Bill and George welcome George’s boss, Bill Price, from the Salvation Army to talk about Christian 12-Step programs. These programs originated from Alcoholics Anonymous. The steps from that program have been modified to be effective for treating other addictive behaviors.
Bill, George and Bill Price introduce the first Christian 12-Step program starting in Minneapolis. Those not in the Twin Cities area can find a program in their area by visiting their website.
“I believe the call on each of our live is to serve Jesus. Christian 12-Step is about getting rid of ourselves so we can actually serve Jesus.”
12-step programs do that by walking participants through variations of the 12 general steps:
1. We admitted we were powerless over our addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Key Scripture: Psalm 119:9-16
