BG2G "Church" / Chapters
BG2G Church/Chapters is where the 12-Step Program Culture and Absolute Truth combine to resurrect the Acts Church Paradigm. We believe that there has never been a more urgent NEED for continuous effective and permanent unity of Christian brothers and sisters. Believers must work together and hang together or else we will fall away in compromise or become so weak as to deny our faith. By understanding and applying the “12-Steps and 12-Traditions” of Alcoholics Anonymous, in everyday Christian-fellowship, we believe the Church will mature and thrive in the midst of the dark times coming to the USA!
Our "Big Book" is the Christian Bible. Our meeting objectives will always be to provide a non-confrontational space to explore scriptures and freely express our thoughts and opinions for our personal welfare and spiritual growth. By promoting and expanding a fellowship model that incorporates the spiritual legacy framework of Alcoholics Anonymous, we will unite the body of Christ in America under a common purpose: To grow in the knowledge of the Only True God, in Jesus Christ whom God has sent, and help our members bring glory to God with our resources and efforts (John 17:3 & Romans 12:1). We believe that the collective power and wisdom of community conversations can take everyone involved to deeper insight of self, others, life and God.
Our "Big Book" is the Christian Bible. Our meeting objectives will always be to provide a non-confrontational space to explore scriptures and freely express our thoughts and opinions for our personal welfare and spiritual growth. By promoting and expanding a fellowship model that incorporates the spiritual legacy framework of Alcoholics Anonymous, we will unite the body of Christ in America under a common purpose: To grow in the knowledge of the Only True God, in Jesus Christ whom God has sent, and help our members bring glory to God with our resources and efforts (John 17:3 & Romans 12:1). We believe that the collective power and wisdom of community conversations can take everyone involved to deeper insight of self, others, life and God.
THE 12 STEPS
Keep the Believer right with God.
Keep the Believer right with God.
- We admit we are powerless over sin, and that we can not manage our own lives without God's help.
- We believe that God is real and that God sent Jesus to restore humanity to sanity, love, joy and peace.
- We make a decision to turn our will and our life over to Jesus as our Personal Lord and Savior.
- We make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Become entirely ready to have God remove all our defects of character.
- Humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.
- Make a list of all persons we have harmed and become willing to make amends to them all.
- Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
- Continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong promptly admit it.
- Seek God through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with Him, praying only for knowledge of His will and the power to carry it out.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we share our experience strength and hope with others, and practice these principles in all our affairs.
THE 12 TRADITIONS
Keep the Fellowship Alive and Free.
Keep the Fellowship Alive and Free.
The “long form” of AA Traditions as first published in 1946 have been reworded in such a way as to apply specifically to BG2G fellowship groups.
1. Each member of BG2G is but a small part of the Christian Church. BG2G fellowship groups must live or most believers will fall away when persecution comes our way. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority--a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. Our membership ought to include all who need God, honor Truth, and want the 12 Step Way of Life. BG2G membership should never depend upon money or conformity. Any two people gathered together for the purpose of Christian fellowship, education or worship may call themselves a BG2G Group, provided that, as a group, they have no other objective.
4. With respect to its own affairs, each BG2G group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience. But when its plans concern the welfare of neighboring groups also, those groups ought to be consulted. No group or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect BG2G as a whole without conferring with delegates of the greater whole. On such issues our common welfare is paramount.
5. Each BG2G group ought to be a spiritual entity HAVING BUT ONE PRIMARY PURPOSE—to grow in the knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom God has sent. (John 17:3)
6. Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to the BG2G fellowship should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. A BG2G group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to Members, such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the BG2G name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, Member managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside BG2G--and medically supervised. While a BG2G group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. A BG2G group can bind itself to no one.
7. The BG2G group themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members. We think that each group should soon achieve this ideal; that any public solicitation of funds using the name of BG2G is highly dangerous, whether by groups, clubs, hospitals, or other outside agencies; that acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever, is unwise. Then too, we view with much concern those BG2G treasuries which continue, beyond prudent reserves, to accumulate funds for no stated BG2G purpose. Experience has often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority.
8. BG2G should remain forever non-professional. We define professionalism as the occupation of providing spiritual mentoring, teaching, or counseling for fees or hire. But we may employ fellow members where they are going to perform a service for which we might otherwise have to engage non-members. Such services may be well recompensed. But our usual bible studies and "12th Step" work is never to be paid for.
9. Each BG2G groups needs the least possible organization. Rotating leadership is the best. The small group may elect its Secretary, the large group its Rotating Committee, and the groups of a large Metropolitan area their Central or Intergroup Committee, which often employs a full-time Secretary. All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in BG2G are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles; they do not govern. Universal respect is the key to their usefulness.
10. BG2G as a whole, has no opinion on outside controversial issues--particularly those of politics, drugs, or sectarian religion. BG2G opposes no one. Concerning such matters every member is autonomous and assumes full responsibility for their own behavior and speech at all times.
11. Our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think members ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as BG2G members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us.
12. And finally, we of BG2G believe that the principle of Anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of God who presides over us all.
1. Each member of BG2G is but a small part of the Christian Church. BG2G fellowship groups must live or most believers will fall away when persecution comes our way. Hence our common welfare comes first. But individual welfare follows close afterward.
2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority--a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.
3. Our membership ought to include all who need God, honor Truth, and want the 12 Step Way of Life. BG2G membership should never depend upon money or conformity. Any two people gathered together for the purpose of Christian fellowship, education or worship may call themselves a BG2G Group, provided that, as a group, they have no other objective.
4. With respect to its own affairs, each BG2G group should be responsible to no other authority than its own conscience. But when its plans concern the welfare of neighboring groups also, those groups ought to be consulted. No group or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect BG2G as a whole without conferring with delegates of the greater whole. On such issues our common welfare is paramount.
5. Each BG2G group ought to be a spiritual entity HAVING BUT ONE PRIMARY PURPOSE—to grow in the knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom God has sent. (John 17:3)
6. Problems of money, property, and authority may easily divert us from our primary spiritual aim. We think, therefore, that any considerable property of genuine use to the BG2G fellowship should be separately incorporated and managed, thus dividing the material from the spiritual. A BG2G group, as such, should never go into business. Secondary aids to Members, such as clubs or hospitals which require much property or administration, ought to be incorporated and so set apart that, if necessary, they can be freely discarded by the groups. Hence such facilities ought not to use the BG2G name. Their management should be the sole responsibility of those people who financially support them. For clubs, Member managers are usually preferred. But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside BG2G--and medically supervised. While a BG2G group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied. A BG2G group can bind itself to no one.
7. The BG2G group themselves ought to be fully supported by the voluntary contributions of their own members. We think that each group should soon achieve this ideal; that any public solicitation of funds using the name of BG2G is highly dangerous, whether by groups, clubs, hospitals, or other outside agencies; that acceptance of large gifts from any source, or of contributions carrying any obligation whatever, is unwise. Then too, we view with much concern those BG2G treasuries which continue, beyond prudent reserves, to accumulate funds for no stated BG2G purpose. Experience has often warned us that nothing can so surely destroy our spiritual heritage as futile disputes over property, money, and authority.
8. BG2G should remain forever non-professional. We define professionalism as the occupation of providing spiritual mentoring, teaching, or counseling for fees or hire. But we may employ fellow members where they are going to perform a service for which we might otherwise have to engage non-members. Such services may be well recompensed. But our usual bible studies and "12th Step" work is never to be paid for.
9. Each BG2G groups needs the least possible organization. Rotating leadership is the best. The small group may elect its Secretary, the large group its Rotating Committee, and the groups of a large Metropolitan area their Central or Intergroup Committee, which often employs a full-time Secretary. All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in BG2G are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles; they do not govern. Universal respect is the key to their usefulness.
10. BG2G as a whole, has no opinion on outside controversial issues--particularly those of politics, drugs, or sectarian religion. BG2G opposes no one. Concerning such matters every member is autonomous and assumes full responsibility for their own behavior and speech at all times.
11. Our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think members ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as BG2G members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us.
12. And finally, we of BG2G believe that the principle of Anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of God who presides over us all.
Big Book Topic Meeting
In this Open-Bible Discussion Group a passage from the bible is read in context and then open to the floor for thoughts and comments. Bible passages are chosen by the meeting chair-person and there is no schedule to follow; topics are lead by group conscience. There is no cross-talk and no debating during the meeting. All will have to 3-7 minutes to speak uninterrupted and being respectful of group size.
In this Open-Bible Discussion Group a passage from the bible is read in context and then open to the floor for thoughts and comments. Bible passages are chosen by the meeting chair-person and there is no schedule to follow; topics are lead by group conscience. There is no cross-talk and no debating during the meeting. All will have to 3-7 minutes to speak uninterrupted and being respectful of group size.
Foundation Study Meeting
There are only six Christian foundation topics that are discussed and studied extensively at this meeting. [Hebrews 6:1-2: Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.] The basic steps for every Christian is to get a holistic understanding of these six foundational doctrines of Christ:
There are only six Christian foundation topics that are discussed and studied extensively at this meeting. [Hebrews 6:1-2: Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.] The basic steps for every Christian is to get a holistic understanding of these six foundational doctrines of Christ:
- Repentance from Dead Works
- Faith Toward God
- Doctrine of Baptisms (Water/Holy-Spirit/Fire)
- Laying on of Hands
- Resurrection of the Dead
- Eternal Judgment.
Speaker Meeting
This meeting elevates the power of testimony. A recognized servant of the Lord Jesus is asked to share their experience, strength and hope. Speaker testimony outline needs to include or answer the following questions:
This meeting elevates the power of testimony. A recognized servant of the Lord Jesus is asked to share their experience, strength and hope. Speaker testimony outline needs to include or answer the following questions:
- What types of sin did they personally struggle with?
- How have they witnessed Jesus and/or the Word of God "save" them?
- What are they doing now to Bring Glory to God?
- Why do they continue to follow Jesus?
Church Meeting
This meeting is focused on corporate worship and prayer. All participants are encouraged to bring a prayer request, praise report, worship song, poem or psalm to share. Meeting structure is governed by group conscience.
This meeting is focused on corporate worship and prayer. All participants are encouraged to bring a prayer request, praise report, worship song, poem or psalm to share. Meeting structure is governed by group conscience.
"When the only hierarchy is the Bible and the freedom to speak our personal experiential truth…
Denominational walls don’t exist!
And where everyone is personally responsible for their own beliefs…
Doctrinal Controversies don’t divide!"
Denominational walls don’t exist!
And where everyone is personally responsible for their own beliefs…
Doctrinal Controversies don’t divide!"