26. AA's spiritual "conversion" process helps millions

By Tom O'Connell

The program of Alcoholics Anonymous grew out of the Oxford Group movement which had helped many drunks recover in the early years of this century. Furthermore, the AA pioneers not only used Oxford Group spiritual principles when developing the Twelve Steps, they also had the advice and counsel of Rev. Sam Shoemaker, one of the Oxford movement's founders in the U.S. when it spread to this country from Europe.

It's such a pleasure to go back to literature from other times and learn about AA's formation from one who had a key role in AA's birth. In "The Spiritual Angle," in a 1995 AA Grapevine magazine, Shoemaker writes, "There are four factors, it seems to me, in all genuine spiritual awakening: conversion, prayer, fellowship, and witness."

First, he describes "conversion" as the place where "one turns toward God, where one begins to want to be honest about oneself in the light of one's faith." Saying he is not talking about perfection, just the beginning of the search for it, Shoemaker asks the reader to picture a crowd in a railway station, hearing trains and names of stations. "Conversion is getting on the train and moving away from where you were."

Next, he explains "prayer" as the place where "we get in touch anew with God and His power. God's power is always there, as there is always potential electricity in a wire plugged into a socket....But you do not get the power till you close the circuit by turning the switch." Spiritual awakening involves discovering how powerful prayer is.

The third factor in awakening is "fellowship" when people who know they have a great need, "gather to find its answer in worship toward God and fellowship with one another." Emphasizing healing, he says, "The church is not a museum; it is a hospital."

Finally, when he talks about "witness" he says it comes "by life and by word." So it's important to walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. He says spiritual experiences change us so deeply on the inside that it begins to show on the outside, and this intrigues other people. Then when they ask questions about this change, that's the time to witness. "We do not preach to others. We do not talk down to them. We do not point to ourselves as the answer. But we do share those beginnings of victory that we know."

In a fascinating absolute statement, he says, "Every real believer must engage in Twelfth Step work if he is to keep spiritually alive. To me, AA is one of the great signs of spiritual awakening in our time. It is experimental and experiential in nature, not dogmatic; but none can doubt that God has made AA and today inspires it and keeps it growing."

Long before the Twelve Steps had been adopted by people with other addictions,  Shoemaker said, "I believe that AA will go on serving men and women as long as it may be needed, if it keeps open to God for inspiration, and open to people for service."

Also, he predicted that AA's way of dealing with "the ever-present problem of human nature" would have an impact on medicine, psychiatry, corrections, and the church itself. He was right. Today we have mutual help groups for all kinds of human problems, and  many of them got their impetus and inspiration from the God-given program of AA.

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