Twelve Steps

Was browsing around in a bookshop when I found M Scott Peck's 'The Road Less Travelled and Beyond'. i had just completed the firstbook (same title, without the 'beyond') and it had blown my mind. {Thank you A!! }

In this browsing copy, I was struck by what Peck proposed as an ideal church community. He suggested that Alcoholics Anonymous 12 step programme is actually an ideal template for everyone - because we are all addicts in one way or another.

We worship ourselves, money, romance, hobbies, children, pleasure, work.......

I thought there is enormous truth in that.
These are the 12 steps, and a mix of Peck's suggestions and my adaptations.

The 12 Steps
Step ONE :
AA : We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives had become unmanageable
Church : We admit we are powerless over our addiction to sin - that our lives are unmanageable ('for all have sinned and falled short of the glory of God')

Step TWO:
AA: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity
Church : We have to believe that God and His Spirit is the only one who can restore us to sanity. (Not human rules and regulations)

Step THREE :
AA : Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God Church : Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God despite our lack of understanding of Him, in the face of His awesome mystery.

Step FOUR :
AA : Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
Church : Make a continual searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves - not of others

Step FIVE:
AA : Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs
Church : Admit to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs (Guess this is what 'accountability' is. but what courage and brokeness it requires.
'Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.' James 5:16)

Step SIX :
AA: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character
Church : Become entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
(I think if most of us really search within ourselves, we will find that we want to hold on to some of these'defects' due to the perverse pleasures that they bring. )

Step SEVEN:
AA: Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings
Church : Humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings (Very much linked to step 6)

Step EIGHT:
AA: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all
Church : Make a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all
(Gosh, how many of us are actually willing to do this? It's true that pride is the worst sin of all..)


Step NINE :
AA : Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others
Church : Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others (Again, many of us hide behind convenient church structures and false niceties instead of doing this.)

Step TEN :
AA: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it
Church : Continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong, promptly admit it (i guess many of us become too self-sufficient and self-righteous over time to be able to do this)

Step ELEVEN :
AA :Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out
Church : Seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out (One of the most beautiful, practical and most humble definitions of prayer I have seen)

Step TWELVE:
AA : Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs
Church : 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:18 - 19