12 Step Discipleship

Most people think Alcoholics Anonymous, originated the 12 Steps teaching at the heart of AA.  But Bill W, one of AA's founders, acknowledged that most of the ideas behind the 12 steps came from the Oxford Group, an evangelical Christian group that had it heyday in the 1930's.

Dr. Frank Buchman, founder of the Oxford Group, believed that the root of all problems were the personal problems of fear and selfishness and that the answer was to surrender their lives over to God's plan or God's control.

The 23rd Psalm promises that God's goodness and mercy will follow us when we turn our lives over to the Good Shepherd and live by God's plan.  12 Step thinking can enable us to walk in the promises of the 23rd Psalm:

The 12 Steps in the 23^rd Psalm

The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.

• 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction (sin) - that our lives had become unmanageable

• 2 - Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity 

He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters, He restores my soul.

• 3- Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God

He leads me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.

• 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves

Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid, for you are with me; 

• 5 - Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs

Your rod and staff comfort me. 

• 6 - Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character
• 7 - Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings

You prepare a table for me in the presence my enemies

• 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

• 9 - Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others

Surely your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

• 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