THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS

 (Takenfrom an article in
Christianity Today)

 By Tim Stafford
 THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS

 Understanding the origins

of the recovery
movement can help
Christians know how to
relate to it today.
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.
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.
THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS
 THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS
 Dr. Bob's Home, in Akron Ohio, is where Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) all
started in 1935.
 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.
 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.”
THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF THE 12 STEPS

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

 EvangelicalRoots
 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.
 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.
 The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

The book Many long-time

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