THEHISTORYOFAAGROUPS.pptx bible and 12 steps

bible and 12 steps

1. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS ( Taken from an article in Christianity Today)   By Tim Stafford

2. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS Understanding the origins of the recovery movement can help Christians know how to relate to it today.

3. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS Psychiatrist Scott Peck calls it the greatest event of the twentieth century: the “founding” of Alcoholics Anonymous in Akron, Ohio, on June 10, 1935.

4. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS Two apparently hopeless alcoholics, one jobless for years, the other a surgeon who had needed a drink that day to steady his scalpel, had found each other.

5. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS

6. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS Dr. Bob's Home, in Akron Ohio, is where  Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)  all started in 1935.

7. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS A.A.’s 12 Steps, which owe virtually nothing to modern psychology or medicine, are unreservedly embraced by courts; hospitals, and a large number of counselors and psychologists. Beyond A.A., the 12 Steps have become the treatment of choice for a large catalogue of disorders, from sexual addiction to overeating.

8. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS Author Keith Miller calls the 12 Steps “a way of spiritual healing and growth that may well be the most important spiritual model of any age for many contemporary Christians.”

9. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS Bill Wilson was unquestionably the most influential person in the development of Alcoholics Anonymous.

10. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS One November day an old alcoholic friend, Ebby Thatcher, paid him a visit. Thatcher was sober and had come to tell Wilson why. He had had a religious experience. Members of an organization called the Oxford Group had visited him in jail, where he had been incarcerated for drunkenness, and he had surrendered his life to God. The desire to drink was gone, he said. His life was changed.

11. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS ‘I still gagged badly on the notion of a Power greater than myself, but finally, just for a moment, the last vestige of my proud obstinacy was crushed. All at once I found myself crying out, “If there is a God, let Him show Himself! I am ready to do anything, anything!” Suddenly the room lit up with a great white light. I was caught up into an ecstasy which there was no words to describe.

12. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS . All about me and through me there was a wonderful feeling of Presence and I thought to myself, “So this is the God of the preachers!” A great peace stole over me and I thought, “No matter how wrong things seem to be, they are all right. Things are all right with God and His world.’

13. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS Wilson never took another drink. Naturally, this new convert joined the Oxford Group, attending Sunday night meetings at Calvary Church, pastured by the Episcopalian Sam Shoemaker. Shoemaker was the best-known Oxford Group leader in America.

14. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS Henrietta B. Seiberling She had a project in mind. For two years she had been working on a surgeon, Bob Smith, through the Oxford Group. Smith was Wilson’s opposite in personality: a silent drinker, stern and distant. The group had confessed with him and prayed with him, but his drinking had remained as uncontrollable as ever.

15. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS Seiberling might have brought Wilson and Smith together that night except that Smith had come home with a potted plant for Mother’s Day and fallen into a drunken sleep under the dining room table. The next day the two men met, and they hit it off remarkably.

16. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS It would be nearly a month before Smith took his last drink and A.A. was “founded.” Wilson stayed on for months at the Smiths’ home, and the two men had many late-night philosophic conversations. Soon the two men had convinced other alcoholics in Akron to join the Oxford Group meetings, just as Wilson had previously done in New York.

17. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS Wilson would write, “Dr. Silkworth (a physician who introduced the disease concept of alcoholism to Wilson) gave us the needed knowledge of our illness. Sam Shoemaker had given us the concrete knowledge of what we could do about it. One showed us the mysteries of the lock that held us in prison; the other passed on the spiritual keys by which we were liberated…

18. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS Evangelical Roots The Heart of AA Oxford Group meetings were small and informal, emphasizing prayer , mutual confession , the importance of making restitution where you have wronged someone.

19. THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS In the subsequent development of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson eventually distanced himself from the Oxford Group in order to reach out to Catholics and other groups who were uncomfortable with the evangelical emphasis. However, many of the traditions of the Oxford Group continue in the A.A. approach and the Bible remains a foundation for recovery for many of those in A.A. and other 12 Step groups.

20. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous The book "Alcoholics Anonymous," known by members as "The Big Book," is the textbook for the original 12-step recovery program now known by the same name . Many long-time members of the Alcoholics Anonymous program regard The Big Book with the same esteem that others do the Holy Bible, considering it to be divinely inspired.

21. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous The Purpose of The Big Book As it says in the forward of the book, "We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book ."