A.A.–Christian Recovery Program Observations
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
Different Strokes for Different Folks
“Christian Recovery” probably means very different things to various fellowships, groups, organizations, and individuals. And recognizing diversity is the first step toward tolerance and effectiveness.
Some Christian churches may see Christian recovery in terms of salvation and living in accordance with revelations from God, from His Son Jesus Christ, and from the Bible. Others may view Christian recovery as something apart from the worship, prayer, Bible study, and liturgical observances of the congregation. Still others may frown on the idea of “recovery” as distinguished from the receipt of forgiveness, wholeness, and the power of the Holy Spirit that accompany the new birth. And then there may be others ranging from Roman Catholics to New Thought proponents that believe that a new birth is not an appropriate term for their adherents.
This is not to define church viewpoints. It is simply to express how different a church view of recovery may be from that of other recovery approaches and disciplines.
In Twelve Step Fellowships, and particularly in A.A., there is disparity as to what people believe one needs to recover from. Is it a disease of alcoholism or addiction? Is it a sin to be overcome? Is it a behavioral malady, a mental disorder, or a physiological state that requires services some believe are beyond those involved in salvation and the walk of a new man in Christ? And then, of course, there is the ever-present argument over whether one can ever be cured; or whether one can only receive a “daily reprieve” contingent upon practicing a 12 Step process; or whether one is forever “in recovery” or “recovering,” and therefore must not conclude he is or can ever be fully “recovered.”
Finally, how does a medical doctor, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a therapist, a counselor, a program director, a detox center, a rehab, a treatment program, or a sober living facility deal with whether or when one is either cured or recovered or simply has an illness that has been “arrested.” And if and when the present view of “relapse” comes into play, how is this explained in terms of the illness, the malady, the disorder, or the disease? Or even “prevention.”
If Christian Recovery Is an Objective,
What Should a Christian Recovery Program Involve?
Is it enough that there be a daily, weekly, or periodic Bible study? Is it enough to have an ordained minister on tap to counsel, pray with, and teach the patients? Is it appropriate to have a quiet time or meditation period conducted by a Christian counselor? Or can the program offer a great deal more than completion of Twelve Steps, a “spiritual awakening,” a Christian fellowship setting, pastoral counseling, prayer sessions, and the teaching of the Bible and applying biblical verses and ideas to the Twelve Steps?
My View as a Non-professional, Recovered, Christian Bible Student Who Helps
Alcoholics and Addicts in Recovery Meetings, Groups, Retreats, and Conferences
First, today I take my cue from the original, highly-successful, A.A. “Christian fellowship” founded in Akron in 1935, for which early A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last gasp,” “real” alcoholics who went to any lengths to find or rediscover God, place their reliance on Him, and get well.
The simple, early program insisted on only a few “musts.” The alcoholic must acknowledge that he is an alcoholic, has lost the ability to control his drinking, has seen his life getting progressively more disastrous, and has often tried every kind of “human help”--without receiving the desired result. This person must decide he wants of his own will to quit permanently and forever.
He must, as a precaution, seek medical evaluation, and perhaps detox medication, or hospitalization.
He must acknowledge that he believes in God. He must accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He must turn without qualification to God for help. He must resolve to abandon sinful conduct and walk in accordance with God’s will. He must be humble and teachable enough to seek God through prayer, through Bible study, through reading helpful Christian literature, through observing quiet times with his heavenly Father, and through the support and fellowship of like-minded believers. And he must recognize that he is an ambassador for Christ with a duty to witness and help others by the same means. He must recognize his need for Christian observances and instruction through his church, his Bible fellowship, or other Christian teachers and counselors.
What about the recovery arena in the world “outside.” If he chooses or is required to choose a 12 Step Fellowship, he needs to go for broke. This means regular meeting attendance, obtaining a sponsor, studying the Big Book, taking the Twelve Steps, sponsoring others, and committing himself to serving others within the fellowship whether as speaker, secretary, “trusted servant,” coffee-maker, greeter, or broom-sweeper. He will profit from involvement in the many other aspects of the fellowshipping—phone communications, birthday celebrations, dances, camp-outs, conferences, “meetings after meetings,” and study groups.
And What about the Adversary?
If a Christian is to survive in the world outside, he needs to recognize, know, resist, and overcome his enemy. And this requires recognizing secular intrusion, idolatry, phony “spirituality,” and temptation—however it is presented. It requires prayer, using the manifestations of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and rebuking the enemy and his forces in the name of Jesus Christ. Without being taught how to discern evil spirits and recognize the wiles of the devil, he can easily fall prey to the secular wisdom, language, opinions, and practices “of the rooms.” And it won’t take long for the devil to lodge in his hair, whisper in his ear, play the role of the great liar, and teach him that wrong is right.
Where Christian Recovery Help Is Available
The time has come for those who are Christian leaders and workers in the recovery arena to inculcate the Christian message, inform about the nonsense gods and idolatrous ideas that prevail today, support the godly aspects of the recovery arena, and prepare the Christian newcomer for studying the Word, praying, renewing his mind, resisting the devil, and putting on the whole armor of God.
This message can be carried in A.A., other recovery fellowships, churches, treatment programs, prisons, mental wards, homeless shelters, the streets, the slums, and on the park benches.
My own experience has been that it took a long time for me to get over the illness into which I had plunged. Fear, brain damage, societal problems, confusion, bad advice, erroneous teaching, and lack of Christian grounding left me awash in a godless sea of myths and shibboleths—awash without a paddle. And the sooner I began rejecting the secularism, going with the flow in the program, and placing my reliance on God, the sooner deliverance came. The solution is God. The power and love of God are equal to any task and available in any plight. And Christians need to call on God in the name of Jesus Christ at every turn, thank Him for each victory, and report to others His power and love and deliverance.
www.DickB.com
DickB@DickB.com
Gloria Deo
Thursday, April 29, 2010
AA-Appreciating It Early Successes
AA-Appreciating It Early Successes
By
Learning What Its Founders Really Did
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
It is not surprising that the early A.A. Christian Fellowship founded in Akron in 1935 had achieved a documented 75% success rate by November, 1937. There are several important
reasons why these astonishing healings occurred.
First, A.A. grew out of the work of people and movements who had been successful many years before A.A. was born. Thus evangelists and revivals had been bringing folks to Jesus Christ and preaching the Word of God for almost 100 years in the Vermont area where A.A.’s cofounders were born and raised. The YMCA lay people had been doing the same thing on a non-denominational basis and working outside of church structures. The rescue missions had specifically turned to decisions for Christ and the Bible to help countless drunkards change their lives. The Salvation Army had attained world-wide notice for its successes in sending a recovered inebriate/criminal into the slums of London with a message of salvation and the truth of the Word and then insisting that the recovered “victim” join “God’s Army” and help others by the same means. Finally, the Young People’s Christian Endeavor Society had, in the period of Dr. Bob’s youth, laid out a program—albeit within the church structure—to bring young people back to the church fold by confession of Christ, conversion meetings, prayer meetings, Bible study meetings, the Quiet Hour, and the motto of love and service.
And all these previous efforts had touched the lives of tens of thousands, brought them to Jesus Christ, taught them the Word, and instilled in them the idea that they must continue to grow through prayer, Bible study, fellowship with like-minded believers, setting aside a quiet time for God, and bringing salvation to others.
These were the principles Bill W. and Dr. Bob learned and brought to the table when they finally met and began developing a one-on-one program for helping drunks get well by relying on the power of God.
There were additional practices Bill and Dr. Bob had learned from their own experiences. Conversion was vital. Determination never to drink was essential. Initial hospitalization was a regular requirement. Learning from Dr. Bob’s wife Anne Ripley Smith the principles and practices she had written and shared with drunks and their families from 1933 to 1939. See Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal 1933-1939 (www.dickb.com/annesm.shtml).
Today we have solid documentation, partly from a handwritten list by Dr. Bob himself, that by November, 1937, there were forty members who had achieved continuous sobriety—some for days and a few for years. Of these, fifty-percent had never had a drink. Twenty-five percent had relapsed but returned to recover. And the remainder had continued to struggle.
This is a success story that needs to be told!
www.dickb.com
dickb@dickb.com
Gloria Deo
By
Learning What Its Founders Really Did
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
It is not surprising that the early A.A. Christian Fellowship founded in Akron in 1935 had achieved a documented 75% success rate by November, 1937. There are several important
reasons why these astonishing healings occurred.
First, A.A. grew out of the work of people and movements who had been successful many years before A.A. was born. Thus evangelists and revivals had been bringing folks to Jesus Christ and preaching the Word of God for almost 100 years in the Vermont area where A.A.’s cofounders were born and raised. The YMCA lay people had been doing the same thing on a non-denominational basis and working outside of church structures. The rescue missions had specifically turned to decisions for Christ and the Bible to help countless drunkards change their lives. The Salvation Army had attained world-wide notice for its successes in sending a recovered inebriate/criminal into the slums of London with a message of salvation and the truth of the Word and then insisting that the recovered “victim” join “God’s Army” and help others by the same means. Finally, the Young People’s Christian Endeavor Society had, in the period of Dr. Bob’s youth, laid out a program—albeit within the church structure—to bring young people back to the church fold by confession of Christ, conversion meetings, prayer meetings, Bible study meetings, the Quiet Hour, and the motto of love and service.
And all these previous efforts had touched the lives of tens of thousands, brought them to Jesus Christ, taught them the Word, and instilled in them the idea that they must continue to grow through prayer, Bible study, fellowship with like-minded believers, setting aside a quiet time for God, and bringing salvation to others.
These were the principles Bill W. and Dr. Bob learned and brought to the table when they finally met and began developing a one-on-one program for helping drunks get well by relying on the power of God.
There were additional practices Bill and Dr. Bob had learned from their own experiences. Conversion was vital. Determination never to drink was essential. Initial hospitalization was a regular requirement. Learning from Dr. Bob’s wife Anne Ripley Smith the principles and practices she had written and shared with drunks and their families from 1933 to 1939. See Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal 1933-1939 (www.dickb.com/annesm.shtml).
Today we have solid documentation, partly from a handwritten list by Dr. Bob himself, that by November, 1937, there were forty members who had achieved continuous sobriety—some for days and a few for years. Of these, fifty-percent had never had a drink. Twenty-five percent had relapsed but returned to recover. And the remainder had continued to struggle.
This is a success story that needs to be told!
www.dickb.com
dickb@dickb.com
Gloria Deo
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Introduction to Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery Class
Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery
By Dick B. and Ken B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
Introduction by Dick B.
In the early years following the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in mid-June of 1935, A.A.'s pioneers got their basic ideas from their effort in, and study of, the Bible.
Beginning in the summer of 1935, A.A.'s cofounders, William G. Wilson (“Bill W.”) and Robert H. Smith, M.D. (“Dr. Bob”), began to develop the simple, seven-point, original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program. A program which soon-to-be A.A. Trustee Frank Amos—acting as an agent of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.—investigated and documented in February 1938. This was the original A.A. program—with its strong Christian orientation—for which early A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last-gasp-case,” “real” alcoholics who thoroughly followed the program.
Many of the practices associated with that highly-successful, early program seem very likely to have come from A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob's active involvement with the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor as a youngster in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. And, in those early years of the Akron “Christian fellowship” program--before the Big Book was later published in April 1939—there were no Steps, no Traditions, no Big Books, no “drunkalogs,” and no meetings (at least not meetings of the kinds one sees today).
Bill W. later began to write up the program for the forthcoming book, Alcoholics Anonymous (the “Big Book”). This started about March 1938. However, Bill codified a program in the Big Book that was considerably different from the highly-successful Akron program documented by Frank Amos. The program Bill presented in the Big Book derived mainly from the life-changing program of the Oxford Group as its principal American leader, Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York, had taught it to Bill. And yet, even this program too—particularly as reflected in the earliest drafts of the chapters of the Big Book—was biblically based.
Then a New York University lecturer did the final editing of the book manuscript. In so doing, this editor cut its size by at least one-third (perhaps even by half—from 800 pages to 400 pages). Moreover, Bill Pittman of the Hazelden/Pittman Archives told me that the transcribing secretary Ruth Hock had told him that much of the material editor Tom Uzzell had cut from the Big Book manuscript was Christian and biblical in nature.
At any rate, Bill’s first draft of two chapters tells us how Bill originally viewed, and then changed his view of, his proposed program. Bill originally wrote the Big Book's first two chapters for inclusion with a Works Publishing Company “stock prospectus.” The first chapter was titled, “There Is a Solution.” The second chapter was titled, “Bill's Story.” But the order of the chapters was reversed by the time the Big Book was published. The alteration was made with “Bill's Story” being placed first—as it is in the Fourth Edition today. Thus, “the solution” was given second place.
To give just one example of the earlier, biblical nature of the Big Book, here is a paragraph from the “There Is a Solution” chapter as it appeared in the “multilith edition” (also known as the “Original Manuscript”) of the Big Book as it stood in late 1938:
The great fact is just this, and nothing less: that we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences, which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows, and toward God's universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.
Consider for a moment the first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Note that the Bible begins at the beginning. It begins with God. “In the beginning, God . . .”, it states. Bill W. had also originally started out the Big Book with God. He placed first his chapter “There Is a Solution.” And this is a chapter which features God, the Creator, as the source for the “miraculous” help needed by “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “real” alcoholics.
Bill had it right with the original order of those first two chapters.
We therefore suggest to students in this “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” class, that you too begin where the Bible begins. God is first. That IS the solution. And that solution begins where Bill W. originally began—with God, and not with a story.
Interestingly, here is the description of the purpose of the “personal stories” in the Big Book as given in the “There Is a Solution” chapter in the 1938 “multilith edition”—a description found today, slightly reworded, on page 29 of the Fourth Edition:
Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own language, and from his own point of view the way he found or rediscovered God.
God is still the priority today for those who want God’s help. So let’s keep in mind throughout this class that we are here suggesting that Christian recovery begins with God.
The solution is God!
dickb@dickb.com
By Dick B. and Ken B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
Introduction by Dick B.
In the early years following the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in mid-June of 1935, A.A.'s pioneers got their basic ideas from their effort in, and study of, the Bible.
Beginning in the summer of 1935, A.A.'s cofounders, William G. Wilson (“Bill W.”) and Robert H. Smith, M.D. (“Dr. Bob”), began to develop the simple, seven-point, original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program. A program which soon-to-be A.A. Trustee Frank Amos—acting as an agent of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.—investigated and documented in February 1938. This was the original A.A. program—with its strong Christian orientation—for which early A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last-gasp-case,” “real” alcoholics who thoroughly followed the program.
Many of the practices associated with that highly-successful, early program seem very likely to have come from A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob's active involvement with the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor as a youngster in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. And, in those early years of the Akron “Christian fellowship” program--before the Big Book was later published in April 1939—there were no Steps, no Traditions, no Big Books, no “drunkalogs,” and no meetings (at least not meetings of the kinds one sees today).
Bill W. later began to write up the program for the forthcoming book, Alcoholics Anonymous (the “Big Book”). This started about March 1938. However, Bill codified a program in the Big Book that was considerably different from the highly-successful Akron program documented by Frank Amos. The program Bill presented in the Big Book derived mainly from the life-changing program of the Oxford Group as its principal American leader, Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York, had taught it to Bill. And yet, even this program too—particularly as reflected in the earliest drafts of the chapters of the Big Book—was biblically based.
Then a New York University lecturer did the final editing of the book manuscript. In so doing, this editor cut its size by at least one-third (perhaps even by half—from 800 pages to 400 pages). Moreover, Bill Pittman of the Hazelden/Pittman Archives told me that the transcribing secretary Ruth Hock had told him that much of the material editor Tom Uzzell had cut from the Big Book manuscript was Christian and biblical in nature.
At any rate, Bill’s first draft of two chapters tells us how Bill originally viewed, and then changed his view of, his proposed program. Bill originally wrote the Big Book's first two chapters for inclusion with a Works Publishing Company “stock prospectus.” The first chapter was titled, “There Is a Solution.” The second chapter was titled, “Bill's Story.” But the order of the chapters was reversed by the time the Big Book was published. The alteration was made with “Bill's Story” being placed first—as it is in the Fourth Edition today. Thus, “the solution” was given second place.
To give just one example of the earlier, biblical nature of the Big Book, here is a paragraph from the “There Is a Solution” chapter as it appeared in the “multilith edition” (also known as the “Original Manuscript”) of the Big Book as it stood in late 1938:
The great fact is just this, and nothing less: that we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences, which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows, and toward God's universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.
Consider for a moment the first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Note that the Bible begins at the beginning. It begins with God. “In the beginning, God . . .”, it states. Bill W. had also originally started out the Big Book with God. He placed first his chapter “There Is a Solution.” And this is a chapter which features God, the Creator, as the source for the “miraculous” help needed by “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “real” alcoholics.
Bill had it right with the original order of those first two chapters.
We therefore suggest to students in this “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” class, that you too begin where the Bible begins. God is first. That IS the solution. And that solution begins where Bill W. originally began—with God, and not with a story.
Interestingly, here is the description of the purpose of the “personal stories” in the Big Book as given in the “There Is a Solution” chapter in the 1938 “multilith edition”—a description found today, slightly reworded, on page 29 of the Fourth Edition:
Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own language, and from his own point of view the way he found or rediscovered God.
God is still the priority today for those who want God’s help. So let’s keep in mind throughout this class that we are here suggesting that Christian recovery begins with God.
The solution is God!
dickb@dickb.com
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
New Christian Recovery Ideas, Programs, and Successes
This is an account of what we have seen over the period of the last two years of travel, meetings, conferences, and communications.
It all began in Southern California. At a huge Mariners Church Community Center meeting in Irvine, Christian leaders and Christians in recovery gathered from across the United States and Canada to share with each other the difficulties Christians were having in Twelve Step Fellowships due to restrictions, bans, intimidation, and intrusive efforts to squelch the "old school" A.A. by citing present-day edicts which had no authority.
These gave rise to our work in San Dimas, North Hollywood, Glendora, Pasadena, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa, San Diego, Lakeside, San Juan Capistrano, Newport Beach, Palm Springs, Oakland, and Livermore where we took a new look at how Christians in the recovery arena could find out that they are not alone, that they are pursuing goals which are consistent with love and service to God and His Son and understanding both better through the Bible. We showed how they can do this today. And it matters not whether it is done in an AA or 12 Step Fellowship, a prison, a homeless shelter, a hospital, a rehab, a treatment program, a sober living house, or a church.
As the meetings grew, so did the support and enthusiasm. We went to sober living houses, to A.A. meetings, to Christian recovery meetings, to James Club meetings, to A.A. history meetings, to church-sponsored recovery fellowships, to treatment programs, to Christian counselors groups. I was asked to write a chapter for a scholarly psychological 3 volume set about to be released, and it dealt with these subjects. We were later to meet at a bonfire, a Bible study meeting, and the Calvary Ranch facility. We met with the President of CityTeam Ministry.
Then we were invited to numerous functions on Oahu. We spoke to VA personnel and patients at Tripler Army Hospital in Honolulu. We conducted a three day class for a Men's Step Group near North Shore. We spoke to the third oldest A.A. meeting on Oahu. We spoke to an N.A. meeting. We spoke to a treatment center alumni group. We spoke to a church recovery group. We even taped a discussion for Brazilian TV.
Finally, we decided we needed a DVD class with guidebooks and a resource guide. And that is about to be launched and be made available around the globe in a day or so.
What's it add up to? It means the Christian leaders and counselors and facilitators; Clergy, pastors, and recovery pastors; individuals in 12 Step fellowships and in church groups; groups of AAs and NAs can now begin to meet and grow. Some call themselves James Clubs. Some A.A. Bible Study Groups. Some A.A. History Studies. Some Christian Bible study groups. Some recovery fellowships. Some conduct retreats and conferences. And on and on.
And one central factor is present. God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible are returning to their former roles in the recovery scene. It's nothing new. It was happening with evangelists, revivals, rescue missions, the YMCA, Christian Endeavor, the Salvation Army, and later in a limited way in the Oxford Group. And the power of God was put to work in helping drunks, addicts, and those with life-controlling problems. The power was the power of God and it was effective. Documented as effective!
The scene: A meeting. A secretary. A format for stating the meeting purpose, acquaintance with newcomers, reading from the Bible and/or the Big Book, reading and comparing the Steps with Scripture. Music. A speaker. Sometimes a testimonial. And group discussion. Opening and closing with prayer. Almost all were part and parcel of early A.A. in Akron.
You'll hear more about the formula and have a guide as you choose to procure and use and study our new Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery Class with four DVD's, a leader's guide, a student guide, and the new Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010.
Please feel free to contact Dick B. at 808 874 4876 or dickb@dickb.com; Ken B. at 808 276 4945 or kcb00799@gmail.com; or write to PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837.
Also see our main website: www.dickb.com
It all began in Southern California. At a huge Mariners Church Community Center meeting in Irvine, Christian leaders and Christians in recovery gathered from across the United States and Canada to share with each other the difficulties Christians were having in Twelve Step Fellowships due to restrictions, bans, intimidation, and intrusive efforts to squelch the "old school" A.A. by citing present-day edicts which had no authority.
These gave rise to our work in San Dimas, North Hollywood, Glendora, Pasadena, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa, San Diego, Lakeside, San Juan Capistrano, Newport Beach, Palm Springs, Oakland, and Livermore where we took a new look at how Christians in the recovery arena could find out that they are not alone, that they are pursuing goals which are consistent with love and service to God and His Son and understanding both better through the Bible. We showed how they can do this today. And it matters not whether it is done in an AA or 12 Step Fellowship, a prison, a homeless shelter, a hospital, a rehab, a treatment program, a sober living house, or a church.
As the meetings grew, so did the support and enthusiasm. We went to sober living houses, to A.A. meetings, to Christian recovery meetings, to James Club meetings, to A.A. history meetings, to church-sponsored recovery fellowships, to treatment programs, to Christian counselors groups. I was asked to write a chapter for a scholarly psychological 3 volume set about to be released, and it dealt with these subjects. We were later to meet at a bonfire, a Bible study meeting, and the Calvary Ranch facility. We met with the President of CityTeam Ministry.
Then we were invited to numerous functions on Oahu. We spoke to VA personnel and patients at Tripler Army Hospital in Honolulu. We conducted a three day class for a Men's Step Group near North Shore. We spoke to the third oldest A.A. meeting on Oahu. We spoke to an N.A. meeting. We spoke to a treatment center alumni group. We spoke to a church recovery group. We even taped a discussion for Brazilian TV.
Finally, we decided we needed a DVD class with guidebooks and a resource guide. And that is about to be launched and be made available around the globe in a day or so.
What's it add up to? It means the Christian leaders and counselors and facilitators; Clergy, pastors, and recovery pastors; individuals in 12 Step fellowships and in church groups; groups of AAs and NAs can now begin to meet and grow. Some call themselves James Clubs. Some A.A. Bible Study Groups. Some A.A. History Studies. Some Christian Bible study groups. Some recovery fellowships. Some conduct retreats and conferences. And on and on.
And one central factor is present. God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible are returning to their former roles in the recovery scene. It's nothing new. It was happening with evangelists, revivals, rescue missions, the YMCA, Christian Endeavor, the Salvation Army, and later in a limited way in the Oxford Group. And the power of God was put to work in helping drunks, addicts, and those with life-controlling problems. The power was the power of God and it was effective. Documented as effective!
The scene: A meeting. A secretary. A format for stating the meeting purpose, acquaintance with newcomers, reading from the Bible and/or the Big Book, reading and comparing the Steps with Scripture. Music. A speaker. Sometimes a testimonial. And group discussion. Opening and closing with prayer. Almost all were part and parcel of early A.A. in Akron.
You'll hear more about the formula and have a guide as you choose to procure and use and study our new Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery Class with four DVD's, a leader's guide, a student guide, and the new Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010.
Please feel free to contact Dick B. at 808 874 4876 or dickb@dickb.com; Ken B. at 808 276 4945 or kcb00799@gmail.com; or write to PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837.
Also see our main website: www.dickb.com
Monday, April 26, 2010
A.A.―First Preview of the Real Facts about A.A.’s Origins
A.A.―First Preview of the Real Facts about A.A.’s Origins
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
Bill Wilson’s grandfather William C. (“Willie”) Wilson cured of alcoholism by conversion:
My grandfather Wilson was a very serious case of alcoholism, and it no doubt hastened his death, although some years prior to this he had, to everyone’s great surprise, hit the sawdust trail, to speak figuratively, at a revival meeting in the Congregational Church and was never known to drink afterward.
Bill’s doctor, William D. Silkworth—a devout Christian who believed his patients could be cured of alcoholism by the Great Physician Jesus Christ—so advised Bill at Towns Hospital:
Bill [Wilson] himself referred to Silkworth as a cofounder of A.A.
When Silkworth was a young boy, his father had impressed upon the requirement of
complete abstinence for success in life. . . . Young Silkworth was told quite early of the
need for crisis, reform, and conversion when dealing with alcoholism.
Silkworth’s family remembers him as a deeply spiritual man. . . . A devout Christian . . . For years he attended a church that would also have an impact on the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous, the Calvary Christian (Episcopal) Church.
[H]e wrote, all that we may have that is good comes from God.
He spoke frequently about the need for a reliance upon God and a firm foundation of spiritual strength in order to handle the obsession to drink.
He was a man who believed in a spiritually sound approach to healing.
During his third visit to Towns Hospital, Bill had a discussion with Dr. Silkworth on the subject of the “Great Physician.” . . . In fact, Bill Wilson himself wrote that he had thought about this discussion before he decided to check himself into Towns for the last time. . . . Alcoholism took longer to kill, but the result was the same. Yes, if there was any Great Physician that could cure the alcohol sickness, I’d better find him now, at once.
Silkworth has not been given the appropriate credit for his position on a spiritual conversion, particularly as it may relate to true Christian benefits. Several sources, including Norman Vincent Peale in his book The Positive Power of Jesus Christ, agree that it was Dr. Silkworth who used the term “The Great Physician” to explain the need in recovery for a relationship with Jesus Christ. . . . In the formation of AA, Wilson initially insisted on references to God and Jesus, as well as the Great Physician. . . . Silkworth, a medical doctor, challenged the alcoholic with a spiritual conversion and a relationship with God as part of a program of recovery. His approach with Bill Wilson was no different.
Following his third Towns Hospital visit with Dr. Silkworth, Bill Wilson was visited by his old friend Ebby Thacher who had been living at the Calvary Rescue Mission in Manhattan. Ebby told Bill that some Oxford Group friends had told him he needed to call on God to help him with his problem. Ebby had been to the altar at Calvary Mission and had made a decision for Christ. Ebby told Bill, “I’ve got religion.” Ebby was sober, and Bill concluded Ebby had been born again. Bill wrote this as to Ebby’s visit with him:
Nevertheless here I was sitting opposite a man who talked about a personal God, who
told me how he had found Him, who described to me how I might do the same thing and who convinced me utterly that something had come into his life which had accomplished a miracle. The man was transformed; there was no denying he had been reborn.
Bill actually went to Calvary Church itself just after Ebby’s visit. Bill saw Ebby giving testimony in the pulpit. At the Mission, Bill Wilson told Billy Duvall of the church event. And he felt sure he needed help and could get the help that Ebby had received at the Mission.
After checking Ebby’s testimony by visiting Calvary Church and hearing Ebby witness, Bill decided that he could perhaps be helped in the same way at Calvary Mission. Bill wrote:
I’d figured it was time I did some investigation on my own hook. Remembering the mission where Ebby stayed, I figured I’d go and see what they do, anyway, down there. I’d find out.
Bill went to Calvary Mission, made a decision for Jesus Christ at the altar, wrote that he had “for sure” “been born again.” Desperately he decided he should call on the Great Physician, and went to Towns Hospital for his fourth and final visit to receive help.
Bill’s wife Lois gave a recorded speech in Dallas, Texas, June 29, 1973. Speaking of Bill’s trip to the altar, Lois said: “And he went up, and really, in very great sincerity, did hand his life over to Christ.
[Bill wrote:] For sure I’d been born again.
[Bill wrote:] Yes, if there was any Great Physician that could cure the alcohol sickness, I’d better seek him now, at once. I’d better find what my friend had found.
At Town Hospital, Bill decided to call on the Great Physician. Bill cried out to God for help. Immediately his room was filled with a “white light.” Bill sensed the presence of “the God of the Scriptures,” and never again doubted the existence of God. Bill never drank again. Bill wrote:
But what of the Great Physician? For a brief moment, I suppose, the last trace of my obstinacy was crushed out as the abyss yawned. I remember saying to myself, “I’ll do anything at all. If there be a Great Physician, I’ll call on him.
Then, with neither faith nor hope I cried out, “If there be a God, let him show himself.” The effect was instant, electric. Suddenly my room blazed with an indescribably white light. . . . Then, seen in the mind’s eye, there was a mountain. I stood upon its summit where a great wind blew. A wind, not of air, but of spirit. In great, clean strength, it blew right through me. Then came the blazing thought, “You are a free man.” . . . I became
acutely conscious of a presence which seemed like a veritable sea of living spirit.
And then the great thought burst upon me: “Bill, you are a free man! This is the God of the Scriptures.”
Shortly after his “white light” experience, Bill was discharged from Towns Hospital. He feverishly set out with a Bible under his arm, witnessing to drunks wherever he could find them. He told them they must give their lives to God. He participated in the Calvary Episcopal Church witnessing processionals which featured a banner proclaiming “Jesus Christ changes lives.” Bill himself witnessed at Madison Square.
In Akron, Ohio, Bill specifically stated his belief that the Lord had cured him of alcoholism. His story is contained in Alcoholics Anonymous to this very day. Bill stated:
Henrietta [Henrietta Dotson was the wife of A.A. Number Three Bill Dotson], the Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people.
To the listener: There is much much more to this story. Details and specific documentation can be found in The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., by Dick B. and Ken B. (2010). And now you can see and hear “the rest of the story” in our just-released 4 DVD Class, Introductory Foundations for Christian Recover by Dick B. and Ken B. (2010).
www.DickB.com;
DickB@DickB.com;
Dick B., PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837;
Tel.: (808) 874-4876
Gloria Deo
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
Bill Wilson’s grandfather William C. (“Willie”) Wilson cured of alcoholism by conversion:
My grandfather Wilson was a very serious case of alcoholism, and it no doubt hastened his death, although some years prior to this he had, to everyone’s great surprise, hit the sawdust trail, to speak figuratively, at a revival meeting in the Congregational Church and was never known to drink afterward.
Bill’s doctor, William D. Silkworth—a devout Christian who believed his patients could be cured of alcoholism by the Great Physician Jesus Christ—so advised Bill at Towns Hospital:
Bill [Wilson] himself referred to Silkworth as a cofounder of A.A.
When Silkworth was a young boy, his father had impressed upon the requirement of
complete abstinence for success in life. . . . Young Silkworth was told quite early of the
need for crisis, reform, and conversion when dealing with alcoholism.
Silkworth’s family remembers him as a deeply spiritual man. . . . A devout Christian . . . For years he attended a church that would also have an impact on the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous, the Calvary Christian (Episcopal) Church.
[H]e wrote, all that we may have that is good comes from God.
He spoke frequently about the need for a reliance upon God and a firm foundation of spiritual strength in order to handle the obsession to drink.
He was a man who believed in a spiritually sound approach to healing.
During his third visit to Towns Hospital, Bill had a discussion with Dr. Silkworth on the subject of the “Great Physician.” . . . In fact, Bill Wilson himself wrote that he had thought about this discussion before he decided to check himself into Towns for the last time. . . . Alcoholism took longer to kill, but the result was the same. Yes, if there was any Great Physician that could cure the alcohol sickness, I’d better find him now, at once.
Silkworth has not been given the appropriate credit for his position on a spiritual conversion, particularly as it may relate to true Christian benefits. Several sources, including Norman Vincent Peale in his book The Positive Power of Jesus Christ, agree that it was Dr. Silkworth who used the term “The Great Physician” to explain the need in recovery for a relationship with Jesus Christ. . . . In the formation of AA, Wilson initially insisted on references to God and Jesus, as well as the Great Physician. . . . Silkworth, a medical doctor, challenged the alcoholic with a spiritual conversion and a relationship with God as part of a program of recovery. His approach with Bill Wilson was no different.
Following his third Towns Hospital visit with Dr. Silkworth, Bill Wilson was visited by his old friend Ebby Thacher who had been living at the Calvary Rescue Mission in Manhattan. Ebby told Bill that some Oxford Group friends had told him he needed to call on God to help him with his problem. Ebby had been to the altar at Calvary Mission and had made a decision for Christ. Ebby told Bill, “I’ve got religion.” Ebby was sober, and Bill concluded Ebby had been born again. Bill wrote this as to Ebby’s visit with him:
Nevertheless here I was sitting opposite a man who talked about a personal God, who
told me how he had found Him, who described to me how I might do the same thing and who convinced me utterly that something had come into his life which had accomplished a miracle. The man was transformed; there was no denying he had been reborn.
Bill actually went to Calvary Church itself just after Ebby’s visit. Bill saw Ebby giving testimony in the pulpit. At the Mission, Bill Wilson told Billy Duvall of the church event. And he felt sure he needed help and could get the help that Ebby had received at the Mission.
After checking Ebby’s testimony by visiting Calvary Church and hearing Ebby witness, Bill decided that he could perhaps be helped in the same way at Calvary Mission. Bill wrote:
I’d figured it was time I did some investigation on my own hook. Remembering the mission where Ebby stayed, I figured I’d go and see what they do, anyway, down there. I’d find out.
Bill went to Calvary Mission, made a decision for Jesus Christ at the altar, wrote that he had “for sure” “been born again.” Desperately he decided he should call on the Great Physician, and went to Towns Hospital for his fourth and final visit to receive help.
Bill’s wife Lois gave a recorded speech in Dallas, Texas, June 29, 1973. Speaking of Bill’s trip to the altar, Lois said: “And he went up, and really, in very great sincerity, did hand his life over to Christ.
[Bill wrote:] For sure I’d been born again.
[Bill wrote:] Yes, if there was any Great Physician that could cure the alcohol sickness, I’d better seek him now, at once. I’d better find what my friend had found.
At Town Hospital, Bill decided to call on the Great Physician. Bill cried out to God for help. Immediately his room was filled with a “white light.” Bill sensed the presence of “the God of the Scriptures,” and never again doubted the existence of God. Bill never drank again. Bill wrote:
But what of the Great Physician? For a brief moment, I suppose, the last trace of my obstinacy was crushed out as the abyss yawned. I remember saying to myself, “I’ll do anything at all. If there be a Great Physician, I’ll call on him.
Then, with neither faith nor hope I cried out, “If there be a God, let him show himself.” The effect was instant, electric. Suddenly my room blazed with an indescribably white light. . . . Then, seen in the mind’s eye, there was a mountain. I stood upon its summit where a great wind blew. A wind, not of air, but of spirit. In great, clean strength, it blew right through me. Then came the blazing thought, “You are a free man.” . . . I became
acutely conscious of a presence which seemed like a veritable sea of living spirit.
And then the great thought burst upon me: “Bill, you are a free man! This is the God of the Scriptures.”
Shortly after his “white light” experience, Bill was discharged from Towns Hospital. He feverishly set out with a Bible under his arm, witnessing to drunks wherever he could find them. He told them they must give their lives to God. He participated in the Calvary Episcopal Church witnessing processionals which featured a banner proclaiming “Jesus Christ changes lives.” Bill himself witnessed at Madison Square.
In Akron, Ohio, Bill specifically stated his belief that the Lord had cured him of alcoholism. His story is contained in Alcoholics Anonymous to this very day. Bill stated:
Henrietta [Henrietta Dotson was the wife of A.A. Number Three Bill Dotson], the Lord has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease, that I just want to keep talking about it and telling people.
To the listener: There is much much more to this story. Details and specific documentation can be found in The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., by Dick B. and Ken B. (2010). And now you can see and hear “the rest of the story” in our just-released 4 DVD Class, Introductory Foundations for Christian Recover by Dick B. and Ken B. (2010).
www.DickB.com;
DickB@DickB.com;
Dick B., PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837;
Tel.: (808) 874-4876
Gloria Deo
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Coming right away: Short shorts on AA Christian roots
In the next few days, we will be releasing some short quotes from either A.A. Conference-approved books and literature, or from documented sources, or from some of my books which we pray will draw many into a greater appreciation and understanding of the real roots of Alcoholics Anonymous and Twelve Step Fellowships.
The quotes will come from Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith, Anne Ripley Smith ("Mother of A.A."), Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.--a cofounder of A.A., Dr. William D. Silkworth, Jr.--one of the three major A.A. Step sources, and from others directly involved or contributors to A.A.'s spiritual program and development beginning with "old school" pioneer early A.A.--founded as a Christian Fellowship in 1935.
This year as some go to San Antonio to celebrate another A.A. anniversary, they can--if they wish--be among those who can carry an accurate message about the origins, founding, original program, astonishing successes, and changes in the A.A. Society.
www.dickb.com; dickb@dickb.com
The quotes will come from Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith, Anne Ripley Smith ("Mother of A.A."), Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr.--a cofounder of A.A., Dr. William D. Silkworth, Jr.--one of the three major A.A. Step sources, and from others directly involved or contributors to A.A.'s spiritual program and development beginning with "old school" pioneer early A.A.--founded as a Christian Fellowship in 1935.
This year as some go to San Antonio to celebrate another A.A. anniversary, they can--if they wish--be among those who can carry an accurate message about the origins, founding, original program, astonishing successes, and changes in the A.A. Society.
www.dickb.com; dickb@dickb.com
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thanks to my Heavenly Father
April 21, 2010 marked my 24th year of continuous sobriety. The thanks go to Almighty God in the name of His Son Jesus Christ. They also extend to the Fellowship of drunks with whom I have been associated and very active since the 3rd day of my sobriety. As Bill Wilson quoted his old friend Ebby Thacher: "God has done for me what I could not do for myself." And as Dr. Bob Smith said at the close of his personal story. "Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!" Both statements reflect my view today after having worked very hard to serve and glorify God in the outreach I have made to others who wanted God's help. It is good to report that those who sought His help proved the last point of the abc's. God could and would if He were sought. God Bless, Dick B. www.dickb.com
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
AA-Big Book-Bible Study Groups for Learners/Teachers
I am circulating this to help some of the folks who recently have written asking about forming a study group.
To some, I have suggested resource books of mine: The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010; The Good Book-Big Book Guidebook; The James Club; By the Power of God; and others.
I have also written a number of articles through the years which have spawned James Club groups, Christian recovery groups, Big Book/Bible study groups and others.
To make these articles available to each of you and others, I suggest first that you click on my dickb articles page: http://www.dickb.com/articles.shtml
Then go to the blue boxes which list the following articles and plug into them:
A.A. History Study Guide
A.A. Study Groups
Guide for Recovery Groups
Study Group Topics
The James Club Groups
Study The Steps
New Study Groups
The James Club
Each week I receive several phone calls and/or emails inquiring about starting such groups. And I try to answer each one in some depth because these groups are a vitally important way for Christians in recovery, recovered Christians, and AAs seeking God’s help to study, learn, and share facts about the Christian origins of early A.A., its founding, its program, and its successes—and the role that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible played in early A.A. and can play today for those who want God’s help.
We are about to release a new class of four sessions on video. Its resources will include the 4 DVD’s, a Class Instructor Guide, a Student Guide, and the new Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide. Taken together, these can instruct, provide incentives for your work, and be used over and over and over again in a particular group, entity, fellowship, program, or meeting.
Pilot classes are already set up at New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc. in Huntington Beach, California; and at Pacific Hills Treatment Centers, Inc. in San Juan Capistrano, California. Many more have been requested to date.
In addition, many of you ask for names of people or groups in your area who are already succeeding. We started a World-Wide History Fellowship Group which, though slightly outdated, contains specific information about many who are doing what you are doing or want to do.
In addition, we have posted many many more supporters, leaders, and directors and their areas of Christian recovery efforts. And, if you wish to pursue that further, you may select from the International Christian Recovery Coalition (www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com) and then email me for specific people and information. Your own initiative will have to be used because our communication resources are simply in the hands of my son Ken and myself and we cannot spend much time on specific people unless asked.
We have held many meetings, seminars, and conferences over the past two years—in Northern and Southern California and in Oahu. We know how well this study idea is prospering, and we urge you to join the groups and—preferably—form your own with our help. Plan too to obtain a license for our class as soon as it becomes available and is announced in the next few days.
God Bless,
Dick B.
Author, 39 titles on A.A. History
Exec. Dir., International Christian Recovery Coalition
www.DickB.com
DickB@DickB.com
(808) 874-4876
PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837
To some, I have suggested resource books of mine: The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010; The Good Book-Big Book Guidebook; The James Club; By the Power of God; and others.
I have also written a number of articles through the years which have spawned James Club groups, Christian recovery groups, Big Book/Bible study groups and others.
To make these articles available to each of you and others, I suggest first that you click on my dickb articles page: http://www.dickb.com/articles.shtml
Then go to the blue boxes which list the following articles and plug into them:
A.A. History Study Guide
A.A. Study Groups
Guide for Recovery Groups
Study Group Topics
The James Club Groups
Study The Steps
New Study Groups
The James Club
Each week I receive several phone calls and/or emails inquiring about starting such groups. And I try to answer each one in some depth because these groups are a vitally important way for Christians in recovery, recovered Christians, and AAs seeking God’s help to study, learn, and share facts about the Christian origins of early A.A., its founding, its program, and its successes—and the role that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible played in early A.A. and can play today for those who want God’s help.
We are about to release a new class of four sessions on video. Its resources will include the 4 DVD’s, a Class Instructor Guide, a Student Guide, and the new Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide. Taken together, these can instruct, provide incentives for your work, and be used over and over and over again in a particular group, entity, fellowship, program, or meeting.
Pilot classes are already set up at New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc. in Huntington Beach, California; and at Pacific Hills Treatment Centers, Inc. in San Juan Capistrano, California. Many more have been requested to date.
In addition, many of you ask for names of people or groups in your area who are already succeeding. We started a World-Wide History Fellowship Group which, though slightly outdated, contains specific information about many who are doing what you are doing or want to do.
In addition, we have posted many many more supporters, leaders, and directors and their areas of Christian recovery efforts. And, if you wish to pursue that further, you may select from the International Christian Recovery Coalition (www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com) and then email me for specific people and information. Your own initiative will have to be used because our communication resources are simply in the hands of my son Ken and myself and we cannot spend much time on specific people unless asked.
We have held many meetings, seminars, and conferences over the past two years—in Northern and Southern California and in Oahu. We know how well this study idea is prospering, and we urge you to join the groups and—preferably—form your own with our help. Plan too to obtain a license for our class as soon as it becomes available and is announced in the next few days.
God Bless,
Dick B.
Author, 39 titles on A.A. History
Exec. Dir., International Christian Recovery Coalition
www.DickB.com
DickB@DickB.com
(808) 874-4876
PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Introductory Remarks for our New 4 Session Christian Recovery Class
Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery
By Dick B. and Ken B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
Introduction by Dick B.
In the early years following the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in mid-June of 1935, A.A.'s pioneers got their basic ideas from their effort in, and study of, the Bible.
Beginning in the summer of 1935, A.A.'s cofounders, William G. Wilson (“Bill W.”) and Robert H. Smith, M.D. (“Dr. Bob”), began to develop the simple, seven-point, original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program. A program which soon-to-be A.A. Trustee Frank Amos—acting as an agent of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.—investigated and documented in February 1938. This was the original A.A. program—with its strong Christian orientation—for which early A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last-gasp-case,” “real” alcoholics who thoroughly followed the program.
Many of the practices associated with that highly-successful, early program seem very likely to have come from A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob's active involvement with the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor as a youngster in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. And, in those early years of the Akron “Christian fellowship” program--before the Big Book was later published in April 1939—there were no Steps, no Traditions, no Big Books, no “drunkalogs,” and no meetings (at least not meetings of the kinds one sees today).
Bill W. later began to write up the program for the forthcoming book, Alcoholics Anonymous (the “Big Book”), starting about March 1938. However, Bill codified a program in the Big Book that was considerably different from the highly-successful Akron program documented by Frank Amos. The program Bill presented in the Big Book derived mainly from the life-changing program of the Oxford Group as its principal American leader, Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York, had taught it to Bill. And yet, even this program too—particularly as reflected in the earliest drafts of the chapters of the Big Book—was biblically based.
Then a New York University lecturer did the final editing of the book manuscript. In so doing, this editor cut its size by at least one-third (perhaps even by half—from 800 pages to 400 pages). Moreover, Bill Pittman of the Hazelden/Pittman Archives told me that the transcribing secretary Ruth Hock had told him much of the material editor Tom Uzzell had cut from the Big Book manuscript was Christian and biblical in nature.
At any rate, Bill’s first draft of two chapters tells us how Bill originally viewed, and then changed his view of, his proposed program. Bill originally wrote the Big Book's first two chapters for inclusion with a Works Publishing Company “stock prospectus.” The first chapter was titled, “There Is a Solution.” The second chapter was titled, “Bill's Story.” But the order of the chapters was reversed by the time the Big Book was published. The change was made with “Bill's Story” being placed first—as it is in the Fourth Edition today. In other words, “the solution” was given second place.
To give just one example of the earlier, biblical nature of the Big Book, here is a paragraph from the “There Is a Solution” chapter as it appeared in the “multilith edition” (also known as the “Original Manuscript”) of the Big Book as it stood in late 1938:
The great fact is just this, and nothing less: that we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences, which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows, and toward God's universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.
Consider for a moment the first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Note that the Bible begins at the beginning. It begins with God. “In the beginning, God . . .”, it states. Bill W. had also originally started out the Big Book with God. He placed first his chapter “There Is a Solution.” And this is a chapter which features God, the Creator, as the source for the “miraculous” help needed by “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “real” alcoholics.
Bill had it right with the original order of those first two chapters.
We therefore suggest to students in this “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” class, that you too begin where the Bible God is first. That IS the solution.begins and where Bill W. originally began—with God, and not with a story.
Interestingly, here is the description of the purpose of the “personal stories” in the Big Book as given in the “There Is a Solution” chapter in the 1938 “multilith edition”—a description found today, slightly reworded, on page 29 of the Fourth Edition:
Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own language, and from his own point of view the way he found or rediscovered God.
God is still the priority today for those who want God’s help. So let’s keep in mind throughout this class that we are here suggesting that Christian recovery begins with God. The solution IS God.
By Dick B. and Ken B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
Introduction by Dick B.
In the early years following the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in mid-June of 1935, A.A.'s pioneers got their basic ideas from their effort in, and study of, the Bible.
Beginning in the summer of 1935, A.A.'s cofounders, William G. Wilson (“Bill W.”) and Robert H. Smith, M.D. (“Dr. Bob”), began to develop the simple, seven-point, original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program. A program which soon-to-be A.A. Trustee Frank Amos—acting as an agent of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.—investigated and documented in February 1938. This was the original A.A. program—with its strong Christian orientation—for which early A.A. claimed a 75% success rate among “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “last-gasp-case,” “real” alcoholics who thoroughly followed the program.
Many of the practices associated with that highly-successful, early program seem very likely to have come from A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob's active involvement with the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor as a youngster in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. And, in those early years of the Akron “Christian fellowship” program--before the Big Book was later published in April 1939—there were no Steps, no Traditions, no Big Books, no “drunkalogs,” and no meetings (at least not meetings of the kinds one sees today).
Bill W. later began to write up the program for the forthcoming book, Alcoholics Anonymous (the “Big Book”), starting about March 1938. However, Bill codified a program in the Big Book that was considerably different from the highly-successful Akron program documented by Frank Amos. The program Bill presented in the Big Book derived mainly from the life-changing program of the Oxford Group as its principal American leader, Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church in New York, had taught it to Bill. And yet, even this program too—particularly as reflected in the earliest drafts of the chapters of the Big Book—was biblically based.
Then a New York University lecturer did the final editing of the book manuscript. In so doing, this editor cut its size by at least one-third (perhaps even by half—from 800 pages to 400 pages). Moreover, Bill Pittman of the Hazelden/Pittman Archives told me that the transcribing secretary Ruth Hock had told him much of the material editor Tom Uzzell had cut from the Big Book manuscript was Christian and biblical in nature.
At any rate, Bill’s first draft of two chapters tells us how Bill originally viewed, and then changed his view of, his proposed program. Bill originally wrote the Big Book's first two chapters for inclusion with a Works Publishing Company “stock prospectus.” The first chapter was titled, “There Is a Solution.” The second chapter was titled, “Bill's Story.” But the order of the chapters was reversed by the time the Big Book was published. The change was made with “Bill's Story” being placed first—as it is in the Fourth Edition today. In other words, “the solution” was given second place.
To give just one example of the earlier, biblical nature of the Big Book, here is a paragraph from the “There Is a Solution” chapter as it appeared in the “multilith edition” (also known as the “Original Manuscript”) of the Big Book as it stood in late 1938:
The great fact is just this, and nothing less: that we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences, which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows, and toward God's universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.
Consider for a moment the first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Note that the Bible begins at the beginning. It begins with God. “In the beginning, God . . .”, it states. Bill W. had also originally started out the Big Book with God. He placed first his chapter “There Is a Solution.” And this is a chapter which features God, the Creator, as the source for the “miraculous” help needed by “seemingly-hopeless,” “medically-incurable,” “real” alcoholics.
Bill had it right with the original order of those first two chapters.
We therefore suggest to students in this “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” class, that you too begin where the Bible God is first. That IS the solution.begins and where Bill W. originally began—with God, and not with a story.
Interestingly, here is the description of the purpose of the “personal stories” in the Big Book as given in the “There Is a Solution” chapter in the 1938 “multilith edition”—a description found today, slightly reworded, on page 29 of the Fourth Edition:
Each individual, in the personal stories, describes in his own language, and from his own point of view the way he found or rediscovered God.
God is still the priority today for those who want God’s help. So let’s keep in mind throughout this class that we are here suggesting that Christian recovery begins with God. The solution IS God.
Monday, April 19, 2010
The Dr. Bob Core Library, St. Johnsbury, VT
The Dr. Bob Core Library, St. Johnsbury, VT
Dick B.
Where It Is
North Congregational Church (UCC) of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, is presently located on Main Street in the charming village of St. Johnsbury. This was the family church regularly attended by Dr. Robert H. Smith (A.A.’s Dr. Bob) and by all the Smith family during Bob’s days as a youngster. Three, and sometimes four, times a week. Judge Walter P. Smith and Susan H. Smith (Bob’s parents) were there. Young Bob was there until his graduation from St. Johnsbury Academy. His foster sister Amanda Northrup was there. And his grandmother was there. The church archives and other records show the extensive involvement of the Smiths. The Judge as a deacon, Sunday school superintendent, Sunday school teacher, and Executive Committee member. Mrs. Walter Smith as the person in charge of the church school, a Sunday school superintendant and teacher, church historian, leader of women’s groups, and choir member. Bob attended all three Sunday services and often the Wednesday evening prayer meeting. He was active in the Young People’s Christian Endeavor Society of the Church.
The present church has made a room available just right of the church entrance where the Dr. Bob Core Library is set out on shelves especially prepared for that purpose.
What is in the Library
Lots more to come. And many of the additional items will make some really new Dr. Bob treasures available. These are presently awaiting pick-up on Maui and some conservation proceedings.
Already, there are some 2000 manuscripts, papers, and pamphlets from the church archives, from St. Johnsbury Academy, from the local newspaper, from the town library (the Athenaeum), and from Christian Endeavor that tell about the village, the church, the important families, the Smiths, the YMCA, the town history, the town directories, the Sunday school teachings, the church Year Books, the sermons, and the activities of Judge and Mrs. Smith.
Also, a large number of relevant A.A. books are there. A complete set of the Dick B. 29 Volume Christian Recovery Reference Set. Many biographies, Vermont historical books, A.A. history books and articles, and complimentary copies of Dick B.’s books—Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous and Dr. Bob and His Library, 3rd ed. A large collection of United Christian Endeavor Society books is there. Books on Vermont Men. Books on North Congregational Church. Books on the YMCA. Books on the Great Awakening of 1875. And books about New England Congregationalism, its St. Johnsbury work, and the leadership of the famous Fairbanks families in its churches, missionary work, and cooperation with the YMCA.
Why It Was Recently Established
Dr. Bob was called the “Prince of all Twelfth-steppers.” His wife Anne Ripley Smith was called the “Mother of A.A.” and a founder of Akron Number One. Yet the only significant literature about either one of them is to be found in Dick B.’s books—and not in Akron. This despite the fact that Akron was the founding place of A.A.—at the Smith Home on 855 Ardmore Avenue.
Early A.A. was focused on the Bible. God, His Son Jesus Christ. The Bible played a major role in the origins, founding, program, and successes of A.A. And yet the real origin of these foci was Vermont—not Ohio. Both Bill and Bob grew up in Vermont. Both Bill and Bob attended Congregational Churches as youngsters in Vermont. Their parents and grandparents attended these Vermont churches. Both Bill and Bob studied the Bible in Vermont. Both Bill and Bob attended Vermont Academies (Burr and Burton, and St. Johnsbury, respectively) where there was required daily chapel, weekly church attendance, Bible study, and extensive YMCA involvement. Moreover, both cofounders attended Sunday schools and churches where becoming children of God through coming to Jesus Christ, and study of the Bible were greatly emphasized. Both men were exposed to the effect of conversion to Christ in helping alcoholics get well.
In short, the original A.A. program in Akron encompassed the very things that Bill and Bob had learned and been exposed to in Vermont. These included conversions, salvation, Bible study, revivals, evangelism, Quiet Time, Christian fellowship, witnessing by lay evangelists, and the importance of prayer. But these are not the historical facts that are found or documented in Akron today. They are in St. Johnsbury. And, for Christians and for those concerned with real A.A. historical origins and practices, Vermont is the place to look.
The Dr. Bob Core Library in St. Johnsbury fits the bill. Two major sources of this history are our recent books Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous and The Conversion of Bill W. See www.dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml and www.dickb.com/conversion.shtml.
Gloria Deo
Dick B.
Where It Is
North Congregational Church (UCC) of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, is presently located on Main Street in the charming village of St. Johnsbury. This was the family church regularly attended by Dr. Robert H. Smith (A.A.’s Dr. Bob) and by all the Smith family during Bob’s days as a youngster. Three, and sometimes four, times a week. Judge Walter P. Smith and Susan H. Smith (Bob’s parents) were there. Young Bob was there until his graduation from St. Johnsbury Academy. His foster sister Amanda Northrup was there. And his grandmother was there. The church archives and other records show the extensive involvement of the Smiths. The Judge as a deacon, Sunday school superintendent, Sunday school teacher, and Executive Committee member. Mrs. Walter Smith as the person in charge of the church school, a Sunday school superintendant and teacher, church historian, leader of women’s groups, and choir member. Bob attended all three Sunday services and often the Wednesday evening prayer meeting. He was active in the Young People’s Christian Endeavor Society of the Church.
The present church has made a room available just right of the church entrance where the Dr. Bob Core Library is set out on shelves especially prepared for that purpose.
What is in the Library
Lots more to come. And many of the additional items will make some really new Dr. Bob treasures available. These are presently awaiting pick-up on Maui and some conservation proceedings.
Already, there are some 2000 manuscripts, papers, and pamphlets from the church archives, from St. Johnsbury Academy, from the local newspaper, from the town library (the Athenaeum), and from Christian Endeavor that tell about the village, the church, the important families, the Smiths, the YMCA, the town history, the town directories, the Sunday school teachings, the church Year Books, the sermons, and the activities of Judge and Mrs. Smith.
Also, a large number of relevant A.A. books are there. A complete set of the Dick B. 29 Volume Christian Recovery Reference Set. Many biographies, Vermont historical books, A.A. history books and articles, and complimentary copies of Dick B.’s books—Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous and Dr. Bob and His Library, 3rd ed. A large collection of United Christian Endeavor Society books is there. Books on Vermont Men. Books on North Congregational Church. Books on the YMCA. Books on the Great Awakening of 1875. And books about New England Congregationalism, its St. Johnsbury work, and the leadership of the famous Fairbanks families in its churches, missionary work, and cooperation with the YMCA.
Why It Was Recently Established
Dr. Bob was called the “Prince of all Twelfth-steppers.” His wife Anne Ripley Smith was called the “Mother of A.A.” and a founder of Akron Number One. Yet the only significant literature about either one of them is to be found in Dick B.’s books—and not in Akron. This despite the fact that Akron was the founding place of A.A.—at the Smith Home on 855 Ardmore Avenue.
Early A.A. was focused on the Bible. God, His Son Jesus Christ. The Bible played a major role in the origins, founding, program, and successes of A.A. And yet the real origin of these foci was Vermont—not Ohio. Both Bill and Bob grew up in Vermont. Both Bill and Bob attended Congregational Churches as youngsters in Vermont. Their parents and grandparents attended these Vermont churches. Both Bill and Bob studied the Bible in Vermont. Both Bill and Bob attended Vermont Academies (Burr and Burton, and St. Johnsbury, respectively) where there was required daily chapel, weekly church attendance, Bible study, and extensive YMCA involvement. Moreover, both cofounders attended Sunday schools and churches where becoming children of God through coming to Jesus Christ, and study of the Bible were greatly emphasized. Both men were exposed to the effect of conversion to Christ in helping alcoholics get well.
In short, the original A.A. program in Akron encompassed the very things that Bill and Bob had learned and been exposed to in Vermont. These included conversions, salvation, Bible study, revivals, evangelism, Quiet Time, Christian fellowship, witnessing by lay evangelists, and the importance of prayer. But these are not the historical facts that are found or documented in Akron today. They are in St. Johnsbury. And, for Christians and for those concerned with real A.A. historical origins and practices, Vermont is the place to look.
The Dr. Bob Core Library in St. Johnsbury fits the bill. Two major sources of this history are our recent books Dr. Bob of Alcoholics Anonymous and The Conversion of Bill W. See www.dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml and www.dickb.com/conversion.shtml.
Gloria Deo
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Psalm 115 - Almighty God, Idols, and Man-created "gods"
What God Revealed in His Word
about
Idols and Man-created “gods”
Dick B.
Psalm 115
Early AAs read and studied the King James Version of the Holy Bible. And here is what Psalm 115 declares about the subject of false idols and “gods” fashioned by unbelieving men:
“NOT unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth’s sake.
Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not.
They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.
They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.
O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.
He will bless them that fear the LORD small and great.
The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children.
Ye are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth.
The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD”S; but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
The dead praise not the LORD, neither they that go down into silence.
But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.”
A Word to the Children of God
It was Bill Wilson who suggested that God either is, or He isn’t. It was Bill Wilson who called God the Creator, Maker, Father, and Father of light [in James 1:17, God is called “the Father of lights:]. It was Bill Wilson who said that the Lord had cured him of his “terrible disease.” And it was Dr. Bob who wrote: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!”
There are those who have taken the obscure phrase “higher power” and “made” it into a god of their own conception—a light bulb, a door knob, a chair, Something, Somebody, and the Great Pumpkin, among other absurd names. But the lesson of Psalm 115 is unambiguous. Man has fashioned his own conception of some idol as a god for centuries. But the idols can’t walk, talk, hear, speak, touch, or see. And, to pray to such is what Rev. Sam Shoemaker boldly told AAs was simply a “half-baked prayer.”
It is one thing to refuse to believe in Almighty God. It is another thing entirely to put your trust in a doorknob or light bulb and expect any result from praying to such a man-made object. The choice that early AAs made involved these things: (1) Belief in God. (2) Becoming one of His children through the Lord Jesus Christ. (3) Obeying Him. (4) Learning about Him from the Bible. (5) Praying to Him and seeking His guidance. (6) Being cured of their malady through reliance upon Him. (7) Passing along the glad tidings to others who hadn’t believed, hadn’t gotten well, and hadn’t known how to be delivered from the power of darkness.
Deliverance came from God—not from illuminating one’s life by turning to or on a light bulb.
about
Idols and Man-created “gods”
Dick B.
Psalm 115
Early AAs read and studied the King James Version of the Holy Bible. And here is what Psalm 115 declares about the subject of false idols and “gods” fashioned by unbelieving men:
“NOT unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth’s sake.
Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not.
They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.
They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.
O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.
He will bless them that fear the LORD small and great.
The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children.
Ye are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth.
The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD”S; but the earth hath he given to the children of men.
The dead praise not the LORD, neither they that go down into silence.
But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.”
A Word to the Children of God
It was Bill Wilson who suggested that God either is, or He isn’t. It was Bill Wilson who called God the Creator, Maker, Father, and Father of light [in James 1:17, God is called “the Father of lights:]. It was Bill Wilson who said that the Lord had cured him of his “terrible disease.” And it was Dr. Bob who wrote: “Your Heavenly Father will never let you down!”
There are those who have taken the obscure phrase “higher power” and “made” it into a god of their own conception—a light bulb, a door knob, a chair, Something, Somebody, and the Great Pumpkin, among other absurd names. But the lesson of Psalm 115 is unambiguous. Man has fashioned his own conception of some idol as a god for centuries. But the idols can’t walk, talk, hear, speak, touch, or see. And, to pray to such is what Rev. Sam Shoemaker boldly told AAs was simply a “half-baked prayer.”
It is one thing to refuse to believe in Almighty God. It is another thing entirely to put your trust in a doorknob or light bulb and expect any result from praying to such a man-made object. The choice that early AAs made involved these things: (1) Belief in God. (2) Becoming one of His children through the Lord Jesus Christ. (3) Obeying Him. (4) Learning about Him from the Bible. (5) Praying to Him and seeking His guidance. (6) Being cured of their malady through reliance upon Him. (7) Passing along the glad tidings to others who hadn’t believed, hadn’t gotten well, and hadn’t known how to be delivered from the power of darkness.
Deliverance came from God—not from illuminating one’s life by turning to or on a light bulb.
Friday, April 16, 2010
International Christian Recovery Coalition Leadership
International Christian Recovery Coalition
Leadership
Karen A. Plavan, Ph.D., of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania--Chairperson
Director, The Oasis Recovery Center of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, PA:
http://oasisrecoverycenter.org/
Assistant Professor, Counselor Education—Chemical Dependency, The Pennsylvania State University;
Teacher, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Robert Turner, M.D., MSCR, of Charleston, South Carolina-Co-Chairperson
Medical Director of the MUSC Medical Neurophysiology Laboratory;
Associate Professor in the departments of Neurosciences, Pediatrics, and Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, Epidemiology
http://www.muschealth.com/neurosciences/turner.htm
The Rev. Dr. Charles Puskas of Lino Lakes, Minnesota--Co-Chairperson
Former Senior Reference Editor at United Methodist Publishing House
Former Academic Editor, Fortress Press at Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Biblical scholar:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/charles-puskas/10/979/818
Author (with David Crump), An Introduction to the Gospels and Acts (2008)
Dick B., of Kihei, Maui, Hawaii—(Doctor of Jurisprudence) Executive Director
Writer, historian, retired attorney, Bible study, and active, recovered AA
Author of 39 published titles on the history and Bible roots of early A.A.:
www.DickB.com
Advisory Counselors
Pastor Jim Gaffney of New York
Pharmacist
Pastoral Counselor
Former Recovery Pastor, Pastor of Mariners Care, Mariners Church, Irvine, California
Ordained International Pastor of Addictions, Dunklin Memorial Ministry
Bachelor of Science, Pharmaceutical Sciences, St. John’s University; Hospital Pharmacist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimgaffney
Bonnie Lepper, Managing Director, Wilson House, East Dorset, Vermont
Birthplace and boyhood home of Bill Wilson, Cofounder of A.A.
Home of Griffith Library, house where Bill Wilson was raised by Grandfather Griffith
Jean LaCour, Ph.D., CAPP, of Orlando, Florida
President and Cofounder of the NET Training Institute, Inc. (http://netinstitute.org/index.htm)
President of the International Substance Abuse and Addiction Coalition (ISAAC)
Member of “Partners for Recovery,” a steering committee for the Substance Abuse MentalHealth Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Former Faith Coordinator for Florida’s Access to Recovery (ATR) program
Charles P. Mau, MRE, of Manhattan Beach, California
President of Wyoming Pacific Oil Company;
Former high school teacher and coach in Los Angeles County schools
Scott Craven of Honolulu, Hawaii
Businessman;
Lay leader of Men’s Step Study Groups on Oahu, Hawaii
Robert T. Tucker, Ph.D. , D. Min, CDAAC, Huntington Beach, California
Registered Addiction Specialist
President/CEO of New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc.
President, Association of Christian Drug and Alcohol Counselors Institute
Mark Galligan of Collingwood, Ontario, Canada
Businessman;
Lay leader of “Akronites,” a community of recovery outreach fellowships; frequent “circuit” speaker
Rev. Michael Liimatta of Kansas City, Missouri
Director of City Vision College:
http://www.cityvision.edu/cms/cv/michael-liimatta-biography
Former Director of Education for 17 years of Association of Gospel Rescue Missions;
Founder and former director for 10 years of New Creation Center, a Christ-centered 12-Step treatment program in Michigan
David Powers of San Diego, California
Leader of Rock Recovery Ministry, Soledad House, ABC Houses
Rock Church, San Diego, California: http://www.rockrecovery.org/
Steve Foreman of Winter Park, Florida
Businessman
Leader of Clarence Snyder Retreats and www.cametobelieve.org
Co-author of Our Legacy to the Faith Community
Vivian Eisenecher of San Diego, California
Author, Recovering Me, Discovering Joy: Uplifting Wisdom for Everyday Greatness: http://recoveringme.com/in/
Monty Meyer of Albany, Oregon
Owner and producer of “Take 12 Recovery Radio”: http://take12radio.com/
Walter Santos of Santos Ministries, Carlsbad, California
Nationally-known percussionist and singer-entertainer:
www.SantosMinistries.org
Volunteer at Calvary Ranch, San Diego, California
Larry Webb of Rancho Santa Margarita, California
Realtor;
Lay leader of Big Book/Bible study groups
John Sorrells of Norco, California
Airline industry;
Lay leader of James Club of Norco—a Big Book-Twelve Step—Bible study recovery group
Robert (“Bobby”) Nicholl of Lake Forest, California
Director of Admissions and Interventions, Celebrate a New Life at Hope by the Sea,
San Juan Capistrano, Calif.:
www.celebratedrugrehab.com/
Certified National Drug & Alcohol Interventionist;
Registered Addiction Specialist;
Development and operation of several residential treatment centers
Richard Skolnik of Nesconset, New York
A.A. historian
Intern, Addiction counseling
Darvin Smith, M.D. of Boulder, Colorado
Addictionologist
Co-Director, YWAM Addictive Behavior School, Kona, Hawaii
Past President, International Substance Abuse and Alcoholism Coalition
Michael P. Belzman, Ph.D., CDAAC, of Redlands, California
Chief Executive Officer, Senior Pastor
Association of Christian Alcohol & Drug Counselors Institute
Registered Addiction Specialist
Jeff MacLeod, of Whittier, California
Executive Director, Overcomers Outreach, Inc.
Leadership
Karen A. Plavan, Ph.D., of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania--Chairperson
Director, The Oasis Recovery Center of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, PA:
http://oasisrecoverycenter.org/
Assistant Professor, Counselor Education—Chemical Dependency, The Pennsylvania State University;
Teacher, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Robert Turner, M.D., MSCR, of Charleston, South Carolina-Co-Chairperson
Medical Director of the MUSC Medical Neurophysiology Laboratory;
Associate Professor in the departments of Neurosciences, Pediatrics, and Biostatistics, Bioinformatics, Epidemiology
http://www.muschealth.com/neurosciences/turner.htm
The Rev. Dr. Charles Puskas of Lino Lakes, Minnesota--Co-Chairperson
Former Senior Reference Editor at United Methodist Publishing House
Former Academic Editor, Fortress Press at Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Biblical scholar:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/charles-puskas/10/979/818
Author (with David Crump), An Introduction to the Gospels and Acts (2008)
Dick B., of Kihei, Maui, Hawaii—(Doctor of Jurisprudence) Executive Director
Writer, historian, retired attorney, Bible study, and active, recovered AA
Author of 39 published titles on the history and Bible roots of early A.A.:
www.DickB.com
Advisory Counselors
Pastor Jim Gaffney of New York
Pharmacist
Pastoral Counselor
Former Recovery Pastor, Pastor of Mariners Care, Mariners Church, Irvine, California
Ordained International Pastor of Addictions, Dunklin Memorial Ministry
Bachelor of Science, Pharmaceutical Sciences, St. John’s University; Hospital Pharmacist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimgaffney
Bonnie Lepper, Managing Director, Wilson House, East Dorset, Vermont
Birthplace and boyhood home of Bill Wilson, Cofounder of A.A.
Home of Griffith Library, house where Bill Wilson was raised by Grandfather Griffith
Jean LaCour, Ph.D., CAPP, of Orlando, Florida
President and Cofounder of the NET Training Institute, Inc. (http://netinstitute.org/index.htm)
President of the International Substance Abuse and Addiction Coalition (ISAAC)
Member of “Partners for Recovery,” a steering committee for the Substance Abuse MentalHealth Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Former Faith Coordinator for Florida’s Access to Recovery (ATR) program
Charles P. Mau, MRE, of Manhattan Beach, California
President of Wyoming Pacific Oil Company;
Former high school teacher and coach in Los Angeles County schools
Scott Craven of Honolulu, Hawaii
Businessman;
Lay leader of Men’s Step Study Groups on Oahu, Hawaii
Robert T. Tucker, Ph.D. , D. Min, CDAAC, Huntington Beach, California
Registered Addiction Specialist
President/CEO of New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc.
President, Association of Christian Drug and Alcohol Counselors Institute
Mark Galligan of Collingwood, Ontario, Canada
Businessman;
Lay leader of “Akronites,” a community of recovery outreach fellowships; frequent “circuit” speaker
Rev. Michael Liimatta of Kansas City, Missouri
Director of City Vision College:
http://www.cityvision.edu/cms/cv/michael-liimatta-biography
Former Director of Education for 17 years of Association of Gospel Rescue Missions;
Founder and former director for 10 years of New Creation Center, a Christ-centered 12-Step treatment program in Michigan
David Powers of San Diego, California
Leader of Rock Recovery Ministry, Soledad House, ABC Houses
Rock Church, San Diego, California: http://www.rockrecovery.org/
Steve Foreman of Winter Park, Florida
Businessman
Leader of Clarence Snyder Retreats and www.cametobelieve.org
Co-author of Our Legacy to the Faith Community
Vivian Eisenecher of San Diego, California
Author, Recovering Me, Discovering Joy: Uplifting Wisdom for Everyday Greatness: http://recoveringme.com/in/
Monty Meyer of Albany, Oregon
Owner and producer of “Take 12 Recovery Radio”: http://take12radio.com/
Walter Santos of Santos Ministries, Carlsbad, California
Nationally-known percussionist and singer-entertainer:
www.SantosMinistries.org
Volunteer at Calvary Ranch, San Diego, California
Larry Webb of Rancho Santa Margarita, California
Realtor;
Lay leader of Big Book/Bible study groups
John Sorrells of Norco, California
Airline industry;
Lay leader of James Club of Norco—a Big Book-Twelve Step—Bible study recovery group
Robert (“Bobby”) Nicholl of Lake Forest, California
Director of Admissions and Interventions, Celebrate a New Life at Hope by the Sea,
San Juan Capistrano, Calif.:
www.celebratedrugrehab.com/
Certified National Drug & Alcohol Interventionist;
Registered Addiction Specialist;
Development and operation of several residential treatment centers
Richard Skolnik of Nesconset, New York
A.A. historian
Intern, Addiction counseling
Darvin Smith, M.D. of Boulder, Colorado
Addictionologist
Co-Director, YWAM Addictive Behavior School, Kona, Hawaii
Past President, International Substance Abuse and Alcoholism Coalition
Michael P. Belzman, Ph.D., CDAAC, of Redlands, California
Chief Executive Officer, Senior Pastor
Association of Christian Alcohol & Drug Counselors Institute
Registered Addiction Specialist
Jeff MacLeod, of Whittier, California
Executive Director, Overcomers Outreach, Inc.
International Christian Recovery Coalition Participants
International Christian Recovery Coalition Participants through April 1, 2010
A.A. History Library, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (Dr. Bob’s Church), Akron, Ohio
“ADDORATION” Ministries. Lester Hemphill, founder, Whiting.
Ahron and Val Valverde, Higher Ground Ministry, Faith Community Church, Whittier, California
Aiea Iuli, HCPS, Hawaii Certified Peer Specialist, Oahu, Hawaii
“Akronites,” led by Mark Galligan, Collingwood, Ontario, Canada
Alan McCann, Retired law enforcement officer, Clayton, California
Alcoholics for Christ San Diego, Gary S., Escondido, California
Alcoholics Victorious, Steve Rutz, Palm Harbor, Florida
Alfonso Montiel, Bible roots student, San Jose, California
“Alive Again,” Russell Spatz, attorney, Miami, Florida
Amy Rice, Saved by Grace, Ocean City, Maryland
Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission of Los Angeles
Angela Eren Capp, Venice, California
Anne Laidlaw, BA psychology, Shiloh Ministries, Member, New Zealand Assn of Counselors, Author, Kick Addiction, Epsom, Auckland, New Zealand
Anonymous attorney, Clark County, Nevada
Association of Christian Alcohol & Drug and Counselors (ACADC)
Institute Michael P. Belzman, Ph.D., CEO, Senior Pastor, Redlands,
California
Austin Recovery Ministries, Fr. Bill Wigmore, Chief Executive Officer, Austin, Texas
Bill Boyles, President, Won Way Out, Wyoming, Delaware
Billie and Nick Wahrer, Euless, Texas
Bill Moffitt, retired businessman, Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker enthusiast, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Bill & Darla Van Stry, Came to Believe Retreats, Jamestown, New York
Blanton D. Owens, attorney, World Wide History Fellowship, Jackson, Georgia
Bob Bowling, Bible Ministry, Lakeside, California
Bob Hawkins, Deer Grove, Illinois
Bob Noonan, Ph.D., Christian Counselor, Steppin’ Out, Orange, California
Bobby Gee, Actor, Sherman Oaks, California
Bobby Rodgers, BA, Case Manager, Care Hawaii, Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii
Bob J., philanthropist, recovered AA, Maui, Hawaii
Bonnie Lepper, Managing Director (The Wilson House), East Dorset, Vermont
Brian Hughes, Recovery Bible Study, Florida
Brough Stewart, Calvary Addiction Treatment Center, Phoenix, Arizona
Calvary Ranch, Pastor Tom and Paulette McAloon, Lakeside, California
Came to Believe Retreats, Steve Foreman, Chief Shepherd, Winter Park, Florida
Cameron Freeman, World Wide History Fellowship, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Care at Capo Beach, Jens Christy, Associate Pastor/Recovery, Capistrano Beach, California
Cary E. Griggs, Phenix City, Alabama
Cathy Lindner, Medford, Oregon
Celebrate a New Life at Hope by the Sea, San Juan Capistrano, California
Chaplain Jim Gantner, Atlantic City Rescue Mission, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Charles Gregory Aker, Worldwide History Fellowship, Rogers, Arkansas
Charles Johnson, “the homeless poet info,” Wilmington, Delaware
Charles and Judy Darling, Jamestown, New York
Charles P. Mau, M.R.E., President, Wyoming Pacific Oil Co., Retired coach and teacher, Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Charles Puskas, Ph.D., Author and Bible scholar, Lino Lakes, Minnesota
Cheryl Wilson, Women’s prayer organization, Cheswick, Pennsylvania
Chris Raymer, Recovery Services Director, La Hacienda, Hunt, Texas
Christians in Recovery, Executive Director, Tequesta, Florida
Christine Mitchell, British Columbia, Canada
Cindy Miller, Bradenton, Florida
CityTeam, Pat Robertson, President and Servant, San Jose, California
Cliff McIntyre, Texarkana, Texas
“Coast to Coast benefit for Homeless and Christian Recovery,” Save Life, Jason Day, Jacksonville Beach, Florida
Cornerstone Fellowship Church, Turning Point Fellowship, Livermore, California
Craig Gaylord, Businessman, Sonoma Tech, Rohnert Park, California
Dale Marsh, Church of the Nazarene, Oroville, California
Dan Hosch, Licensed chemical dependency counselor, radio show, Tyler, Texas
Danny Podesta, realtor, Reno, Nevada
Danny Whitmore, Film Industry Lighting Professional, Palmdale, California
Darvin Smith, M.D., Addiction Medicine, Co-director, Addictive Behavior Ministries of Youth With A Mission, Past President of International Substance Abuse and Addiction Coalition, Boulder, Colorado
David Boscow, Good Book/Big Book Study, Sacramento, California
David Powers, Rock Recovery Ministries, San Diego, California
David Roman, Restaurant Proprietor, Sunset Beach, California
David Shaw, Ministry Activist, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
David Stupples, Staffordshire, England
Dick B., Writer, Historian, Retired attorney, Bible student, Recovered AA, CDAAC
“Drew” Eisenhauer, World Wide History Fellowship, Newmanstown, Pennsylvania
Daxton and wife Jessica Lyon, Believer, Marine Veteran, engineering student, Oahu, Hawaii
Dominic D., Turning Point Fellowship, Pleasanton, California
Don Cobb, Redwood Gospel Mission, Santa Rosa, California
Don McCoy, Church of the Nazarene, Lakeside, California
Don Preslik, Kingston, North Carolina
Dr. and Mrs. Charles M. Rice, Boise, Idaho
Dr. Bob Core Library, North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury, Vermont
“Eamon,” Overcomers Outreach, United Kingdom
Edward Loh, Boston, Massachusetts
Eleeo Chapel Ministries, Pastor Bill Elam, St. Charles, Illinois
Ernie and Carmine Brown, James Club, Mexico, New York
Focused and Free Recovery & Focused and Free Community, Karl
Rhoads, Founder, Denver/Aurora, Colorado
Footprints, Inc./Alcoholics Victorious, Wayne White, Executive Director,
Kansas City, Missouri
Fran Bracey, Lighthouse Recovery Ministries—The Crossing—
Randy Moraitis, RecoveryPastor, Costa Mesa, California
Frank Braggiotti, businessman, Van Nuys, California
Full Circle Ministry, Rev. Thomas Deen, D.D., Wilmington, North Carolina
Gary Agnew M.S., Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor; retired from VA Hospital Recovery Center, Columbia, Connecticut.
Gene Haag, Medford, Oregon
Gene McLendon, Pastor, Church of the Nazarene, Executive Director,
Hope Mission Christian Ministries; Chaplain, Christian Motorcyclist
Association, Chapter 951
Geoff Summers, NSW, Australia
George Allen, Hamer, South Carolina
Gerry J., Liverpool, United Kingdom
Grace Way, Albany, Georgia
Greg Sipe, Program Director, Lifelines, The Crossing Church - Costa Mesa, California
MissionLawrence.org – Saint Andrew's Church, Rev. Chuck Huckaby, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee
Higher Ground, Faith Community Church, Ahron and Valerie Valverde,
Whittier, California
His Place Church, Pastor Joe Furey, Huntington Beach, California
House of Hope, San Pedro, California
Howard Ehrenshaft, Member, Episcopal Church, resides Northport, New York
Jacob Schwartz, businessman, San Diego, California
Jamie Maier, CEO, Recovery Worx, Inc., Calabassas, California
James Christie, Norton, Ohio
James Club, Bob Dayton, Lenoir City, Tennessee
James Club, Joey Delgado, leader, San Dimas, California
James Club, John Sorrells, leader, Norco, California
James Club, Mike Romano, leader, Long Island, New York
James Club, Tony Morales, Glendora, California
James Club, Rich Clyburn, Glendora, California
James Club, Wally Camp, Falmouth, Maine
James Gang, Pleasant Valley Church, Groton, Connecticut
James Law, San Antonio, Texas
James Schauer, Orr, Minnesota
Jane Schneider, Housewife, Bonney Lake, Washington
Jay Lawyer, Middleburgh, New York
Jeff Foley, MS, retired policeman, St. Johnsbury, Vermont
Jens Christy, Associate Pastor/Recovery, Care @ Capo Beach, Capistrano
Beach, California
Jim F., Author, Spiritum Contra Spiritus: One Man’s Journey Toward Recovery and Spiritual
Growth, Albany, Georgia
Jim Florance, Businessman, Orange, California
Jim Spencer, Ottawa, Canada
Jim Tellman, Warren, Pennsylvania
Joanne Barnett, Counselor, Volunteer, St. Johnsbury, Vermont
Joe Rizzo, Christian AA, Indiana
Joel H. Wasti, Oro Valley, Arizona
John and Carol Zamrok, Morristown, New Jersey
John Barton, South Orange, New Jersey
John Olson, Maple Valley, Washington
John Otis, Hereford, Arizona
John V. Holcomb, Birmingham, Alabama.
John Todd, Mexico
Joseph N. Petrocelli, World Wide History Fellowship, Bangor, Maine
Judie McCullough, Kihei, Hawaii
Julie, New-Life-in-Recovery.com, Dallas, Texas
Kai Rowland, Municipal Worker, Honolulu, Hawaii
Karen Plavan, Ph.D., Professor at University of Pennsylvania; Adjunct Professor at Pittsburgh
Theological Seminary; Co-Chair of Oasis Recovery Center Board of Directors, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
Karl L Kramer, Brentwood, California
Kathy Williamson, The Addictions Coach, Wisdom For Living Ministries, Inc. Prescott, Arizona
Kay Adams-Bernstein, Believers Fellowship, Valencia, California
Keith Walters, Y2 Charities, Auburn, California
Kenneth W. Fluker, Webb, Alabama
Ken W. Knauf, Naples, Florida
Kevin Baldridge, Jeweler, Point Richmond, California
KJELL-OVE KARLSEN [kove-kar@online.no], Kjerringov, Norway
Laerte Aguiar, Brazil
Larry D. Webb, Men’s Big Book Good Book Group, Laguna Beach,
California
Lee Hummel, Christian Counselor, Townsend, Delaware
Lee Vail, Chesapeake, Virginia
Leigh Case, recovered believer, Kaneohe, Hawaii
Leon Watson, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Hawaii Pacific University,
Oahu, Hawaii
Lifelines Recovery Ministry, Pastor Randy Moraitis --The Crossing—
Costa Mesa, California
Lila Harris, Matamoras, Pennsylvania
Lino Feliciano, Bible Study Notes, Smithburg, Maryland
Liz Himes Administrative Assistant,Service Support,Tony Hinton AVP
HCA Information Technology & Services, New York, New York
Lola Czupka, Gainsville, Florida
Louis Forline
M. Gusman, Ranch Santa Margarita, California
Manna House Ministries, Rev. James Moody, Jamestown, Tennessee
Mario Zamorano, World Wide History Fellowship, Rowland Heights,
California
Mary Hill, History Enthusiast, Ashland, Massachusetts
Mary Margaret Johnson, Leader, Study Group, Chicago, Illinois
Mark W. Tolomei, Santa Rosa, California
Mel Schulstad, Col., U.S.A.F. (Ret.) CCD (NCAC II) Counselor;
Cofounder and past president NAADAC; Co-author of Beyond the
Influence, Redmond, Washington
Men’s Step Groups, Scott Craven, Honolulu, Hawaii
Michael and Bea Edwards, Prescott, Arizona
Michael Belzman, Ph.D., D. Min., Senior Pastor, CEO, ACADC Institute, Redlands, California
Michael Elliott, Sound View Realty, New York, New York
Michael Fiedler, Licensed Minister, FGEA, Starlight Treatment Center Chapel, Center Point,
Texas
Michael L. Adams, B.S., Systems Analyst, Solutions Analyst, Newport Beach, California
Michael Bussard, Franklin, Kentucky
Michael Dye, CADC, NCAC II, The Genesis Process for Relapse Prevention. Auburn, California
Michael Elliott, Port Jefferson, New York
Michael Hornscuch., Colorado Springs, Colorado
Michael McKinney, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Michael Moore, Olympic Valley, California
Michele Grace, Cosmetologist, Sacramento, California
Mike Lewandowski, Lamb of God Ministries, Okeechobee, Florida
Mike Peacock, Vet2Vet peer facilitated program, Aiea, Hawaii
Mike Romano, World Wide Recovery Fellowship Study Group, Farmingville, New York
Monty Meyer, Take 12 Radio, Albany, Oregon
Neal Britner, World Wide History Fellowship, Clay, New York
Net Training Institute, Jean LaCour, Ph.D., President, Orlando, Florida
New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc., Robert T. Tucker, Ph.D., D.Min.,
Registered Addiction Specialist, President/CEO; President. ACADC
Institute, Huntington Beach, California
New Life University of Santa Rosa, California.
Nick and Billie Wahrer, World Wide History Fellowship, Euless,Texas
Norman Finlayson, Argyll, Scotland
Oasis Center, Karen A. Plavan, Ph.D., Director, University of
Pennsylvania Professor, Adjunct Professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
Operation Integrity, David Zailer, Executive Director, Monarch Beach,
California
Overcomers Outreach, Inc., Jeff MacLeod, Executive Director, Whittier,
California
Pam G., Carolina Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Associates of Anderson
Pastor Bill Mastro, Ebenezer Congregational Church, Lodi, California
Pastor Dan Renfro, JCmyHP.org Training - Christian: Training Coaching Counseling in Dayton, Ohio
Pastor Don Fugate, Yuma, Arizona
Pastor Ed Gazman, Maui, Hawaii
Pastor Jim Gaffney, Pastoral Counselor and Consultant; Pharmacist; Former Recovery
Pastor, Mariners Church in Irvine, Santa Ana, California
Pastor Joe Furey, His Place Church, Huntington Beach, California
Pat Robertson, Founder and Servant, CityTeam, San Jose, California
Patience and Ron Boersma, World Wide History Fellowship, Oahu,
Hawaii
Paul and Eileen Doyle, Buckfast Abbey, Plymouth, United Kingdom
Paul Doelger, Wading River, New York
Paul Popiel, heavy equipment operator, Concord, California
Paul Rakowicz, Paul's Primers Biblevision. Highland, Michigan
Paul Rich, Birmingham, Alabama
Pauline Bartosch, Cofounder of Overcomers Outreach, Inc., Whittier,
California
Peggy Feeley, Sheboygan, Michigan
Pete Vorhees, Business executive, San Rafael, California
Peter Lopez, World Wide History Fellowship, Sacramento, California
Philippe V., Belgium
Plymouth Congregational Church, San Diego, California
Puttin Sober, Bridging the Gap Ministries, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Randy Rivers, FRANKLIN'S FARM RECOVERY CENTER Randy Rivers is still....."AMAZED
BY GOD'S GRACE" Hampton/Lovejoy, Georgia
Ray G., Archivist (ret.), Dr. Bob’s Home of Akron, Ohio; Seminole,
Florida and Newton Falls, Ohio
Recovery Bible Studies, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Recovery in Christ Ministries, Oldsmar, Florida
Rev. Andrew Dahlburg, St. Andrews Church, Local Recovery
Coordinator, Honolulu, Hawaii
Rev. Dr. Stephen J. Murray, DD, MCRC, NICD Director, California
Rev. Ernest E. Gavin, Spirit of Life Recovery Ministries, Bismarck,
Missouri
Rev. Glenn C. Miller, C.P.A.C., Solid Rock Christian Recovery Center,
St. Petersburg, Florida
Rev. Ken Burns, God’s Way Ministry, Inc., a Christian Church, Kihei,
Hawaii
Rev. Matthew C. Weyuker, DBC, MBA, MA, RAS, ICADC, CADC II,
Gridley, California
Rev. Michael Liimatta, fund-raising specialist, former Education Director,
Alcoholics Victorious, Kansas City, Missouri
Rev. Robert H. Wheeler, Minister, Counselor and Friend, Winter Park,
Florida
Rev. Thecla St. Romain, Secretary, Community Care Ministry, The
Lafayette Salvation Army, Lafayette, Louisiana
Rex Perkinson, Okeechobee, Florida
Ricardo Campos, Christian servant, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Richard Anthony Frye, Supervisor of grocery stories, professional
photographer, San Anselmo, California
Richard Lee Hatfield, Entrepreneur, Woodside, California
Richard Skolnik, Recovery historian and believer, Nesconset, New York
Rick Nicely, Spokane, Washington
Robert Dayton, A.A. History and Bible Study, Lenoir City, Tennessee
Robert Tucker, Ph.D., D. Min, New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc.,
Huntington Beach, California
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
Rock Recovery; Soledad House; and ABC Sober Living, David Powers,
Rock Church, San Diego, California
Roger Mc Diarmid, His Place Christian Fellowship, Huntington Beach,
California
Romans 7 Ministries, John G., Douglasville, Georgia
Russell A. Spatz, attorney, Alive Again, Miami, Florida
Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Archives Room, Dr. Karen Plavan, Contact
Person, Calvary Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Sandra K. Elder, Analyst, U.S. Treasury Department, Belpre, Ohio
Santos Ministries, Walter Santos, Percussionist, Singer, Carlsbad,
California
Scott Denu. Jamesville, Wisconsin
Serenity Group, Dale Marsh, Lay Pastor of Recovery Ministries,
Oroville Church of the Nazarene, Oroville, California
Shane Mendez, Police officer, believer, Crookston, Minnesota
Shane Wesley Willimon, Big Book Awakening, Austin, Texas
Shannon McCoy, D.Min, CDAAC, Redlands, California
Shawn Doniger, The James Gang, Groton, Connecticut
Spiritual Retreats for AAs and Their Families, the Morfitts, Amery,
Wisconsin
Steppin’ Out, Church of the Open Door, Christian Psychologist Bob
Noonan, Glendora, California
Steven W. Atchley, Newark, Delaware
Steve E: Christian; AA + other 12-Step Fellowships member: Lancashire, England, UK
Take 12 Radio.com, Monty Meyer, Producer, Albany, Oregon
The Big Book Good Book Discussion Group, Chaplain/Pastor Leonard
Grubb, Cleveland, Ohio
The Community of Faith, Christian Support Group Publications, Romans
7 Ministry, Georgia
The Groton James Gang, Shawn Doniger, Pleasant Valley Church,
Groton, Connecticut
The Morfitts, Spiritual Retreats for AAs and Their Families, Amery,
Wisconsin
The Narrow Gate Recovery Group, Aurora, Colorado
The Recovery Bible Study, Brian Hughes, Media Leader, Florida
The Rev. Dr. Jay Geisler, Rector, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church,
McKeesport, Pennsylvania
Tod Cunningham, Marketing Director, Pacific Hills Treatment Centers, San Juan Capistrano,
Calfiornia
Tom Berrigan. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Tom Slater, Newark, Delaware
Torrance Memorial Thelma McMillen Center, Herbert Kaighan, Author,
Torrance, California
Tracy Davis, World Wide History Fellowship, Franklin, Tennessee
Trevor Field, Cowes Phillip Island, Australia
Veronica and Val Robbins, World Wide History Fellowship, Woodland,
California
Vik Maini, Ontario, Canada
Vincent Neville, Prospect, Kentucky
Vivian Eisenecher, Author, Recovering Me, San Diego, California
The Wilson House-The Griffith Library, Bonnie Lepper, Managing
Director, East Dorset, Vermont
Thomas Simone, Project Manager, Mashantucket, Connecticut
Vincentian Concern & Support Services, St. Vincent de Paul, Stephen
Krank, Pittsburgh, California
Vincent Recine, Prodigal Gatherings, Centennial, Colorado
Wade Hess, Training, CityTeam Ministries, San Jose, California
Wallace E. Camp, Jr., Businessman, Falmouth, Maine
Y6 Charities, Keith Walters, Auburn, California
“Yet Not I,” George McLauchlin, M.A., Tampa, Florida
Youth with a Mission (YWAM) Addictive Behavior School, Darvin
Smith, M.D., Co-Director, Addictionologist, Boulder, Colorado
A.A. History Library, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (Dr. Bob’s Church), Akron, Ohio
“ADDORATION” Ministries. Lester Hemphill, founder, Whiting.
Ahron and Val Valverde, Higher Ground Ministry, Faith Community Church, Whittier, California
Aiea Iuli, HCPS, Hawaii Certified Peer Specialist, Oahu, Hawaii
“Akronites,” led by Mark Galligan, Collingwood, Ontario, Canada
Alan McCann, Retired law enforcement officer, Clayton, California
Alcoholics for Christ San Diego, Gary S., Escondido, California
Alcoholics Victorious, Steve Rutz, Palm Harbor, Florida
Alfonso Montiel, Bible roots student, San Jose, California
“Alive Again,” Russell Spatz, attorney, Miami, Florida
Amy Rice, Saved by Grace, Ocean City, Maryland
Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission of Los Angeles
Angela Eren Capp, Venice, California
Anne Laidlaw, BA psychology, Shiloh Ministries, Member, New Zealand Assn of Counselors, Author, Kick Addiction, Epsom, Auckland, New Zealand
Anonymous attorney, Clark County, Nevada
Association of Christian Alcohol & Drug and Counselors (ACADC)
Institute Michael P. Belzman, Ph.D., CEO, Senior Pastor, Redlands,
California
Austin Recovery Ministries, Fr. Bill Wigmore, Chief Executive Officer, Austin, Texas
Bill Boyles, President, Won Way Out, Wyoming, Delaware
Billie and Nick Wahrer, Euless, Texas
Bill Moffitt, retired businessman, Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker enthusiast, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
Bill & Darla Van Stry, Came to Believe Retreats, Jamestown, New York
Blanton D. Owens, attorney, World Wide History Fellowship, Jackson, Georgia
Bob Bowling, Bible Ministry, Lakeside, California
Bob Hawkins, Deer Grove, Illinois
Bob Noonan, Ph.D., Christian Counselor, Steppin’ Out, Orange, California
Bobby Gee, Actor, Sherman Oaks, California
Bobby Rodgers, BA, Case Manager, Care Hawaii, Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii
Bob J., philanthropist, recovered AA, Maui, Hawaii
Bonnie Lepper, Managing Director (The Wilson House), East Dorset, Vermont
Brian Hughes, Recovery Bible Study, Florida
Brough Stewart, Calvary Addiction Treatment Center, Phoenix, Arizona
Calvary Ranch, Pastor Tom and Paulette McAloon, Lakeside, California
Came to Believe Retreats, Steve Foreman, Chief Shepherd, Winter Park, Florida
Cameron Freeman, World Wide History Fellowship, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Care at Capo Beach, Jens Christy, Associate Pastor/Recovery, Capistrano Beach, California
Cary E. Griggs, Phenix City, Alabama
Cathy Lindner, Medford, Oregon
Celebrate a New Life at Hope by the Sea, San Juan Capistrano, California
Chaplain Jim Gantner, Atlantic City Rescue Mission, Atlantic City, New Jersey
Charles Gregory Aker, Worldwide History Fellowship, Rogers, Arkansas
Charles Johnson, “the homeless poet info,” Wilmington, Delaware
Charles and Judy Darling, Jamestown, New York
Charles P. Mau, M.R.E., President, Wyoming Pacific Oil Co., Retired coach and teacher, Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Charles Puskas, Ph.D., Author and Bible scholar, Lino Lakes, Minnesota
Cheryl Wilson, Women’s prayer organization, Cheswick, Pennsylvania
Chris Raymer, Recovery Services Director, La Hacienda, Hunt, Texas
Christians in Recovery, Executive Director, Tequesta, Florida
Christine Mitchell, British Columbia, Canada
Cindy Miller, Bradenton, Florida
CityTeam, Pat Robertson, President and Servant, San Jose, California
Cliff McIntyre, Texarkana, Texas
“Coast to Coast benefit for Homeless and Christian Recovery,” Save Life, Jason Day, Jacksonville Beach, Florida
Cornerstone Fellowship Church, Turning Point Fellowship, Livermore, California
Craig Gaylord, Businessman, Sonoma Tech, Rohnert Park, California
Dale Marsh, Church of the Nazarene, Oroville, California
Dan Hosch, Licensed chemical dependency counselor, radio show, Tyler, Texas
Danny Podesta, realtor, Reno, Nevada
Danny Whitmore, Film Industry Lighting Professional, Palmdale, California
Darvin Smith, M.D., Addiction Medicine, Co-director, Addictive Behavior Ministries of Youth With A Mission, Past President of International Substance Abuse and Addiction Coalition, Boulder, Colorado
David Boscow, Good Book/Big Book Study, Sacramento, California
David Powers, Rock Recovery Ministries, San Diego, California
David Roman, Restaurant Proprietor, Sunset Beach, California
David Shaw, Ministry Activist, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada
David Stupples, Staffordshire, England
Dick B., Writer, Historian, Retired attorney, Bible student, Recovered AA, CDAAC
“Drew” Eisenhauer, World Wide History Fellowship, Newmanstown, Pennsylvania
Daxton and wife Jessica Lyon, Believer, Marine Veteran, engineering student, Oahu, Hawaii
Dominic D., Turning Point Fellowship, Pleasanton, California
Don Cobb, Redwood Gospel Mission, Santa Rosa, California
Don McCoy, Church of the Nazarene, Lakeside, California
Don Preslik, Kingston, North Carolina
Dr. and Mrs. Charles M. Rice, Boise, Idaho
Dr. Bob Core Library, North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury, Vermont
“Eamon,” Overcomers Outreach, United Kingdom
Edward Loh, Boston, Massachusetts
Eleeo Chapel Ministries, Pastor Bill Elam, St. Charles, Illinois
Ernie and Carmine Brown, James Club, Mexico, New York
Focused and Free Recovery & Focused and Free Community, Karl
Rhoads, Founder, Denver/Aurora, Colorado
Footprints, Inc./Alcoholics Victorious, Wayne White, Executive Director,
Kansas City, Missouri
Fran Bracey, Lighthouse Recovery Ministries—The Crossing—
Randy Moraitis, RecoveryPastor, Costa Mesa, California
Frank Braggiotti, businessman, Van Nuys, California
Full Circle Ministry, Rev. Thomas Deen, D.D., Wilmington, North Carolina
Gary Agnew M.S., Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor; retired from VA Hospital Recovery Center, Columbia, Connecticut.
Gene Haag, Medford, Oregon
Gene McLendon, Pastor, Church of the Nazarene, Executive Director,
Hope Mission Christian Ministries; Chaplain, Christian Motorcyclist
Association, Chapter 951
Geoff Summers, NSW, Australia
George Allen, Hamer, South Carolina
Gerry J., Liverpool, United Kingdom
Grace Way, Albany, Georgia
Greg Sipe, Program Director, Lifelines, The Crossing Church - Costa Mesa, California
MissionLawrence.org – Saint Andrew's Church, Rev. Chuck Huckaby, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee
Higher Ground, Faith Community Church, Ahron and Valerie Valverde,
Whittier, California
His Place Church, Pastor Joe Furey, Huntington Beach, California
House of Hope, San Pedro, California
Howard Ehrenshaft, Member, Episcopal Church, resides Northport, New York
Jacob Schwartz, businessman, San Diego, California
Jamie Maier, CEO, Recovery Worx, Inc., Calabassas, California
James Christie, Norton, Ohio
James Club, Bob Dayton, Lenoir City, Tennessee
James Club, Joey Delgado, leader, San Dimas, California
James Club, John Sorrells, leader, Norco, California
James Club, Mike Romano, leader, Long Island, New York
James Club, Tony Morales, Glendora, California
James Club, Rich Clyburn, Glendora, California
James Club, Wally Camp, Falmouth, Maine
James Gang, Pleasant Valley Church, Groton, Connecticut
James Law, San Antonio, Texas
James Schauer, Orr, Minnesota
Jane Schneider, Housewife, Bonney Lake, Washington
Jay Lawyer, Middleburgh, New York
Jeff Foley, MS, retired policeman, St. Johnsbury, Vermont
Jens Christy, Associate Pastor/Recovery, Care @ Capo Beach, Capistrano
Beach, California
Jim F., Author, Spiritum Contra Spiritus: One Man’s Journey Toward Recovery and Spiritual
Growth, Albany, Georgia
Jim Florance, Businessman, Orange, California
Jim Spencer, Ottawa, Canada
Jim Tellman, Warren, Pennsylvania
Joanne Barnett, Counselor, Volunteer, St. Johnsbury, Vermont
Joe Rizzo, Christian AA, Indiana
Joel H. Wasti, Oro Valley, Arizona
John and Carol Zamrok, Morristown, New Jersey
John Barton, South Orange, New Jersey
John Olson, Maple Valley, Washington
John Otis, Hereford, Arizona
John V. Holcomb, Birmingham, Alabama.
John Todd, Mexico
Joseph N. Petrocelli, World Wide History Fellowship, Bangor, Maine
Judie McCullough, Kihei, Hawaii
Julie, New-Life-in-Recovery.com, Dallas, Texas
Kai Rowland, Municipal Worker, Honolulu, Hawaii
Karen Plavan, Ph.D., Professor at University of Pennsylvania; Adjunct Professor at Pittsburgh
Theological Seminary; Co-Chair of Oasis Recovery Center Board of Directors, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
Karl L Kramer, Brentwood, California
Kathy Williamson, The Addictions Coach, Wisdom For Living Ministries, Inc. Prescott, Arizona
Kay Adams-Bernstein, Believers Fellowship, Valencia, California
Keith Walters, Y2 Charities, Auburn, California
Kenneth W. Fluker, Webb, Alabama
Ken W. Knauf, Naples, Florida
Kevin Baldridge, Jeweler, Point Richmond, California
KJELL-OVE KARLSEN [kove-kar@online.no], Kjerringov, Norway
Laerte Aguiar, Brazil
Larry D. Webb, Men’s Big Book Good Book Group, Laguna Beach,
California
Lee Hummel, Christian Counselor, Townsend, Delaware
Lee Vail, Chesapeake, Virginia
Leigh Case, recovered believer, Kaneohe, Hawaii
Leon Watson, Ph.D., Adjunct Professor, Hawaii Pacific University,
Oahu, Hawaii
Lifelines Recovery Ministry, Pastor Randy Moraitis --The Crossing—
Costa Mesa, California
Lila Harris, Matamoras, Pennsylvania
Lino Feliciano, Bible Study Notes, Smithburg, Maryland
Liz Himes Administrative Assistant,Service Support,Tony Hinton AVP
HCA Information Technology & Services, New York, New York
Lola Czupka, Gainsville, Florida
Louis Forline
M. Gusman, Ranch Santa Margarita, California
Manna House Ministries, Rev. James Moody, Jamestown, Tennessee
Mario Zamorano, World Wide History Fellowship, Rowland Heights,
California
Mary Hill, History Enthusiast, Ashland, Massachusetts
Mary Margaret Johnson, Leader, Study Group, Chicago, Illinois
Mark W. Tolomei, Santa Rosa, California
Mel Schulstad, Col., U.S.A.F. (Ret.) CCD (NCAC II) Counselor;
Cofounder and past president NAADAC; Co-author of Beyond the
Influence, Redmond, Washington
Men’s Step Groups, Scott Craven, Honolulu, Hawaii
Michael and Bea Edwards, Prescott, Arizona
Michael Belzman, Ph.D., D. Min., Senior Pastor, CEO, ACADC Institute, Redlands, California
Michael Elliott, Sound View Realty, New York, New York
Michael Fiedler, Licensed Minister, FGEA, Starlight Treatment Center Chapel, Center Point,
Texas
Michael L. Adams, B.S., Systems Analyst, Solutions Analyst, Newport Beach, California
Michael Bussard, Franklin, Kentucky
Michael Dye, CADC, NCAC II, The Genesis Process for Relapse Prevention. Auburn, California
Michael Elliott, Port Jefferson, New York
Michael Hornscuch., Colorado Springs, Colorado
Michael McKinney, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Michael Moore, Olympic Valley, California
Michele Grace, Cosmetologist, Sacramento, California
Mike Lewandowski, Lamb of God Ministries, Okeechobee, Florida
Mike Peacock, Vet2Vet peer facilitated program, Aiea, Hawaii
Mike Romano, World Wide Recovery Fellowship Study Group, Farmingville, New York
Monty Meyer, Take 12 Radio, Albany, Oregon
Neal Britner, World Wide History Fellowship, Clay, New York
Net Training Institute, Jean LaCour, Ph.D., President, Orlando, Florida
New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc., Robert T. Tucker, Ph.D., D.Min.,
Registered Addiction Specialist, President/CEO; President. ACADC
Institute, Huntington Beach, California
New Life University of Santa Rosa, California.
Nick and Billie Wahrer, World Wide History Fellowship, Euless,Texas
Norman Finlayson, Argyll, Scotland
Oasis Center, Karen A. Plavan, Ph.D., Director, University of
Pennsylvania Professor, Adjunct Professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
Operation Integrity, David Zailer, Executive Director, Monarch Beach,
California
Overcomers Outreach, Inc., Jeff MacLeod, Executive Director, Whittier,
California
Pam G., Carolina Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Associates of Anderson
Pastor Bill Mastro, Ebenezer Congregational Church, Lodi, California
Pastor Dan Renfro, JCmyHP.org Training - Christian: Training Coaching Counseling in Dayton, Ohio
Pastor Don Fugate, Yuma, Arizona
Pastor Ed Gazman, Maui, Hawaii
Pastor Jim Gaffney, Pastoral Counselor and Consultant; Pharmacist; Former Recovery
Pastor, Mariners Church in Irvine, Santa Ana, California
Pastor Joe Furey, His Place Church, Huntington Beach, California
Pat Robertson, Founder and Servant, CityTeam, San Jose, California
Patience and Ron Boersma, World Wide History Fellowship, Oahu,
Hawaii
Paul and Eileen Doyle, Buckfast Abbey, Plymouth, United Kingdom
Paul Doelger, Wading River, New York
Paul Popiel, heavy equipment operator, Concord, California
Paul Rakowicz, Paul's Primers Biblevision. Highland, Michigan
Paul Rich, Birmingham, Alabama
Pauline Bartosch, Cofounder of Overcomers Outreach, Inc., Whittier,
California
Peggy Feeley, Sheboygan, Michigan
Pete Vorhees, Business executive, San Rafael, California
Peter Lopez, World Wide History Fellowship, Sacramento, California
Philippe V., Belgium
Plymouth Congregational Church, San Diego, California
Puttin Sober, Bridging the Gap Ministries, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Randy Rivers, FRANKLIN'S FARM RECOVERY CENTER Randy Rivers is still....."AMAZED
BY GOD'S GRACE" Hampton/Lovejoy, Georgia
Ray G., Archivist (ret.), Dr. Bob’s Home of Akron, Ohio; Seminole,
Florida and Newton Falls, Ohio
Recovery Bible Studies, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Recovery in Christ Ministries, Oldsmar, Florida
Rev. Andrew Dahlburg, St. Andrews Church, Local Recovery
Coordinator, Honolulu, Hawaii
Rev. Dr. Stephen J. Murray, DD, MCRC, NICD Director, California
Rev. Ernest E. Gavin, Spirit of Life Recovery Ministries, Bismarck,
Missouri
Rev. Glenn C. Miller, C.P.A.C., Solid Rock Christian Recovery Center,
St. Petersburg, Florida
Rev. Ken Burns, God’s Way Ministry, Inc., a Christian Church, Kihei,
Hawaii
Rev. Matthew C. Weyuker, DBC, MBA, MA, RAS, ICADC, CADC II,
Gridley, California
Rev. Michael Liimatta, fund-raising specialist, former Education Director,
Alcoholics Victorious, Kansas City, Missouri
Rev. Robert H. Wheeler, Minister, Counselor and Friend, Winter Park,
Florida
Rev. Thecla St. Romain, Secretary, Community Care Ministry, The
Lafayette Salvation Army, Lafayette, Louisiana
Rex Perkinson, Okeechobee, Florida
Ricardo Campos, Christian servant, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Richard Anthony Frye, Supervisor of grocery stories, professional
photographer, San Anselmo, California
Richard Lee Hatfield, Entrepreneur, Woodside, California
Richard Skolnik, Recovery historian and believer, Nesconset, New York
Rick Nicely, Spokane, Washington
Robert Dayton, A.A. History and Bible Study, Lenoir City, Tennessee
Robert Tucker, Ph.D., D. Min, New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc.,
Huntington Beach, California
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
Rock Recovery; Soledad House; and ABC Sober Living, David Powers,
Rock Church, San Diego, California
Roger Mc Diarmid, His Place Christian Fellowship, Huntington Beach,
California
Romans 7 Ministries, John G., Douglasville, Georgia
Russell A. Spatz, attorney, Alive Again, Miami, Florida
Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., Archives Room, Dr. Karen Plavan, Contact
Person, Calvary Episcopal Church, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Sandra K. Elder, Analyst, U.S. Treasury Department, Belpre, Ohio
Santos Ministries, Walter Santos, Percussionist, Singer, Carlsbad,
California
Scott Denu. Jamesville, Wisconsin
Serenity Group, Dale Marsh, Lay Pastor of Recovery Ministries,
Oroville Church of the Nazarene, Oroville, California
Shane Mendez, Police officer, believer, Crookston, Minnesota
Shane Wesley Willimon, Big Book Awakening, Austin, Texas
Shannon McCoy, D.Min, CDAAC, Redlands, California
Shawn Doniger, The James Gang, Groton, Connecticut
Spiritual Retreats for AAs and Their Families, the Morfitts, Amery,
Wisconsin
Steppin’ Out, Church of the Open Door, Christian Psychologist Bob
Noonan, Glendora, California
Steven W. Atchley, Newark, Delaware
Steve E: Christian; AA + other 12-Step Fellowships member: Lancashire, England, UK
Take 12 Radio.com, Monty Meyer, Producer, Albany, Oregon
The Big Book Good Book Discussion Group, Chaplain/Pastor Leonard
Grubb, Cleveland, Ohio
The Community of Faith, Christian Support Group Publications, Romans
7 Ministry, Georgia
The Groton James Gang, Shawn Doniger, Pleasant Valley Church,
Groton, Connecticut
The Morfitts, Spiritual Retreats for AAs and Their Families, Amery,
Wisconsin
The Narrow Gate Recovery Group, Aurora, Colorado
The Recovery Bible Study, Brian Hughes, Media Leader, Florida
The Rev. Dr. Jay Geisler, Rector, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church,
McKeesport, Pennsylvania
Tod Cunningham, Marketing Director, Pacific Hills Treatment Centers, San Juan Capistrano,
Calfiornia
Tom Berrigan. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Tom Slater, Newark, Delaware
Torrance Memorial Thelma McMillen Center, Herbert Kaighan, Author,
Torrance, California
Tracy Davis, World Wide History Fellowship, Franklin, Tennessee
Trevor Field, Cowes Phillip Island, Australia
Veronica and Val Robbins, World Wide History Fellowship, Woodland,
California
Vik Maini, Ontario, Canada
Vincent Neville, Prospect, Kentucky
Vivian Eisenecher, Author, Recovering Me, San Diego, California
The Wilson House-The Griffith Library, Bonnie Lepper, Managing
Director, East Dorset, Vermont
Thomas Simone, Project Manager, Mashantucket, Connecticut
Vincentian Concern & Support Services, St. Vincent de Paul, Stephen
Krank, Pittsburgh, California
Vincent Recine, Prodigal Gatherings, Centennial, Colorado
Wade Hess, Training, CityTeam Ministries, San Jose, California
Wallace E. Camp, Jr., Businessman, Falmouth, Maine
Y6 Charities, Keith Walters, Auburn, California
“Yet Not I,” George McLauchlin, M.A., Tampa, Florida
Youth with a Mission (YWAM) Addictive Behavior School, Darvin
Smith, M.D., Co-Director, Addictionologist, Boulder, Colorado
International Christian Recovery Coalition Outreach Directors and Advisors
Outreach Directors and Advisors
for
International Christian Recovery Coalition
Dick B. dickb@dickb.cm
*Robert T. Tucker, Ph.D., D. Min., Registered Addiction Specialist, President/CEO New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc.; President, Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors Institute, Inc., Huntington Beach, California; Director of the Southern California Office of the International Christian Recovery Coalition
*Bob Noonan, Ph.D., Marriage and Family Therapist, Radio Personality, Orange, California, Director of Activities
*Walter Santos, Noted Percussionist and Christian Entertainer, Carlsbad, California, Director of Musical Outreach
*Michael Belzman, Ph.D., D. Min, Calimesa, California, Chief Executive Officer and Senior Pastor, Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors, Inc., Director of Christian Counseling Outreach
*David Powers, Leader of Rock Recovery Ministry, Soledad House, ABC Sober Living, San Diego, California, Director of San Diego and Sober Living Outreach
*Greg Sipe, Program Director, Lifelines, The Crossing Church, Costa Mesa, California, Director of Graphics Outreach
*Roger McDiarmid, Sales, His Place Fellowship Church, Huntington Beach, California, Director of Communications and Communications Funding Program
*Tod Cunningham, Director of Marketing, Pacific Hills Treatment Centers, San Juan Capistrano, California, Director of Church Outreach
*David Roman, Restaurant Proprietor, 12-Step Outreach, Sunset Beach, California, Director of Resources
*Gary Seymour, Neighborhood Alcoholics for Christ, Neighborhood Church, Escondido, California, Director of Homeless Outreach
Eric Mack, Lifelines, The Crossing Church, Costa Mesa, California (confirmation and status pending)
*Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission of Los Angeles, Director of Rescue Mission outreach for Los Angeles Area
*Bob Bowling, Bible Ministries, Lakeside, California, Director of Publication Distributions for Southern California
*Don McCoy, Real McCoy Enterprises, Lakeside Comm. Church of the Nazarene, Lakeside, California, Director of Christian Bridge Group Outreach for the San Diego, California Area
*Dale Marsh, Lay Recovery Pastor, Church of the Nazarene, Oroville, California, Director of Christian Religious Outreach for Northern California
*Dominic D., Turning Point Fellowship, Cornerstone Fellowship Church—Livermore Campus, Livermore, California, Director of Christian Recovery Outreach for Central California
*Richard Skolnik, Counseling Intern, Nesconset, New York, Director of Transportation and of New York-Connecticut-Vermont Outreach
Mark Galligan, Akronites, Businessman, Ontario, Canada, Director of Historical Collection Resources (confirmation and status pending)
*Steve Foreman, Businessman, Chief Shepherd, Came to Believe Retreats, Winter Park, Florida, Director of Retreats for Alcoholics and their Families Outreach
Brother Wayne White, Executive Director, Footprints/Alcoholics Victorious, Kansas City, Missouri, Co-Director, Bridge Organization Outreach (confirmation and status pending)
*Rev. Michael Liimatta, Consultant and fund raising expert with OneAccord; Education Director of City Vision College (offering accredited online training for Christians working with alcoholics and drug addicts and their families, including a degree completion program; a Bachelor of Science in Addiction Studies); Former
Education Director Alcoholics Victorious, Kansas City, Missouri; Director, Bridge Organization and Rescue Mission Outreach
*Darvin Smith, M.D., American Society of Addiction Medicine, Co-director, Addictive Behavior Ministries of Youth With A Mission; Past President of International Substance Abuse and Addiction Coalition, Boulder, Colorado; Co-Director of International Christian Substance Abuse and Addiction Outreach
The Rev. Jay Geisler, Ph.D., Rector, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church,
McKeesport, Pennsylvania; Clergy Recovery Ministry Leader (confirmation and
Status pending)
*Pastor Joe Furey, His Place Church, Huntington Beach, California, Director of
Orange County Clergy Reach
*Rev. James Moody, Manna House Ministries, Jamestown, Tennessee; Director
of Midwest Bridge Group Outreach
*Mel Schulstad, Colonel., U.S.A.F. (Ret.) CCD (NCAC II) Counselor;
Cofounder and Past President of National Association of Alcohol, Drug, and
Addiction Counselors; Co-author of Beyond the Influence, Redmond
Washington; Director of Addiction Counselor Outreach
*Scott Craven, Leader, Men’s Step Groups, Honolulu Hawaii; Director of
Men’s Christian Recovery Outreach, State of Hawaii
*Charles P. Mau, M.R.E., (Fuller Theological Seminary), Retired Teacher and
Coach; President of Wyoming Pacific Oil Company, Manhattan Beach,
California; Director of Christian Religious Education Outreach and
Charitable Funding Resources
*Michael Fiedler, Licensed Minister, FGEA, Sonlight Chapel in Center Point,
Texas; Director of Outreach for Texas
*Monty Meyer, Take12Radio.com, Albany, Oregon; International Director of Radio Outreach
*Paul and Eileen Doyle, Retreats for AAs and Their Families, Buckfast Abbey,
Plymouth, United Kingdom; Co-Directors of United Kingdom Outreach
Pauline Bartosch, Cofounder of Overcomers Outreach, Inc., Whittier,
California (confirmation and status pending)
*Ray G., Archivist for many years (ret.), Dr. Bob’s Home of Akron, Ohio;
Seminole, Florida and Newton Falls, Ohio. Advisor on A.A. History and Archive
Collections and Locations.
Bonnie Lepper, Managing Director of the Wilson House, East Dorset, Vermont;
(confirmation and status pending)
*Chaplain Jim Gantner Atlantic City Rescue Mission, Atlantic City New Jersey,
Director of Rescue Mission Outreach on the Atlantic Coast
Rev. Thecla St. Romain, Secretary, Community Care Ministry, The
Lafayette Salvation Army, Lafayette, Louisiana (confirmation and status pending)
*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; International
Medical Research Advisor
*Brian Hughes, The Recovery Bible Study, Media Leader, Florida; Director of
Florida Bible Study Outreach
John Sorrells, Leader, The James Club, Norco, California (confirmation and
status pending)
*Larry D. Webb, Men’s Good Book-Big Book Group, Laguna Beach,
California; Director of Men’s Big Book Good Book Groups Outreach
*Rev. Glenn C. Miller, C.P.A.C., Solid Rock Christian Recovery Center,
St. Petersburg, Florida, Director of Christian Recovery Outreach in Florida
*Jens Christy, Associate Pastor/Recovery, Care @ Capo Beach Calvary, Capistrano Beach, California; Director of Recovery Pastor Outreach in South Orange County
*Jason Day, “Coast to Coast benefit for Homeless and Christian Recovery,” Save Life, Jacksonville Beach, Florida; National Director for Homeless Outreach
*Anne Laidlaw, BA Psychology, Shiloh Trust, Member New Zealand Assn of Counselors; Author, Kick Addiction, Know God More; annelaidlawministries.com; Aukland, New Zealand; Director of Coalition Outreach for New Zealand.
*Jean La Cour, Ph.D., President of NET Training Institute, Orlando, Florida; President International Substance Abuse and Addiction Coalition; Show Host “Prevailing Wins in Recovery” on the Women’s Information Network; Co-Director of International Substance Abuse and Addiction Outreach
*Those listed above with an * are confirmed. Others have long been supporters, have been invited to serve, and will be added, if they desire and are able to communicate affirmatively.
for
International Christian Recovery Coalition
Dick B. dickb@dickb.cm
*Robert T. Tucker, Ph.D., D. Min., Registered Addiction Specialist, President/CEO New Life Spirit Recovery, Inc.; President, Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors Institute, Inc., Huntington Beach, California; Director of the Southern California Office of the International Christian Recovery Coalition
*Bob Noonan, Ph.D., Marriage and Family Therapist, Radio Personality, Orange, California, Director of Activities
*Walter Santos, Noted Percussionist and Christian Entertainer, Carlsbad, California, Director of Musical Outreach
*Michael Belzman, Ph.D., D. Min, Calimesa, California, Chief Executive Officer and Senior Pastor, Association of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors, Inc., Director of Christian Counseling Outreach
*David Powers, Leader of Rock Recovery Ministry, Soledad House, ABC Sober Living, San Diego, California, Director of San Diego and Sober Living Outreach
*Greg Sipe, Program Director, Lifelines, The Crossing Church, Costa Mesa, California, Director of Graphics Outreach
*Roger McDiarmid, Sales, His Place Fellowship Church, Huntington Beach, California, Director of Communications and Communications Funding Program
*Tod Cunningham, Director of Marketing, Pacific Hills Treatment Centers, San Juan Capistrano, California, Director of Church Outreach
*David Roman, Restaurant Proprietor, 12-Step Outreach, Sunset Beach, California, Director of Resources
*Gary Seymour, Neighborhood Alcoholics for Christ, Neighborhood Church, Escondido, California, Director of Homeless Outreach
Eric Mack, Lifelines, The Crossing Church, Costa Mesa, California (confirmation and status pending)
*Andy Bales, CEO of Union Rescue Mission of Los Angeles, Director of Rescue Mission outreach for Los Angeles Area
*Bob Bowling, Bible Ministries, Lakeside, California, Director of Publication Distributions for Southern California
*Don McCoy, Real McCoy Enterprises, Lakeside Comm. Church of the Nazarene, Lakeside, California, Director of Christian Bridge Group Outreach for the San Diego, California Area
*Dale Marsh, Lay Recovery Pastor, Church of the Nazarene, Oroville, California, Director of Christian Religious Outreach for Northern California
*Dominic D., Turning Point Fellowship, Cornerstone Fellowship Church—Livermore Campus, Livermore, California, Director of Christian Recovery Outreach for Central California
*Richard Skolnik, Counseling Intern, Nesconset, New York, Director of Transportation and of New York-Connecticut-Vermont Outreach
Mark Galligan, Akronites, Businessman, Ontario, Canada, Director of Historical Collection Resources (confirmation and status pending)
*Steve Foreman, Businessman, Chief Shepherd, Came to Believe Retreats, Winter Park, Florida, Director of Retreats for Alcoholics and their Families Outreach
Brother Wayne White, Executive Director, Footprints/Alcoholics Victorious, Kansas City, Missouri, Co-Director, Bridge Organization Outreach (confirmation and status pending)
*Rev. Michael Liimatta, Consultant and fund raising expert with OneAccord; Education Director of City Vision College (offering accredited online training for Christians working with alcoholics and drug addicts and their families, including a degree completion program; a Bachelor of Science in Addiction Studies); Former
Education Director Alcoholics Victorious, Kansas City, Missouri; Director, Bridge Organization and Rescue Mission Outreach
*Darvin Smith, M.D., American Society of Addiction Medicine, Co-director, Addictive Behavior Ministries of Youth With A Mission; Past President of International Substance Abuse and Addiction Coalition, Boulder, Colorado; Co-Director of International Christian Substance Abuse and Addiction Outreach
The Rev. Jay Geisler, Ph.D., Rector, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church,
McKeesport, Pennsylvania; Clergy Recovery Ministry Leader (confirmation and
Status pending)
*Pastor Joe Furey, His Place Church, Huntington Beach, California, Director of
Orange County Clergy Reach
*Rev. James Moody, Manna House Ministries, Jamestown, Tennessee; Director
of Midwest Bridge Group Outreach
*Mel Schulstad, Colonel., U.S.A.F. (Ret.) CCD (NCAC II) Counselor;
Cofounder and Past President of National Association of Alcohol, Drug, and
Addiction Counselors; Co-author of Beyond the Influence, Redmond
Washington; Director of Addiction Counselor Outreach
*Scott Craven, Leader, Men’s Step Groups, Honolulu Hawaii; Director of
Men’s Christian Recovery Outreach, State of Hawaii
*Charles P. Mau, M.R.E., (Fuller Theological Seminary), Retired Teacher and
Coach; President of Wyoming Pacific Oil Company, Manhattan Beach,
California; Director of Christian Religious Education Outreach and
Charitable Funding Resources
*Michael Fiedler, Licensed Minister, FGEA, Sonlight Chapel in Center Point,
Texas; Director of Outreach for Texas
*Monty Meyer, Take12Radio.com, Albany, Oregon; International Director of Radio Outreach
*Paul and Eileen Doyle, Retreats for AAs and Their Families, Buckfast Abbey,
Plymouth, United Kingdom; Co-Directors of United Kingdom Outreach
Pauline Bartosch, Cofounder of Overcomers Outreach, Inc., Whittier,
California (confirmation and status pending)
*Ray G., Archivist for many years (ret.), Dr. Bob’s Home of Akron, Ohio;
Seminole, Florida and Newton Falls, Ohio. Advisor on A.A. History and Archive
Collections and Locations.
Bonnie Lepper, Managing Director of the Wilson House, East Dorset, Vermont;
(confirmation and status pending)
*Chaplain Jim Gantner Atlantic City Rescue Mission, Atlantic City New Jersey,
Director of Rescue Mission Outreach on the Atlantic Coast
Rev. Thecla St. Romain, Secretary, Community Care Ministry, The
Lafayette Salvation Army, Lafayette, Louisiana (confirmation and status pending)
*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; International
Medical Research Advisor
*Brian Hughes, The Recovery Bible Study, Media Leader, Florida; Director of
Florida Bible Study Outreach
John Sorrells, Leader, The James Club, Norco, California (confirmation and
status pending)
*Larry D. Webb, Men’s Good Book-Big Book Group, Laguna Beach,
California; Director of Men’s Big Book Good Book Groups Outreach
*Rev. Glenn C. Miller, C.P.A.C., Solid Rock Christian Recovery Center,
St. Petersburg, Florida, Director of Christian Recovery Outreach in Florida
*Jens Christy, Associate Pastor/Recovery, Care @ Capo Beach Calvary, Capistrano Beach, California; Director of Recovery Pastor Outreach in South Orange County
*Jason Day, “Coast to Coast benefit for Homeless and Christian Recovery,” Save Life, Jacksonville Beach, Florida; National Director for Homeless Outreach
*Anne Laidlaw, BA Psychology, Shiloh Trust, Member New Zealand Assn of Counselors; Author, Kick Addiction, Know God More; annelaidlawministries.com; Aukland, New Zealand; Director of Coalition Outreach for New Zealand.
*Jean La Cour, Ph.D., President of NET Training Institute, Orlando, Florida; President International Substance Abuse and Addiction Coalition; Show Host “Prevailing Wins in Recovery” on the Women’s Information Network; Co-Director of International Substance Abuse and Addiction Outreach
*Those listed above with an * are confirmed. Others have long been supporters, have been invited to serve, and will be added, if they desire and are able to communicate affirmatively.
A.A. Study Groups
A.A. Study Groups
Christian Recovery with Dick B.
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
More and more AAs, 12 Step members, recovery pastors, clergy, counselors, and treatment leaders are phoning or emailing me each day about study groups. Sometimes they simply want to know how to start an A.A. history study group. Sometimes a Big Book-Bible study group. Sometimes a Christian recovery group based on the Big Book or the Twelve Steps and the Bible. Sometimes they want to adopt and copy, as far as possible, the idea of a James Club—the original name the Akron AAs favored for their Society because the Book of James was their favorite Bible study book.
The idea is gaining popularity. For several years now, James Clubs have popped up around the United States—Maine, Connecticut, New York, Tennessee, and California. Many more Big Book-Bible study groups have been organized and are being conducted. However, the most significant trend has been that I have found in the huge Rock Recovery Ministries in San Diego, Lifelines in Costa Mesa, Turning Point in Livermore, and now a program underway in Oroville. In addition, the various CityTeam missions have been doing this sort of things for several years.
I don’t believe in trying to tell a group of AAs, or pastors, or churches, or treatment programs how to proceed. Each has its own thoughts, experiences, and capabilities. But it seems that strong individuals in each of these settings do best when they secure approval and dive in—asking only for some examples, ideas, and guidance.
Helpful Guide Books by Dick B.
By the Power of God: A Guide to Early A.A. Groups & Forming Similar Groups Today
The Good Book-Big Book Guidebook: How to Include the Creator’s Impact on Early A.A. in Recovery Programs Today
The James Club and The Original A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials
When Early AAs Were Cured and Why
The Just Released Christian Recovery Guide by Dick B. and Ken B.
The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010
Articles by Dick B. on His Main Website Articles Page
Please don’t hesitate to phone 808 874 4876 or email dickb@dickb.com or write Dick B. at PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837 to discuss questions, suggestions, or other resources.
Christian Recovery with Dick B.
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
More and more AAs, 12 Step members, recovery pastors, clergy, counselors, and treatment leaders are phoning or emailing me each day about study groups. Sometimes they simply want to know how to start an A.A. history study group. Sometimes a Big Book-Bible study group. Sometimes a Christian recovery group based on the Big Book or the Twelve Steps and the Bible. Sometimes they want to adopt and copy, as far as possible, the idea of a James Club—the original name the Akron AAs favored for their Society because the Book of James was their favorite Bible study book.
The idea is gaining popularity. For several years now, James Clubs have popped up around the United States—Maine, Connecticut, New York, Tennessee, and California. Many more Big Book-Bible study groups have been organized and are being conducted. However, the most significant trend has been that I have found in the huge Rock Recovery Ministries in San Diego, Lifelines in Costa Mesa, Turning Point in Livermore, and now a program underway in Oroville. In addition, the various CityTeam missions have been doing this sort of things for several years.
I don’t believe in trying to tell a group of AAs, or pastors, or churches, or treatment programs how to proceed. Each has its own thoughts, experiences, and capabilities. But it seems that strong individuals in each of these settings do best when they secure approval and dive in—asking only for some examples, ideas, and guidance.
Helpful Guide Books by Dick B.
By the Power of God: A Guide to Early A.A. Groups & Forming Similar Groups Today
The Good Book-Big Book Guidebook: How to Include the Creator’s Impact on Early A.A. in Recovery Programs Today
The James Club and The Original A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials
When Early AAs Were Cured and Why
The Just Released Christian Recovery Guide by Dick B. and Ken B.
The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010
Articles by Dick B. on His Main Website Articles Page
Please don’t hesitate to phone 808 874 4876 or email dickb@dickb.com or write Dick B. at PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837 to discuss questions, suggestions, or other resources.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Richard Burns-DickB (MauiHistorian) on Twitter
Richard Burns-DickB (MauiHistorian) on Twitter: "7 minutes ago via web"
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Racheting Up Christian Recovery and Recovered Christians
Racheting Up Christian Recovery and Recovered Christians
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
No Substitutions Suggested—Just Improved Effectiveness and Longevity
Many today are asking why recovery rates for alcoholics, addicts, and even those in prison are so low and recidivism so high. Some criticize 12 Step fellowships, treatment programs, counseling techniques, and even the undaunted, but very successful efforts of drug lords and drug dealers.
To arrest the malaise, science is diving in with pharmaceuticals. Counselors are pressing for more treatment. Attorneys are advocating more Drug Courts. Churches are organizing more
recovery fellowships. Christians are often pushing for departure from Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and other 12-Step programs. And Society is wringing its hands as it watches the ascending drug use among youngsters, drub abuse by adults, and rampant drug
wars abroad, across our borders, and on our city streets.
But Alcoholics Anonymous developed an answer in 1935. It was a Christian answer. It was neither original nor new. Christian people and organizations like evangelists, revivalists, YMCA lay workers, rescue missions, and the Salvation Army had been effectively offering
cures for alcoholism through salvation and reliance on God, His Son, and His Word for at
least 100 years before Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob put together their Akron Christian Fellowship in 1935.
In the ensuing years, there has been flight from God, from Jesus Christ, from the Bible, from “old school” A.A., from Akron A.A.’s Christian Fellowship, from the “Minnesota Model,” and even from A.A. itself. And it is not our purpose here to discuss or criticize the resultant treatment, counseling, therapy, and prolonged rehabilitation that have been a part of the well-financed and often “required” new recovery ideas.
Some Renewed Long-Term, Tried and True, Add-ons for Today
There are many who stay clean and sober today without A.A., 12 Steps, treatment, therapy, church, or support groups. There are many who attain sobriety through the hundreds of anonymous and/or 12 Step groups that exist today. There are still more who seek religious help through a host of organizations like Celebrate Recovery, Teen Challenge, Overcomers Outreach, Inc., Rock Recovery Ministries, and Christian recovery fellowships and groups.
But there are some assumptions here that can make a difference in the long-term results and life that is lived. They involve ideas that are not new. They are simple. They have been tried in many different arenas. And we believe they were tried, true, and effective in the early A.A. Christian Fellowship program founded in Akron in 1935. They included salvation, the Bible, prayer, God’s guidance, Christian living, and deliverance from guilt, shame, fear, despair, ill-health, and anxiety.
The only requirement was not just a desire to stop drinking. The additional requirement for those who are or want to be sober and delivered Christians was and is: (1) belief in God, (2) acceptance of Jesus as Lord, and (3) reliance on the Bible and such revelation as God chooses to impart for the deliverance that God assures for those who become His children and walk by His spirit in their daily lives.
The two are not inconsistent.
A.A., for example, originally insisted on an unswerving intention to quit drinking forever—never to touch a drop of alcohol. And for those who looked on themselves as allergic to alcohol, driven by the devil, obsessed with a desire for drink, surrounded by bad habits and bad people, plagued with life-controlling problems, genetically pre-disposed to drink-get drunk-encounter disaster- and then return again and again for more of same, there’s a simple answer: “You shouldn’t drink at all.” And that has been the simple advice for AAs from the beginning.
And how about the person who has been driven close to insanity, jail, or death and yet continues to pursue his illusory relief system. One who utters the “national anthem of the alcoholic—I’ll never do that again;” and then returns to the bottle in no time at all. One who has gotten himself into an unbelievable pile of trouble—divorce, discharge from work, business failure, bankruptcy, disgrace, prison, fights, accidents, and loss of the love of family and friends. This is the guy who should say, “I’ve had enough. I’m done. I’m through drinking.” But—whatever his thoughts—surrenders to the bottle once again and over and over again. This is the person to whom early A.A. offered belief in God, acceptance of Christ, the truth of the Bible, and a disciplined fellowship of like-minded recovered believers to help him get well and healed.
Simple Suggestions for Extending Recovery and Deliverance
Cast aside the suggestion that you leave A.A. That you leave your church. That you refuse treatment. That you reject intervention. That you don’t really have a problem. That no counselor or therapist or clergyman or physician or support group can help you. The early AAs didn’t. And they were the winners—the folks with a documented 75% success rate among the “worst-of-the-worst.”
What can you do today! Learn the early A.A. way. Buy reliable books that can tell you the facts. Establish a group and a library that will go for long-term fellowship and recovery. Form a study group. Take an introductory class such as our Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery.
If you are in A.A. or a Twelve Step Fellowship, go for the gold. Study groups and long-term affiliation are not foreign to A.A. It’s just that A.A. has lost concern over and study of early A.A. or the Bible or hold prayer meetings or advocate church attendance. They’ve lost it as a Society, but you need not be a loser. It’s what the winners did in the beginning and what A.A.’s own Big Book actually suggests today. Trust God!
If you run a church, a Christian recovery fellowship, or have a Christian recovery pastor, go for the gold. Buy reliable books about A.A. and early A.A. Establish a group and a library that will applaud long-term fellowship and recovery. Form a study group. Teach our class. Conduct Bible study and Big Book meetings. Hold prayer meetings. Encourage church attendance. And don’t criticize other methods—use them, distinguish your task from theirs, and support both. Trust God!
If you run a treatment program, a rehabilitation center, a Christian recovery program, a “Christ-centered” recovery program, a support group program, or a community outreach program, go for the gold. Establish a library. Buy the books that will tell you the Christian history. Form a study group. Study the Big Book, A.A. History, How to take and practice the Twelve Steps, and what the early AAs did in their simple program. Teach our class. Hold prayer meetings. Encourage church attendance. And don’t criticize other methods—use them, distinguish their task from yours, and support both. Trust God!
Where You Can Apply These Suggestions
Any A.A. or 12 Step fellowship can establish a library, form a study group, study A.A. history, show our class, study the Bible, hold prayer meetings, and continue a fellowship of like-minded believers who dine together, do sports together, go to entertainment together, study together, read together, play together, dance together, hold conferences and seminars together, and enjoy sober, Christian living together—in and out of a church or Bible fellowship or ministry.
Any church or Christian recovery group can do the same thing. Library. Study group. Prayer, Bible classes. History classes. A.A. and 12-Step classes. Religious and social fellowship. They do it all the time. They can do it with groups of drunks dedicated to sobriety.
Any treatment program can have after-care, alumni groups, extended care fellowships, Twelve Step or Witnessing outreach, social and religious comradeship, emphasis on church or Bible fellowships. Enjoying sober Christian living together in and out of a church, Bible fellowship, or ministry.
The greatest spur to long-term sobriety, longevity, and Christian living occurs when every program stresses helping others to the same solution. This has been the standard for Christian successes for centuries. It can and should be today. Call it witnessing. Call it fellowshipping. Call it sponsorship. Call it speaking. Call it serving. Call it volunteering. Call it financial support. Call it leadership. Call it applause. It works.
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
No Substitutions Suggested—Just Improved Effectiveness and Longevity
Many today are asking why recovery rates for alcoholics, addicts, and even those in prison are so low and recidivism so high. Some criticize 12 Step fellowships, treatment programs, counseling techniques, and even the undaunted, but very successful efforts of drug lords and drug dealers.
To arrest the malaise, science is diving in with pharmaceuticals. Counselors are pressing for more treatment. Attorneys are advocating more Drug Courts. Churches are organizing more
recovery fellowships. Christians are often pushing for departure from Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and other 12-Step programs. And Society is wringing its hands as it watches the ascending drug use among youngsters, drub abuse by adults, and rampant drug
wars abroad, across our borders, and on our city streets.
But Alcoholics Anonymous developed an answer in 1935. It was a Christian answer. It was neither original nor new. Christian people and organizations like evangelists, revivalists, YMCA lay workers, rescue missions, and the Salvation Army had been effectively offering
cures for alcoholism through salvation and reliance on God, His Son, and His Word for at
least 100 years before Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob put together their Akron Christian Fellowship in 1935.
In the ensuing years, there has been flight from God, from Jesus Christ, from the Bible, from “old school” A.A., from Akron A.A.’s Christian Fellowship, from the “Minnesota Model,” and even from A.A. itself. And it is not our purpose here to discuss or criticize the resultant treatment, counseling, therapy, and prolonged rehabilitation that have been a part of the well-financed and often “required” new recovery ideas.
Some Renewed Long-Term, Tried and True, Add-ons for Today
There are many who stay clean and sober today without A.A., 12 Steps, treatment, therapy, church, or support groups. There are many who attain sobriety through the hundreds of anonymous and/or 12 Step groups that exist today. There are still more who seek religious help through a host of organizations like Celebrate Recovery, Teen Challenge, Overcomers Outreach, Inc., Rock Recovery Ministries, and Christian recovery fellowships and groups.
But there are some assumptions here that can make a difference in the long-term results and life that is lived. They involve ideas that are not new. They are simple. They have been tried in many different arenas. And we believe they were tried, true, and effective in the early A.A. Christian Fellowship program founded in Akron in 1935. They included salvation, the Bible, prayer, God’s guidance, Christian living, and deliverance from guilt, shame, fear, despair, ill-health, and anxiety.
The only requirement was not just a desire to stop drinking. The additional requirement for those who are or want to be sober and delivered Christians was and is: (1) belief in God, (2) acceptance of Jesus as Lord, and (3) reliance on the Bible and such revelation as God chooses to impart for the deliverance that God assures for those who become His children and walk by His spirit in their daily lives.
The two are not inconsistent.
A.A., for example, originally insisted on an unswerving intention to quit drinking forever—never to touch a drop of alcohol. And for those who looked on themselves as allergic to alcohol, driven by the devil, obsessed with a desire for drink, surrounded by bad habits and bad people, plagued with life-controlling problems, genetically pre-disposed to drink-get drunk-encounter disaster- and then return again and again for more of same, there’s a simple answer: “You shouldn’t drink at all.” And that has been the simple advice for AAs from the beginning.
And how about the person who has been driven close to insanity, jail, or death and yet continues to pursue his illusory relief system. One who utters the “national anthem of the alcoholic—I’ll never do that again;” and then returns to the bottle in no time at all. One who has gotten himself into an unbelievable pile of trouble—divorce, discharge from work, business failure, bankruptcy, disgrace, prison, fights, accidents, and loss of the love of family and friends. This is the guy who should say, “I’ve had enough. I’m done. I’m through drinking.” But—whatever his thoughts—surrenders to the bottle once again and over and over again. This is the person to whom early A.A. offered belief in God, acceptance of Christ, the truth of the Bible, and a disciplined fellowship of like-minded recovered believers to help him get well and healed.
Simple Suggestions for Extending Recovery and Deliverance
Cast aside the suggestion that you leave A.A. That you leave your church. That you refuse treatment. That you reject intervention. That you don’t really have a problem. That no counselor or therapist or clergyman or physician or support group can help you. The early AAs didn’t. And they were the winners—the folks with a documented 75% success rate among the “worst-of-the-worst.”
What can you do today! Learn the early A.A. way. Buy reliable books that can tell you the facts. Establish a group and a library that will go for long-term fellowship and recovery. Form a study group. Take an introductory class such as our Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery.
If you are in A.A. or a Twelve Step Fellowship, go for the gold. Study groups and long-term affiliation are not foreign to A.A. It’s just that A.A. has lost concern over and study of early A.A. or the Bible or hold prayer meetings or advocate church attendance. They’ve lost it as a Society, but you need not be a loser. It’s what the winners did in the beginning and what A.A.’s own Big Book actually suggests today. Trust God!
If you run a church, a Christian recovery fellowship, or have a Christian recovery pastor, go for the gold. Buy reliable books about A.A. and early A.A. Establish a group and a library that will applaud long-term fellowship and recovery. Form a study group. Teach our class. Conduct Bible study and Big Book meetings. Hold prayer meetings. Encourage church attendance. And don’t criticize other methods—use them, distinguish your task from theirs, and support both. Trust God!
If you run a treatment program, a rehabilitation center, a Christian recovery program, a “Christ-centered” recovery program, a support group program, or a community outreach program, go for the gold. Establish a library. Buy the books that will tell you the Christian history. Form a study group. Study the Big Book, A.A. History, How to take and practice the Twelve Steps, and what the early AAs did in their simple program. Teach our class. Hold prayer meetings. Encourage church attendance. And don’t criticize other methods—use them, distinguish their task from yours, and support both. Trust God!
Where You Can Apply These Suggestions
Any A.A. or 12 Step fellowship can establish a library, form a study group, study A.A. history, show our class, study the Bible, hold prayer meetings, and continue a fellowship of like-minded believers who dine together, do sports together, go to entertainment together, study together, read together, play together, dance together, hold conferences and seminars together, and enjoy sober, Christian living together—in and out of a church or Bible fellowship or ministry.
Any church or Christian recovery group can do the same thing. Library. Study group. Prayer, Bible classes. History classes. A.A. and 12-Step classes. Religious and social fellowship. They do it all the time. They can do it with groups of drunks dedicated to sobriety.
Any treatment program can have after-care, alumni groups, extended care fellowships, Twelve Step or Witnessing outreach, social and religious comradeship, emphasis on church or Bible fellowships. Enjoying sober Christian living together in and out of a church, Bible fellowship, or ministry.
The greatest spur to long-term sobriety, longevity, and Christian living occurs when every program stresses helping others to the same solution. This has been the standard for Christian successes for centuries. It can and should be today. Call it witnessing. Call it fellowshipping. Call it sponsorship. Call it speaking. Call it serving. Call it volunteering. Call it financial support. Call it leadership. Call it applause. It works.
A.A.-Founders: Reflections about Anne Smith, Dr. Bob’s Wife
A.A.-Founders: Reflections about Anne Smith, Dr. Bob’s Wife
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
I had never heard of Anne Ripley Smith. I had never heard of the role she played in the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in Akron, Ohio. In fact, I finally learned that almost nobody in the recovery community knew anything significant about the wife of Dr. Bob. Even in Akron—where A.A. was founded, where the original “Christian fellowship” program was developed, and where Dr. Bob and Anne are buried—there was a common misspelling of Anne’s first name and little historical material on tap.
In brief, here’s what I discovered that can bless those AAs, Al-Anons, and others who want to learn the facts for themselves:
• Anne Smith began keeping a journal in 1933. She continued to make entries through
1939. Most of the journal can be found at A.A. General Services Archives in New York, but you may find that getting permission to see that is an exciting challenge. Fortunately, with the help of Sue Smith Windows—daughter of Dr. Bob and Anne—A.A. Archivist Frank Mauser was able to obtain the trustees’ archives committee authorization for providing me with my copy.
• Anne Smith held a morning “Quiet Time” each day for AAs and their families. She
led them in prayer. She read the Bible to them. She shared with them from her journal.
Attendees listened for revelation from God. She held discussion sessions with them and then closed with prayer.
• Anne Smith’s Journal 1933-1939, 3rd ed. (1998), by Dick B., is a classic, yet virtually unknown and unread, historical record of what early AAs studied in the Bible, read in the way of recommended Christian religious literature, and heard about the Oxford Group's life-changing ideas (like the Self Examination, Confession, Conviction, Decision, Four Absolutes, Quiet Time, Prayer, Restitution, and a spiritual experience) that were later to become embedded in Bill Wilson’s Big Book.
• Anne’s loving outreach to, and work with, newcomers and wives was legendary.
• Anne formed the first women’s group in 1936 before A.A. was a year old.
• Anne counseled Lois Wilson in New York.
• It was Anne who taught: “Of course the Bible ought to be the main Source Book of
all. No day ought to pass without reading it.” [Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939, 82]
• In A.A.’s earliest days, Anne served AAs and their families as nurse, counselor,
teacher, evangelist, cook, and housekeeper.
• “The Mother of A.A.” This was the title that Bill used frequently to describe Anne in conjunction with her indispensable contribution to him and Bob and early AAs and their families.
The details about this remarkable woman, whom A.A. cofounder Bill Wilson called both the “Mother of A.A.” and a “Founder” of A.A.—and also the details about the original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program, the Bible, and recovery Anne Ripley Smith recorded in and shared from her personal journal are available today: Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal 1933-1939: A.A.’s Principles of Success, 3rd ed, (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998). Foreword by Bob S., son of Dr. Bob and Anne Ripley Smith. For more information on this title, please see www.dickb.com/annesm.shtml.
dickb@dickb.com
Gloria Deo
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
I had never heard of Anne Ripley Smith. I had never heard of the role she played in the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in Akron, Ohio. In fact, I finally learned that almost nobody in the recovery community knew anything significant about the wife of Dr. Bob. Even in Akron—where A.A. was founded, where the original “Christian fellowship” program was developed, and where Dr. Bob and Anne are buried—there was a common misspelling of Anne’s first name and little historical material on tap.
In brief, here’s what I discovered that can bless those AAs, Al-Anons, and others who want to learn the facts for themselves:
• Anne Smith began keeping a journal in 1933. She continued to make entries through
1939. Most of the journal can be found at A.A. General Services Archives in New York, but you may find that getting permission to see that is an exciting challenge. Fortunately, with the help of Sue Smith Windows—daughter of Dr. Bob and Anne—A.A. Archivist Frank Mauser was able to obtain the trustees’ archives committee authorization for providing me with my copy.
• Anne Smith held a morning “Quiet Time” each day for AAs and their families. She
led them in prayer. She read the Bible to them. She shared with them from her journal.
Attendees listened for revelation from God. She held discussion sessions with them and then closed with prayer.
• Anne Smith’s Journal 1933-1939, 3rd ed. (1998), by Dick B., is a classic, yet virtually unknown and unread, historical record of what early AAs studied in the Bible, read in the way of recommended Christian religious literature, and heard about the Oxford Group's life-changing ideas (like the Self Examination, Confession, Conviction, Decision, Four Absolutes, Quiet Time, Prayer, Restitution, and a spiritual experience) that were later to become embedded in Bill Wilson’s Big Book.
• Anne’s loving outreach to, and work with, newcomers and wives was legendary.
• Anne formed the first women’s group in 1936 before A.A. was a year old.
• Anne counseled Lois Wilson in New York.
• It was Anne who taught: “Of course the Bible ought to be the main Source Book of
all. No day ought to pass without reading it.” [Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal, 1933-1939, 82]
• In A.A.’s earliest days, Anne served AAs and their families as nurse, counselor,
teacher, evangelist, cook, and housekeeper.
• “The Mother of A.A.” This was the title that Bill used frequently to describe Anne in conjunction with her indispensable contribution to him and Bob and early AAs and their families.
The details about this remarkable woman, whom A.A. cofounder Bill Wilson called both the “Mother of A.A.” and a “Founder” of A.A.—and also the details about the original Akron A.A. “Christian fellowship” program, the Bible, and recovery Anne Ripley Smith recorded in and shared from her personal journal are available today: Dick B., Anne Smith’s Journal 1933-1939: A.A.’s Principles of Success, 3rd ed, (Kihei, HI: Paradise Research Publications, Inc., 1998). Foreword by Bob S., son of Dr. Bob and Anne Ripley Smith. For more information on this title, please see www.dickb.com/annesm.shtml.
dickb@dickb.com
Gloria Deo
Monday, April 12, 2010
AA-The James Club and A.A. Study Groups
AA-The James Club and A.A. Study Groups
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
For several years, I have featured “The James Club” in both my articles and my books about early A.A.
There were several reasons for this: (1) Early AAs wanted to call their Society and Big Book “The James Club.” But they were overruled by A.A. Cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob. (2) The reason for this, said both Bill and Bob, was that the Book of James in the Bible was a favorite with the Akron A.A. pioneers and their Christian Fellowship. (3) Dr. Bob and many early AAs frequently stated that the Book of James, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians were considered “absolutely essential” to the early program and its astonishing successes. (4) The Bible itself was stressed as reading material. (5) Many of the devotionals the Alcoholics Anonymous pioneers used contained verses from James, Matthew 5-7, and 1 Corinthians 13. (6) A.A.’s Big Book itself contains several references (without their biblical attribution) that are taken directly from the Book of James and from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. These include “faith without works is dead,” “love thy neighbor as thyself, “Father of lights,” and “Thy will be done.” (7) Moreover, until recent years, most A.A. meetings closed with members joining hands and saying the “Lord’s Prayer”—which comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
I have written several books which explain the early A.A. reliance on, and study of, the Bible for their basic ideas and program. See Dick B., The Good Book-Big Book Guidebook: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible; The Good Book-Big Book Guidebook; The James Club and The Original A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials; Why Early A.A. Succeeded; When Early AAs Were Cured and Why; and Turning Point: A History of Early A.A.’s Spiritual Roots and Successes. See www.dickb.com/titles.shtml.
AAs today hear very little about their Bible roots. They hear even less about the importance of the Book of James, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 in early A.A. In fact, many have confused some Emmet Fox writings with the real “sermon on the mount.” To the degree that I have sometimes written and often said at conferences: “Emmet Fox did not deliver the Sermon on the Mount; Jesus did!”
For many years, I have urged AAs and others to form study groups so that they can learn, discuss, and apply the principles in their Big Book, Twelve Steps, Bible, and history in their daily lives. And do so more effectively.
As a consequence, across the United States, many AAs and recovery-related fellowships have formed study groups. They study the Bible and the Big Book. They study the Twelve Steps and the Bible. They study A.A. history. They study A.A. in the context of its Bible roots. And they see how the Bible IS related to A.A. today, and also how it is NOT related. Many of the study groups call themselves “James Clubs” in order to affiliate themselves with what I call “old school” A.A. and to study and respect the Bible as an integral part of A.A. history.
In other words, A.A. and Twelve Step Christian and Bible study groups are alive and well today. And so is “The James Club” in the titles they use.
dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com
Gloria Deo
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved
For several years, I have featured “The James Club” in both my articles and my books about early A.A.
There were several reasons for this: (1) Early AAs wanted to call their Society and Big Book “The James Club.” But they were overruled by A.A. Cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob. (2) The reason for this, said both Bill and Bob, was that the Book of James in the Bible was a favorite with the Akron A.A. pioneers and their Christian Fellowship. (3) Dr. Bob and many early AAs frequently stated that the Book of James, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians were considered “absolutely essential” to the early program and its astonishing successes. (4) The Bible itself was stressed as reading material. (5) Many of the devotionals the Alcoholics Anonymous pioneers used contained verses from James, Matthew 5-7, and 1 Corinthians 13. (6) A.A.’s Big Book itself contains several references (without their biblical attribution) that are taken directly from the Book of James and from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. These include “faith without works is dead,” “love thy neighbor as thyself, “Father of lights,” and “Thy will be done.” (7) Moreover, until recent years, most A.A. meetings closed with members joining hands and saying the “Lord’s Prayer”—which comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
I have written several books which explain the early A.A. reliance on, and study of, the Bible for their basic ideas and program. See Dick B., The Good Book-Big Book Guidebook: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible; The Good Book-Big Book Guidebook; The James Club and The Original A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials; Why Early A.A. Succeeded; When Early AAs Were Cured and Why; and Turning Point: A History of Early A.A.’s Spiritual Roots and Successes. See www.dickb.com/titles.shtml.
AAs today hear very little about their Bible roots. They hear even less about the importance of the Book of James, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13 in early A.A. In fact, many have confused some Emmet Fox writings with the real “sermon on the mount.” To the degree that I have sometimes written and often said at conferences: “Emmet Fox did not deliver the Sermon on the Mount; Jesus did!”
For many years, I have urged AAs and others to form study groups so that they can learn, discuss, and apply the principles in their Big Book, Twelve Steps, Bible, and history in their daily lives. And do so more effectively.
As a consequence, across the United States, many AAs and recovery-related fellowships have formed study groups. They study the Bible and the Big Book. They study the Twelve Steps and the Bible. They study A.A. history. They study A.A. in the context of its Bible roots. And they see how the Bible IS related to A.A. today, and also how it is NOT related. Many of the study groups call themselves “James Clubs” in order to affiliate themselves with what I call “old school” A.A. and to study and respect the Bible as an integral part of A.A. history.
In other words, A.A. and Twelve Step Christian and Bible study groups are alive and well today. And so is “The James Club” in the titles they use.
dickb@dickb.com; www.dickb.com
Gloria Deo
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
