AA Does Church Better?

January 21, 2012 | Category: Life is all spiritual, The Closet

In the last post (I’m looking into AA) we saw the first three steps from the vantage point of the mission of the church. So in light of that same thought process let’s look at the last nine.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Examine yourself for sin (Lamentations 3:40, 1 Corinthians 11:28)

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Confess that sin to God and to other believers (James 5:16)

These next two actions are attitudes we should be desiring so as to see our self in the light of our sin, and desire to become more like Christ (1 Corinthians 15:49)

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

The next two, likewise, also  go together.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. This is Biblical forgiveness/reconciliation. (Matthew 5:23)

I love these last three!

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. The desire to stay right with God, to depend on Him (John 15:5-6)
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. We make our wants God’s wants, and our mission God’s mission. (Luke 11:2, Matthew 28:19-20)

Step 12 is really the conclusion of the previous steps. It’s the result of the first eleven. As in the first step I’m swapping out alcoholic for sinner.
12.Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to sinners, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

I have to believe that if the church applied these twelve principles to their lives we would be much more like the church that Christ intends for us to be.

What do you think?

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