What is Thirsty Ecclesia

Thirsty Ecclesia is an AA Meeting

It will be listed on AA websites, open to the public, and rooted in the 12 Steps. We will use the Big Book, the 12 & 12, and the Bible—because this meeting acknowledges Jesus as the God of our understanding.

This isn’t a program. It’s a meeting—a place for people who want to get honest. Testimonies of how grace transformed Moses, David, and Peter will sit right alongside stories from addicts, inmates, and exiles who’ve been raised from the dead. You don’t have to be clean, sober, polished, or polite. You just have to come.

Like Nirvana said:

Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be. 

As a friend, as a friend, as an old enemy... 

Come doused in mud, soaked in bleach, as I want you to be.

That’s it. No judgment. No pretending. Just come.

This meeting focuses heavily on Steps 4, 5, and especially 6. But it’s not a curriculum. It’s not a brand. It’s a group of broken people ripping the roof off to lower each other down into whatever room Jesus is sitting in—and trusting Him to do what only He can do.

AA was originally a Christian movement. It wasn’t created to treat addiction. It was born to demonstrate that if the worst of society—addicts, drunks, the broken—could be transformed by grace, then anyone could. It was meant to shock the world. But over time, the grace got institutionalized. The name of Jesus got pushed out of the room.

I know this because I used to go to meetings and share what my pastor preached on Sundays—how it connected with what we were walking through. One time, I even brought a speaker and played a five-minute sermon clip. I thought truth was welcome. But after the meeting, someone pulled me aside and told me I had almost been stopped mid-sentence:
"You’re not allowed to talk about Jesus here," they said.

Then, the next week, someone else quoted John 15:7 in their share. Afterward, I asked if I could talk to her about Jesus. She smiled and said, "I’m a Jesus freak too." I told her what had happened, and she said, "Yeah, that’s how it works."
I said, "But you just quoted John 15:7."
She replied, "You and I know that. But the rest think I was quoting the Big Book."

And that’s when it hit me:
People in AA are quoting Jesus, obeying Jesus, and being saved by Jesus… and they don’t even know they’re His disciples. And yet, many are still not saved.

Because they’ve been told not to say His name out loud.

AA has saved millions. Let me start there—I would never take away from that. I support meetings that don’t allow Bible references if it helps people just get sober without making it feel religious. But for some, I believe this is a pathway to something more—something they’ve been longing for but haven’t found.

So many people are surviving from meeting to meeting, white-knuckling their sobriety with no deeper power to sustain them.

But every time I’ve seen someone combine the 12 Steps with the Gospel—they don’t just survive.

They get set free.

I’ve watched courageous women in recovery walk out sobriety by mastering their emotions. I’ve seen men discover emotional honesty for the first time and find real strength in it.

It’s a different kind of meeting when Jesus is in the room.

And while AA tradition says you can’t lead with your faith, I’ve learned that you can share Jesus and the Bible—especially if it’s your own meeting. It’s up to the sponsor or the group conscience.

I haven’t been able to find a meeting like that.
So I believe I’m supposed to start one.

Because this is a harvest field—
People who’ve already tasted manifested grace.
People who know what it means to walk out redemption one day at a time.  And with the Spirit of God living in them, they can become powerful believers, evangelists, and world-changers—
A gift to any church.
A force for the Kingdom.