Strengthening the Faith of Christians in A.A., N.A., and Recovery

Strengthening the Faith of Christians in A.A., N.A., and Recovery Today

Bill Wilson’s Call on God for Help

Dick B.
© 2015 Anonymous. All rights reserved.

Dr. William D. Silkworth advised Bill Wilson that Jesus Christ, the Great Physician, could cure Bill of his alcoholism. At the time of Bill Wilson’s third hospitalization in Towns Hospital, Bill had a discussion with his physician, Dr. William D. Silkworth, on the subject of the “Great Physician.” And Silkworth’s biographer Dale Mitchel wrote in Silkworth: The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks:

“Silkworth has not been given the appropriate credit for his position on a spiritual conversion, particularly as it may relate to true Christian benefits. Several sources, including Norman Vincent Peale in his book The Positive Power of Jesus Christ, agree that it was Dr. Silkworth who used the term ‘The Great Physician’ to explain the need in recovery for a relationship with Jesus Christ. . . . In the formation of AA, Wilson initially insisted on references to God and Jesus, as well as the Great Physician. . .  . Silkworth challenged the alcoholic with an ultimatum. Once hopeless, the alcoholic would grasp hold of any chance of sobriety. Silkworth, a medical doctor, challenged the alcoholic with a spiritual conversion and a relationship with God as part of a program of recovery. His approach with Bill Wilson was no different. . . Wilson did often confirm Silkworth as ‘very much a founder of AA.’ . . . . [Bill wrote:] “I was in black despair. And in the midst of this I remembered about this God business. . . and I rose up in bed and said, “If there be a God, let him show himself now! All of a sudden there was a light. . .a blinding white light that filled the whole room. A tremendous wind seemed to be blowing all around me and right through me. I felt as if I were standing on a high mountain top. . . I felt that I stood in the presence of God.” [In Norman Vincent Peale, The Art of Living] The Silkworth copy of this book inscribed by Peale is available at the Silkworth Collection Archives. . .  . In this book in particular he describes the need for surrender (p.105), he uses the term ‘The Great Physician’ (later used by Bill Wilson) as a metaphor for Jesus Christ (pp. 123 -26, and 151), and the details of an act of making amends, the AA Ninth Step, (pp. 128-31), all of which are cornerstones of spiritual living ripe within the Alcoholics Anonymous program and that of Dr. Silkworth.”^[1]

Ebby Thacher visited his old school friend and companion Bill Wilson shortly after Bill’s third hospitalization. Ebby told Bill that he (Ebby) had been lodging at Calvary Rescue Mission,^[2] had “got religion,”^[3] and that “God had done for him what he could not do for himself.”^[4] Ebby had there in Calvary Mission made a decision for Christ.^[5] In a manuscript I found at Stepping Stones, titled, “Bill Wilson’s Original Story,” every line was numbered. The numbers ran from 1 to 1180; and here is how Bill there described Ebby’s approach and Bill’s observation that Ebby had been born again at the Mission:

“Nevertheless here I was sitting opposite a man who talked about a personal God, who told me how he had found Him, who described to me how I might do the same thing and who convinced me utterly that something had come into his life which had accomplished a miracle. The man was transformed; there was no denying he had been reborn.” (lines 935-42).^[6]

Bill Wilson shortly set out for Calvary Mission to receive what his friend Ebby had received.^[7] Upon his arrival at Calvary Mission, Bill went to the altar just as Ebby had done.^[8] And just as Ebby had done, Bill made a decision for Christ.^[9] Rev. Sam Shoemaker’s wife was present. She told me on the telephone from her home in Burnside very explicitly that she was present at the Mission and that Bill there “made a decision for Christ.”^[10]

In a recorded talk at Dallas, Texas, Bill Wilson’s wife Lois Wilson described the events that took place at Bill’s conversion:

“Well, people got up and went to the altar and gave themselves to Christ. And the leader of the meeting asked if there was anybody that wanted to come up. And Bill started up. . . .  And he went up to the front and really, in very great sincerity, did hand over his life to Christ.”^[11]

The Rev. W. Irving Harris was Dr. Shoemaker’s Assistant Minister. Harris and his wife Julia lived in Calvary House where Shoemaker lived, and knew Bill Wilson quite well. Rev. Harris typed a memorandum which his wife Julia gave to me, which said of Bill’s Mission Conversion:

“. . . it was at a meeting at Calvary Mission that Bill himself was moved to declare that he had decided to launch out as a follower of Jesus Christ.”^[12]

Then, it was Bill Wilson himself who began to describe his own conversion to Christ at the Calvary Mission altar. First, while drunk, Bill wrote a letter to his brother-in-law Dr. Leonard Strong, using the same description that Ebby had used regarding his own conversion. Bill said, “I’ve got religion.”^[13]

Of far greater importance are the remarks that I found twice in Bill’s manuscripts at Stepping Stones and which are now recorded in his own autobiography published by Hazelden. Bill wrote:

“For sure I’d been born again.”^[14]

Even Bill’s wife Lois, having seemingly become resentful of Bill’s victory, wrote: “Although my joy and faith in his rebirth continued, I missed our companionship. We were seldom alone now.”^[15]

But the decision at the altar did not, at first, produce sobriety. Bill had not yet had quite enough to drink. After his conversion, he wandered drunk in despair and dark depression to Towns Hospital one more time. He was, he said, still pondering “that mission experience.”^[16]

Concluding he could no longer defeat alcoholism on his own and still remembering Dr. Silkworth’s assurance that Jesus Christ the Great Physician could cure him, Bill thought:

“Yes, if there was any great physician that could cure the alcohol sickness, I’d better seek him now, at once. I’d better find what my friend [Ebby] had found.”^[17]

Bill arrived at Towns Hospital for his last visit as a patient. For Bill, “The terrifying darkness had become complete.” Then he thought, “But what of the Great Physician? For a brief moment, I suppose, the last trace of my obstinacy was crushed out as the abyss yawned. I remember saying to myself,

I’ll do anything, anything at all. If there be a Great Physician, I’ll call on him.’”^[18]

And here are a few of Bill’s comments about what happened when he made that “call” and had his hospital room blaze with an extraordinary “white light experience”—a vital religious experience that changed his life forever, an experience that dominated the early A.A. thinking about the importance of Jesus Christ, and an experience that may give strength to the faith of Christians in A.A. today: Bill described this vital religious experience in  the chapter of the Big Book which he called “There is a Solution.”

“Then, with neither faith, nor hope, I cried out, ‘If there be a God, let him show himself.’ The effect was instant, electric. Suddenly my room blazed with an indescribably white light. I was seized with an ecstasy beyond description. I have no words for this. Every joy I had known was pale by comparison. The light, the ecstasy, I was conscious of nothing else. Then, seen in the mind’s eye, there was a mountain. I stood upon its summit where a great wind blew. A wind, not of air, but of spirit. In great, clean strength it blew right through me.”^[19]

“And then the great thought burst upon me: ‘Bill, you are a free man! This is the God of the Scriptures.’ And then I was filled with a consciousness of a presence. A great peace fell over me, and I was with this I don’t know how long. But then the dark side put in an appearance, and it said to me, ‘Perhaps, Bill, you are hallucinating. You better call in the doctor.’ So the doctor came, and haltingly I told him of the experience. Then came great words for Alcoholics Anonymous. The little man had listened, looking at me so benignly with those blue eyes of his, and at length he said to me, ‘Bill you are not crazy. I have read about this sort of thing in books but I have never seen it first hand. . . .’ So I hung on, and then I knew there was a God and I knew there was grace. And through it all I have continued to feel, and if I may presume to say it, that I do know these things.”^[20]

A.A.’s official biography of Bill Wilson summarized the results of Bill’s white light experience:

“Bill Wilson had just had his 39^th birthday, and he still had half his life ahead of him. He always said that after that experience, he never again doubted the existence of God. He never took another drink.”^[21]

Not only had he quit drinking for good, but he set about feverishly witnessing to anyone who would listen. Dr. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., to whose church the Calvary Mission belonged, encouraged Bill to spread the message of change and spiritual recovery to others like himself. William G. Borchert reports the events as follows:

“Bill took the preacher at his word. With Lois’s full support, he was soon walking through the gutters of the Bowery, into the nut ward at Bellevue Hospital, down the slimy corridors of fleabag hotels, and into the detox unit at Towns with a Bible under his arm.  He was promising sobriety to every drunk he could corner if they, like he, would only turn their lives over to God.”^[22]

Yet, as Dr. Bob put it, “Time went by, and he [Bill Wilson] had not created a single convert, not one. As we express it, no one had jelled. He worked tirelessly with no thought of saving his own strength or time, but nothing seemed to register.”^[23] But the message was carried to Dr. Bob and simmered to its essence by three months of Bible study and discussion by Bill and Bob in the summer of 1935.^[24] The simple Original program, founded in Akron on June 10, 1935, developed by the Akron Christian Fellowship, and incorporating the basic ideas taken from the study of the Good Book, achieved astonishing success by November of 1937. They are printed in page 131 of DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers.

The seven points of the original program—the basic ideas taken, as Dr. Bob said, from the Bible. were summarized for the Rockefeller family and are printed in full in Stick with the Winners! How to Conduct More Effective 12-Step Recovery Meetings Using Conference-Approved Literature: A Dick B. Guide for Christian Leaders and Workers in the Recovery Arena, by Dick B. and Ken B. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2012), pp. 25-26. And authors Dick B. and Ken B. have itemized the 16 principles and practices that the Christian pioneers used to implement the summarized points of their program. The full text of the itemization is set forth in Stick with the Winners! at pages 27-37.

Bill Wilson’s message, incorporating his view of the importance of Jesus Christ, is recorded in two places in A.A.’s subsequent literature.

On page 191 of the Fourth edition of A.A.’s Big Book, Bill is quoted as saying:

“The Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people.”^[25]

And, in earlier A.A. years Bill’s message repeatedlycontinued to express this basic idea to others still in need of help. One account begins with a visit by Dr. Bob’s sponsee, Clarence H. Snyder, with a Cleveland man:

[Said this Cleveland man:] “One evening I had gone out after dinner to take on a couple of double-headers and stayed a little later than usual, and when I came home Clarence [Snyder] was sitting on the davenport with Bill W. [Bill Wilson]. I do not recollect the specific conversation that went on but I believe I did challenge Bill to tell me something about A.A., and I do recall one another thing: I wanted to know what it was that worked so many wonders, and hanging over the mantel was a picture of Gethsemane and Bill pointed to it and said, “There it is,” which didn’t make much sense to me.”^[26]

And this was it. For those in early A.A. who thoroughly followed the path that began with belief in God and surrender to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the path was a path to success—to finding God, to A.A.’s solution—the vital religious experience.. And Bill’s message for those who wanted to hear it was that the Lord had cured him. Dr. Bob confirmed Bill’s message with the last line of Bob’s own personal story when he said, “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!”^[27]

Gloria Deo

---

^[1] Dale Mitchel, Silkworth The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks: The Biography of William Duncan Silkworth, M.D. (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2002), 33-34, 44-52, 63, 65, 78, 96, 100=01, 106-09,  121-22, 151, 159-61, 193-99, 225.

^[2] Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age: A Brief History of A.A. (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957),  58-9; Bill Wilson: Bill W. My First 40 Years: An Autobiography By the CoFounder of Alcoholics Anonymous (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2000),  132.

^[3] Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 58.

^[4] Alcoholics Anonymous, 4^th ed. (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001), 11.

^[5] T. Willard Hunter, “It Started Right There”: Behind the Twelve Steps and the Self-help Movement, Rev. ed. (Claremont, California: Ives Community Office, 2006), 6.

^[6] Dick B., Turning Point: A History of Early A.A.’s Spiritual Roots and Successes (San Rafael, CA: Paradise Research Publications, 1997). Note: This and other such manuscripts will shortly be published in Dick B.’s latest book with the working title, The Early Manuscripts and Papers I Was Allowed to See and Copy at Stepping Stones Archives in 1991.

^[7] Bill W., My First 40 Years 135-37.,

^[8] Bill W., My First 40 Years, 137.

^[9] Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the Creator’s Role in Early A.A. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006), 92-94.

^[10] Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W., 94.

^[11] This quote was discovered by A.A. historian Richard K., who listened to the Lois Wilson recording, wrote down the “Christ” remark, and provided the information to me. See Dick B., When Early AAs Were Cured and Why, 3^rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006), 11.

^[12] Dick B., New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., Pittsburgh ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1999), 533.

^[13] Dick B., When Early AAs Were Cured and Why, 12.

^[14] Bill W. My First 40 Years, 147; See Dick B., The Conversion of Bill W., 110, reporting the two places (pp. 130 and 103) of the  manuscript titled “Wilson, W. G. Wilson Recollections,” dated September 1, 1954, that I personally inspected and was permitted to copy of Stepping Stones Archives in 1991.

^[15] Lois Remembers, 98.

^[16] Bill W. My First 40 Years, 138.

^[17] Bill W. My First 40 Years, 139.

^[18] Bill W., My First 40 Years, 145.

^[19] Bill W., My First 40 Years, 145-46.

^[20] The Language of the Heart: Bill W.’s Grapevine Writings (New York: The AA Grapevine, Inc., 1988), 284.

^[21] “Pass It On,” 121.

^[22] William G. Borchert, The Lois Wilson Story When Love is Not Enough: A Biography of the Cofounder of Al-Anon  (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2005), 170.

^[23] The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks [Pamphlet P-53] (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1976), 10.

^[24] The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, 13-14

^[25] Alcoholics Anonymous, 4^th ed., 191

^[26] This account was included in the third edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1976), 216-17. It has now been removed from the subsequent edition. The picture to which Bill W. pointed was a well-known depiction of “a place called Gethsemane” where Jesus had gone to prayer and “saith unto his disciples, sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. . .  . And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, ‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt,’”

^[27] Alcoholics Anonymous, 4^th ed., 181.

 

The Guide for Beginners’ Recovery from Alcoholism and Addiction Today

The Guide for Beginners’ Recovery from Alcoholism and Addiction Today

By Applying Old School Akron A.A. in Today’s Recovery Scene

Dick B.

© 2015 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

Summary of the Stages of Healing Techniques, Beginning with the Apostles, and How They Lived Their Lives--Praying, Witnessing, converting others, healing,  fellowshipping in homes and  temple, and breaking bread together

How Recovery “Christian techniques” Began to be employed in the manner of First Century Christian Fellowships

The Turning by Christian groups in the 1850’s to Ministering to the “Unworthy”

The Christian Entities That Led the Way

Christian Revivals in the Upbringing of A.A.’s Co-founders

[The Great Revival of 1876 in St. Johnsbury]

Congregationalism in Vermont and in the Families of A.A.’s Co-founders

Participation of Grandparents and Parents

Church, Sunday School, Sermons, Reading of Scripture, Hymns, Prayer Meetings, Young Men’s Christian Association, Christian Endeavor Societies

The Congregational Domination of Academies Attended by Dr. Bob, Bill W., and Ebby Thacher; and the Christian Practices Required of Students

The Spiral Downward (glass in hand) by Dr. Bob and by Bill W. as They Departed for College

______

The Early Formative Days for Alcoholics and Addicts

How the First Three AAs Got Sober

A.A. Number One. Bill W. became born again at Calvary Chapel in New York. Then Bill was cured of his alcoholism at Towns Hospital when Bill cried out to God for help, there experienced a blazing indescribably white light in his hospital room, and concluded, “Bill, you are a free man. This is the God of the Scriptures.” Bill never again doubted the existence of God, and never drank again.

On a rug on the floor of the home of T. Henry Williams, Dr. Bob (the alcoholic) had joined a small group of friends in prayer for his deliverance from alcoholism. A miraculous phone call soon emerged from the prayers. Bill W., a stranger, phoned Henrietta Seiberling seeking a drunk to work with. She introduced two men (Bill W. and Dr. Bob) at her home; and, after a six hour talk, the two men were bound to the principle of serving others. But Dr. Bob had yet to be cured. Before long, after a bender, Dr. Bob undertook scheduled surgery. Bill and Bob’s family were concerned that Bob was too shaky to operate. But Bob proceeded. He told Bill he had placed the surgery and his life in God’s hands. The operation was a success. Dr. Bob was cured then and there of his drinking problem and said so. It was June 10, 1935; and Bob never drank again.

Bill W. and Dr. Bob  visited attorney Bill D. in Akron City Hospital, persuaded him to admit to his seemingly hopeless alcoholism. Bill D. got on his knees and gave his life to God. He also promised to help others get well. And he walked out of the hospital a free man. He never drank again. And Bill W. announced that the date was July 4. 1935—the founding of Akron Group Number One.

All three men had renounced liquor for good. They believed in God and were students of the Bible. They were Christians. And in their darkest hours, they sought God’s help for their ascent from the abyss.

_____________________________________

The First Program of Recovery

The pioneers soon developed a recovery program consisting of seven points; investigated by Rockefeller agent Frank Amos and reported on page 131 of DR. Bob and the Good Oldtimers. The summarized seven points are accompanied in our book, Stick with the Winners and details the 16 principles and  practices the pioneers used to implement the seven point program published in A.A. literature; and Dick B. and his son Ken B. have set forth their summary of those principles and practices. In Stick with the Winners! How to Conduct More Effective  12-Step Recovery Meetings Using Conference-Approved Literature: A Dick B. Guide for Christian Leaders and Workers in the Recovery Arena. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., (2012). Dick and his son Ken have set forth on pages 27-38, with documentation those 16 principles and practices

______________________

The Next Major Program Development Was the Remarkable Cleveland Program Offshoot and Its Top Success

There are five reliable summaries of the Cleveland application of old school A.A.

(1) They are Our A.A. Legacy to the Faith Community For Those Who Want to Believe, By Three Clarence Snyder Sponsee-Old-timers and Their Wives: Compiled and Edited by Dick B. (Winter Park, FL: Came to Believe Publications, 2005.) The three author-couples were sponsored by Clarence, sponsored many others, put on retreats organized by Clarence, and were at his side for many years until his death. And, after Clarence died, they later devoted almost a year to interviews, phone calls, correspondence, and manuscript work with Dick B. It is widely used by AAs, at the retreats, and by hundreds who use it as a guide to A.A. and how to take its steps.

 

(2) Dick B. spoke at many retreats with Grace Snyder. He and his son Ken B. interviewed Grace extensively, and reviewed such books, papers, and records owned by Clarence as Grace made available when Dick and Ken spent a week at the Grace Snyder home in Florida. And her biography  is That Amazing Grace: The Role of Clarence and Grace S. in Alcoholics Anonymous published by Paradise Research Publications, Inc. (Kihei, HI Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1996. It was authored by Dick B.

 

(3)  The next significant Snyder book was written by Mitchell K. and titled How It Worked: The Story of Clarence H. Snyder and the Early Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland (1991). Mitchell had been sponsored by Clarence, gained possession of most of Clarence’s papers, and told the story of Clarence and Cleveland quite well.

 

 

There were some principal points that Grace and Mitchell made clear to me. They incorporated these in their writings about the Cleveland fellowship founded by Clarence in 1939. And  these are the important parts of A.A. history Clarence brought with him to Cleveland: (Big Book, Twelve Steps, “most of the old program” including the Four Absolutes and the Bible). The “old program” which included belief in God, surrender to Him through Jesus Christ, study of the Bible, visiting newcomers, particularly in the hospital; and participating in a great deal of fellowship—including sports, choir, braking bread, dances, and group prayer.

            In Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age: A Brief History of A.A. pp. 21-22, Bill  W. described what Cleveland had done with “most of the old school A.A.” program,” and wrote:

 

We old-timers in New York and Akron had regarded this fantastic phenomenon with deep misgivings. Had it not taken us four whole years, littered with countless failures, to produce even a hundred good recoveries? Yet here in Cleveland we now say about twenty members, not very experienced themselves, suddenly confronted by hundreds of newcomers as a result of the Plain Dealer articles. How could they possibly manage? We did not know. But a year later we did know for by then Cleveland had about thirty groups and several hundred members. . . . Yes, Cleveland’s results were of the best.

_____________________________________

Bill W.’s new book and “New Version of the Program” the Twelve Steps

No sooner did the presentation of the Akron Christian Fellowship practices and accomplishment take place, than Bill W. wanted a book, hospitals, and missionaries. But his proposal failed with the Akron group. He did gain approval of the book by a slim vote; but he began writing untethered as to its contents. Dr. Bob had merely commented: “Keep it simple!” And Bill’s product came up with the “new version”—the one that enabled the original or “First” manuscript draft to be written and circulated. But the AAs felt a story or case history was needed—evidence in the form of living proof, written testimonials of the membership.

But there was dissension. For example, Fitz M., the Episcopal minister’s son and the  second man to recover at Towns Hospital constantly traveled to reinforce the position that the book ought to be Christian in the doctrinal sense of the word and should say so. Fitz favored using Biblical terms and expressions to make this clear. But the atheists and agnostics, were still to make a tremendously important contribution, said Bill. The protesters, led by Bill W.’s friend Henry, were for deleting the word “God” from the book entirely. Henry had come to believe in some sort of “universal power.” He wanted a psychological book

There was still argument about the Twelve Steps. Bill wrote: “All this time I had refused to budge on these steps. I would not change a word of the original draft, in which I had consistently used the word “God.’ But praying on one’s knees was still a big affront to Henry. He argued, he begged, he threatened. . . He was positive we would scare off alcoholics by the thousands when they read those Twelve Steps. A detour was fashioned. Bill pointed out that the steps could be made suggestive only.

And the totally compromised draft of the First Edition manuscript was chopped up by a committee of four—Wilson, Hank Parkhurst, Fitz, and the secretary, Ruth Hock. And then an endless number of parties took a crack at it. The Multilith was the name given for the text of the, working manuscript. And it contained “accepted” changes, “rejected” changes, the marginalia, and the “proof sheet” changes. Later editors insisted that it was badly mangled. But a bidder at auction paid almost a million dollars for the manuscript. Then it was published for sale as The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of “Alcoholics Anonymous”  (Center City, MN, Hazelden, 2010).

And, though there are suspect additions, and many hand-written opinions and suggestions, one can look at the Hazelden publication and see the manuscript that contained the First Edition of the Big Book, published by Works Publishing Company in New York

There was a huge compromise in Bill’s 12 Step version. And regardless how you regarded the great compromise, it proposed language such as describing God as a “Power greater than ourselves and inserting the words “God as we understood Him”

So the real “new version” of the program and its steps were compromised in tenor and purpose. In Bill’s language, “God was certainly there is our Steps, but He was now expressed in terms that anybody—anybody at all—could accept and try, , , , “Such were the final concessions to those of little or no faith. . . so all who suffer might pass through, regardless of their belief or lack of belief.”

_________________________________________

The Present Program as Embodied in the Several Published Manuscripts That Has Left God in the Dust

Was He a “power?” Could He merely be described as a “Power greater than ourselves?” Was He a light bulb or Big Dipper as some frequently said? Could you –with the stroke of a pen--change God into someone or something anyone or anything could expect to heal him?

 Jim H., probably the A.A. with the most sobriety when he died, once said to me: “Dick. If you take God out of A.A., you have nothing.”

Should a newcomer hear that he should pray to nothing for help? That he need believe in nothing for rescue? That A.A. is just about not-god-ness? That he can select a rock, a chair, a door knob, a table, or some undefined “higher power” for healing?

We think the newcomer needs to hear the whole story and not just about rocks and tables, higher powers, light bulbs, or “nothing at all” and expect to be cured of alcoholism with such an approach. Or should he hear the rest of the story and believe affirm what his basic text claims: that the Creator of the heavens and the earth could have, would be able to wield, can, and does have more power than any product of man’s mind, book, or hands?

You decide.

 

 

Maui Pilot Program of Old School A.A. To Be Part of Forthcoming Webinar Programs

In addition to our many other August improvements and changes, we have had one of those additional miracles God keeps heaping up for service. Maui has been slow slow slow to respond to old school recovery facts. But there has been a recovered daily meeting attending Christian leader in the wings. One of my long-term Maui sponsees has joined in with our Maui restoration plan We have long wanted a pilot program. And now our recently successful newcomer is here with apartment, car, and eagerness to go. He's detoxed, released from short term treatment, solid in fidelity, determination, helping others, and eager to resume helping with Big Book and Bible as he did on so many of my trips to Pittsburgh, the Wilson House, and other conferences in years gone by. So we are cranking up A.A. meeting attendance; planning regular study groups; resuming Bible and history study, and now able to offer hungry newcmers the real Christian fellowship that was so much a part of old school Akron A.A.'s successes. It takes more than a village. It takes hands-on, motivated, service-oriented helpers to work successfully in the trenches with alcoholics and addicts. So now, amidst many other radio shows, webinars, newsletters, blogs, and solid leaders in Arizona, Ohio, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Missouri, Alaska, and California, the planned outreach will be mirrored right here on Maui. And it began here two days ago!
www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com

The New Brief Presentations of Accurate A.A. History and Today's Program in Easily Remembered Bites

Now that 25 years of research has been completed, the emphasis will be on teaching the actual facts--the "rest of the story", and the ignored links--in digestible bites. The basic documentation is available in 46 titles, 1700 articles, blogs, newsletters, and personal conversations. But the wide dissemination now will allow viewers, speakers, diverse training folks, and leaders to conduct their own programs in their own ways, but to have access to regular input from Dick and Ken.

 

How? Radio, videos, webinars, interviews, and ample, personal communications, facebook, twitter, and other media. Expensive travel to conferences will be replaced largely by specific, brief, topical segments that will help trainers, help trainees, enhance recovery, and help others.

 

Mindless meeting chatter, war stories, and entertaining circuit speakers can give place to groups that learn chunks of recovery facts, ask questions, receive pointers to resources, and make comments. Fellowship, Big Book study, Step study, history study, and information about the role played and that can be played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, the Bible will enable old school A.A. to supplement the experience of members in helping others with today's spiritual tools.

 

No change in A.A. Just enabling serious recovery facts to beef up learning at a local, personal, nationwide level.

Christian Recovery Residential Homes - Today's Effective Revival of Old School A.A.'s 1st Century Christianity

Christian Recovery Residential Homes can be a unique way of helping alcoholics and addicts recover by following the lead of First Century Christians as described in the Book of Acts. We will soon be listing and describing some that do the job quite well: (1) Fellowship with God, His Son Jesus Christ, and children of the living Creator. (2) Breaking bread together. (3) Studying the Word of God together. (4) Prayer meetings. (5) Attendance at Christian church of choice. (6) Learning how the early Akron A.A. Christians witnessed together, converted together, and led many a newcomer to establish his relationship with God through accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. (7) Blessed by leaders who make it clear how, by belief in God, by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, by renewing their minds with the Word of God, and by helping others be saved, be healed, be renewed, be assured of eternal life, and by carrying the message on to those who want God's help. Lots more on how Christian Recovery Residential Homes are growing in number, in outreach, in experience, and in service to God as they learn how the Christians of the apostolic period help spread the message of freedom to many parts of the world. Dick B. www.aahistoryChristianrecovery.com

Proposed Study Groups

Our Forthcoming Web Suggestions for 12-Step meetings, Christian Recovery Fellowships, and Recovery Study Groups

Dick B. © 2014 Anonymous. All rights reserved

Shortly we will be posting for your use a page of what you can do to establish a group for study of the Big Book, Steps, Beginner approaches, Christian fellowships, prayer discussions, Bible discussions and A.A. origins, A.A. History, Christian predecessors, Christian upbringing of Bill W. and Dr. Bob, how the first three got sober, what the principles and practices of the Akron AA Christian Fellowship were, how Bill’s “new version” of the program the Twelve Steps left these out, and how the compromise ousting God from the Steps came about in 1939 just before the Big Book went to print.

Some Starting Thoughts

(1)   Select a name and purpose– such as Step Study, Big Book Study, History Study, AA Roots Study, Prayer Guides, Literature Study, Sponsoring the One Who Still Suffers, Meetings for Beginners,

(2)   Gather a small group – AA friends, Fellow Sponsees, Step Students, Big Book Studies,

Literature Study, History Seekers, A.A. Conference-approved books and pamphlets,

Guide books.

(3)   Pick Studious Leaders - Devoted students like Joe McQ. and Charlie P., Rev. Samuel Shoemaker, Jr., and such diligent, prepared “teachers” are needed to lead studies.

(4)   Cover Meeting Needs – Location, officers, dates, times, Format, literature to be used.

Learn and Read Applicable Traditions

Tradition Two – For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority—a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

Tradition 3 (the Long Form) Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.

Yield to no Bullying, Attempts to Silence, or Know-it-alls

Groups meet to help themselves and other stay sober and help newcomers to get sober and stay healed. Shout-downs, discourteous claims, and suppression should open the door to another meeting where such conduct does not occur. Vote with your feet!

So you would like to form a recovery group. . . .

So You’d Like to Form a Recovery Group. . . .

Dick B.

This introductory snippet will be brief. And we’d like to have you begin by telling us why you want to form a recovery group, what you are opposed to, what you favor, and your suggestions.

Day in and day out, we receive phone calls in Maui (808 874 4876) or emails (dickb@dickb.com) at our residence.

In which the caller says he wants to start a recovery group and asks what to do.

We have a number of books and guides that can be helpful and often send along some of these to be read by the inquirer. But this is a grass roots series of articles

We will start with several suggestions and questions: (1) What people do you want to be members of the group? AAs or NAs or believers? (2) Are you willing to ask a small group of friends, some folks from your church, some “members” you’ve met in A.A. or in treatment or in prison or in church or at school or at work? (3) Is your purpose to learn how to help those who still suffer? (4) Are you willing to acquire, read, and discuss the tools that truthfully report the facts—the newly reprinted First Edition of the A.A. Big Book, The Co-Founders of A.A. Pamphlet P-53, DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, and The Language of the Heart? (5) Are you beginning this quest because angry at a member, a sponsor, a leader, or motivated by anger with a meeting or a member or a church or at a treatment program, or the fellowship? (6) Are you willing to select as the leader of the group someone who is known for his or her knowledge of the Steps, the Big Book, the real origins of A.A. ideas, the religious ideas that produced A.A., the parts of the Bible like the Book of James, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 that were the heart of the basic ideas of early A.A.? (7) Will you freely read, study, and discuss “non-Conference-approved literature” that helps understanding of A.A., its origins, its co-founders, its original program, and the substantial changes and new version of the program adopted four years after A.A. was founded? (8) Are you willing to start with a small group?

Again! Let us hear your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions before you ask us questions or begin to form your group.