Groups are instructed to follow the 12 Steps, 12 Traditions, and 12 Concepts as modified from Alcoholics Anonymous. It is designed to provide on-going help, not to be a week-end “hit-and-run accident.”
- When in an atmosphere of Christian love and acceptance, people meet each week and become openly honest with each other, in a “safe place,” where anonymity and confidentiality are respected
- Participants are asked to share their experience, strength, and hope without “cross-talk” and judgmentalism
- They are not to try to fix each other, rather they are to “let go and let God” do for them what they cannot do for themselves
- Most important, they are invited to recognize that Jesus Christ is the Highest Power
- Recovery and freedom from obsessive thoughts, compulsive actions, habitual behaviors and spiritual separation is the hoped for result
Read the research article Alcoholics Anonymous Effectiveness: Faith Meets Science published in the Journal of Addictive Diseases, 2009 for information on the effectiveness of 12-step groups.
12-Step Comparison
See how the 12-steps relate to principles of recovery taught by the Bible and expanded in the book Steps to Christ.