Just like it's possible to go to a gym for the camaraderie but never pick up a weight or do any cardio, it's possible to go to AA and not work the AA program. I suppose the better question would be why go to the gym and NOT work out though? Funny thing, I did exactly that in AA for quite a while and thought it was perfectly healthy. lol.
I went mostly for what I could get......what I could take.......from the meetings. Sure, I'd share "my story" but that was mostly because I wanted to fit and since that's what it seemed ppl in AA did, I did it too. I also really loved to talk about myself under the guise that it probably helped someone - quite the ego I had.
That time in AA kinda did actually work for me. If nothing else, it was a step up from the way I'd been behaving previously. Eventually though, it got stale and boring. I guess I started to become that boy in the back of the book, whistling to keep up my spirits because I wasn't TRULY happy about my sobriety or my life.
I hadn't crossed that second invisible line in AA. The first was from being a normal drinker into an alcoholic. The second line is from being a taker to a giver. But what would I give, I thought. Surely just talking about myself wasn't remaking my life like I hoped it would.
It became apparent to me that I didn't really have that "message of depth and weight." I had stories and some experience but it was pretty apparent to me that I didn't REALLY have the experience to truuuuly be of help to a struggling alcoholic. Simply saying "I'll tell him what I did and if he gets it he gets it, and if not then not" wasn't enough for me. I decided right then and there that maybe what I needed was the ability to carry the AA message, over an above just sharing my story, to someone looking to recover. That made sense to me. New ppl were probably coming to AA to hear if AA had a solution, especially since AA promises that it does have a solution, rather than to hear the Mike-story and Mike's personal solution/program. I went back through the work and really paid attention. I looked for all the stuff I skipped and/or skimmed over and made a ton of mental notes of what was happening to me as I progressed. I wanted to be able to share my experience in working the AA program rather than just tell my stupid story ooonneee mooooore tiiiiime.
It was pretty cool because that was a major turning point in recovery for me. Getting sober was great and all but actually having a deep experience with the steps and ultimately deepening an actual relationship with God trumped that by a mile. The icing on the top is now when I go to a meeting I can talk, from experience, about how the steps were designed to work, how they work now, and how they worked in the past. I can actually be a guide for someone, if that's what they want, down the path of recovery because I've walked it many many times and I'm intimately familiar with it.
The book mentions working with new ppl, watching the light come on in their eyes and witnessing their whole life change being an experience we would not want to miss and boy, are they right. So back to the original question in this thread - Could one go to AA and not work the program - sure. But man, you'd miss out, as I did, on the best part OF the program.