Alcoholics Anonymous

“O Lord my God, I cry to You, and you will heal me.” Psalm 29:3

Have a problem with alcohol? There’s a solution.

Saint Paul’s sponsors a chapter of AA focused on the 11th Step that meets every Monday evening at 6:30 pm in the Education Building. In addition, St. Paul’s hosts several other AA meetings, including men’s group on Tuesday evenings at 7 pm. As a program to be worked, AA is rooted in the fundamentally Christian principles of confessing one’s powerlessness and need for God and then submitting oneself entirely to God.

AA was started in 1935 by a New York stockbroker and an Ohio surgeon who had both been, as they put it, “hopeless drunks.”

The primary purpose of AA is sobriety in the face of addiction to alcohol. If you are struggling or have struggled with alcohol addiction, it is time to get help.  Please do not wait.  Come to the next meeting.  Alcoholics Anonymous has helped millions of people through their time-tested program. You can find additional meetings and support through the Alcoholics Anonymous website HERE.

The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

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.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

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.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Selfishness – self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn’t work. Next, we decided that hereafter in this drama of life God was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father and we are His children. Established on such a footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs. More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life.

Many of us said to our Maker, as we understood Him: “God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help, of Thy Power, Thy Love and Thy Way of Life. May I do Thy will always!”

We thought well before taking this step, making sure we were ready; that we could at last abandon ourselves utterly to Him.

– The BIG BOOK, the basic text of Alcoholics Anonymous

Have a Question or Want to Learn More?

To learn more about Alcoholics Anonymous and the Twelve Step Program visit their website below.