Sunday, January 6, 2013

Dick B. on 2013 A.A. History Plans and Books - Radio Interview


"Dick B. speaks about the latest on 'old-school' A.A." on the January 6, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show

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Dick B.

Copyright 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved
You may hear this Dick B. Radio Interview Now; and later today Dick will be speaking on Joseph’s Rum Radio Show as well
 

You may hear Dick B. speak about the latest on "old-school" A.A. on the January 6, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show here:

 

http://mcaf.ee/wvojf

 

or here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2013/01/06/dick-b-talks-about-the-latest-on-old-school-aa

 

Episodes of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show are archived at:

 


 

Dick B.’s Introduction to this January 6, 2013 Interview

This spring, the International Christian Recovery Coalition will continue its educational efforts to tell the recovery world about the "God is" option that exists and has always existed in Alcoholics Anonymous and recovery fellowships--whether they be Christian, 12-Step, or secular. Recovery today seeks and seems to attract suffering alcoholics and addicts who are at the mercy of whatever recovery therapy they happen to find, someone recommends, or courts and counselors require. And today, more often than not, that recovery effort asks little more than a desire to quit drinking or using, and attendance at meetings.

The days of Christian recovery organizations, professionals, and altruistic help from fellow afflicted souls who look to God for help have been in a diminishing stance for a couple of decades. At the same time, there has been a revival, an immense new growth among believers to go back to the highly-successful First Century "Christianity fellowship" techniques that the Akron A.A. pioneers adopted and victoriously applied from A.A.'s earliest days in 1935.

Dick B. and Ken B. have devoted 23 years now to researching and publicizing that "God is" option that can and will produce recovery and healing from alcoholism and addiction, if sought. Other options exist in abundance, but those who are Christians or at least believe in God deserve to know what God can and will do for them today if and when He is sought.

There are three major tools Dick and Ken will use in 2013 to illuminate the Divine help approach. The first is the personal stories of the A.A. pioneers that occupied the greatest number of pages in the first edition of A.A.'s basic text. The second involves the summary of the original Christian fellowship already underlined in much of A.A.'s own Conference-approved literature. The third is the message that all AAs and recovery work ought to carry.

Highlights of Dick B.’s Christian Recovery Radio Talk January 6, 2013

This interview covers material Ken and I will be using in Florida and in California in February and also later in the spring of 2013.  It emphasizes three books we feature in workshops and meetings.

Let us walk you through spots of the history of recovery from alcoholism and addiction with God’s help. Much of the relevant history got sidetracked on a detour involving the Washingtonians of the 1800’s, the Emanuel Movement of the early 1900’, and the Oxford Group which began about 1919. However, the proper focus of history that will be helpful to drunks is the history of God’s help. Help promised and produced in the reports in the Bible.

Turn first to First Century Christianity (the acts of the Apostles in the Book of Acts, and the work of Jesus upon which their deeds were founded). This meant daily fellowship with God and Jesus Christ and each other, hearing God’s Word, praying together, breaking bread together, meeting in the homes and temple, witnessing, converting others to God through Christ, healing them, and enabling the church to grow daily – in many cases, by the thousands.

In the 1850’s, the historical focus shifts to Christian people and organizations following First Century Christian precepts and helping others be healed through salvation, the word of God, and healing. These were the great evangelists like Moody, Sankey, Folger, Meyer. They included the Gospel Rescue Missions, the Young Men’s Christian Association, the Salvation Army, and the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor.

The lessons were carried into the Christian upbringing in Vermont of Dr. Bob and Bill W.—as well as Bill W.’s friend Ebby Thacher. They were saturated with biblical-salvation teaching from their families, Bible study, Congregational churches, Sunday schools, sermons, hymns, reading of Scripture, prayer, their St. Johnsbury-Burr and Burton—Norwich Academy high school years with daily chapel, required Bible study, sermons, prayers, hymns, Scripture reading, required church attendance, and the special activities of the Young Men’s Christian Association – of which Dr. Bob’s father was President in St. Johnsbury, and Bill W. was president at Burr and Burton.

The first three AAs had no Big Book, Steps, Traditions, drunkalogs, or meetings as we know them. They believed the answers to their problems were in the Bible. They emphasized the Book of James, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13; and, according to Dr. Bob, met daily and got their basic Step ideas from the Bible efforts and studies from 1935 until Bill’s new Step program in 1939.

The first three all—all believers in God, Christians, and Bible students-- got sober before A.A. by the simple process of renouncing liquor, turning to God for help, being cured, and then helping others.

The original fellowship was founded on July 4, 1935 when Bill D. got sober. Their seven point program is summarized on page 131 of DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers; and their sixteen practices applying the original seven ideas are set forth in Dick B. and Ken B., Stick with the Winners! How to Conduct More Effective 12-Step Recovery Meeting Using Conference-Approved Literature: A Dick B. Guide for Christian Leaders and Workers in the Recovery Arena.

The precise activities of the pioneers are now available in the personal stories published in Alcoholics Anonymous “The Big Book” The Original 1939 Edition: Bill W. With a New Introduction by Dick B. (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 2011). And the bulk of that edition is, of course, filled with the personal stories of the pioneers attesting precisely to the way they applied the early Akron Christian Fellowship program.

And to enable people to see the essence of the program and the testimonials about it, we have just published Dick B. and Ken B. Pioneer Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous: God’s Role in Recovery Confirmed!

These books are available on Amazon.com in print-on-demand and electronic book form.

In closing, we remind you that A.A. allows freedom to choose. The message we bring is

 That Christians and those who want to believe in and rely on the power of God can point to the

 abc’s of A.A.’s own basic text—paraphrased—(a) We were alcoholic and could not manage our

 own lives. (b) Probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. (c) God could and

 would if He were sought. Furthermore, God can and will and did when the pioneers sought Him.

The solution message in Wilson’s own Big Book very clearly states “God is.” It also clearly

States the central fact of the solution—that the Creator has entered into their hearts and lives in a

way that  is truly miraculous.

 

 

 

 

 

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