A special message for Monty man and the crew at Take12Radio.com.
Monty has been blasting away now for a number of years, giving his all to present a broad array of speakers who care about alcoholism and addiction recovery and are doing something about it.
Today, this support still extends to www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com and broadens the audience that hears the frequent interviews with Ken B. as host and A.A. author and historian Dick B. as interviewer. The Dick B. talks about the Christian roots of Alcoholics Anonymous, the importance of the Bible today and in the original A.A. Akron Christian Fellowship program have been going on for a number of years now. And Monty has provided much of the early radio assistance that has been heard round the globe.
Sometimes, Dick has presented his materials on special blogs like www.dickb-blog.com; and there has been lots of discussion about the Big Book, the Twelve Steps, old school A.A., the Conversion of Bill W., Dr. Bob's excellent training in the Bible. And they haven't overlooked key A.A. shapers like Dr. Bob Smith, Bill Wilson, Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Dr. William D. Silkworth, Professor William James, Dr. Carl Jung, Rev. W. Irving Harris, Dr. Frank Buchman, and a host of writers participating in A First Century Christian Fellowship (later called the Oxford Group), and some of its activists like Rev. Sherwood S. Day, James Draper Newton, Eleanor Forde, Dr. Morris Martin, Garth Lean, Michael Hutchinson, Cecil Rose, Howard Rose, A.J. Russell, Harold Begbie, Stephen Foote, T. Willard Hunter, George Vondermuhll, Jr., Richard Ruffin, and a number of others. As well as the Akron spark plugs like Russell Firestone, Harvey Firestone, St., Dr. Walter Tunks, Henrietta B. Seiberling, Anne Ripley Smith, T. Henry and Clarace Williams, Clarence Snyder, Ed Andy, and a good many others.
The information has sometimes been posted on the International Christian Recovery Coalition site www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com; the Dr. Bob special site http://drbob.info; Freedom Ranch Maui Incorporated, and the main Dick B. Alcoholics Anonymous History site www.dickb.com.
Today the radio and video presentations of A.A. authors and historians Dick B. and Ken B. are available on Christian Recovery Radio.com; on Public Talk Radio; and on Take 12 Radio.com, as well as other programs before which the authors have been asked to speak.
And 2014 will see a new change in the efforts of Dick B. and Ken B. to "train the trainers" by feeding them accurate, truthful, comprehensive Alcoholics Anonymous History as well as the role that God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible played in "old school" A.A. and can play today for people in recovery who want God's help.
Here's what you will see, beginning January 1, 2014
- Production of all materials will be handled by The Good Book Publishing Company Group
- Publication of books will be handled by Paradise Research Publications, Inc
- Marketing of books, pamphlets, DVD's and videos will be handled by Good Book Publishing Company.
- Conferences and speakers will be drawn from the host of participants in International Christian Recovery Coalition, of which Dick B. is Executive Director.
- Videos and Guide Books will be produced by The Good Book Publishing Company Group, funded as benefactors contribute to the effort as they have done for so many years.
- Radio interviews and presentations will be expanded as much as manpower and time permit:
(1) Ken B. will continue to manage and host the Christian Recovery Radio presentations.
(2) Dick B. and Ken B. will contact the speakers to be interviewed; and both Dick B. and Ken B. will often provide historically researched accurate materials.
(3) The folks interviewed will be expanded to include:
(a) Participants, leaders, and workers in International Christian Recovery Coalition; Recovery Pastors and Christian Recovery Fellowship Leaders; Successful authors, religious leaders, chaplains, directors of missions, treatment programs, Christian counseling, sober Christian residential facilities, dedicated historians and writers, and garden variety drunks and drug addicts who can and will do more than tell war stories and drunkalogs, or talk about their Twelve Step achievements. They will be urged to help remedy the weakness prevailing today among speakers, sponsors, secretaries, and newcomers who need to be taught, learning, and telling their audiences about:
(i) The actual biblical origins of A.A.
(ii) The Christian influences--particularly those in Vermont--that figured in the Christian upbringing and experiences of Ebby Thacher, Bill Wilson, Robert H. Smith, Rowland Hazard, Shepard Cornell, Cebra Graves, James Newton, W. Irving and Julia Harris, and Frank Buchman.
(iii) How the first three AAs got sober before Big Books, Steps, Traditions, and War Stories
(iv)The guts of the Christian program, principles, and practices that made up the heart of "old school Akron A.A., and the early Akron A.A.'s Christian Fellowship which qualified and hospitalized newcomers; insisted on abstinence and determination to go to any lengths; urged Christian fellowship among members, stressed the Bible and prayer and Quiet Time; emphasized service to others; and brought people into a relationship with God through acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior..
(v) Enjoyed the freedom to go to a religious service of their own choosing; engage in Christian fellowship and comradeship with people of their own choosing; read Christian, psychological, medical, history, and other books and literature of their own choosing; serve God and others in ways of their own choosing; break bread together; pray together, study devotionals and observe Quiet Time together, and freely discuss together the implications of the foregoing without governance, control, barriers, and prohibitions.
(vi)Their own techniques, experiences, and successes in working with others.
(vi) Later, in 1939, the Big Book as they understood it as well as the personal testimonies in the Big Book.
(vii) How they followed the instructions in the Big Book for "taking the Twelve Steps."
(viii) What their efforts with others produced in the renewal of their own minds to God's Word, liberty, and love, and in the practice of the principles, obedience, and conduct called for in God's Word.
(ix) What new thoughts and new deeds they had learned and put on;what old ungodly ideas of their old nature they had put off;how they had, with God's help, avoided temptation and disobedience of God's word; and how they were forgiven for their errors when they repented and sought God's pardon.
- Continued emphasis on the unity that comes from the International Christian Recovery Coalition slogans that we are and will be Recovery friendly, A.A. friendly, Bible friendly, Fellowship friendly, and Friendly friendly.
- Recognizing that the slogans "First Things First" came from "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you;" "Live and Let Live" can be likened to "Love your neighbor as yourself;" "Easy Does It" came from "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the daily is the evil thereof; "But for the grace of God. . ."to "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you: that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work" and
"For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of your selves: It is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast."
- Conservation of costs and expenses can and will be achieved by reducing travel to and holding of large conferences; producing newsletters, books, and articles; and expending large amounts of money on website optimization, revision, management, consultation, and design.
- Utilizing our 24 years of research, travel, interviews, contacts, conferences, publications, and meetings by use of radio, blogs, social media, videos, and phones to train the trainers and do our best to inform Christians and those who want God's help and may need to learn more, know more, and do more. And this technique has certainly been in progress by existing means heretofore.
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