Dick B. Interviews Jayson J. of Houston,
Texas
on the January 26, 2013, episode of the
“Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B.”
show
Dick B.
Copyright 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved
You Can Hear This Radio Interview Right
Now
_______________________________________________________________
You may hear Dick B. interview Jayson J.
of Houston, Texas, on the January 26, 2013, episode of the "Christian
Recovery Radio with Dick B." show here:
http://mcaf.ee/y7eax
or here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2013/01/26/dick-b-interviews-jayson-j
Episodes of the "Christian Recovery
Radio with Dick B." show are archived at:
Dick B.’s Introduction of Jayson J. in
Today’s Interview
Our guest today is Jayson J.,
MA, MARE, LCDC. Jayson has just been elected Southeast Texas Area AA Archives
Chair. We were glad to connect with Jayson because many of the people we know
are interested in A.A. archives work—including a number of long-time archivists.
Many such people have contacted us for in-depth information on the history of
A.A. and the Christian Recovery Movement.
This is exciting for us
because we were a part of the earliest reborn A.A. archive days when Frank
Mauser and Nell Wing were both still alive and helping to bring historians and
archivists together.
Often, the archives community
seems focused on preservation and conservation of documents and manuscripts,
while we, as writers and historians, are much more focused on unearthing the
documents, reporting their locations and stewards, making their contents
available in our books and articles and online, and endeavoring to make sure
that sponsors, speakers, and newcomers learn what their history was. Not just
that it is in a locked glass case somewhere.
Based on our November 2012
research trip to the Cleveland A.A. District Office Archives, to the Akron A.A.
Intergroup Archives & to Dr. Bob's Home in Akron, we saw that A.A.'s history
is becoming more available at the archive level in some of those important
locations.
Jayson
has been accumulating Oxford Group literature and A.A. memorabilia, and has a
special interest in the well-known Oxford Group book For Sinners Only by
A.J. Russell. As many know, I have read just about every Oxford Group book in
existence and donated thousands of Oxford Group books and papers to various
libraries and archives around the U.S. So Jayson and I have lots to chat about.
Now
I will turn Jayson loose to share with us his passion for A.A. history and
archives; his remarkable observations and questions about For Sinners Only; and
information about his own family, education, professional work, religious
affiliation, and plans for the future.
Some Interview Highlights
Jayson told us he is
one of those in and out trudgers in A.A.—a person with religious training;
degrees in arts and religious education; seminary attendance; and acquiring a
good deal of professional training in recovery. But, in his own experience, he
began to see at a critical point that, figuratively, recovery programs didn’t
work; A.A. didn’t work; and his Christian background did not work. At least
that there was something wrong with those features as far as he had been
working them and judging them.
Then Jayson had a
spiritual experience—which he prefers to call a spiritual awakening. He got a
sponsor and fellowshipped with a group of serious old-timers. He read the Big
Book many times. He read the Bible many times. And he had learned from his
fellowship with believers that God was foundational in their view of the Bible,
the fellowship, and any successful treatment approach.
This led Jayson also
to dive deeply into A.A.’s own conference-approved literature such as DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, “Pass It On,”
Alcoholics Anonymous comes of Age, and, of course the Big Book. He saw all
these materials in a new light—that they were about God’s Way, not the
individual’s way. The same perception became a part of his Bible study.
Jayson went much
farther along the study path. For one thing, he was able to acquire an Oxford
Group favorite—For Sinners Only—and get
a genuine taste for the relationship between the Oxford Group ideas and those ideas
that were embodied in Bill Wilson’s “new” program published in 1939 which built
on three stated sources: the work of Dr. William D. Silkworth, the work of
Professor William James, and the teachings to Bill of Oxford Group
life-changing ideas by Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.—whom Bill actually dubbed
a “cofounder” of A.A.
This led Jayson to
some of my A.A. History and Christian Recovery books on the Bible, the Oxford
Group, Quiet Time, and the importance of working with others in the same way
that the First Century Christians did with others and among themselves—daily fellowship,
belief in God, coming to Him through Jesus Christ, obeying His will,
eliminating sin and living love, and changing lives by the action exercises
codified into the Big Book and Steps in 1939.
Jayson also made an
effort to track down and study the important news articles written by Larry J.
for Texas newspapers; and he also saw the techniques and relevance of old
school A.A. and its stated “cure” of alcoholism spelled out by this Dr. Bob protégé.
The rewarding part
of getting to know Jayson was the realization that he is hungry for getting
much into the working with others that Dr. Bob saw as so important. And
learning and imparting to others several of the main root ingredients of both
old school A.A.—the Akron Christian Fellowship, Bill Wilson’s “new” program
embodied in the Big Book in 1939, the major ideas of the Oxford Group that have
been codified into A.A.’s ideas and literature, and a deep respect for the role
that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible played in A.A. origins, history,
founding, original Christian Fellowship program, and astonishing successes in
the 1930’s.
Fortunately, Jayson
has the religious and recovery credentials that can open doors for him more
swiftly than for some. He has been in the trenches and bears the wounds. He
reached his bottom and sought hope in place of hopelessness. He has worked with
a pastor who is currently in London but may soon return to the Texas area and
help Jayson do what so many experienced, devoted, recovered Christian believers
are doing these days—urging the establishment of recovery groups (starting
small and building large) which pass along the history, the biblical basics,
the Oxford Group links, and the tools that newcomers need to have before them
whether they enter recovery through church, treatment, counseling, sober
living, or recovery pastors. This is rapidly becoming a key path for so many of
our International Christian Recovery Coalition leaders, workers, newcomers, and
concerned members of the public today.
We expect to see
much of Jayson; and his ties to A.A. itself have recently been strengthened by his
election as Chair of the Southeast Texas Area A.A. Archives. He is already
asking us what treasures we can point him to.
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