Can I Attend A Church Service Instead Of Aa

When I was 28 years old, I realized I was an alcoholic.

In my desperation, I was willing to exercise anything to finish the railroad train wreck my life had get. I went to an AA meeting, and I went to church.

The only reason I went to church was to proceed my calendar booked with "good" things. I prepared myself to receive dirty looks and whispers from the churchy people. And so I got out the Yellow Pages (information technology was 2005; the iPhone wasn't effectually yet).

I randomly picked a church that turned out to have gratuitous coffee and an auditorium that looked more like a picture show theater than the Catholic sanctuaries I had seen as a kid. The sermon I heard that day was everything I needed to hear. It was like God put the whole affair together just for me. I cried in the back row and left excited.

I was "all in" on church and God after that kickoff weekend. I wanted as much as I could become, and I did my best to be involved. I tried serving. I tried to find a group. I even went on a mission trip. Merely it took me viii years of going to church before I would brand my first real church friends.

It felt like everyone knew everyone else already, and I struggled to find where I fit in. Equally an introvert, I struggle with making small talk. I was also a freaking mess. I was self-centered and insecure. Church people made me nervous with their perfect lives and fancy words (they still do). I was immature in both my faith and my emotional chapters. I could barely stand to be around myself and didn't await other people to want to either.

AA, on the other hand, was different. It kept me busy. I was just trying to quit drinking and get my life together, but those people invited me everywhere. We went out to eat after meetings. We went to other people'southward kids' football games. We went to jails and treatment centers to tell our stories. We went on road trips together to see AA meetings in other cities. I was volun-told to help people motion. When I didn't have a driver'due south license, people picked me upwards. When I didn't have money, people paid my mode. When I didn't answer my phone, people knocked on my door. For the get-go time in a long time, I felt like people wanted me around. It was exciting. Information technology was the greatest sense of belonging I accept e'er experienced. I didn't even know I was craving that, just I securely did.

We were all merely following what The Big Volume of Alcoholics Anonymous tells usa:

You are going to run into these new friends in your own community. Near you, alcoholics are dying helplessly similar people in a sinking ship. High and low, rich and poor, these are the futurity fellows of Alcoholics Bearding. Amidst them, you will make lifelong friends. You will exist leap to them with new and wonderful ties for you will escape disaster together, and you lot will commence shoulder to shoulder your mutual journeying. So you lot volition know what it ways to give of yourself that others may survive and rediscover life. You volition learn the full meaning of "Love thy neighbour as thyself." (Pages 152-153)

Which is kind of crazy, because the Bible gives this moving picture of a community in Acts 4:32-33:

The whole congregation of believers was united as one—one heart, one mind! They didn't even claim ownership of their ain possessions. No one said, "That'due south mine; you can't take it." They shared everything. The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus, and grace was on all of them.

When I was struggling, I constitute a community like this in AA. I believe it saved my life.

This might sound crazy, merely sometimes I worry well-nigh those who do non struggle with alcohol. Where do they find this acceptance, aid, and purpose?

I accustomed Jesus 13 years ago. Six months later, I took my last beverage. Now, I even work at my church. And I long for the Church building at big to feel the unity and intimacy the Acts ii church had—to experience what I found in AA.

I pray for the Church to wake upwardly and tap into the level of agony that addicts know. The kind of desperation that makes people willing to give upward annihilation—nonetheless culturally acceptable or normal it may exist.

The kind of desperation that pushes u.s.a. out of everything we've ever known to seek community, be vulnerable, and to receive the acceptance and beloved that we require merely are too scared to ask for. You may not struggle with addiction, but we are all every bit broken and drastic for truthful customs. Some of u.s.a. are obviously struggling, and others look like they have it all together. But nosotros're all in need of something we can't fix on our own. The more than we tap into that demand, the more it wakes us up to do and exist the kind of people nosotros were made to be.

Here's what I learned in AA that perchance nosotros could all benefit from:

1. Get a mentor now. In AA, anybody asks, "Who's your sponsor?" when you're new. It's annoying. If you say "I don't have 1 yet," they start introducing you to people. It's your first priority—get a sponsor. It felt weird and incredibly vulnerable to ask someone to be my sponsor, only I got tired of explaining to people why I didn't have i however. So I did information technology. My new sponsor wanted me to call her every day for xxx days and then that I got in the habit of asking her stance before acting on my own. I did it fifty-fifty though I hated it. In the church building, this is called discipleship. What if nosotros were this insistent most mentoring others spiritually? What if we didn't view the church building every bit a place get and go filled up, only a place to encounter people and evidence them how to go filled up? What if nosotros made it a outset priority to make sure everyone was connected to someone who actually cared to see them fully free and stiff enough to exercise the aforementioned for others?

2. The new person is the most important person in the room. Alcoholism and habit is a physical life and death situation. When a new person comes to a meeting, we do any we can to brand sure they are welcomed and feel like they can keep coming. We stand at the door and greet people. We introduce ourselves to anyone nosotros don't know. Nosotros invite people to sit with us without hesitation. This responsibleness is shared by anybody, non just people with name tags. People coming into a relationship with Jesus is actually a life and death situation also. What if the members of the church building felt that desperation for the people coming into their gathering? If you've been to church building in one case before, you can showtime introducing yourself to people who look lost. Help them find the bathroom. Ask them to sit with yous. Ask if they'd like to sit with y'all again next week. Acquire their names. You lot don't have to gear up them, just acknowledge them.

3. Expect for the similarities in people. I was drastic to testify that AA was not for me. I looked at every person I met and establish a reason I was dissimilar from them. This guy had been to prison house, that lady had never been to college, this chick liked Indian food—all reasons I didn't belong there. But when I started looking for similarities, I found them. After practice, I found them more quickly. That guy who'd been to prison really loved his mom and was trying to be a good son. That lady that didn't get to higher does have a job. That chick who liked Indian food as well liked cheeseburgers. At outset glance, I wrote people off because they had different experiences, likes, or lifestyles than me. But when I became intentional well-nigh finding something in mutual, I stopped being so lonely. Jesus prioritized all people from all backgrounds, not but people similar him. The early Church building attracted all kinds of people to Jesus. The more diversity nosotros take in our buildings on Dominicus, the more than we'll grow every bit individuals and equally a movement.

4. Principles over Personalities. We all have a lot of junk we demand to fix in every area of our lives. We are created uniquely past God, and you won't be attracted to anybody you meet. There will be people you cannot stand to be effectually. Information technology's hard, merely AA taught me to become over information technology. It taught me to put my personal preferences aside because the mission is more of import than my comfort level. Yous don't have to be all-time friends with everyone, only don't be a wiggle. One time I heard a pastor say, "Churches love before and after stories, but we're not existent practiced at the 'during' part." People are messy, and everyone is unique both in their personalities and in their maturity. In a span of 10 years, I went from existence an alcoholic, skeptical of church people, to working at a church and even speaking at mom groups. I was a mess. God didn't fix everything at once or fifty-fifty make me aware of everything that needed to change correct away. If nosotros don't embrace people who seem messy, we'll miss out on witnessing the miracles God does in them. And maybe they demand to encounter what God is doing in the states.

Both AA and church are designed to exist gathering places, but an institution cannot provide customs. AA didn't show me all of this considering someone at headquarters organized something from the top down. I experienced it because every single person who showed up at a meeting chose to live it out.

Big meetings or church services can fill up you up and help continue momentum, but to experience all that God has to offering, we take to act less like customers and more like family—a really expert one. When the sh*t hits the fan, who can you call for help? Nosotros need people who know us and know our stories and our struggles. People who can remember our favorite ice cream and bring it over when our boyfriend breaks upwardly with us. People who will exercise our laundry later on nosotros've had a babe. People who volition lend us a car when ours breaks downward. People who will buy groceries when y'all lose your job. People who don't expect for you to ask for help simply simply bring it.

The answer isn't calling your church and telling them what they demand to practice differently. The only way to be a part of this sort of fellowship is to be a practiced fellow. The kickoff movement is upwards to each of us.

Procedure, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to go the ball rolling...

Give-and-take Questions

1. What strikes you about from Heather's article? Why?

2. Which of her four learnings do yous need most, and which do you feel nigh prompted to exercise or be for someone else? Why?

3. Pick ane way this calendar week you tin can human action on something that'south resonating with you. Tell a friend so they can concord you to it.

0 people are discussing these questions

(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

You must include at least one person

Got information technology! Enjoy your discussion.

Wife. Mom. Friend of Bill W. Thinks the best part of anything is planning it. Suspicious of anyone who claims to get a "runner's high."

Can I Attend A Church Service Instead Of Aa,

Source: https://www.crossroads.net/media/articles/aa-and-the-church

Posted by: rosaalent1945.blogspot.com

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