Spiritual 12 Step Program

Many are familiar with the 12 Step program used by alcoholics to stay sober (Alcoholics Anonymous). Twelve-Step programs have expanded to a worldwide movement engaged by many people who want to find solutions to a variety of problems such as overeating, gambling, smoking, sexual promiscuity and other issues. We offer meetings for 12 Step Spiritual Study that combines the 12 steps with the study of the Bible.

This study group considers how the 12 Steps and the Bible are interrelated. There is no attempt to exploit either the 12 Steps or the Biblical message. Each is highly valued in its own right. We are interested in comparing the 12 Steps with the basic Biblical message to see how they can work together to enhance spiritual growth. Whatever conclusions are drawn should be considered tentative. Our study is not scientific in nature, but reflects the experience of people who come weekly to a 12 Step meeting called The Spiritual 12 Step Study. It is our hope that both the 12 Steps and the Bible can work hand in hand to clarify the will of God for those who are interested. During these meetings, we list and discuss the 12 Steps in numerical order and follow each step with a Biblical teaching. After a study of the 12 Steps, we tell our own stories, illustrating what can happen when ordinary people are transformed by 12 Step spirituality undergirded with the Biblical message.

Each meeting is begun with a moment of silence, followed by the Serenity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

Courage to change the things I can

and the wisdom to know the difference.

If you are interested in spiritual growth, you can find it by following the 12 Step program. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop sinning. There are no dues or fees.

In the 12 Step fellowship we share our experience, strength and hope with each other. We do not advise or criticize. We do not condemn or judge. What is said by anyone at these meetings remains at the meeting, where it belongs, within the fellowship of the group.

The 12 Steps for Spiritual Study are:

We admit that we are powerless over sin - that our lives had become unmanageable.
Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.
We make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understand Him.
We make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
We admit to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
We humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings.
We make a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
We make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
We continue to take personal inventory and, when we are wrong, promptly admit it.
Seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps we try to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Those who have diligently followed the 12 Steps have discovered a new way of living, and have found happiness and serenity they have never experienced before. The key ingredients are honesty and willingness. The capacity to be honest with ourselves and the willingness to accept these principles in all of our affairs will eventually enrich and elevate our lives, no matter where or how we begin.

If you want spiritual growth, and are willing to go to any length to get it, we suggest you join us in the practice of the 12 Steps.

For more information, please contact Cindy Dupuie. Telephone 949-370-9843 or Email Cindy.