Christian Recovery Guide

See www.dickb.com/Christian-Recover-Guide.shtml.

The Third Edition of The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 2010, has now been released and is available for purchase on www.dickb.com/Christian-Recover-Guide.shtml.

There have been all kinds of recovery guides published for Christians in the last twenty years. Most focus on the Twelve Steps. Most do not provide any adequate information on the Christian origins, history, founding, original program, and successes of the A.A. Christian Fellowship that was founded in 1935--four years before A.A.'s Big Book and Twelve Steps were published.

The point is this:

1. Christian recovery leaders and Christians in recovery need to know that long before A.A. was founded in 1939, enormous Christian recovery workers and organizations were successfully bringing about cure of alcoholics and addicts by the power of God. These included: (a) Evangelists like Dwight Moody, Ira Sankey, and Billy Sunday. (b) Rescue Missions such as the one founded by Jerry Mc'Auley at Water Street Mission in New York. (c) YMCA lay workers and their revivals and conversions throughout Vermont and New England. (d) Salvation Army workers who approached derelicts and drunks in the slums and brought them salvation and victory. (e) Young People's Christian Endeavor Society which attained a world-wide membership of 4.5 million young people and provided the basic Christian recovery program incorporated in A.A.'s "old school" original program founded in Akron in 1935.

2. Christian recovery leaders and Christians in recovery need to know that the first three AAs--Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith, and Bill Dotson--all believed in God, all were Christians, and all studied the Bible. In the depths of drinking despair, each of these three turned to God for help and was cured of alcoholism. All said so. This occurred before there was any Big Book, Twelve Step program, Twelve Traditions, incessant drunkalogs, and meetings as we know them today. In short, this occurred before the A.A. recovery program was developed in 1935.

3. Christian recovery leaders and Christians in recovery need to know the exact 7 point program, 14 principles and practices, and documented 75% success rate that was achieved by the original Akron program--again, before there was any Big Book or Twelve Step program.

4. Christian recovery leaders and Christians in recovery need to know that the A.A. program embodied in the Twelve Steps did not follow the Akron program, was changed dramatically prior to publication, and eliminated Christian and Bible materials.

5. Christian recovery leaders and Christians in recovery need to know that, though A.A. itself is no longer a Christian Fellowship, its Christian members number in the tens of thousands. They need to know that Christians in the recovery arena are not alone. They need to know that Christians in A.A. today can find ample authority in the Steps, literature, abc's, and fellowship meetings and groups today for pursuing, practicing, and passing along the facts about the original A.A. Christian program.

These materials are discussed in detail and documented in The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010; and, as stated above, can be obtained at www.dickb.com/Christian-Recover-Guide.shtml.