sponsorship

[spiritualgiant]

I need some help in this department if anyone out there can assist me,i am about to complete the steps and i am trying to prepare for taking another alcoholic through the steps.I was wondering if i could gather some suggestions as to the different ways i should do this,i have heard of people doing the steps through a number of packets.Can someone point me in the right direction please?

[LadyTennII]

ok, hey again alan. I am an opiate addict so I dont know much about your plight, BUT I KNOW someone will come along soon with loads of experience and advice, they always do, trust me, you will get lots of help!!!!! SO glad to see you on here!

[PaulN]

I searched in my early years, looking for an easier softer way to take the steps. Found all kinds of well written materials on how to take this step or that step. But in the end, I came away more confused than I was when I started. Bottom line, I got stuck for quite some time.

I used to be the kind of guy that would use the BB as a reference rather than simply follow the suggestions provided. That may be hard to believe, but I couldn't seem to get my arms around the fact that my life would be different beyond anything I ever imagined by simply reading & apply what's contained in 164 pages of a book written by 100 drunks. Deep in the back of mind, I thought there had to be an angle or some trick to it all.

Here's something good I heard on a tape or from other AA's .... look at the BB as a recipe for your favorite cake. Everything you need to make that cake exactly the way you like it, is there. But ... if you decide that you want to add to the recipe and lets say use 3 eggs instead of 2, or 2 cups of flour instead of 3, you're changing the recipe. It's certainly your right and your choice but in the end, it's doubtful you'll be eating the cake that you enjoy.

Turns out for me after all these years, the cake I enjoy eating is the same cake that the original 100 AA's ended up writing a recipe for. May seem really simplistic, but I guess that's the point ... it is simple. I got no problem with other materials as a reference when it comes to recovery. If it educates me and keeps me learning, them I'm all in. But like I said ... I know what the recipe is for the cake I love. In taking the steps yourself, my hopes are you've come to the same conclusion.

One last comment ... you mentioned you're close to completing the steps, which is awesome. As you know, you never really complete them ... you just continue living them a day at a time. As you begin taking another through the steps, use the recipe that's provided & proven to work. Share how the cakes you've made in doing the same, have turned out. You do that, then the God of my understanding, will have you enjoying your cake even more.

I wish you much luck & success with your prospect as well as for you too.

[Ago]

This is just for me

I "do" the steps verbatim out of the Big Book

Precisely how we have recovered is how I do it.

the big book actually has step by step instructions in it, if you break it down, no pun intended

I read the book with my sponsee working the step as we come to it. I read the 12 and twelve with my sponsee as well to assist with the step in conjunction with the big book, but I feel it's there to augment the big book, not replace it.

Steps one and two are pages prefaces to page 60 at C God could and would if he were sought, One is on page 30, I don't remember where I point out step two off the top off my head, I do that piecemeal

Came
came to
came to believe
Power greater then yourself (can be group, any power "greater then yourself)
restore to sanity (admit insanity)

step 3 page 60 being convinced to "next" on the bottom of page 63
step four "next" to page 71
step five 72 to 75
six starts at "returning home" on 75
seven when ready on 76 to "we have then completed step seven
eight and nine Now on 76 to this thought on 84
ten this thought to "step eleven" on 85
eleven through page 88
chapter seven is twelve

I finish reading the book with my sponsee

the instructions are clear and concise, I left some stuff out, fill that in with your own experience strength and hope, and welcome to being rocketed to the fourth dimension, which is what happened for me when I started sponsoring.

I just dashed this off off the top of my head, so please feel free to correct me if I am wrong or left anything out guys

[Kallista]

Here's how I learned to do it:

"Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" (12 X 12) was written as a guide for sponsors on how to work with others. Each step has its own section. You a nd your sponsee could read each step in the 12 X 12 and talk over the reading. Then you can do the steps according to the instruction in the Big Book.

[Sugah]

What does your sponsor suggest?

Peace & Love,
Sugah

[CarolD]

Have you read the official AA guideline on sponsorship?
"Questions and Answers on Sponsorship"

Most meetings have it on the literature rack

Hmm...I am assumeing you are following the AA program?

Welcome to SR ...

[navysteve]

The first time through the steps I use nothing but the Big Book. As I grow with a sponsee I use the Big Book as the foundation and add to it. What I add depends on the sponsee. We often times use Oxford Group writings, the 12 and 12, the NA BAsic Text ( if they are an addict). I also like to explain the steps to a new man like this:

Step 1. Defines the problem
Step 2. Defines the solution
Step 3-11 Deliver you at step 12 ( which is a promise in and of itself)

[jimhere]

We know what you are thinking. You are saying to yourself: "I'm jittery and alone. I couldn't do that." But you can. You forget that you have just now tapped a Source of Power much greater than yourself. To duplicate, with such backing what we have accomplished is only a matter of willingness, patience, and labor.
-Alcoholics Anonymous, page 163

You have an experience with the steps right? And you have a Big Book right? That is all you need. Just show them the same way your sponsor showed you. You can't go wrong. The book is the bullshit sifter.
Jim

Big Book references from Alcoholics Anonymous, First Edition

[lizw]

R u serious?

What's 'wrong' with showing the new man what you've just done?

[Tazman53]

I take a man through the steps the same way I was taken through the steps by my sponsor.

I sit down with them and starting at "The Doctors Opinion" we read the BB together, I share my ES&H with him, I answer his questions, I ask him questions as they arise out of the BB.

We take the steps together, we start with step one and go through all the steps in order. We pray where it says to pray and he writes where it says to write.

I do give reading assignments for them out of the BB, in addition I will give them things to read that I have found helpful. I also give them questions to ponder and pray about and tell them to call me if they wish to discuss the questions.

Keep in mind that when some one ask you to sponsor them it is because they want what you have! Give them what you have the same way it was given to you, pretty simple huh!

[sugErspun]

I have to agree. Sit down with your sponsee - open the Big Book to the title page and read slowly - turn statements into questions (ie - Am I as hopeless as Bill? In the preceeding chapters, have I learned something about alcoholism?). Do the things it says to do (prayers, writing).

The book is a wonderful guide. The 12x12 I find is helpful in delving deeper into some of the 'terms' - it was very helpful for me at step 7 and learning what AA means by 'humility' for example.

Ladera Ranch?.....Very close.

Welcome.

[RufusACanal]

Adam's suggestion is excellent; I would add a dictionary to help understand words that maybe a stumbling block. Nothing works like effort!

[barb dwyer]

Whar Sugah Said and what Carol said.

Then pray about it...

and do what SPIRIT says.