Responding Recovery Ministry Skype Panel Undertakes our first new project

The Dick B. Collaborative Effort for Christian Recovery

This is a new project of the International Christian Recovery Coalition. It was introduced as an idea at our Palm Springs, California talk to Assocation of Christian Alcohol and Drug Counselors Institute Conference just a few days ago.

One of the first planned projects of The Dick B. Collaborative Effort for Christian Recovery was a TV show coming from Skype panel interviews; and we just had two of them taped from Maui to Orange County.

The first responder to the Dick B. Collaborative Effort for Christian Recovery came on board today. And that responder was and is

Responding Recovery Ministries, an outreach of Jerry Liversage Ministries, Garden Grove, California
http://www.jerryliversageministries.org

Jerry is alive with Christian recovery plans and network approaches. He is a participant in International Christian Recovery Coalition. And the contact information is:

Jerry Liversage Ministries,Inc./Responding Recovery Ministries
Mailing Address
11245 Mac Nab St
Garden Grove, California 92841

Telephone: 951 212 6100 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 951 212 6100 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Jerry came to our Southern California summit meeting at The Crossing Church in Costa Mesa. He participated in the pre-conference Friday Night Workshop. He attended the Lifelines Program as well, and he attended the summit meeting on Saturday.

We then had the privilege of spending thirteen plus hours with him discussing his Christian recovery visions and our own Collaborative plans. And here was the resultant outcome.

1.   Jerry is going to conduct a series of panel shows on Skype, which will then be replayed on TV.

2.  We did two of those shows today (Thursday), and they will be appearing soon.

3.  He has engaged us to write an introductory foreword to his well-done Step workbook, and that fulfills our desire for many such introductions--based on the explanatory Introduction we did for the new Dover Publications 1st Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous reprint just released.

4.  He has a deep desire to collaborate with Christian recovery leaders, workers, and newcomers and working with them to reach a common understanding--an understanding of how to look at the Twelve Steps and then work out the relevant subject matter through specifically related Bible study. And this has great promise as a new Christian recovery tool model.

5.  For many years, people have been sending in to General Services in New York sheets setting forth a Step, a related Bible verse; another Step, etc. And the supposition was that these were credible examples of A.A.'s relationship with the Bible. Next came the so-called recovery Bibles, and they would work Steps into many pages of the Bible and include explanatory discussions of how the Bible could help "take" and use or interpret this or that Step. Of late, there have been a number of meetings--particularly Christian Recovery fellowship meetings which read the Twelve Steps--Step by Step--and then read a Bible verse that the group feels expresses a Biblical idea behind that particular Step. But none of these efforts is really representative of the Bible relationship of early Akron A.A. There the primary program resource--not of the Steps because there were no Steps--was the Bible; and the studies were of the Book of James, Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13. These three Bible segments, said Dr. Bob, were "absolutely essential" to the early program. We have urged study of the Big Book and Steps along with James, the Sermon, and Corinthians to see how closely some of the basics resemble basic ideas from the three Bible segments.

Jerry Liversage's new workbook is a very practical, scholarly, well-written workbook titled "Responding 12-Step Recovery: Responding to the Trust-Recovery Through Jesus" (Xulon Press, 2009). Its approach is to examine each Step, first in terms of its language, and then lay out biblical discussions which show a sponsor or sponsee how to understand the particular Step in terms of what the Bible has to say about the subject. It presents the Step in easy-to-read manner, and then it provides a thorough biblical explanation of the relevant subject. This means that a reader need not plough through the Bible, looking for what an editor thinks is a a related Step tool, and reading the editor's view of how the Step should be understood. And for the newcomer, looking through the thousands of Bible pages is a daunting task. Reading the explanations in the middle of the Bible is a daunting task. And the simplicity of first looking at a Step and then reading the various aspects of a Step and absorbing as much as he can of the Bible-related Step commentary.

Our Foreword will add a further component--the kind we believe should be at the beginning of all such workbooks, guidebooks, study books, or Step commentaries. The reader and the leader should begin with a simple explanation of the biblical origins of A.A., and then read a concise explanation of the simple layout of the original A.A. program of Akron--giving up alcohol permanently, believing in God, coming to Him through Jesus Christ, asking His help, obeying His will, growing in understanding through Bible and prayer  and Quiet Time studies, and then helping the alcoholic who still suffers.

When complete, Jerry's revised workbook will provide an example of what we think is needed in every Christian recovery program effort--our own historical Christian foundations.

And this we believe will be the first of many collaborative efforts by recovery leaders to make the Bible a vital and authoritative tool for recovering the "old school way"--by finding God's will, and then following His directions for recovering from alcoholism and addictions