Alcoholics Anonymous may be one of the most effective church renewal models of the last century — and most congregations have hosted it without fully recognizing what it gets right.
Founded in 1935, AA has helped millions experience lasting spiritual transformation through small groups, shared stories, disciplined practice, and radical humility. It has built one of the most successful self-duplicating spiritual movements in modern history — largely in church basements.
AA did not set out to renew the church.
But it reveals powerful principles of church renewal that congregations today cannot afford to ignore.
Here are 15 things AA can teach the Church about renewal.
1) Stick to Your Primary Purpose
AA has one clear purpose:
To help alcoholics achieve sobriety.
That clarity fuels effectiveness.
Churches often diffuse energy across competing priorities — programs, property, politics, preferences. Renewal begins when a congregation reclaims its primary purpose and aligns everything around it.
For United Methodists, that means remembering why we exist in the first place — to have open hearts, open minds, and open doors
Church renewal always starts with focus.
2) You Can’t Keep It Unless You Give It Away
In AA, recovery is sustained by helping others recover.
Bill W. and Dr. Bob, the two co-founders of AA, stayed sober by sharing the message. That principle remains unchanged.
Discipleship is built into the structure.
Healthy church renewal works the same way. Faith deepens when it is shared. Spiritual maturity grows through multiplication, not maintenance.
3) Everyone Needs a Sponsor
No one works the Twelve Steps alone.
Each member has a sponsor — someone further along who walks beside them. Then they become a sponsor to someone else.
This is discipleship in motion.
Church renewal accelerates when every member is both being formed and forming someone else.
4) Insist on Experiencing God
AA speaks of a “Higher Power” and invites members to grow in lived spiritual experience. The emphasis is not doctrinal precision but transformation.
Churches sometimes focus more energy on defining belief than facilitating encounter.
Renewal movements insist that spiritual awakening is real, personal, and possible.
5) Promise a Spiritual Awakening
The Twelve Steps culminate in a spiritual awakening.
It is expected.
Many churches promise belonging or participation. Fewer clearly promise transformation. Church renewal requires the courage to say: changed lives are not optional — they are the goal.
6) Measure Spiritual Growth, Not Just Attendance
In AA, growth is measured by sobriety, amends made, humility practiced, and lives restored.
Numbers are secondary.
If church renewal is reduced to attendance or budget metrics, depth is lost. Vital congregations measure maturity, courage, generosity, and justice.
Renewal shifts what success looks like.
7) Buildings Are Tools, Not the Mission
Most AA groups meet in borrowed space.
This frees energy for purpose instead of maintenance.
The early church grew without property. AA thrives without owning space.
Church renewal happens when buildings serve mission — not when mission serves buildings.
8) Be Self-Supporting
AA is self-supporting through member contributions.
This builds ownership
Renewal movements cultivate shared responsibility rather than dependence on outside rescue. When members invest personally, transformation deepens.
9) There Are No Stars
Anonymity ensures humility.
No celebrities. No platform culture. Just shared commitment to transformation.
Church renewal requires humility. Personality-driven leadership may attract attention, but humility sustains movements.
10) Don’t Shoot Your Wounded
Relapse does not equal rejection.
Those who fall are welcomed back.
Grace is practiced, not preached.
Congregations committed to renewal cultivate mercy. Judgment — even subtle judgment — erodes trust and stalls transformation.
11) Have Joy
AA meetings are often filled with laughter.
Honesty and joy coexist.
Spiritual depth and delight are not opposites. Renewal restores joy alongside accountability.
12) Let Structure Serve the Local Community
AA’s General Service Office exists to support local groups.
Authority flows toward service.
Church renewal requires denominational and leadership structures that empower local congregations rather than control them.
Healthy systems serve mission.
13) Share Your Story
Storytelling is central to AA.
Transformation spreads through testimony.
The early church grew through shared witness.
Church renewal accelerates when people tell the truth about what God is doing in their lives.
14) Focus on the Newcomer
In AA, the newcomer is the most important person in the room.
They are welcomed immediately.
Renewal movements prioritize those just arriving, not only those who have always been there.
Church renewal requires courage to make space — even when it disrupts comfort.
People come back from the dead in AA rooms every day.
Lives are rebuilt.
New life is not merely hoped for. It is expected.
Christian faith centers on resurrection. Church renewal requires that we expect it — not nostalgically recall it.
Why This Matters for Church Renewal
AA demonstrates that spiritual renewal thrives when it is:
- Focused on mission
- Relational and accountable
- Humble in leadership
- Self-replicating
- Experience-driven
- Rooted in transformation
In many ways, AA models principles of church renewal more consistently than many congregations.
That should not discourage us. It should clarify what works.
If we long for renewal in our churches, we do not need novelty. We need clarity, courage, spiritual depth — and structures that support transformation.
This is precisely the work of building a culture of renewal.
The question is not whether AA can teach the church something.
The question is whether we are willing to align our life together around transformation.
Adapted and edited from June 2015 article.
Copyright © 2026 rebekahsimonpeter.com. All Rights Reserved.
I have witnessed more miracles in AA than I ever have at church. I’ve witnessed myself and people come alive who were knocking on death’s door. The actions of helping others, freely giving, serving, displays of honesty, and humbleness, laughter and tears. I don’t see this at church. Everyone is trying to look good. That’s my experience. When you work the Steps you enter into the world of the Spirit. I wouldn’t trade the relationship I have found with Jesus through AA for anything. My experience is something no one will ever take from me and I do wish church was more like an AA meeting. It’s amazing what can transpire in 60 minutes.
Jesus can cure alcoholism. But the church can’t. That’s the conclusion I’ve come to after wasting more than a decade in the church. The church needs to humbly admit what they can’t do. Alcoholism is a disease, and the church can’t cure it. My advice to any Christian reading this: If you have a problem with alcohol, don’t waste your time and go to AA immediately. The God there is the same as the God of the church, and AA is a God-given tool for treatment. AA and church can go hand in hand.
Your church may be able to make a referral to AA, but there is no guarantee that the person will go to AA. It’s really a mystery. No matter how sober you are, don’t make the church your only commitment. Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. So, unlike a regular church member, you have to go to AA until you die. I know of at least two members who got sober in AA, went back to church, and then relapsed. The disease of alcoholism should not be underestimated.
AA is more effective than church in helping me get sober. I went to church for over 40 years, and I didn’t get any help from the church in getting sober. I was miserable as hell, but in church I was well dressed, always smiling, and friendly. My soul was dying a miserable death. I was horribly hypocritical. I came to AA and have been sober for over five years. In my experience, the church cannot cure alcoholism.
But having a clear concept of God is a priceless gift the church gave me. AA has a concept of “God, as we understood”. I don’t see this as necessarily a bad thing. The God of AA is the God of Christianity. If you had to accept the Christian God to get into AA, a Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, or atheist would not be able to get into AA and would die a miserable death of alcoholism. Is that what a loving God would want? Certainly not, and that’s why AA’s founders created the concept of God.
If you recognize and accept the God of Christianity as the God of AA, your recovery will be much faster and richer than if you don’t.
Now I don’t blame the church anymore. Nor do I resent the church for not being able to help me cure my alcoholism. They just don’t know alcoholism; they don’t know how to do it. If I were to ask the church to do that, it would be like asking a baseball player to win a championship in football.
In retrospect, AA was a gift from God. I spend equal time in AA and church today. Because I’m sick.
I have to say being both a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and my home church going on 12 years now here in Las Vegas attending several AA meetings weekly as well as my church I’d strongly disagree with a few facts stated in this article.Early AA had a very high recovery rate due to (everyone) involved working a Born again Christian Oxford group 6 step program.The 1944 official AA sponsorship pamphlet on the 12 steps released by Clarence Snyder still had Jesus Christ as the higher power and the folks in Ohio had a much higher recovery rate than the pick a God folks in New York at that time who weren’t focused on Christ or sponsorship = discipleship.Unfortunately today in 2021 AA has a 2-5% recovery rate and has shown declining membership numbers for decades.Very few folks ever work the 12 steps = especially the daily maintenance steps 10 , 11 and 12..Very few people have Christ as their higher power and almost nobody I personally have met sponsor anyone or even work a program as outlined in our literature.I work the 12 step program as well as my sponsor but we get a lot of cross talk at meetings from the new age cult meeting makers that just do meetings and are 90% of the folks at AA in 2021.As far as the church goes I get it but fortunately for me I have a really great church and I wish the folks at AA were like most of them sadly , but I go to AA hoping to find folks who are desperate enough to work the 12 steps vigorously.
Amen! Same experience here, I’m an AA/NA member from The Netherlands, been sober/clean for over 17 years and the fellowship could be much more effective, most folks shun Christ as the HP. Making up there own gods, effectivness is pretty poor as far as I can see. Like yourself I’m very involved in sponsorship and at times its very difficult to help people along. Sending my prayers 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
I agree David
I have been sober for 34 years and actively work the 12 steps. I did find Jesus’s in the rooms of AA early
in sobriety. I continue to sponsor
but I find I am up against a group of “new age” members who take issue when talking about God and finding that Power. Don’t mention God only say Higher power of your understanding. That is not what the Big Book was designed and written for. It was to take us
and to be aware of the fact that we are selfish and self centered in every aspect of our life, that we do a lousy job in our selves as far as running the “show”
We need God!! I am ready to quit
AA, don’t know where to go. Jesus gave me my testimony, it is His
Story. No one is getting sober, our rooms they are like a revolving door. Christ and the 12 steps together is what worked for me.
We have lost that. I belong to a great Church. For that I am grateful. I still sponsor but few want to do the steps. It heartbreaking not to be able to give away this precious gift.
Grateful recovered alcoholic, T
You might like “Celebrate Recovery,” which is a Christ-centered approach to recovery.
There’s no reason for you to feel sorry for people who don’t want to work the Steps. Their recovery is their responsibility, not yours. You can’t change them. It is arrogant of you to try to change them. It’s good to recognize what the church can’t do. Even if you are sober, your congregation is not going to think well of you. They’ll think you’re an alcoholic asshole. I hate AA sometimes, too, but it’s the only place I can confess my painful alcoholism.
Great observations! I’ve long believed that the church could gain a lot by using the 12 step model of confession, forgiveness, acceptance, mentoring, and encouragement. After all, we’re all addicted to selfishness and sin. The hardest part is admitting we have a problem — step 1.
Step 1 is always the hardest, David, and the most freeing! Thanks for weighing in.
Thought you might enjoy seeing this piece by my favorite poet, Brian Doyle about a 12 Step meeting: https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2015-02/room-firehouse
Very intriguing article with a whole lot I certainly agree with. At the same time, I would say there’s some significant question that has been raised about the effectiveness of 12-step programs at actually bringing about recovery. See for example http://www.salon.com/2014/03/23/the_pseudo_science_of_alcoholics_anonymous_theres_a_better_way_to_treat_addiction/
AA certainly does do a better job than many churches at building community and helping people to make significant connections. For that reason I think your #2-15 are certainly true.
AA has not only changed the lives of millions of people for the better, it has transformed the entire culture in which we operate. Words like recovery, and the hope of it, wouldn’t even exist without AA. Can improvements be made? Absolutely. Bill Wilson himself said, “We know only a little. More will constantly be revealed to you and to us.” In the meantime, AA provides a model that has been duplicated again and again, then spun off of. I am grateful for it.
I like this. AA is a good model. A problem for churches is that the building has become the church and then how to maintain and use the building becomes the mission. I would like to challenge churches that every time they raise capital for building improvement, they require that at least an equal amount be raised for a mission that has no doors.
Came to Believe
Love the wisdom of the “Came to Believe” story in 12-Step recovery rooted in Christianity. For the people who do not know what “Came to Believe” the parallels and completely transformed by God:
Ask those people, have you ever known anyone, especially those in longterm (30-40+ years) of Recovery, like RFK Jr and others publicly ridiculed, that have directly experienced the “Came to Believe” story and re-experience it daily?
Ask: Did you know those w/30-40+ years in the recovery community are some of the most self-actualized people you will ever know?
Ask: Did you know, those same people have also attained the highest form of moral reasoning and decision-making as continuously demonstrated in their daily lives despite any curve balls encountered?
Ask: Did you know, those same people strive to operate at a conscious level of good character and morality every minute to every hour of their lives?
And last, did you ever know, those people have also developed a strong direct relationship with God, and have experienced moments of serendipity and discovered all the ways God speaks to us, like RFK JR so eloquently describes in his video “God Speaks to Us Though Many Vectors” and his quotes on how God is alive in all things and people and speaks to us in every moment we experience!
The “Came to believe” story and recovery ethos is the same story of the transformation of each and every person by God and through Jesus the Son that has come to be ‘Alive in Christ’ as explicated by Paul in the book of Roman’s among others!
Tell non-believers and those still struggling to experience the ” Came to Believe” story, who have not found what 40+ years of Recovery community people have “come to believe” to not judge others but seek to know the tranformative power of God.
RFK JR of the many greatest examples of a true Christian among any of his competitor’s for office or any other World leader you will ever meet!
RFK JR can inspire and move us toward healing so we can realize his father’s vision to eradicate the effects of the “Menace of Violence” in our society, as RFK SR expressed (in partial part):
“…only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness (violence against ourselves & humanity) from our souls.
Another demonstration of the experience of the transformative power of God to remove all defects of character so our whole society will know the “came to believe” story of true empowerment!
As a person born, baptized, confirmed, and raised in the Methodist Church before it was “United”, the “Came to Believe” parallels between 12-Step Recovery and the “Alive in Christ” principle of Christianity instilled in me is what has sustained me in life’s challenges and continues to sustain my faith in ultimate redemption and reconciliation of everything and everyone back to God the Father by way of Jesus Christ.