Arizona A.A. History Conferences Explain What the Newcomer in A.A. Needs for Expanded Success Potential

Thank you for this article on success rates, and I have a few comments from the trenches.

First, the weakest link in the recovery rate scene is the content of talks that speakers give all over the world. If they insist on war stories and drunkalogs, entertainment ranks high. But the speakers need to be held to a much higher standard if newcomers are to be helped. First, the talks need to include the following: (1) Discussion of the Big Book. (2) Discussion of the Steps. (3) Discussion of how the first three AAs got sober. (4) Discussion of the early Akron A.A. program--set forth on page 131 of DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers. (5) Discussion of the First Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous and the removal of all the personal stories but three which deprives the newcomer of testimonies of the real program. (6) Discussion of two major tools--a) The Dr. Bob interview article in Faith in 1939 which shows how that cofounder got well and helped others get well by prayer  and study of the Bible. b) The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous: Biographical Sketches Their Last Major Talks. And, if the speaker can't cover our basic text, cover the origins of A.A., can't bring himself to discuss the role of God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible in the A.A. program, cover the original program, and cover the major compromise in the Big Book before it went to press in 1939, that speaker is not prepared and is merely telling his own drinking story rather than focusing on informing the newcomer who still suffers. His "experience, strength, and hope" amounts to very little if it does not include the kind of information the founders were providing. See "Stick with the Winners!"

Second, the next weakest link is the sponsor who fails to qualify himself in learning each of the tools mentioned above. He owes it to the newcomer who has placed his recovery in the hands of someone who yet has the fundamentals to learn and pass along.

Third, then there is the newcomer himself. The best start for him is an Orientation Meeting like the ones being  conducted by Rock Recovery Ministries in San Diego. It's never too soon to let the newcomer in on what Conference-approved literature there is, what the chapters of the Big Book are for, why the personal stories in the First Edition of the Big Book need to be learned if people want the kind of successes that early AAs had. They are testimonies of success, and that is their purpose. Back to the first two points: The newcomer needs to be listening to speakers who are talking about how they used the Big Book, the Twelve Steps, the information about the early Akron program, the fact that A.A. is not  monolithic and needs to be viewed as a place for love and tolerance, love and service, and tolerance of the varied beliefs, individuals, and approaches. The newcomer needs to be provided with Beginners Meetings which provide information instead of an opportunity to vent concerns and questions.

You don't go to kindergarten and tell the teacher what  you would like to hear.  You recognize you are there to learn, not teach; get educated, not expose ignorance; personify humility, not pride.
God Bless, Dick B. www.dickb.com

Bill I Gives Top Interview Today on Christian Recovery Radio Show

You may hear Dick B. interview noted author and speaker Bill I. on the October 8, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show here on www.ChristianRecoveryRadio. It’s a top speaker and well worth your listening ASAP

 

http://mcaf.ee/dyr10

 

or here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2013/10/08/dick-b-interviews-noted-author-speaker-bill-i

 

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

www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

A Maui Visitor Comments on His Meeting with Dick B. in Kihei

While on holidays the past 2 weeks, I had the privilege of meeting Dick B.
Dick is regarded as one of the most notable historians on Alcoholics Anonymous.  Being one of few, if not the only person, to have researched in-depth the individuals and material used in the orignal AA fellowship.
Dick has met and interviewed numerous family members and others who knew AA founders such as Bill W, Dr. Bob, Anne Smith (Dr. Bob’s wife), and Reverend Samuel Shoemaker.  He has researched many of their published and unpublished writings and visited the places they lived and worked.
It was fascinating to hear of the origins of AA in contrast to where it has gone today.   I was able to recognize the source of some of my discomfort with my current experiences in AA.  I was also able to see areas I can redirect my focus in recovery and personal growth closer to ways that worked for the original AAs.
The AA founders did not endeavor so much to please everyone.  They found what worked and focused intently on it.  They believed in God and sought him diligently.  They seemed to have far greater purpose than what I experience today in the rooms of AA.
This experience left a question malingering in my mind.  Why, when in AA we hear so many warnings against anything centred around “self”, do we then accept the suggestion by many AA’s to self-design our own god/higher-power? 
This is not what the original AAs practiced.  I have begun reading more on original AA and am discovering an AA that I never knew.
Thanks Dick for a great chat and lunch together in the beautiful setting on the island of Maui.  It was particularly special given that our meeting happened to be on the day of my sobriety anniversary.
Ciao.
Chaz
Dick B’s web site is www.dickb.com

Dick B. A.A. History Group Yahoo

I now have a Yahoo Group, and its name is

Dick B. A.A. History

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/dickbaahistory/conversations/topics

Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B.: Presentations in Phoenix and Tucson this Week on Old School AA Successes

You may hear Dick B. share about upcoming "old-school" A.A. leadership and public meetings on Friday, October 11, in Phoenix, and on Saturday, October 12, in Tucson, Arizona, on the October 6, 2013, episode of the "Christian Recovery Radio with Dick B." show here:

http://mcaf.ee/lkxbu

 

or here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/christian-recovery-radio-with-dickb/2013/10/07/dick-b-shares-on-upcoming-old-school-aa-leadership-meetings

 

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

www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com

Carl "Tuchy" Palmieri's Great Service to A.A. History - Its Students, Lovers, and Speakers

Dick B.’s Letter of Thanks to Tuchy P., Author, Philanthropist, Owner of Healing-habits (Publisher), Christian leader, and Long-Recovered AA  10/4/2013

 

Dear Tuchy:

 

I am writing this letter to give you another special vote of thanks for all you have done in reprinting so many of A.A.’s key historical books—particularly those by A First Century Christian Fellowship (later known as the Oxford Group) group of highly skilled Christian activist authors, often recovered alcoholics, who “found” God, were cured of alcoholism and had their lives changed.

 

I’m publishing this thank you for several reasons.

 

As a participant in our International Christian Recovery Coalition, and one who has also participated in our investigative research in St. Johnsbury, you are rendering a very special service that  not only  glorifies God, but also makes known his power, love, and healings as set forth in the Bible and applicable to all sickness, particularly alccholism.

 

Your Healing Habits has now reprinted widely known and used Oxford Group books by Victor Kitchen,  Harold Begbie, Cecil Rose, Olive Jones, Sam Shoemaker, Stephen Foot, A. J. Russell, and Charles Clapp.

 

These are the books which contributed the very language that Bill Wilson incorporated into his new version of the A.A. program when he published the first edition of the Big Book in 1939.

They were eagerly sought out and often purchased at a high price by those of us who were able to recognize the language of the authors in many pages of Bill W.’s writings. And, of course, Bill was far more involved with the Oxford Group from 1934 to 1937 and then in 1938 and 1939 with Rev. Sam Shoemaker than almost anyone in early A.A. including Dr. Bob.

 

You have generously donated many of these books to places which make them available to AAs and those in recovery all around the world. You donated a number of copies to the Dr. Bob Core  Library at North Congregational Church in St. Johnsbury when we were all there dedicating the library and rounding  up mounds more A.A. history about Dr. Bob, his family, his church, his excellent training in the Bible, his participation in Christian Endeavor and YMCA activities as a youngster, and his rigorous Bible study and church attendance while at St. Johnsbury Academy.

 

A word to others. Tuchy has just started chemotherapy for abdominal cancer; and our heart goes out to him in prayers, good wishes, and miracle affirmations. We ask the same of those who read this letter.

 

Tuchy’s latest reprint effort is Victor Kitchen’s Believing in False Gods: I Was A Pagan in which Kitchen (an avid Oxford Group member, Christian, friend of Sam Shoemaker’s, and friend of Bill W.) spelled out how he moved from idolatry to Jesus Christ, changed his life, and was cared of smoking and alcoholism. May all those who read this book profit from it as much as I did when I was researching and writing my landmark book, The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living That Works,  2d ed, www.dickb.com/Oxford.shtml.

 

I particularly cherish the last line of this reprint where Kitchen wrote: “My thanks to the Oxford Group who led me to Christ, and to Christ Who is leading me to God.”

 

This sentence is the epitome of First Century Christianity in action. And it more than justifies the name “A First Century Christian Fellowship” adopted by Frank Buchman and his friends in the early 1920’s, and the name “Christian Fellowship” adopted by the early Akron A.A. Christians who founded A.A. in Akron in 1935.

 

God Bless you, and keep you, Tuchy

 

Dick B.

 

A First Century Christian Fellowship - Later Called the Oxford Group - Source of Ten of the Twelve Steps, Said Bill W.

New Interest in the 12 Steps and A First Century Christian Fellowship

 

The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous

 

Dick B.

© 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

In his important article published in The Language of the Heart, at page 298, Bill Wilson said the material for ten of the twelve steps came straight from the Oxford Group—which was known by most as A First Century Christian Fellowship. And the most searching and authoritative research and study on this source can be found in The Oxford Group & Alcoholics Anonymous: A Design for Living That Works, 2d ed. To get the facts, see www.dickb.comOxford.shtml.