Letter from Long-recovered Christian AA and His Successful Mixed Group

A Letter from a long-recovered Christian AA Who Leads Recovery Group House Meeting Working with Believers and Non-Believers, Who Have Learned to Work Together

 

Dick B.

Copyright 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved

 

Hi Ken,

 

Currently we have four in our recovery group house meeting - "non-believers" (one doctor, one engineer, a taxi business owner, and a waiter) (none of whom owned a Bible when we started this session the first week of January) - and Keith who has been with me for years in our ministry. Attendance has been 100% each week since we started and it looks like we will have 3 more joining the group this week (tonight) who have been led to the meeting by the non - believer members - not Keith or I.

 

The longest sobriety in this group is the taxi business owner who has 17 years of sobriety (who has been the most challenging, frustrating, and perplexing sponsee I have ever had) and almost one year (the waiter) and 150 days is the average for the other  two right now, and then we have Keith with 35 years and me. The average age is 37 and the youngest is 32. All of them have either Keith or I as a formal AA sponsor.

 

So this is a very small group this time around. When the group is all non-believers the challenge is a little different than when we have a group mixed with some believers as well as non- believers. And when it is 3 newcomers and 1 with long term sobriety there has to be a special focus on their immediate successes and target honesty in communication over and over again. Chris, an atheist, (17 yrs) creates a lot of issues and challenges in the group meetings but last week had a major breakthrough when he talked about how much "he hates his life" as it is now and that he must find a way to change and transform it.

 

 Our current discussion and action plan focuses on:

 

1) " If I could do this on my own - what would I need God for? ";

 

2) Where do we find the specific instructions and examples for making Step Three a vital breathing part of our lives (1Corintians 13, Matthew 5 thru 7, and, the Book of James) - one of these scriptures are supposed to be read each day and they are required to write diary comments in their notebooks after each reading of the scriptures. When they feel the Holy Spirit moving in their lives in some way they are supposed to call Keith or me to express their experience;

 

3) Writing out and defining our GOD (or Higher Power at this stage) in the notebook and amending it almost weekly as time goes bye;

 

4) Doing one special thing each day for a stranger as an act of gratitude;

 

5) Honestly, making an effort to pray several times a day.

 

6) In this group only two are copying out the first 164 pages of the Big Book, a disappointment - but it is still early in the process.

 

7) Two have stopped going to the Sunday morning AA meeting and are now with us in church instead. We are filling 3 rows of pews - there is something special about that.

 

8) We are all going to Akron to do a formal 3rd Step at Dr. Bob's house in the next few weeks.

 

Have to run. Will keep you posted a Jesus transforms lives.

 

Your BIC,

 

Mark