Stepstudy.org

“The Twelve Steps are a design to change you. They also bring you every Step closer to God.”
Colby B.

HISTORY AND CONTEXT

Alcoholics Anonymous, which earned the moniker “the Big Book” due to the unwieldy size of its first edition, was not used as a guide to recovery from alcoholism until some years after its publication in Cleveland, where a member of the fellowship named Clarence S. began using the book as a way of educating newcomers. In Cleveland, meetings of this now growing fellowship were the first to call themselves Alcoholics Anonymous. Clarence S. and the AA members in Cleveland modeled a style of one-on-one sponsorship in which a member of the fellowship experienced in the Twelve Step program would take a “pigeon,” or newcomer, under his wing, help him adjust to sobriety, and coach him through the Twelve Steps. This meant that the sponsor and newcomer would meet and work their way through the Big Book together, page by page. “Big Book sponsorship” was a style of AA unique to Cleveland at that time, and has since become a vocal minority movement within the fellowship.
Continue reading →