A.A.

’s Original Seven Christian Influences

The Rescue Missions

By Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved

In two different presentations, my son Ken B. and I have detailed the seven Christian influences
on early A.A.’s founding, program, and successes. Each has a powerful story that illustrates how
A.A.’s founders became so convinced that God could cure alcoholism; that coming to God
through His Son Jesus Christ was a vital part of receiving that cure; that the Bible was a central
resource in that process; and that a program of service to God was an important part of the
process as well.

In this series, we will briefly outline, summarize, and invite the student of Christian recovery to
look at, the original seven influences Christian influences of Alcoholics Anonymous—one by
one.

The Rescue Missions

In our major new work, The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., by Dick B. and Ken B.
(2010), and in the accompanying “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” class by
Dick B. and Ken B. (2010) on four DVD's, we introduce the student of Christian recovery to the
powerful influence of the rescue missions.

And we start with this influence first because it played such a powerful part in Bill Wilson’s own
recovery. Wilson had been told by Dr. Silkworth at Towns Hospital that the Great Physician,
Jesus Christ, could cure him. Bill’s friend Ebby Thacher had just made his personal surrender,
accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, on November 1, 1934, at the Calvary Rescue
Mission in New York. [See: Mel B., Ebby: The Man Who Sponsored Bill W. (Center City, Minn.:
Hazelden Foundation, 1998), 65.] Bill decided to seek the same solution. He went to Calvary
Mission about one month later. He knelt at the altar. He there made his decision for Christ after
hearing Bible reading, prayer, hymns, and the altar call. And Bill twice wrote in his personal
papers: “For sure, I had been born again.” [See Bill's “autobiography”: Bill W., Bill W.: My First
Forty Years: An Autobiography (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2000), 147. And see also: Dick B.,
The Conversion of Bill W.: More on the Creator's Role in Early A.A. (Kihei, HI: Paradise
Research Publications, Inc., 2006), 110.] On December 11, 1934, he entered Towns Hospital for
the fourth and final time, believing he needed to call on the Great Physician for help with his
deteriorating alcoholism and accompanying depression. He cried out to God and immediately his
hospital room filled with white light. He sensed the presence of God. And he was cured of his
alcoholism on the spot. And for many years, he told the story specifically as follows: “The Lord
has been so wonderful to me, curing me of this terrible disease that I just want to keep talking
about it and telling people.” [See Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed. (New York: Alcoholics
Anonymous World Services, Inc., 2001) 191.]
 New York’s Water Street Mission Healings by Jesus Christ

The rescue mission movement began in earnest when Jerry McAuley—a criminal and drunkard
—turned to Jesus Christ for help, was saved, and never drank again. Jerry was well known as the
Founder of the Water Street Mission and as the “Apostle to the Outcast.” His service was
paralleled by that of his wife—a prostitute and drunkard herself—who was also saved and
delivered. The story can be found in the book he wrote: Jerry McAuley, Transformed: or, the
History of a River Thief, Briefly Told (n.p.: self-published, 1876). See also Stephen Burger,
“Time to Reflect and Look Ahead,” http://www.agrm.org/i4a/pages/Index.cfm?pageID=3312;
accessed 6/14/09.

Today, it is still possible to obtain an even more powerful book about the salvations and
deliverance from alcohol that occurred at the hands of McAuley’s successor, S. H. Hadley.
This story can be found in J. Wilbur Chapman’s book, S. H. Hadley of Water Street (NY:
Fleming H. Revell Company, 1906). Hadley himself had written a book four years earlier:
Samuel H. Hadley, Down in Water Street: A Story of Sixteen Years Life and Work in Water
Street Mission: A Sequel to the Life of Jerry McAuley (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1902).

Documented Details by Samuel Hopkins Hadley,

Superintendent of the Old Jerry McAuley Water Street Mission for 19 Years

It was my good fortune to have an avid A.A. history researcher on the East Coast call my
attention to the Chapman book on S.H. Hadley. And readers who might wonder if conversion by
accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and deliverance from alcoholism, were commonplace
occurrences during the period of Dr. Bob’s youth and just prior to Bill Wilson’s youth, can find
dramatic documentation in the Hadley materials.

S. H. Hadley himself was delivered from drunkenness, smoking, dishonesty, and gambling by
accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior for salvation and removal of his temptations.
Hadley became superintendent of Jerry McAuley’s Water Street Mission. And there are
innumerable accounts of drunkards who went to the altar, accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and
Savior, asked God to relieve them of their alcoholism, and never drank again. In fact, even
Hadley’s brother, Colonel H. H. Hadley, was saved and delivered in a similar manner.

Almost paralleling the techniques later used in early A.A. by Dr. Bob, there are accounts of how
Hadley required the drunks to confess Jesus as their Lord, pray to God in the name of Jesus for
help, and ask God that he take alcoholism out of their lives. This was done at the Mission altar
after testimonies, prayers, Bible reading, hymns, and the altar call. In addition, like Dr. Bob,
Hadley had laid great stress on the importance of 1 Corinthians 13 and the message of love.

Christians and others in recovery who want to see specific records of cures from alcoholism (and
other life-controlling problems) by turning to God and accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and
Savior will be richly rewarded by a study of the rescue missions, the Jerry McAuley story, and
the details of the ministry of S. H. Hadley.
And this rescue mission influence is only one of the seven important Christian influences that
preceded and impacted on the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935.

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