The International Christian Recovery Coalition
www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com
Presents
The North American Summit Conference Meeting #2
Saturday, September 24, 2011, 9:30 AM to 8:00 PM
Golden Hills Community Church—Brentwood Campus
2401 Shady Willow Lane, Brentwood, CA 94513
(925) 516-0653
http://goldenhills.org/
Theme
Using Akron-Cleveland Christian Recovery Model Principles
to Enhance Substantially Today's Christian Recovery Efforts
Contact: Dick B., Executive Director
International Christian Recovery Coalition
PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837
www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com
Email: DickB@DickB.com
Cell: 808 276 4945
The Program
Summit Conference Meeting #2
Golden Hills Community Church, Brentwood, CA
Friday Evening, September 23, 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. (** We hope you can make this meeting, too)
Workshop meeting with International Christian Recovery Coalition Participants: Details soon!
Saturday, September 24, 9:30 am to 8:00 pm:
Pre-meeting music and hospitality
Commencing prayer
Welcome by Matt Pierce, Pastor of Recovery Ministry, Golden Hills Community Church
Theme presentation by Dick B., Executive Director, International Christian Recovery Coalition
“Christian Recovery Resource Centers and Persons” Worldwide—on the Move!
Learning about the astonishing success of the original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program and how to apply its principles and practices today;
how the early Cleveland program built upon the original Akron program and
set the stage for Christian recovery opportunities today
Break and Music (10 minutes)
Vision presentation by Ken B.
“Christian Recovery Resource Centers and Persons”:
Supplying Critically-Important, Missing Pieces in Modern Christian Recovery Efforts
Lunch Break (1 hour)
Featured Speaker: J. Donald Hall, Don Hall Ministries, 23365 Barnes Lane, Colfax, CA 95713
Long-recovered wayward youth and drug addict
Missionary evangelist and Bible teacher--18 years, serving with Youth With a Mission and
others in over 60 nations; conferences, seminars, retreats, and mission
services –also community programs in schools, prisons, and civic clubs
Graduate of Vanguard University, Costa Mesa, CA (B.A. Degree)
Graduate of California Graduate School of Theology (M.A. Degree)
Founder and former Executive Director of Teen Challenge in Southern CA and Hawaii
for sixteen years
Cited by the Governors of California and Hawaii for his leadership in the fight against
drug abuse and crime among America’s Youth
Senior Pastor of Calvary Assembly, San Jose, California, for eight years
Recent ministries: South Korea Outreach; Sri Lanka Ministry; Singapore; Gulf Disaster Relief
Break and Music (10 minutes)
Speaker Panel 1:
Jeff A. Holt, Men’s Recovery Fellowship, Auburn Church of the Nazarene, Auburn, California
Dale Marsh, Recovery Pastor, Oroville Church of the Nazarene, Oroville, California; International Christian Recovery Coalition Speakers’ Bureau
Dominic DiBlasio, Turning Point Recovery Ministry, Cornerstone Fellowship—Livermore Campus, California
Roger McDiarmid, International Christian Recovery Coalition Speakers' Bureau, Huntington Beach, California
Wade Hess, Training Director, CityTeam Ministries, San Jose, California
Break and Music (10 minutes)
Speaker Panel 2:
Mark Galligan, Leader, “Akronite” Recovery Group, Ontario, Canada
David Sadler, Christian recovery leader serving Golden Hills Community Church, Brentwood, California
Karen A. Plavan, Ph.D., Prof. of Counseling an Chemical Dependency, Director of Oasis Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Bill Boyles, President, Won Way Out Ministries, Wyoming, Delaware
Wayne White, Certified Substance Abuse Counselor, President/CEO, Footprints/Alcoholics Victorious,
Kansas City, Missouri
Dinner Break (1 hour)
International Christian Recovery Coalition Future Plans: Dick B. and Ken B.
Christian Music Concert
Closing Prayer
Our Sponsors and Endorsers
Christian Denominational Recovery Programs
United Methodist Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence
Rev. Cynthia W. Sloan
Program Associate,
United Methodist Special Program on
Substance Abuse and Related Violence (SPSARV)
New York Office location: 475 Riverside Drive, room 338
New York, NY 10115
phone: 212-870-3699, fax: 212-870-3932
North Carolina Office location:
325 Meadowbrook Drive
Matthews NC 28104-4309
phone: 704-882-0282
email: csloan@gbgm-umc.org
website: http://www.umspsarv.org
Become a “Fan” on SPSARV’s Facebook page
SPSARV Advance Number: 982598
Episcopal Diocese of Texas Recovery Committee
Fr. Bill Wigmore, Chaplain & Former President
Austin Recovery
8402 Cross Park Drive
Austin, TX. 78754
Tel: 512.697.8674
Email: RevBillW@gmail.com
website: www.AustinRecovery.org
Individual Benefactors
Bob J., Kihei, Maui, Hawaii
Philanthropist and long-time Christian recovery and A.A. history collector and benefactor
Rick S.
Long-recovered Christian recovery work supporter
Rick is preparing a sponsor's guide to Alcoholics Anonymous, using the first edition text.
The guide will be published in paperback and on the Internet; and it will have accompanying audio talks of Rick's taking people through the Big Book.
Robert P. Turner, M.D., M.S.C.R.
Associate Professor of Neurosciences, Pediatrics, and Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, & Epidemiology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina
Christian Churches
The Crossing Church, Costa Mesa, California, Host, September 17, 2011, Conference
Golden Hills Community Church, Brentwood, California, Host, September 24, 2011, Conference
Endorsing Christian Recovery Libraries and Archives
Griffith Library, The Wilson House – birthplace of Bill Wilson, East Dorset, Vermont
Bonnie Burke (formerly, Bonnie Lepper), President
23,000 historical items donated by Dick B., A.A. meetings, Quiet Time, seminars.
Conducted Tours at East Dorset, Vermont (Wilson House, Griffith Library, East Dorset
Congregational Church—where both the Wilson and the Griffith families and
Bill W. attended—and nearby cemetery where Bill and Lois Wilson are buried)
Conducted Tours to St. Johnsbury, Vermont (Dr. Bob’s birthplace and boyhood home,
North Congregational Church—where all of Dr. Bob’s family attended,
The Athenaeum—the village library containing many historical records,
St. Johnsbury Academy—where Dr. Bob attended, his father was an Examiner,
and his mother had been student, teacher, school historian & Exec. Comm. member)
Dr. Bob Core Library—North Congregational Church (UCC), St. Johnsbury, Vermont
Jay Sprout, Pastor
The entire family of Dr. Bob attended this church and was active in its affairs.
North Congregational Church sponsors this Conference in the context of housing the “Dr. Bob Core Library.”
Ray G., Newton Falls, Ohio, and Seminole, Florida
Traveling archives; and, for 21 years, the Archivist and a Managing Board Member, Dr.
Bob’s Home, Akron, Ohio; A.A. speaker and exhibitor of A.A. historical Items all over the United States and Canada, and on sobriety cruises
The St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Library, Akron, Ohio
Mark Pruitt, Rector
This is the church in which Dr. Bob became a communicant before his death.
Its former rector, Dr. Walter Tunks, was a major figure in the beginning Akron days of A.A.
The library is a source of A.A. historical materials.
Christian Intervention, Treatment, Recovery Ministries, Counseling, Sober Living
Sponsors
New Life Spirit Recovery
Robert T. Tucker, Ph.D., D.Min., Registered Addiction Specialist, MCA & M-RAS)
Founder and Executive Director, New Life Spirit Recovery Christian Treatment Center; President, Association of Christian Alcohol & Drug Counseling (aka: ACADC Institute)
18652 Florida Street, Suite 200, Huntington Beach, CA 92648
(714) 841.1906 or Call Toll Free (866) 543.3361
http://www.newlifespiritrecovery.com/OC_Recovery.html
Rock Recovery Ministry, ABC Sober Living, Soledad House
David Powers, Rock Church recovery leader
810 Emerald Street
San Diego, CA 92109
Contact: david@abcsoberliving.com
619.925.1879
http://www.rockrecovery.org/
Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors Institute, Redlands, California
Pastor Mike Belzman, Ph.D., Chairman and Founder
Jeff Jay and Debra Jay, Grosse Point, Michigan
Nationally-known authors, lecturers, interventionists,
Authors of Love First: A Family’s Guide To Intervention—Updated
Tools and Techniques to Help Loved Ones Heal from Addiction, 2d ed., rev & exp.
(Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2008)
Publishers
Sponsors
Hazelden Publishing and Educational Services, division of Hazelden Foundation
Center City, Minnesota, www.Hazelden.org; publisher of recovery books, including:
The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous
Bill W.: My First 40 Years
Silkworth: The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks
Dover Publications
publisher of many books, including Alcoholics Anonymous: The Original 1939 Edition,
with an Introduction by Dick B.: http://store.doverpublications.com/0486480593.html
Our Exhibitors and Displays
United Methodist Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence (SPSARV)
http://www.umspspserv.org
New Light Spirit Recovery, Huntington Beach, California
http://www.newlifespiritrecovery.com/OC_Recovery.html
Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors Institute, Redlands, California
Hazelden Publishing and Educational Services, division of Hazelden Foundation
www.Hazelden.org
Our Featured Speaker and Panelists
Featured Speaker: J. Donald Hall, Don Hall Ministries, Colfax, California
(See details in this program about his education; his work with Teen Challenge and Youth With A Mission, his pastoring of churches, his work as a Missionary Evangelist and Bible teacher, and his speaking engagements in 60 nations.)
Speaker Panel 1:
Jeff A. Holt, Men’s Recovery Fellowship, Auburn Church of the Nazarene, Auburn, California
Dale Marsh, Recovery Pastor, Oroville Church of the Nazarene, Oroville, California
Dominic DiBlasio, Turning Point Recovery Ministry, Cornerstone Fellowship—Livermore Campus, California
Roger McDiarmid, International Christian Recovery Coalition Speakers' Bureau, Huntington Beach, California
Wade Hess, Training Director, CityTeam Ministries, San Jose, California
Speaker Panel 2:
Mark Galligan, Leader, “Akronite” Recovery Group, Ontario, Canada
David Sadler, Christian recovery leader serving Golden Hills Community Church, Brentwood, California
Karen A. Plavan, Ph.D., Prof. of Counseling an Chemical Dependency, Director of Oasis Center, Pittsburgh, PA
Bill Boyles, President, Won Way Out Ministries, Wyoming, Delaware
Wayne White, Certified Substance Abuse Counselor, President/CEO, Footprints/Alcoholics Victorious,
Kansas City, MO
Acknowledgments
Our Conferences could not have taken place without leadership and help from:
Randy Moraitis, Executive Pastor of Ministries, The Crossing Church, Costa Mesa, CA
Matt Pierce, Pastor of Recovery Ministry, Golden Hills Community Church, Brentwood, CA
David Powers, Rock Recovery Ministries Leader, Rock Church, San Diego, CA
The Lifelines Band, Costa Mesa, CA
The Musicians at Golden Hills Community Church
Roger McDiarmid, Huntington Beach, California
David Sadler, Lafayette, California
Karl Kramer, Brentwood, California
Our Sponsors
Our Endorsers
Our Exhibitors
Thank you!
For Further Participation in and Support of the Projects of International Christian Recovery Coalition
Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010
http://christianrecoverycoalition.com/christian-recovery-guide.shtml
The “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” class by Dick B. and Ken B.
http://dickb.com/IFCR-Class.shtml
(The class includes four DVD's, a class instructor's guide, a student's guide, and
The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed.)
“Christian Recovery Resource Centers and Persons” Worldwide
http://christianrecoverycoalition.com/christian-recovery-resource-centers.shtml
The 29-volume “Dick B. A.A. History and Christian Recovery Movement Reference Set”
http://www.dickb.com/titles.shtml
The International Christian Recovery Coalition Web site:
www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com
The International Christian Recovery Coalition Blog
http://internationalchristianrecoverycoaliti.blogspot.com/
International Christian Recovery Coalition Forums Website
http://www.christianrecoverycoalition.com/forums/
Other Christian Recovery and A.A. Historical Resources
FREE: Over 650 articles by Dick B.: http://www.dickb.com/articles.shtml
FREE: Over 175 recorded audio talks by Dick B.: DickB.com/Audio-talks.shtml.
FREE: Follow Dick B. on Facebook, on Twitter, and on the Dick B. Blog.
FREE: The “Dick B. FYI Message” newsletters: To subscribe, please go to the bottom of the center column of the www.DickB.com front page.
FREE: The Dick B. Channel on YouTube (“dickbchannel”): http://goo.gl/rCtH6
Showing posts with label Dick B.. Show all posts
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Saturday, August 27, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Published.com listing of all Dick B. books - concise, illustrated, informative
http://published.com/published-search.aspx?catid=&searchstr=Dick%20B.
Friday, August 12, 2011
The James Gang AA Study Group Atlanta Georgia
The James Gang
~ a fellowship of men and women
Search: http://thejamesgang11.wordpress.com/
AA-The James Club and A.A. Study Groups by Richard Burns, J.D. Dick B.
12FridayAug 2011
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Tuesday, August 9, 2011
A.A. History: Taking, Believing, Understanding the 12 Steps of A.A.
Alcoholics Anonymous History
Taking, Believing, and Understanding the Twelve Steps
Dick B.
© 2011 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
Why Take Them Before You Know What the A.A. Cofounders Said about Them?
Both Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, the cofounders of A.A., spoke explicitly on where the 12 Steps came from. In sum, they stated that the basic ideas came from: (1) the Bible; (2) Dr. William D. Silkworth; (3) Professor William James; and (4) Reverend Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.
As we will see in this article, that is not the whole story. But here’s what A.A.'s cofounders said:
In his last major address to AAs, delivered in Detroit in 1948, A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob stated:
When we started in on Bill D., we had no Twelve Steps . . . we had no Traditions. But we were convinced that the answer to our problems was in the Good Book. To some of us older ones, the parts that we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James. [The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches: Their Last Major Talks (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975), 13.]
It wasn’t until 1938 that the teachings and efforts and studies that had been going on were crystallized in the form of the Twelve Steps. I didn’t write the Twelve Steps. I had nothing to do with the writing of them. But I think I probably had something to do with them indirectly. . . . We already had the basic ideas, though not in terse and tangible form. We got them, as I said, as the result of our study of the Good Book. [The Co-Founders, 14.]
In The Language of the Heart: Bill W.’s Grapevine Writings (NY: The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., 1988), A.A. cofounder Bill W. stated:
So, then, how did we first learn that alcoholism is such a fearful sickness as this? Who gave us this priceless piece of information on which the effectiveness of Step One of our program so much depends? Well, it came from my own doctor, “the little doctor who loved drunks,” William Duncan Silkworth. [p. 297]
Who, then, first told us about the utter necessity for such an awakening, for an experience that not only expels the alcohol obsession, but which also makes effective and truly real the practice of spiritual principles “in all our affairs”? Well, this life-giving idea came to us of AA through William James, the father of modern psychology. It came through his famous book, Varieties of Religious Experience. . . . William James also heavily emphasized the need for hitting bottom. Thus did he reinforce AA’s Step One, and so did he supply us with the spiritual essence of today’s Step Twelve. [pp. 297-98]
Having now accounted for AA’s Steps One and Twelve, it is natural that we should next ask, “Where did the early AAs find the material for the remaining ten Steps? Where did we learn about moral inventory, amends for harm done, turning our wills and lives over to God? Where did we learn about meditation and prayer and all the rest of it?” The spiritual substance of our remaining ten Steps came straight from Dr. Bob’s and my own earlier association with the Oxford Groups, as they were then led in America by that Episcopal rector, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. [p. 298]
What God was Bill Wilson speaking of? In The Language of the Heart, Bill wrote at page 284:
And then the great thought burst upon me: “Bill, you are a free man: This is the God of the Scriptures.”
What God was Dr. Bob Smith speaking of? In Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001), Dr. Bob wrote at page 181:
Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!
In 1975, Harper & Row published Robert Thomsen's biography of A.A. cofounder Bill Wilson under the title Bill W. – 50th Anniversary Edition – Commemorating the 1935 Meeting Between Bill W. and Dr. Bob that Launched Alcoholics Anonymous (NY: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1975). In it, Thomsen wrote:
Ever since he [Bill W.] and [Dr.] Bob had tried to shape a program, their ideas had been based on Oxford Group principles: first admitting they were powerless over alcohol, then making a moral inventory, confessing their shortcomings to another, making amends whenever possible, and finally praying for the power to carry out these concepts and to help other drunks. [p. 282]
The difficulty with all these somewhat-conflicting statements is that the Twelve Steps themselves came from a much broader group of resources than any of the writers stated.
Why Take the 12 Steps Before You Know the Details about Their 26 Sources?
There are three different types of roots of the sources of the 12 Steps. Two of the three are detailed in a recent title my son Ken and I wrote: Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide: Historical Perspectives and Effective Modern Application, 3rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2010). They are:
The Seven-Point Summary of the Original Akron A.A. “Christian Fellowship” Program: Page 54 of The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., quotes verbatim the seven-point summary of the original A.A. “Christian fellowship” program in Akron developed by Bill W. and Dr. Bob beginning during the summer of 1935. This original A.A. program, documented in late February, 1938, by Rockefeller agent Frank Amos, is recorded on page 131 of the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980).
The 14 Specific Practices of the Akron A.A. Christian Pioneers: Pages 56-58 of The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., discuss in some detail the 14 actual practices employed by the Akron pioneers in their implementation of the original, seven-point, A.A. Program documented by Frank Amos. With my son Ken's help, I unearthed and reported on these 14 practices in conjunction with our 20 years of research on the origins of Alcoholics Anonymous.
So what are these 26 wellsprings or sources of the 12 Steps upon which Bill Wilson drew when he put together the Big Book published in 1939? In three of my recent titles, I listed and explained what are at least 16 different sources of the ideas Bill Wilson finally incorporated into the Twelve Step program he fashioned and presented in the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. Yet the more one searches for specifics, and the more one researches, the more the fullness of the wellspring details becomes
In brief, there are 26 wellspring ideas incorporated into the Twelve Steps as presented in the text of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, published by Works Publishing Company in 1939. These sources include:
The King James Version of the Bible (affectionately called “The Good Book.”).
William D. Silkworth, M.D. (Bill Wilson’s psychiatrist).
Professor William James of Harvard, whose book Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob had read.
Dr. Carl Gustav Jung of Switzerland, who told Bill’s mentor, Rowland Hazard, that—because he had the “mind of a chronic alcoholic”—a religious conversion might help him overcome drinking.
The Oxford Group, to which Bill Wilson and his wife Lois belonged and with which Dr. Bob and his wife Anne were associated in Akron. Its 28 life-changing ideas influenced all four people.
The teachings of Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., with whom Bill had worked on his proposed program and whom Bill called a “co-founder” of A.A.
The “no-cure” ideas and language of the lay therapist Richard Peabody, whose book, The Common Sense of Drinking, both Bill and Bob read.
The teachings of Dr. Bob’s wife, Anne Ripley Smith, who compiled and shared with early AAs and their families her personal journal which she wrote between 1933 and 1939.
The Christian books, other religious literature, and devotionals, circulated by Dr. Bob among early AAs.
“Quiet Time” and the guidance of God.
Belief in, and conversion to, God through Jesus Christ.
Qualification of newcomers as to their decision to quit permanently, and as to their willingness to go to any lengths in order to get and stay sober.
Medical help for, or hospitalization of, newcomers.
New Thought writings and ideas.
Intensive work helping newcomers get straightened out.
Recommended social and religious comradeship.
Recommended weekly attendance at a religious service.
Evangelists like Dwight Moody, Ira Sankey, and Billy Sunday.
Lay workers of the Young Men's Christian Association (the YMCA).
The Salvation Army.
Gospel or rescue missions.
The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor.
Dr. Bob’s extensive Christian upbringing and Bible study as a youngster in Vermont.
Bill Wilson’s extensive Christian upbringing, YMCA participation, and Bible study as a youngster in Vermont.
The “Farther Out” ideas manifested in Big Book language, and in the practices and experiments of Bill Wilson, and seemingly emanating from Bill’s extensive involvement in the Swedenborgian sect, in psychic experiments, in Richard Maurice Bucke’s Cosmic Consciousness book, in spiritualism, and in mysticism.
The idea of self-made religion, a self-made deity, and choosing one’s own conception of an “higher power.”
Through the years of my research and writing, all of the foregoing 26 ideas have been discussed; and today, substantial documentation can be found in several of my titles, including: (1) Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book As a Youngster in Vermont (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2008), 275-99; (2) Dick B., A New Way Out: New Path—Familiar Road Signs—Our Creator’s Guidance (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006), 14-32; and (3) Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed.
Materials on the last two sources are discussed, from various viewpoints, in the following titles (among others): (1) Mel B., My Search for Bill W. (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2000); (2) Mel B., New Wine: The Spiritual Roots of the Twelve Step Miracle (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1991); (3) Susan Cheever, My Name is Bill: Bill Wilson—His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous (NY: Washington Square Press, 2004); and (4) 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).
Why Take the 12 Steps but Avoid the Prime Source of Instruction?
It would appear that today’s AAs and A.A. critics are stuck with ideas and approaches which seem to fill their individual beliefs, unbelief, or creeds—which sadly do not point them to the one place where the initial instructions for taking the Twelve Steps can be found.
We will suggest an approach, particularly for Christians, in a subsequent article. But it would be well to point to several inconsistent approaches today that leave something to be desired—by all concerned.
ñ Follow the instructions in Alcoholics Anonymous.
ñ Study the “Personal Stories” in the Big Book—including the original stories in the first edition (1939), all but three of which are omitted from the fourth edition (2001).
ñ Use one of the many secular “Step guides” that have all sorts of interpretations and have been published by Joe and Charlie from the Big Book Seminars, Hazelden (in a variety of forms), and a host of individuals.
ñ Use one of the so-called “Recovery Bibles”: Life Recovery Bible, Serenity: A Companion for Twelve Step Recovery, Recovery Devotional Bible, and the Celebrate Recovery Bible. Most are filled with page after page of attempted correlation of the Steps to the verse or section of scripture being read at any given time.
ñ Use one of the innumerable “Christian Step Guides” now in print, most of which append a writer’s view of one or more Bible verses deemed to be relevant to the Step under study.
Can any or all of the foregoing and other approaches be reconciled with the Bible and the Big Book? Can the Big Book and the Bible be reconciled at all? Can the Steps be used as life-changing guides emanating from biblical basics? Can the accuracy and integrity of the Word of God be preserved by a Big Book-Bible student who would like to utilize the Steps, the A.A. Fellowship, and the Bible in recovery? Can one study the Bible in conjunction the Big Book presentation of the Twelve Steps and meet the “requirement” of the Book of James—“But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22)
When we address these issues in the next article, we will begin with the way in which Bill W. and Dr. Bob—though differing in theological viewpoints and religious backgrounds—were able to collaborate in the use of the Steps, build on the Bible basics, discuss A.A. history, and retain their own convictions as to how these elements could be used to help drunks.
Gloria Deo
Taking, Believing, and Understanding the Twelve Steps
Dick B.
© 2011 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
Why Take Them Before You Know What the A.A. Cofounders Said about Them?
Both Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, the cofounders of A.A., spoke explicitly on where the 12 Steps came from. In sum, they stated that the basic ideas came from: (1) the Bible; (2) Dr. William D. Silkworth; (3) Professor William James; and (4) Reverend Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.
As we will see in this article, that is not the whole story. But here’s what A.A.'s cofounders said:
In his last major address to AAs, delivered in Detroit in 1948, A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob stated:
When we started in on Bill D., we had no Twelve Steps . . . we had no Traditions. But we were convinced that the answer to our problems was in the Good Book. To some of us older ones, the parts that we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James. [The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches: Their Last Major Talks (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1972, 1975), 13.]
It wasn’t until 1938 that the teachings and efforts and studies that had been going on were crystallized in the form of the Twelve Steps. I didn’t write the Twelve Steps. I had nothing to do with the writing of them. But I think I probably had something to do with them indirectly. . . . We already had the basic ideas, though not in terse and tangible form. We got them, as I said, as the result of our study of the Good Book. [The Co-Founders, 14.]
In The Language of the Heart: Bill W.’s Grapevine Writings (NY: The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., 1988), A.A. cofounder Bill W. stated:
So, then, how did we first learn that alcoholism is such a fearful sickness as this? Who gave us this priceless piece of information on which the effectiveness of Step One of our program so much depends? Well, it came from my own doctor, “the little doctor who loved drunks,” William Duncan Silkworth. [p. 297]
Who, then, first told us about the utter necessity for such an awakening, for an experience that not only expels the alcohol obsession, but which also makes effective and truly real the practice of spiritual principles “in all our affairs”? Well, this life-giving idea came to us of AA through William James, the father of modern psychology. It came through his famous book, Varieties of Religious Experience. . . . William James also heavily emphasized the need for hitting bottom. Thus did he reinforce AA’s Step One, and so did he supply us with the spiritual essence of today’s Step Twelve. [pp. 297-98]
Having now accounted for AA’s Steps One and Twelve, it is natural that we should next ask, “Where did the early AAs find the material for the remaining ten Steps? Where did we learn about moral inventory, amends for harm done, turning our wills and lives over to God? Where did we learn about meditation and prayer and all the rest of it?” The spiritual substance of our remaining ten Steps came straight from Dr. Bob’s and my own earlier association with the Oxford Groups, as they were then led in America by that Episcopal rector, Dr. Samuel Shoemaker. [p. 298]
What God was Bill Wilson speaking of? In The Language of the Heart, Bill wrote at page 284:
And then the great thought burst upon me: “Bill, you are a free man: This is the God of the Scriptures.”
What God was Dr. Bob Smith speaking of? In Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001), Dr. Bob wrote at page 181:
Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!
In 1975, Harper & Row published Robert Thomsen's biography of A.A. cofounder Bill Wilson under the title Bill W. – 50th Anniversary Edition – Commemorating the 1935 Meeting Between Bill W. and Dr. Bob that Launched Alcoholics Anonymous (NY: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1975). In it, Thomsen wrote:
Ever since he [Bill W.] and [Dr.] Bob had tried to shape a program, their ideas had been based on Oxford Group principles: first admitting they were powerless over alcohol, then making a moral inventory, confessing their shortcomings to another, making amends whenever possible, and finally praying for the power to carry out these concepts and to help other drunks. [p. 282]
The difficulty with all these somewhat-conflicting statements is that the Twelve Steps themselves came from a much broader group of resources than any of the writers stated.
Why Take the 12 Steps Before You Know the Details about Their 26 Sources?
There are three different types of roots of the sources of the 12 Steps. Two of the three are detailed in a recent title my son Ken and I wrote: Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide: Historical Perspectives and Effective Modern Application, 3rd ed. (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2010). They are:
The Seven-Point Summary of the Original Akron A.A. “Christian Fellowship” Program: Page 54 of The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., quotes verbatim the seven-point summary of the original A.A. “Christian fellowship” program in Akron developed by Bill W. and Dr. Bob beginning during the summer of 1935. This original A.A. program, documented in late February, 1938, by Rockefeller agent Frank Amos, is recorded on page 131 of the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers (NY: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1980).
The 14 Specific Practices of the Akron A.A. Christian Pioneers: Pages 56-58 of The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., discuss in some detail the 14 actual practices employed by the Akron pioneers in their implementation of the original, seven-point, A.A. Program documented by Frank Amos. With my son Ken's help, I unearthed and reported on these 14 practices in conjunction with our 20 years of research on the origins of Alcoholics Anonymous.
So what are these 26 wellsprings or sources of the 12 Steps upon which Bill Wilson drew when he put together the Big Book published in 1939? In three of my recent titles, I listed and explained what are at least 16 different sources of the ideas Bill Wilson finally incorporated into the Twelve Step program he fashioned and presented in the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. Yet the more one searches for specifics, and the more one researches, the more the fullness of the wellspring details becomes
In brief, there are 26 wellspring ideas incorporated into the Twelve Steps as presented in the text of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, published by Works Publishing Company in 1939. These sources include:
The King James Version of the Bible (affectionately called “The Good Book.”).
William D. Silkworth, M.D. (Bill Wilson’s psychiatrist).
Professor William James of Harvard, whose book Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob had read.
Dr. Carl Gustav Jung of Switzerland, who told Bill’s mentor, Rowland Hazard, that—because he had the “mind of a chronic alcoholic”—a religious conversion might help him overcome drinking.
The Oxford Group, to which Bill Wilson and his wife Lois belonged and with which Dr. Bob and his wife Anne were associated in Akron. Its 28 life-changing ideas influenced all four people.
The teachings of Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., with whom Bill had worked on his proposed program and whom Bill called a “co-founder” of A.A.
The “no-cure” ideas and language of the lay therapist Richard Peabody, whose book, The Common Sense of Drinking, both Bill and Bob read.
The teachings of Dr. Bob’s wife, Anne Ripley Smith, who compiled and shared with early AAs and their families her personal journal which she wrote between 1933 and 1939.
The Christian books, other religious literature, and devotionals, circulated by Dr. Bob among early AAs.
“Quiet Time” and the guidance of God.
Belief in, and conversion to, God through Jesus Christ.
Qualification of newcomers as to their decision to quit permanently, and as to their willingness to go to any lengths in order to get and stay sober.
Medical help for, or hospitalization of, newcomers.
New Thought writings and ideas.
Intensive work helping newcomers get straightened out.
Recommended social and religious comradeship.
Recommended weekly attendance at a religious service.
Evangelists like Dwight Moody, Ira Sankey, and Billy Sunday.
Lay workers of the Young Men's Christian Association (the YMCA).
The Salvation Army.
Gospel or rescue missions.
The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor.
Dr. Bob’s extensive Christian upbringing and Bible study as a youngster in Vermont.
Bill Wilson’s extensive Christian upbringing, YMCA participation, and Bible study as a youngster in Vermont.
The “Farther Out” ideas manifested in Big Book language, and in the practices and experiments of Bill Wilson, and seemingly emanating from Bill’s extensive involvement in the Swedenborgian sect, in psychic experiments, in Richard Maurice Bucke’s Cosmic Consciousness book, in spiritualism, and in mysticism.
The idea of self-made religion, a self-made deity, and choosing one’s own conception of an “higher power.”
Through the years of my research and writing, all of the foregoing 26 ideas have been discussed; and today, substantial documentation can be found in several of my titles, including: (1) Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book As a Youngster in Vermont (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2008), 275-99; (2) Dick B., A New Way Out: New Path—Familiar Road Signs—Our Creator’s Guidance (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 2006), 14-32; and (3) Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed.
Materials on the last two sources are discussed, from various viewpoints, in the following titles (among others): (1) Mel B., My Search for Bill W. (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2000); (2) Mel B., New Wine: The Spiritual Roots of the Twelve Step Miracle (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1991); (3) Susan Cheever, My Name is Bill: Bill Wilson—His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous (NY: Washington Square Press, 2004); and (4) 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).
Why Take the 12 Steps but Avoid the Prime Source of Instruction?
It would appear that today’s AAs and A.A. critics are stuck with ideas and approaches which seem to fill their individual beliefs, unbelief, or creeds—which sadly do not point them to the one place where the initial instructions for taking the Twelve Steps can be found.
We will suggest an approach, particularly for Christians, in a subsequent article. But it would be well to point to several inconsistent approaches today that leave something to be desired—by all concerned.
ñ Follow the instructions in Alcoholics Anonymous.
ñ Study the “Personal Stories” in the Big Book—including the original stories in the first edition (1939), all but three of which are omitted from the fourth edition (2001).
ñ Use one of the many secular “Step guides” that have all sorts of interpretations and have been published by Joe and Charlie from the Big Book Seminars, Hazelden (in a variety of forms), and a host of individuals.
ñ Use one of the so-called “Recovery Bibles”: Life Recovery Bible, Serenity: A Companion for Twelve Step Recovery, Recovery Devotional Bible, and the Celebrate Recovery Bible. Most are filled with page after page of attempted correlation of the Steps to the verse or section of scripture being read at any given time.
ñ Use one of the innumerable “Christian Step Guides” now in print, most of which append a writer’s view of one or more Bible verses deemed to be relevant to the Step under study.
Can any or all of the foregoing and other approaches be reconciled with the Bible and the Big Book? Can the Big Book and the Bible be reconciled at all? Can the Steps be used as life-changing guides emanating from biblical basics? Can the accuracy and integrity of the Word of God be preserved by a Big Book-Bible student who would like to utilize the Steps, the A.A. Fellowship, and the Bible in recovery? Can one study the Bible in conjunction the Big Book presentation of the Twelve Steps and meet the “requirement” of the Book of James—“But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22)
When we address these issues in the next article, we will begin with the way in which Bill W. and Dr. Bob—though differing in theological viewpoints and religious backgrounds—were able to collaborate in the use of the Steps, build on the Bible basics, discuss A.A. history, and retain their own convictions as to how these elements could be used to help drunks.
Gloria Deo
The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living That Works, by Dick B.
The second edition of The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living That Works is one of author Dick B.'s leading A.A. History Books. www.dickb.com/Oxford.shtml.
This covers the progenitors of the group and the various phases of the Group from A First Century Christian Fellowship to the Groups to the Oxford Group to Moral Re-Armament. It specifically lays out the 28 life-changing principles of the Oxford Group that had an impact on A.A., A.A. History, and A.A. Twelve Steps. It lists the many Oxford Group expressions with exact parallels in A.A. writings. It discusses the lives of Oxford Group founder Frank N.D. Buchman, Reverend Samuel M. Shoemaker (a major leader in America), and Bill Wilson--cofounder of A.A.--who belonged to the Oxford Group from 1934 to August of 1937 and knew both Buchman and Shoemaker. There is a huge bibliography of hundreds of Oxford Group books Dick B. has read and cited and utilized in his A.A. history books and articles.
This book is now available in most bookstores, on amazon.com, in print-on-demand form, and soon to be in eBook format. It can also be purchased through Dick B.'s own website: www.dickb.com/Oxford.shtml.
This covers the progenitors of the group and the various phases of the Group from A First Century Christian Fellowship to the Groups to the Oxford Group to Moral Re-Armament. It specifically lays out the 28 life-changing principles of the Oxford Group that had an impact on A.A., A.A. History, and A.A. Twelve Steps. It lists the many Oxford Group expressions with exact parallels in A.A. writings. It discusses the lives of Oxford Group founder Frank N.D. Buchman, Reverend Samuel M. Shoemaker (a major leader in America), and Bill Wilson--cofounder of A.A.--who belonged to the Oxford Group from 1934 to August of 1937 and knew both Buchman and Shoemaker. There is a huge bibliography of hundreds of Oxford Group books Dick B. has read and cited and utilized in his A.A. history books and articles.
This book is now available in most bookstores, on amazon.com, in print-on-demand form, and soon to be in eBook format. It can also be purchased through Dick B.'s own website: www.dickb.com/Oxford.shtml.
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