The STEPS process consists of 12 steps, designed to help us find freedom by finding peace with God, ourselves and others.
The 12 steps have their origin in the Christian Oxford Group, which emerged in the years following World War I.
Today there are several million people in the world who have found their way out of unhelpful behaviour patterns and improved their lives through the 12-step programme. The key words of the Oxford Group were:
- Surrender: Surrender to God’s forgiveness and guidance.
- Confession: Confession of sins to God and each other.
- Make Amends: Make amends where you have caused the injury.
- Witness: Bear witness to a transformed life that others may be able to experience the same.
One attendee of the Oxford Group, Bill Wilson, was being influenced by these ideas when he had a spiritual experience that resulted in an immediate release from his craving for alcohol. He began to share this experience with other alcoholics. Many were helped, and groups emerged with members supporting and helping each other.
These people’s experiences of how they stopped drinking, and how they remained sober, became the 12 steps, which were written and published in the book Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939. Through this book, the 12 steps became known all over the world, and countless people have experienced freedom, not just from alcohol addiction, but from all sorts of strong addictions such as drugs, gambling and sex.
The programme has also proved to be an effective tool in dealing with unhelpful behaviours such as low self-esteem, fear of rejection, anger, the need to control, fear of failure, lying, isolation, anxiety, overeating, envy, and more.
In recent years many churches throughout the world have put the programme into use. It has proved to be an excellent tool to gain a renewed way of living.
Participants on the STEPS courses have used the programme to understand and renew their image of God and of themselves, helping them to break unhelpful behaviours and thought patterns connected with unhealthy beliefs associated with their image of God and of themselves.
Lars and Mette Due-Christensen have been involved in church ministry for many years in their native home of Denmark.
In 2005, their church at the time, the Copenhagen Cultural Centre, had a vast influx of people from traditional 12 step groups such as AA and NA. Many of these people shared how they had experienced freedom from addictions by going through the 12 steps, and that it had led them to a journey of faith. Consequently, Lars and the other leaders of the church decided to create a course that would use biblical narratives and principles to illuminate the 12 steps. The aim was to create a safe place for everybody to receive the help of God in order to find freedom from unhelpful patterns.
In 2006 the first STEPS Course began with significant stories of people finding freedom as a result. Within a few years, courses were being spread to all regions of Denmark.
Upon moving to London in 2016, Lars & Mette joined the leadership team at Christ Church London and brought STEPS with them. Seeing very similar experiences to people in Denmark, Christ Church London and the STEPS Team developed a resource kit to enable other churches and organisations to run STEPS in the UK and beyond.
During the pandemic, we saw an exponential rise in the numbers wishing to access the tools of STEPS, and in late 2023, STEPS Global was birthed as its own charity, with the vision to make the tools of STEPS known and accessible across the UK and beyond.