactors.

Bonnie remembers the grand opening of the Griffith Library when Ozzie was ill and seated in a lawn chair outside. I was there. And Ozzie declared that his work was finished. Ill for a substantial period, Ozzie passed away. And in July of 2011, Bonnie married Tim Burke, who lived nearby the Wilson House in East Dorset.

Bonnie is writing a book about the Wilson House, and it will contain ample additional details. For eight years, she and Ozzie invited me to give seminars each year on the history of Alcoholics Anonymous and its Christian Recovery roots. Each endorsed my books. And I was given complete freedom to speak and teach on A.A. as it really was.

Wilson House is a 501©(3) Foundation, tax exempt, with contributions deductible. Ozzie never took a paycheck for his years of labor and dedication to the restoration. He kept the lights on bright at night to display the House as a place of peace, hope, and thanksgiving. The House welcomes financial contributions, in kind donations, historical items, and volunteers. And each year, its newsletter reports the benefactions that keep in thriving.

dickb@dickb.com

Gloria Deo

God as Early AAs Really Did Understand Him

God As Early AAs Did Understand Him

By Dick B.

Copyright 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Where do I start?

Where and how should you start reading the Bible if you are one who wants to use the Good Book for recovery, for deliverance, for an understanding of God, and for further spiritual growth in A.A. or a 12-Step Fellowship today? Well, why not start at the beginning! See Dick B., Why Early A.A. Succeeded (a Bible study primer) www.dickb.com/aabiblestudy.shtml.

Just remember, however, this article is a guide. It will not quote the begats. It will not quote the Bible in toto or even large parts of it. It will not tell you how to interpret the Bible or where to go to be taught about it. It will suggest some approaches. Most of these approaches have now been documented as those used by the A.A. pioneers. They may help you in graduating from A.A.’s kindergarten, as Bill Wilson called it, and moving on to a greater understanding of God (the Creator our pioneers relied upon), the Bible (the Good Book they read for spiritual facts), and the spiritual principles (which they borrowed from the Bible and biblical sources and used as their guide to loving and serving God and doing His will). See www.dickb.com/goodbook.shtml

Explanatory Bible Verses Early AAs Could Read as They Studied the Bible

The first verse in the Bible (King James Version, which early AAs used) states:

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1).

Learning about, and understanding God, can and should begin at the beginning with God as our Creator. That is perhaps a good reason why A.A.’s Big Book text refers to God as Creator twelve times (See Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd ed., pp. 13, 25, 28, 56, 68, 72, 75, 76, 80, 83, 158, 161). And the Bible certainly declares, confirms, and reiterates that God is our Creator, saying:

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. . . . (Ecclesiastes 12:1).

Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding (Isaiah 40:28).

Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein (Isaiah 42:5).

Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:19).

When you want to seek, find, meet, and get to know someone, you usually start by asking his or her name. So let’s start with our Creator’s name. God not only has a name, He specifically declared what His name is. As rendered in the King James Version, Exodus 6:2-3 state:

And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

For a discussion of the divine name YHWH and its translations as YHWH, Yahweh, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, LORD, and Jehovah, see: The Shocken Bible: Volume I, The Five Books of Moses, (New York: Shocken Books, 1995), pp. XXIX, 285, 287; John R. Kohlenberger, III, The Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament (Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), pp. XXXV and 158; David H. Stern, Complete Jewish Bible (Maryland: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1998), pp. xxxiii-iv, 65; Martin Abegg, Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1999), p. 32; and The Jerusalem Bible, Readers Edition, 1966, pp. 3, 7.

In His Word, God has revealed a great deal to us about Himself. The Good Book says:

God Explained Himself so You Could Understand Who He Was and Is and Will Be

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him,

I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect (Genesis 17:1).

And God said unto him [Jacob], I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. . . . (Genesis 35:11).

Note Bill Wilson’s comment that only God Almighty could cure the alcoholic’s form of lunacy (Dick B., The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous, pp. 12-13).

(Note: Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd ed., pp. 57, 63, so describes Him):

Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded (Isaiah 45:11-12).

(Note the last line of Dr. Bob’s story, Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd ed., p. 181; and Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. 234):

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven . . . (Matthew 6:9).

But whosoever shall deny me before men [said Jesus], him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven (Matthew 10:33).

So then after the Lord [Jesus] had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God (Mark 16:19).

Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few (Ecclesiastes 5:2).

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God (Psalm 93:1-2).

The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God (Psalm 14:2).

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall not make it good? (Numbers 23:19).

And also the Strength of Israel [will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent (1 Samuel 15:29).

For he [God] is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment (Job 3:32).

I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy: for I am God, and not man. . . . (Hosea 11:9).

God’s Son Explained and Declared His Father

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (John 1:18).

Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father (John 6:46).

Who [God’s dear Son] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature (Colossians 1:16).

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love (1 John 4:8)

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him (1 John 4:16)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16)

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another (1 John 4:7-11)

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you. that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5)

The Greatness of God

the eternal God (Deuteronomy 33:27)

the living and true God (1 Thessalonians 1:9)

an holy God (Joshua 24:19)

the God of our fathers (1 Chronicles 12:17; Ezra 7:27; Exodus 3:13. 15, 16)

the God of peace (Romans 16:20)

the God of all grace (1 Peter 5:10)

the God of patience and consolation (Romans 15:5)

the God of hope (Romans 15:13)

the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3)

love (1 John 4:8, 16)

the Father of mercies (2 Corinthians 1:3)

the Father of lights (James 1:17)

God the Father (Ephesians 6:23)

God our Father (Ephesians 1:2)

the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:3)

our heavenly Father (Matthew 6:9, 32)

our Father (Matthew 6:9)

our Saviour (1 Timothy l:l;2:3)

the living God (Acts 14:15; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Hebrews 1:22; Isaiah 37:17)

the living Father (John 6:5 7)

the true God (I John 5:20)

One God

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 2:5)

Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith (Romans 3:30)

One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all (Ephesians 4:6)

Thus saith the LORD, the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God (Isaiah 44:6)

Hear, 0 Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might (Deuteronomy 6:4-6)

. . . for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God . . . (Deuteronomy 5:9).

I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before me (Deuteronomy 5:6-7)

I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:2-3)

Why all these Good Book quotes?

See www.dickb.com/goodbook.shtml

Granted, early A.A. pioneers, and their founders, studied the Bible and took their basic ideas from the Bible. But why all these quotes from the King James Version of the Bible? Because the author is trying to make available to AAs and Twelve Step Fellowships today a specific and accurate knowledge of exactly what early AAs meant when they used biblical expressions in the Big Book, in their pamphlets, and in their stories. When they repeatedly used the word God, the word Creator, the word Maker, and all the other descriptions of God such as Almighty God, the God of our Fathers, Father, Spirit, and so on, they were talking only about the one God–Yahweh–the Creator–who was the one true God, the living God, as to whom they were to have none other.

Why go into such detail? Because the universalization, the revisionists, the inclusive urgings that began almost as early as 1940, all slowly contributed to the following ideas. God can be a higher power. The higher power can be the group. The higher power is merely a power greater than yourself–any old power will do, just as long as it is a power greater than you are. Therefore, they say, the power greater than yourself can be: Gertrude, Ralph, a light bulb, some goddess, Santa Claus, a chair, the Big Dipper, a doorknob, a bulldozer, a table, or good orderly direction. Such absurd names for God, as Sam Shoemaker characterized them, soon gave rise to historical treatises about what A.A. is. Such scholarly works began declaring that A.A. is really about not-god; that the word God is just an expedient or convenient name for anything you want it to be. Finally, this same kind of distorted thinking led to official proclamations that AAs were free to, and could invent, could make up, their own higher power–which could be him, her, or it. The same or similar writings asserted that AAs could make it into something or nothing at all.

This kind of thinking calls for the following statement: You would have a very difficult assignment if you asked a table for, prayed to a light bulb about, looked for guidance from, or sought relief for your alcoholism through: Santa Claus, Gertrude, the Big Dipper, or it.

Early AAs Were Talking About Their Creator, Not Santa Claus or Some Group

To understand the original program–the one with a documented 75% to 93% success rate--you have to understand what the pioneers were talking about. And they were talking about seeking, finding, understanding, and making conscious contact with the Creator–not Santa Claus, nor Gertrude, nor a chair. They simply weren’t that stupid, and we shouldn’t even doubt their intelligence on this score!

If you or they looked at a quarter or a dollar bill and notice the inscription, In God we trust, would you say that meant In a table we trust. Or In a group we trust. Or in something we trust. Think about it! Is anyone that far off the beam?

No Problem. The Early AAs Did Understand God and Said So

God either is, or He isn’t, they said. And Hebrews 11:6 told them exactly what to do about it.

dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com

Gloria Deo

When Early AAs Were Cured and Why

When Early AAs Were Cured and Why

Dick B.

Copyright 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved

What a great day it can be in the struggle to defeat alcoholism and addiction when people learn just how much God has done in this realm that people could not do for themselves. People who wanted God’s help and went to any lengths to get it in early A.A. were cured.

That’s When Early AAs Were Cured and Why.  See http://dickb.com/alcoholismcured.shtml

The first three AAs—Bill W., Dr. Bob, and Bill D. all turned to God for help before there were any Steps, any Traditions, any Big Books, any drunkalogs, or any meetings as we know them today. Each of these three A.A. pioneers told his story and also told others that he was cured. See even the latest editions of A.A.’s Big Book—pages 191 and 179-181. The surest statement is that of Bill Wilson himself: “Henrietta, the Lord has cured me of this terrible disease, and I just want to keep talking about it and telling people.” Yes, Bill W., Dr. Bob, and A.A. all were cured. And they said so. So did countless other early AAs all over the United States as scrap books at A.A. World Services, Inc. show. See www.dickb.com/cured.shtml.

Those who want deliverance from alcoholism and addiction can still do what the early AAs did. In fact, they can subscribe to the three abc’s of A.A. a) we were alcoholic and could not manage  our own lives. b) probably no human power could have relieved us of our alcoholism. c) God could and would if he were sought. And the program by which they did it can be found summarized in DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, page 131.

Yes. That’s “When Early AAs Were Cured and Why.” http://dickb.com/alcoholismcured.shtml

dickb@dickb.com

Gloria Deo

The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide: Contents and How to Get it

The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide

The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide

Third Edition

(Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2010)

(eBook/“digital download” version)

By Dick B. and Ken B.

© Anonymous 2010. All rights reserved

The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., by Dick B. and Ken B. (157 pages, 8 ½” x 11”) is based on Dick B.’s lifetime of Bible study, legal scholarship and training, 26 years of continuous sobriety, active participation in the A.A. Fellowship, experience sponsoring more than 100 sponsees, 22 years of historical research, and 44 published titles.

This edition is the product of one year of conferences, meetings, and personal talks by the authors (Dick B. and Ken B.) with Christian recovery leaders and others from the United States and Canada. It is based on their needs, their suggestions, their responses, and the compelling need for “A New Way Out” for Christians in the recovery arena who are not, and don’t want to be, alone. It can be used as a guide by 12-Step members, sponsors, counselors, facilitators, Christian recovery pastors, Christian recovery groups, clergy, study groups, and those engaged in carrying the story of early A.A.’s  Christian fellowship, simple program, and astonishing successes to fellowships, treatment facilities, prisons, homeless, veterans, military, and hospitals.

(The 3rd edition of The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide was substantially revised and expanded in conjunction with the production of the “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” class by Dick B. and Ken B. on four DVD's in March 2010.)

The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide is intended as a supplementary resource. It does not aim to change the fundamental nature of any existing Christian recovery or approach. Rather, it presents an attractive, appealing, helpful, and effective segment—primarily historical and introductory in nature—that all can use: (1) to bring to their respective audiences accurate historical information about the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in the astonishing, documented successes of early A.A.; and (2) to enhance substantially the effectiveness of their Christian recovery efforts by employing the successful, relevant techniques and lessons from the original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program in helping those who still suffer with alcoholism, substance abuse, and other self-destructive behavior and life-controlling problems.

Suggested Additions to Christian Recovery Programs Proposed in This Guide

First, a concise, accurate, historical element containing discussions of:

Christian treatments that were effective in dealing with alcoholism prior to A.A.'s founding;

The Christian training of A.A.’s founders as youngsters in Vermont;

The Christian beginnings of A.A. in Akron and New York, including discussions of how the first three AAs got sober;

The founding of early A.A., its actual practices, and the "original" Akron “Christian fellowship” program;

The astonishing 75% overall success rate early A.A. claimed and Cleveland's documented 93% success rate;

Alterations of the original Akron program that made their way into the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous ("the Big Book") published in April 1939;

Ways to enable a newcomer to utilize the early Christian A.A. precepts in the present-day 12 Step programs; and

 Means by which Coalition leaders and workers in the recovery arena can adapt and apply this (new) information to their own approaches and still underline the importance of God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in Christian recovery efforts today.

Second, a "package" of proposed approaches tailored to the needs, ideas, and programs of Christian leaders and workers in the recovery arena, as well as Christians in recovery.

Third, a discussion of present-day approaches that downplay reliance on the power and love of the one true God in favor of (over) emphasizing the 12 Steps and 12 Traditions alone, “higher power” language, pseudo “spirituality,” self-made religion, and actual unbelief; and often criticizing church, religion, reliance on God, and even the mention of Jesus Christ or the Bible by those in today's recovery fellowships.

The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide also introduces the International Christian Recovery Coalition (www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com) as a means, through common effort, of expanding your Christian efforts in the recovery arena.

Table of Contents

The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed.,

by Dick B. and Ken B.

(April 2010)

Introduction (by Dick B.)

Miraculous Healings Are Recorded in the Bible and Are Still Occurring Today

Effective Christian Work with Alcoholics Before A.A. 

The Background Factors from Dr. Bob’s Youth in St. Johnsbury (1879-1898)

The Background Factors from Bill Wilson’s Youth (1895 to 1913) and Later 

The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous

The New York Origins

The Crucible at the Smith Home in Akron During the Summer of 1935 

The Highly-Successful, Original Akron A.A. Program, as Summarized by Frank Amos and Quoted in DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers 

14 Specific Practices Associated with the Original Akron A.A. “Christian Fellowship” Program Bill W. and Dr. Bob Developed 

The Verification of Early A.A.'s Astonishing Success Rates

Documenting the Successes of the First 40 Pioneers

Helping the Newcomer with a Full Kit of Spiritual Tools 

Some Suggested Tools with Which to Arm the Nestling about to Be Flung out of the Nest 

Helping a Christian to Begin Recovery Today 

"A New Way Out" 

An Emerging Picture of Proposals and Potential Service from the California Meetings with Dick B. and Ken B. July 12-21, 2009 

Address by Dick B. at the Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors (ACADC) Conference in Palm Springs, August 29, 2009 

Conclusion

Obtain The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., eBook/ “digital download” edition

right now!

$14.95

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

http://www.dickb.com/Christian-Recovery-Guide-files/ 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Credit or Debit Card, or PayPal Accepted. (PayPal is the gateway, BUT NO PAYPAL ACCOUNT IS REQUIRED.)

AA Timelines - Updated to June 2012

A.A. Timelines

The Real Time Lines—Two of Them—That Marked

the Beginning of A.A.

Updated June 24, 2012

By Dick B. and Ken B.

© 2012 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Akron Events

September 1931

Russell Firestone gets saved and healed of alcoholism with the help of Rev. Samuel Shoemaker on the train back to Akron from the 50^th triennial General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church—a General Convention of the Episcopal Church—held in Denver, Colorado, September 16-30, 1931.

October 1931 through January 1933

Russell and his friend James D. Newton travel widely for the Oxford Group in the ensuing months, giving their testimony in the United States and elsewhere.

January 1933

At the request of Russell Firestone’s father, Harvey Firestone, Sr., Dr. Frank N. D. Buchman—founder of “A First Century Christian Fellowship” (also known as “the Oxford Group”)—and other Oxford Group members, hold a series of meetings in Akron from January 19-23, 1933. Rev. Walter F. Tunks, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, is actively involved in hosting the meetings. Russell Firestone attends and speaks at several of the many Akron meetings, which are heavily covered by the Akron papers. He and others give testimony as to their Oxford Group life-changes through Jesus Christ.

January 1933

Henrietta Seiberling (of the well-known rubber dynasty family), Dr. Bob’s wife Anne, and two other ladies who attended the large, January 1933 Akron Oxford Group events, soon start attending the small, weekly, Thursday night West Hill Oxford Group meeting, persuading Dr. Bob to join the group. He attends Oxford Group meetings regularly until Mother’s Day, May 12, 1935, when he met Bill W. (and for several years thereafter).

January 1933 through May 1935

During this period, and while still drinking, Bob feels it necessary to “renew” his familiarity with the Bible in which he said he “had had excellent training” as a youngster in Vermont. He reads the Bible three times from cover to cover. He joins a Presbyterian Church. He reads all kinds of Christian literature (which is still available for view at Dr. Bob’s Home in Akron as to one part, and at Brown University as to the other). Bob said he read all the Oxford Group literature he could get his hands on.

December 1933

Dr. Bob and his wife Anne join First Presbyterian Church in Akron on December 17, 1933. (They were transferred in May 1936.)

Late April, 1935(?)

Henrietta Seiberling feels guided to have a meeting for Dr. Bob and asks Oxford Grouper members T. Henry and Clarace Williams if their home could be used for the meeting. Henrietta then gathers some Oxford Group members to attend. She wants them to share things that were very costly to them to make Dr. Bob lose his pride. She warns Anne Smith about the meeting and tells her: “Come prepared to mean business. There is going to be no pussyfooting around.” But she doesn’t tell her the meeting was for Dr. Bob. At this meeting, Dr. Bob shares: “I am going to tell you something which may cost my profession. I am a secret drinker, and I can’t stop.” The other group members ask if he would like them to pray for him. Dr. Bob says, “Yes,” so they pray for him. That was the beginning of the Wednesday night meetings at the Williams’ home.

The next morning, Henrietta says a prayer for Bob and says, “God, I don’t know anything about drinking, but I told Bob that I was sure that if he lived this way of life, he could quit drinking. Now I need Your help, God.” She said: “Something said to me—I call it ‘guidance’; it was like a voice in my head—‘Bob must not touch one drop of alcohol.’” Henrietta calls Bob and tells him she had guidance for him. He comes over at ten in the morning, and she tells him that her guidance was that he mustn’t touch one drop of alcohol. [See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, pages 53ff. for these details.]

Bob continues to drink excessively until he meets Bill W. He would say to Henrietta Seiberling: “’. . . I think I’m just one of those want-to-want-to guys.” And she’d say, “No, Bob, I think you want to. You just haven’t found a way to work it yet.” [DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 59]

May 1935

Two weeks later, Bill Wilson arrives in Akron.

May 1935

Bill Wilson had failed in a business venture and was tempted to drink. Instead, he calls Dr. Walter Tunks from the Mayflower Hotel in Akron. Tunks gives Bill a referral that leads to Henrietta Seiberling. Bill tells her: “I am a rum hound from New York and a member of the Oxford Group. And I need to talk to a drunk.”

May 1935

Henrietta thinks Bill W. is “manna from heaven.” She arranges to have Dr. Bob come to her home at the Seiberling Gate Lodge to meet with Bill W.

May 12, 1935

Bill W. and Dr. Bob meet on Mother’s Day, May 12, 1935. After talking with Bill W. for six hours, Dr. Bob concludes that, despite his and Bill’s association with the Oxford Groups, only Bill had grasped their idea of “service”—helping others get well. Something Dr. Bob said he had never thought of, considered, or done.

June 1935 through August 1935

Bill W. moves into the Smith home and lives there over the summer of 1935. Bill and Bob listen each day as Dr. Bob’s wife Anne reads the Bible to them. They particularly favor the Book of James. The two men stay up until the wee hours of the morning studying the Bible, discussing a possible program, and developing their ideas for recovery.

June 10, 1935

After one more binge in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at the annual American Medical Association conference, Dr. Bob quits drinking for good—something he had never been able to do. Henrietta and he feel his cure (which is what he called it) was in answer to the prayers.

Late June, 1935

Dr. Bob and Bill W. decide they had better get busy, find another drunk, and help him. And they phone the nurse at Akron City Hospital. Dr. Bob tells her they have found a cure for alcoholism. And they meet Bill D. (A.A. Number Three-to-be). Bill D. tells them he already believes in God, was a Deacon in his church and a Sunday school teacher, and doesn’t need to be sold on religion. Bill W. and Dr. Bob tell him to give his life to God and that he must help another once he is cured. Bill D. gives his life to God, is immediately healed, and steps from the hospital a free man. He participates in A.A. meetings and service for the rest of his life.

July 4, 1935

A.A. Number Three, Bill D., is discharged from the hospital on July 4, 1935; and Bill W. declares that that is the founding date of the first A.A. Group—Akron Number One. As Bob said later, at that time, they had no Steps and no Traditions. There was not yet a Big Book. And there were not yet drunkalogs or meetings as we now know them.

1935-1939

From that point forward, they have daily meetings. Dr. Bob calls their meetings a “Christian fellowship.” All the early AAs are hospitalized. All read the Bible with Dr. Bob in the hospital, are asked to confirm their belief in God, are asked to get out of bed and on their knees, and are asked to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

1935-1939

Every morning the AAs, their wives and families gather at the Smith Home for a Quiet Time led by Dr. Bob’s wife. Anne would open with a prayer, read from the Bible, have group prayer, have a group quiet time, and then usually share from her personal journal [See Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939] and have discussions on it. Copies of The Upper Room—a quarterly Christian devotional—are distributed by Mother G.

1935-1939

On Wednesdays, there is one regular meeting of the “self-styled alcoholic squad” at the home of T. Henry Williams. Sometimes the few Oxford Group people would hold their meetings in one room, and the alkies in another. Every single member is required to make a “real surrender.” This means he is taken upstairs with two or three members (usually Dr. Bob and T. Henry). The newcomer would kneel. The others would pray with him and over him. He would ask Jesus Christ to become his Lord and Savior. He would ask God to take alcohol out of his life and guide him to live by Christian principles. Because these meetings are characterized as “old fashioned revival meetings” focused on healing drunks, they are referred to as a “clandestine lodge” of the Oxford Group and distinguish themselves from the Oxford Group which held other kinds of meetings and were focused on teams’ doing “world changing through life changing.”

1935-1939

The daily meetings begin with prayer. There is reading from the Bible, group prayer, group Quiet Time, and a period when newcomers are taken upstairs with two or three old-timers to do a full surrender. In their homes, AAs read Christian devotionals like The Runner’s Bible, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, The Soul’s Sincere Desire by Glenn Clark, and The Christ of the Mount by E. Stanley Jones. These are circulated among them by Dr. Bob and read. So are innumerable Christian books Dr. Bob and Henrietta Seiberling and Anne Smith were reading—Kagawa’s Love: The Law of Life; Henry Drummond’s The Greatest Thing in the World, Healing in Jesus’ Name by Ethel Willitts, Christian Healing, Soul Surgery by Walter, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by Oswald Chambers, Twice Born Men and Life Changers by Harold Begbie, and many many others.

May/June 1936

Westminster United Presbyterian Church in Akron forms under its own charter in 1936. Dr. Bob and his wife come from First Presbyterian Church in Akron to Westminster United Presbyterian Church in Akron, Ohio, by letter of transfer. They join the church on June 3, 1936, and are charter members.

November 1937

In November 1937, Bill and Bob “count the noses” of the recoveries and find that 40 alcoholics they personally know—men who have gone to any lengths to follow the path—have maintained sobriety. Twenty have never had a drink since committing to Bill W. and Dr. Bob’s “program.” And early A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among these “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “real” alcoholics who had thoroughly followed the early A.A. program and had been cured.

February 1938

Frank Amos, a representative of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., sends to a report to Rockefeller resulting from Amos’ investigation of Dr. Bob’s work in Akron. The report presents a seven-point summary of the highly-successful Akron program. [See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 131.]

May 11, 1939

Clarence S., Dr. Bob’s sponsee, founds the third A.A. Group in the world in Cleveland. It is the first meeting called “Alcoholics Anonymous.” Clarence said he brought to Cleveland the Big Book and its 12 Steps, the Four Absolutes, the Bible, and “most of the old program.” The work grew in one year from one group to 30 groups. It took people through the Twelve Steps in a day or so. And its records disclosed that they had attained a 93% success rate with no relapses!

New York Events

1926

Rowland Hazard had developed a serious alcoholism problem. He treats with Dr. Carl Jung in Switzerland. But he relapses. He returns to Jung, who tells him he cannot help him because he has the mind of a chronic alcoholic. Jung suggests that a real conversion might relieve Rowland.

By the summer of 1934

Rowland joins the Oxford Group, begins associating with Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, makes a decision for Christ, and thoroughly masters Oxford Group ideas.

Summer of 1934

Cebra Graves and Shepherd (“Shep”) Cornell, friends of Ebby Thacher’s, decide “to do some missionary work in the Oxford Group manner.” They visit Ebby at the Thacher home in Manchester, Vermont. Cebra and Shep tell Ebby, a seemingly-hopeless alcoholic, about “A First Century Christian Fellowship” (also known as “the Oxford Group”). Cebra and Shep share with Ebby that they “had gotten some pretty sensible things out of it based on the life of Christ, biblical times.” They told him: “[You are] drinking yourself to death, why don’t you try turning your life over to God?” Ebby was very much impressed “because it was what I had been taught as a child and what I inwardly believed.” Shortly after Cebra and Shep visit him, Ebby decides to quit drinking.

decides to get sober in Manchester, Vermont. His three Oxford Group friends tell him about the Oxford Group’s Christian principles and about the power of prayer.

Late Summer/Early Fall, 1934

Ebby accompanies Rowland Hazard to New York and stays for a short time with Shep Cornell. He then moves into Calvary Mission in New York which is run by Rev. Sam Shoemaker’s Calvary Episcopal Church.

September 1934

Bill’s third stay at Towns Hospital: Dr. William D. Silkworth, a top psychiatrist, tells Bill that if he does not stop drinking, he will die or go insane. Dr. Silkworth, who is a devout Christian, also tells Bill that Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, can cure him of his alcoholism.

November 1, 1934

Ebby Thacher makes his surrender—i.e., he accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior—at Calvary Mission in New York.

Late November, 1934

Ebby visits Bill W. at his 182 Clinton Street home in New York. He tells Bill about the Oxford Group’s Christian message, about the power of prayer they advocated, and about his own rebirth at Calvary Mission, and that God has done for him what he could not do for himself. Bill concludes that Ebby had been born again.

Early December, 1934

Ebby comes back to Bill’s home again, this time bringing with him Shep Cornell of the Oxford Group.

About December 6, 1934

Bill goes to Calvary House (run by Rev. Sam Shoemaker’s Calvary Episcopal Church) and hears Ebby give his testimony.

About December 7, 1934

The next day, Bill W. goes to Calvary Mission. Bill kneels at the altar and accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Bill writes to his brother-in-law that he had “found religion.”

Years later, Bill writes in his autobiography [Bill W., My First 40 Years, 147] and in another manuscript saying, “For sure I’d been born again.”

December 11, 1934

On his way to Towns Hospital, Bill decides that he should probably call on the Great Physician for help.

December 11, 1934

Bill arrives at Towns Hospital for his fourth and final visit.

While there, he says: “If there be a God, let Him show Himself!”

This is when, Bill says, his hospital room filled and blazed with an “indescribably white light.” He says he experienced the presence of God, and he declares that this must be “the God of the Scriptures.”

He declared this, after this event, he never again doubted the existence of God.

He is released from Towns Hospital, permanently cured, on December 18, 1934. He then scours New York City with a Bible under his arm—going to the Bowery, to Calvary Mission, to flea bag hotels, to Towns Hospital, etc.—telling drunks his story (that the Lord had cured him of the terrible disease of alcoholism), and that they too could get healed of their alcoholism by giving their life to God.

May 12, 1935

Bill W. and Dr. Bob meet on Mother’s Day.

June 10, 1935

Bill W. and Dr. Bob identify this date—on which Dr. Bob took his last drink—as the date on which Alcoholics Anonymous was founded.

Email: DickB@Dickb.com

Main Web site: www.DickB.com

The International Christian Recovery Coalition: www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com

Christian Recovery Radio: www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

Gloria Deo