On Sunday there was an article in the Los Angeles Times
written by a journalist who traveled Interstate 10 from California to Florida visiting local chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous to discover how they differ, or stay the same, throughout the country. An AA member herself, she had an insider’s view and I found many of her comments very insightful in understanding what I believe is the real role of the church in America – something I’ve always felt was more akin to a typical AA meeting than what passes for church in many houses of worship on Sunday. Though the writer is a self-proclaimed atheist – something I thought was as rare in AA as an atheist in a foxhole – I still found her experience and her sentiment close to what should be much more prevalent in most churches.
Take for instance her comment: “We don’t come to AA to see through each other, but to see each other through.”
Have you noticed how in many churches, everybody’s business is usually someone else’s? We are all such experts on how everyone else is doing or not doing that we have little time to face into ourselves. And when we do, isn’t it amazing how well we are all doing under the circumstances? Just try coming really late to church and feel the eyes staring right through you. Everyone’s trying to see through everyone else, when what we really want and need is more people to help see us through.
There is a communal sense of failure and need in AA that, because of the presence of sin in all of us, should mirror what we encounter in a spiritual setting as well. Church should be as safe for sinners as AA is for alcoholics.
With zero tolerance for alcohol, and yet a commitment to brutal honesty about the last time one succumbed to it, there is a very real model of how Christians should be dealing with each other. Zero tolerance for sin, and yet 100% truth telling. It’s a tall order, but the presence of AA chapters across Interstate 10 proves it isn’t impossible. What balances this out is everyone’s need for each other. There’s no such thing as a lone ranger in recovery. If you’re in recovery, you’ve got company.
How ironic that our atheistic observer wrote about a Christian she encountered in one of her cross-country meetings that this woman had been sober since 1999, “and never came to AA because she asked the Lord to take away her desire to drink, and he did, and the Lord can do anything, and thank the Lord.” To which the journalist commented, “I’m not sure why she’s here.”
And I’m still wondering the same thing.
John Fischer The Catch 
Brother John,
Is not this Christian woman present at AA to return her gratitude for God’s grace? Was she just giving other the love God gave her?
Seeing other through? Could you expand this some?
Shalom,
JTB
Actually, it seems pretty clear to me that the Christian lady was probably there for one of two reasons. Either (a) she wasn’t nearly as confident in her recovery as she talked, or (b) she was perfectly confident in it, and was there to “evangelize.” I would hope that we believers could avoid the “fakery” inherent in (a) — not that we do a very good job of that — but (b) seems to me a perfectly valid reason for being in AA or in church. Sometimes, we in the church need to be evangelized and converted as much as any unbeliever. If you’ve really been healed of your sin by the Lord, I need to hear that — at least if you can communicate it to me without making me think you’re claiming superman status!
John Thanks so much for todays catch. I have to say it caught me! LoL! As a recovering pastors kid and alcoholic I wholeheartedly agree! If God fixes everything why would we need Him or the group. I have to say I have never felt the acceptance in church that I have felt in meetings. This message was meant for me today. I gave into temptation over the holidays and need to go admit it. Dang it it’s so hard to do. I just picked up my year chip in October. Please God Give Me the Courage to Change the Things I Can and Help me to remember that all i have is the present…one day at a time with His Help!
I hope you’re still attending meetings regularly. Sounds like you may want to hoof it down there right away. What a wonderful resource it must be to have people to encourage you and pick you up when you fall. That’s entirely my point, that we need church to be a place where we are always welcome unconditionally.
By the way, You just did admit it. You just need to admit it to someone in person now.
Just keep coming back!
Thanks John I went to a speaker meeting last night! It was so amazing the speaker shared that he got sober when Bill Wilson was stil alive! He actually met him on several occasions. He mentioned te sunlight of the Spirit that radiated out from Bill and gave his opinion that with out the Spirit it impossible to experience all that AA and recovery has to offer which includes peace and joy! How is that for some evangelism right inside the doors of AA! He even mentions the 3rd step prayer as being the catalyst to the Spirit! “god offer myself to you to do your will free me from the bondage of self that I may do thy will.”. Amen
I think Mr Wilson was very smart not to identify the Higher Power. AA would then have been identified as a Christian thing and its reach would have been greatly limited, especially in these last few years where Christians have been politically labeled. This way, God is free to work with those who are open and people are not forced to believe a certain way.
I’m a little bit confused by the last paragraph…are you trying to say that the Christian sober woman was not being honest? Maybe the Lord had taken away her desire to drink but she reached a point in her journey where she felt she needed the support of a community, maybe she was there to support others in their journey…
Maybe i’m misunderstanding what you’re saying…
Stick around for tomorrow.
I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior at age 7 (I’m now 56) and joined AA in 1990 and Al-anon in 2002. I have struggled mightily with a resentment against the Church because I observed much of what you wrote about the difference between the Church and my 12 step meetings. My Higher Power (whom I choose to call God) delivered me from this resentment with a simple truth: people attend church for lots of reasons, but people attend 12 step groups for one reason – they have given up on their own strategies for living:
“The philosophy of self-sufficiency is not paying off. Plainly enough, it is a bone-crushing juggernaut whose final achievement is ruin.
Therefore, we who are alcoholics can consider ourselves fortunate indeed. Each of us has had his own near-fatal encounter with the juggernaut of self-will, and has suffered enough under its weight to be willing to look for something better. So it is by circumstance rather than by any virtue that we have been driven to A.A., have admitted defeat, have acquired the rudiments of faith, and now want to make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to a Higher Power.” Bill W. – 12 steps and 12 traditions p. 37
Now I am comfortable to belong and serve in both societies as long as I remember where I am and who I’m with.
This is very insightful. Thank you!
Hi John,
Thanks for that insight. We are all still sinners and need to support each other.
Our pastor was talking about being an advocate for others this past Sunday (among other things). Defending, helping, and (if I dare use the word) edifying. This fits right in with that and adds amazing clarity.
Blessings,
Tom
P.S. — This post also reminded me of “Beggar”. That song is one of my favorites, as performed by somebody we both know… 🙂
Once in a while it is good to start church with, “Welcome to a meeting of Sinaholics. My name is John.” Remind your pastors that is the tone they can choose to set. Others will follow (or leave if they have other reasons for coming).
Someone once said (possibly you, John) that if you turn up late to church, you are frowned upon, but if you turn up late to an AA meeting, they stop whatever they’re doing and welcome you, embrace you and tell how great it is that you’ve made it today.
Interesting that I received an email this morning from a friend, to which I very nearly sent a friendly but “smart/sarcastic” response, but after reading “see each other through”, it changed the perspective and tone of reply. Little things can make such a big difference in life.
Maybe a clue about the returning AA lady, is that alcoholics are never cured, they are always in “recovery”. Like Christians, we are never cured of sin, we are always in recovery mode and hence require regular “treatments” in church to maintain our recovery program – together with the associated love, care and support for the journey.
I just wanted to comment on the idea that alcoholism and addiction are the same as ‘sin.’ Those of us who are addicts do great harm in our disease – often without knowing it at the time. We spend much of our recovery dealing with those ‘sins’ and repairing ourselves and our relations with the world. But being an alcoholic is a disease. And please be careful to separate the disease from the person. We don’t go to meetings because we are sinners. We go because we have a disease that needs lifelong treatment. And meetings are as important to us as insulin for the diabetic. My God doesn’t have to forgive me for being an addict. It is often said that ‘it isn’t our fault that we have this disease, but it is our responsibility to treat it.’ We work hard at not being judged. So I just wanted to make that distinction.
Yes. Thank you for this distinction. Marti pointed out to me that some may have gotten that impression. When I make correlations between AA and church, it is not a metaphor that works across the board (i.e., addiction does not = sin as you pointed out), but I do see similarities in the attitudes we need to have toward ourselves and others. It’s the attitudes of honesty, acceptance and brother-sisterhood that we need to foster and Christians can learn from AA in this regard.