A Proposal for a Designated Higher Power Struggle Bus Meeting at North Oak Group AA Hall: Studying Chapter 4

The most unique thing about Alcoholics Anonymous and its encouragement of a spiritual journey is that it doesn’t push anyone towards any specific spiritual path. Yes, we’re in the Bible Belt and many (if not most) here have a very beautiful, strong Christian based faith and their higher power is God with a capital G.

However, if you’re new to the concept of AA and/or spirituality that may not necessarily be true for you. Or maybe it was at one point in time but you’ve fallen away from that. We’re here to remind you in all the ways, you are not alone anymore.

We’re also here to remind you that this is totally ok and maybe even normal as discussed in The Higher Power Struggle Bus blog post here! We think it’s so important that each individual finds a higher power of their own understanding that we propose a specific meeting at the hall for the Agnostic.

And we want to hear from you if you’re interested in such a meeting. But first, let’s discuss what the proposed meeting entails.

The goal of this meeting is to study Chapter 4 in the big book. That’s it. It’s quite a simple premise actually. However, the intention vibes with Chapter 4 as a whole. Chapter 4 is all about how the founders were atheist/agnostic at first and found that nothing but a spiritual journey was successful to find not just sobriety but emotional sobriety. And we, here at the North Oak Group AA hall in the Kansas City area, want to honor that.

Anecdotally, I hear many people at the hall comment on how they used to be mad at God or their higher power or all higher powers for that matter when they first walked through those doors. How they feel betrayed or left behind by the Divine and sometimes even their followers. That they are in need of truly dealing with that anger, betrayal etc and accept that they can come to know Him/Her/Them all over again, in a whole new light before they can move past Step 3.

It’s not an easy journey. It is full of tears and frustration and so many questions that all boil down to faith over fear, which can be a really hard concept for those who were not raised with faith or found some version of it on their own.

So, the intention is to have a space for the Agnostic (or atheist etc) to explore this concept of spirituality in a non judgemental framework. Of course, if you’ve been coming to the hall you know that no one is judging this aspect. It’s the number one reason, I, personally, keep coming back. But, if you’re new to the program, you don’t know this yet. So we want to be as open and welcoming as possible to the alcoholic who still suffers.

The idea is to begin and end with the serenity prayer (respectfully, the Lord’s prayer doesn’t seem appropriate for this specific meeting). We will read a page or three from Chapter 4 then talk about anything related to our spirituality journey that is helping or hindering our sobriety. This meeting will be held once a week so it’s expected to go through the 14 pages of Chapter 4 every two months. Which is great for any influx of newcomers.

If this is something you are interested in, please comment below or email northoakaa@gmail.com so we can bring this idea to the Group Conscious in December 2026 with a better idea of the interest at this hall/in the area.

As always, thank you so much for reading the blog! Don’t forget to take it one day at a time!

Peace and love.