Six Major Christian Recovery Highlights

Six Major Christian Recovery Highlights
We Will Cover on Our Southern California Trip, March 18-26, 2010

By Dick B.

1. How the first three AAs (Bill W., Dr. Bob, and Bill D.)—Christians all—got sober by relying on the power and love of God.

2. The simple, original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program of 1935-1939.

3. The 75% success rate early A.A. claimed among “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last-gasp,” “real” alcoholics who thoroughly followed that original program.

4. Where the original “Christian fellowship” program came from and how it arrived in Akron.

5. What about Alcoholics Anonymous (the “Big Book”) and its Twelve Step program published in 1939? According to Big Book's author, Bill W. the “material for”—the “spiritual substance of”—ten of the Twelve Steps (i.e., Steps Two through Eleven) “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.” [Source: The Language of the Heart, 298]. In a letter dated April 23, 1963, from Bill W. to Dr. Shoemaker, Bill called Dr. Shoemaker a “co-founder” of Alcoholics Anonymous.

6. How Christians in the recovery arena can apply the principles and practices of the highly-successful, original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program in 12 Step Fellowships today, starting with the “abc’s” found on page 60 of the Big Book.

For the details of, and documentation for, the six ideas above, please see the forthcoming book by Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010.

For current details of our March 18-26, 2010, trip to Southern California, please regularly check: http://mauihistorian.blogspot.com/.

DickB@DickB.com
www.DickB.com

Gloria Deo