WakeUp

At a meeting awhile ago, we were talking about Step 12, and people were saying it's walking over to a newcomer and shaking their hand. We have an elderly member who can't drive anymore and some say it's going to pick ___up for a meeting that is 12 Step work.

There was talk around here last year about people who just write their phone number on the phone list, and believing that's 12 Step work.

Sponsoring others is obviously 12 Step work.

12 Step calls, don't have any experience with that.

What say you, what is trhe 12th Step carrying the message mean to you?
(Meaning how do you carry it?)

PaperDolls

12 step work includes helping with set up, making coffee, sharing my ESH, introducing myself to and welcoming newcomers, helping those in need, and sponsorship. Some days helping with set up is the best I can do .... other days I'm more spiritually fit.

rockworm

If we look at the 12th Step, it says "Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of the steps, we tried to carry this message to other alcoholics and practice these principles in all our affairs."

The message to be carried is the spiritual awakening as the result of the steps. I can do this according to the 7th Chapter, Working with Others.

The setting up of meetings, driving people, making coffee, and greeting as service work that can contribute to the carrying of the message. but it is not 12th step work.


All quotes from the book Alcoholics Anonymous, 1st edition.

Boleo

"Self-sacrifice for others is the foundation stone of your recovery. A kindly act once in a while isn't enough. You have to act the Good Samaritan every day,"

(from page 44 of the Multi-lithographic Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous)

keithj

In the context of other current threads, I don't need to get into the 'people were saying' ideas.

Ch. 7 starts by telling us that, after we have had a spiritual awakening as the result of the Steps, the best way to avoid drinking again is intensive work with other alcoholics. This is out 12th suggestion, carry this message to other alcoholics.

I can discuss what 'intensive' means, or I can read the chapter and find out what they meant by intensive work with other alcoholics and carrying the message.

The directions contained there are probably what was meant by carry this message. Those directions are Step 12. So technically, (not that it matters), other kinds of service work that doesn't involve carrying this message to alcoholics probably isn't, by definition, 12th Step work.

Then again, neither is sitting in the room waiting for someone to come to me for sponsorship. We seek out the new man, find a prospect, and share our uniquely useful experience.

*Squawrk* It's in the book. It's in the book. *Squawrk

My experience has been that I get a lot of benefit out of all kinds of service work, in and out of AA. I get way more back than I put into it. But I can not stay sober on service work alone.

To see others recover, and then carry this message to the next person, is something I would not have wanted to miss.

intention

In terms of working the steps I carry this message - I have had a spiritual awakening as a result of working these steps.

But there is a broader sense to the term "12th step work" which is used in AA and I understand that. I've even used the term myself.

I would guess that anyone who is actually working the other 11 steps would realise that step 12 is more than just helping others but helping others is part of it.

JeremiahS

The more I "Practice these principles in all my affairs" the better I am suited to "trying to carry this message". One directly affects my effectiveness at the other and when I suck at practicing this program in daily life I'm not well suited for carrying the message as I could be.

I really believe working with others enables me to continue to hold onto sobriety so I should try to be good at it.

Tommyh

good topic
first,to incorporate these steps into my way of daily living
second,to help other alkies and non alkies who want it, into the same way of living
third,to carry the message thru PI,CF,HI and other work already set up in AA inter groups,districts and areas

there is a lot more to AA than just going to meetings and looking for a new guy
I need to get out and carry the message to others and let the community know we are there to help if necessary,to make ourselves available should they want us

Tommyh

KCB,I would like to hear that cd,can you pm me the name and I`ll try and find it,
also,Jack P from California made a talk many years ago I think is good on carrying the message,and he was one of the first to carry it in his area.He has a good talk on what we call today H & I

RobertHugh

12 step work is carrying a message that has depth and weight to the hopeless alcoholic. "Don't Drink And Go To Meetings" is not a message that has depth and weight, particularly if the message in those meetings is "Don't Drink and Go To Meetings."

And, at what point does "Easy Does It" become institutionalized apathy?

Knowing slogans, making coffee, sharing about your sick dog-- this is not 12 step work.

Relating your experience with the transformation offered by the steps-- inventory and amends, specifically-- is 12 step work. It's offering true hope to the hopeless.

If you don't have a message that is based in your experience with the 12 steps, chances are that your message is about willpower-- stay away from the first drink, think the drink through, etc. I hope these work for you. However, this sort of advice will often kill the true, chronic alcoholic.

Harry01854

Some very good replies to this topic. It is really good to see people who are more than willing to carry the message of the 12 Steps of Recovery.

When I asked my sponsor to help guide me through the Steps, the first thing he asked me was, "will you be willing to help another alcoholic through the process of the Steps." Of course I said yes, but I also meant it. I never did ask him, but getting to know him after a while, I really believe he would have turned me down if I would have said no.

Doing the service work though helped me in many ways also. Helped me feel part of something that is greater than us all.

This is a New Way of Living, that really works.

Harry

DayTrader

I'd like to turn that into a banner and hang it across the entrance way to a couple meetings I frequent.

CarolD

I consider useing on line recovery sites to be a valuable
expansion of my 12th Step work.....

I've been doing that since '92...if anyone thinks I'm incorrect
so be it. It's not up for debate.
I'll continue to follow my belief.

Are we once again....drifting into
"My meetings are crappy?"

My experience is that the ones I frequent
are solid solution based.....because the members are.
It's the members who make the meeting guideline.

Chops

Alot of people come into some of my meetings and talk recovery...... They never seem to help pick up the hall but do drink the coffee.

Stuff like making coffee, putting out the literature, and picking up the trash should not be minimized. Maybe I am taking it wrong. If the issue is the semantics of 12th step "work" then whatever. However, it is helpful to have a hall set up in which some people can come to and hear the message.

For me, a message of "depth and weight" is one in which someone doesn't just talk AA but contributes to the running of the group. Actions not words resonate with me.

"Don't drink, go to meetings and ask for help" was a message with depth and weight for me. Especially since the people who said it to me had been helping drunks get sober for 30-35 years.

And I was a real helpless alcoholic when I heard it.

It sure was work getting to the meeting early to help set up and staying late to clean up. And you know what, it sure helped this drunk.

Furthermore, some people may not be comfortable sponsoring someone or leading a BB discussion, for them to find a little job in the meeting like reading how it works, collecting money for the raffle tickets, or cleaning up may help them feel a part of something. I have talked to drunks that say their AA job was the first thing they did responsibly in a long time. I know my AA "job" taught me alot about the fellowship and myself. So if someone gets a good feeling, feels a part of rather than on the outside looking in and wants to call their AA job 12th step work, then fine by me.

Seriously, feels like some people want to constantly say how others are not doing this or that right. Must make you feel good.

Music

There's a story about St. Francis and a young monk that goes like this. Francis asked the young monk one morning if he'd like to go into the village to preach. The young monk said, "of course." So, they walked into the village and greeted some people, stopped for a minute and chatted with others and then returned to the monestary. The young monk asked St. Francis why they didn't do any preaching. Francis's answer was, "Always carry the message and when necessary, use words." The message of the 12th step is passed on in a lot of different ways. I've known people who talked a good line but still "acted" in ways that aren't condusive to passing along a good AA message. I was told by my first sponsor that I may be the only copy of the Big Book a person may ever read. This tells me that I need to not only talk the 12th step but act it as well. I suspect most of you have never been on a 12 step call, getting up in the early morning and going to someone's house you don't know to sit and listen to them talk, watch them throw up, cry and swear up and down they'll never do it again while pouring out all the booze in the house. Speaking at open meetings, sharing at closed meetings, sponsoring, carrying people to and from meetings, opening the church an hour early so the meeting can start on time, making coffee, arranging the chairs and tables and back in the day, emptying and cleaning the ashtrays are all ways of carrying the message of AA. Notice that some give us a chance to talk, and others give a chance to act out of gratitude for being sober.

keithj

There is no need to debate who is right or wrong. Just like the all the other steps, it's written down for us and I don't have to figure it out for myself. Chapter 7 tells me all about what is meant by Step 12.

Chops

Did I mention a debate? What I said was that others seem to pay special attention and constantly point out what others are doing that is wrong. So a part of their message that has "weight and depth" is that someone else's message is without weight and depth.

DayTrader

I haven't been on a 12th step call to someone's house but I don't have a license for another couple years. Nobody in the groups I frequent has talked about being on one recently either. That's one of the things I'm looking forward to doing once I can drive again - getting my name on the list at Intergroup.

I'm already on the "call me anytime list" at intergroup but haven't received a call......yet.



Edit.......sounds like maybe I need to make an announcement before my next meetings to see if anyone who's on those lists would like a riding partner.

RobertHugh

I am not judging anyone else's means of staying sober. I am, however, attuned to instances when people misrepresent the very specific nature of what AA is. I used to think it was "subject to interpretation" and that I could "work my own program." I've since learned that AA is a precise, specific thing. The vague, "do what ever keeps you sober" program is a product of rehabs.

So, to each his own and all that stuff. Really. BUT: When someone walks in a door that has "Alcoholics Anonymous" written on it, shouldn't there be some responsibility of the people in that room to live up to what that program is? Or at least be aware of it? The message I heard in AA rooms for 11 years bore very little resemblence to the message that is discussed in the Big Book. The newcomer doesn't realize this-- unless they read the Big Book.

The "depth and weight" phrase in the Big Book has a very specific reference point-- it's in the Doctor's Opinion, and it's Silkworth admitting that "frothy emotional appeals seldom suffice." That we are powerless over the pleas of our family, children, etc. to stop drinking. We need more.

I believe if I am in AA, and representing AA, I must carry a message that stays true to the text of AA. Absolutely, making coffee and going to meetings and cleaning ash trays are critical. No one is suggesting otherwise. But the program of AA does not suggest that these alone will keep you sober.

Music

No one thing in AA keeps anyone sober. It's a combination of a lot of things that keep people sober. No one "represents" AA. At least no one I've ever met. I represent myself and what AA has done for me. No one represents themselves in the same way. Like I was told once, "Some show you what to do and others show you what not to do." Since I'm not a robot and my interpretation of the Big Book pretty much depends on where I'm at in my sobriety, it stands to reason I'm not going to have the same message as someone else might have. We might be reading the same book, but we're not necessarily on the same page. There are many reference points in the Big Book. The Dr.'s Opinion happens to be in the front of the book where it would appeal to the person who's still drinking, or thinking about not drinking and looking for answers and information. The program of AA is the same as it always has been. Very few people work it the same way....thank God! I do work my own program and I do what it takes to keep me sober. My first sponsor told me if I tried to work his program, it might get me drunk. I know today what he meant was that if I do things exactly the same way as he did, it might not work for me. I have to find my own way to work the steps with the help of my sponsor.