Becoming a Church that Cares Well for the Abused

Brad Hambrick

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781535988148
• eBook ISBN: 9781535988155
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Is your church prepared to care for individuals who have experienced various forms of abuse?

As we continue to learn of more individuals experiencing sexual abuse, domestic violence, and other forms of abuse, it’s clear that resources are needed to help ministries and leaders care for these individuals with love, support, and in cooperation with civil authorities. This handbook seeks to help the church take a significant step forward in its care for those who have been abused.

Working in tandem with the Church Cares resources and videos, this handbook brings together leading evangelical trauma counselors, victim advocates, social workers, attorneys, batterer interventionists, and survivors to equip pastors and ministry leaders for the appropriate initial responses to a variety of abuse scenarios in churches, schools, or ministries.

Though the most comprehensive training is experienced by using this handbook and the videos together, readers who may be unable to access the videos can use this handbook as a stand-alone resource.

PART ONE

Key Concepts for Pastors and Ministry Leaders

Lesson 1

Ministry Context: The Church’s Response to Abuse Is Grounded in the Gospel

Do you remember what was on the forefront of your mind when you began ministry? In Luke 4, we get to see what was on the forefront of Jesus’ mind.

He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As usual, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah [chapter 61] was given to him, and unrolling the scroll, and he found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.” (Luke 4:16–21, emphasis added)

Jesus was clear. His ministry would change the lives of the captive and oppressed. While He certainly meant this on a spiritual level (meaning that every person is in desperate need of freedom from sin and death), Jesus also cared about oppression in a physical and relational sense.

Spiritual oppression and captivity are conditions that all of us are born into, but we must not forget that these things are experienced by many at a relational level as well. The “captive and oppressed,” in our day, must include not only those who are in spiritual bondage to sin, but also those who live in fear of physical abuse in their homes or churches, those who are raped, those who are preyed upon as minors, and others like them.

Jesus’ half-brother James clearly understood this message. He said true Christianity must care for the weakest and most vulnerable in our communities. When churches fail to do this or become complicit in the harm, James would say we have become “stained by the world” (James 1:27), marked by very the things we are called to change.

On one hand, it is easy to think of abuse as just a social issue. If we do, we will think better laws, better law enforcement, more shelters, or more preventative campaigns are the remedy for abuse.

These things are good. Christians should fully cooperate with and be involved in these areas because abuse is a social issue. But it’s not just a social issue. When we think of abuse as solely a social issue, then the church is not the refuge for the oppressed that God intended His people to be.

On the other hand, it may be equally tempting to think that if the church’s response to abuse is grounded in the gospel, then we merely want people to repent of their sinful episodes of abuse. As Christians, we want every sinner to repent. There is no greater hope.

But this approach misses the severity of violation and coercion captured in the word abuse. If we are naïve to this reality, then instead of being shepherds who protect God’s children, we can easily and unintentionally become part of the problem, prioritizing the wrong initial responses.

So what do we mean when we say, “The church’s response to abuse is grounded in the gospel”? To answer this question we must realize that the gospel invites the sinner to find forgiveness in Christ through repentance and it also invites the sufferer to find refuge in the Comforter from a harsh, broken world where things like abuse occur.

The reality is that we are all both sinners and sufferers. But with some struggles our moral agency is at the forefront. That’s when sin is there. With other struggles the moral agency of others is in the forefront. That’s when suffering is the forefront struggle.

With abuse, our ministry priorities should be: first, remove the opportunity for further damage, and second, to address the sin that creates the damage. After all, this is what we would do for one of our children.

Ministry Reflection

Based on your ministry training and experience, do you feel more skilled in working with anger or grief, adultery or miscarriage, gossip or depression? What does your answer reveal about how much your ministry has emphasized the implications of the gospel for sin as compared to suffering? Which do you think your ministry leans toward?

Historically, the church has been more skilled in applying the gospel to sin than suffering. Hence, in pastoral care, we ask relatively few non-moral questions about abuse. To the degree we get involved, we focus on getting the destructive person to simply stop their abusive actions more than: (a) assessing the safety of the victim, (b) evaluating whether a criminal act took place, or (c) helping the victim understand the impact of being abused.

HEAR FROM THE EXPERTS

Question for Subject Area Experts: Why is it vital for pastors and ministry leaders to understand that caring for the abused and oppressed is a gospel issue? What will be lost if we do not grow in this area? How have you seen churches enriched from leaders being more skilled in this area?

Answers from Subject Area Experts: Watch the experts’ responses at churchcares.com, under the Video Training section, in the video entitled: Lesson 1 – Ministry Context: The Church’s Response to Abuse Is Grounded in the Gospel.

Leslie Vernick: I’m reminded of the verse in Ecclesiastes 4 where it says, “Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed—and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors—and they have no comforter.” Luke’s gospel brings us the good news us that Jesus came to bring light to those who sit in darkness, to those who are oppressed. To those who are hopeless and forsaken. Jesus shows us what God’s kingdom is like (John 1). God’s kingdom shows the power of love. The world’s kingdom rests on the love of power. The very heart of abuse is centered in the love and misuse of power. Pastors and ministry leaders must recognize this misuse of power whether it’s in the church, the community, or the family, as well as speak up and help those oppressed by it. By doing this, we do demonstrate the merciful heart of God to those who have been harmed.

Rachael Denhollander: The gospel means “good news.” It is meant to bring hope and freedom and redemption. And the people who cry out the most for the very things the gospel is supposed to bring, are those who have suffered the opposite—hopelessness, imprisoned in their abuse, violated, and left to feel unredeemable. Abuse takes every concept we need to understand the gospel—things like love, trust, sacrifice—and redefines it to be a weapon for doing great evil. As ministry leaders, your job is to bring this good news to your flock. In order to do this, you must understand how abusers operate and what they damage, and you must know how to apply the good news to this damage in a way that really makes it “good news.”

Karla Siu: Over the years of counseling abuse survivors, I’ve learned to run back to the gospel often. Especially because abuse often leads to confusion and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. In this returning to Jesus’ work on the cross, I’ve experienced the power of God anew each time. It’s clear to me now that the gospel is essential to caring for the abused and oppressed because it is the very power of God for salvation as Romans 1:16 says. The gospel reveals how Christ’s work on the cross reversed death once and for all. This good news is the basis for our hope, and is what allows us to offer the very same hope and purpose to those we are ministering to who have experienced abuse, just as 2 Corinthians 1:3–4 affirms.

Mika Edmondson: We simply cannot talk about the historical reality of the cross without speaking of abuse. The Romans stripped and deliberately hung victims of crucifixion naked in order to humiliate them, to add emotional distress to their physical agony. When Christ submitted Himself to this experience at the cross, He made abuse a gospel issue. It was part of the oppression that He bore at His cross and overcame at the resurrection. So when we fail to recognize various forms of abuse as “gospel issues” we lose an important aspect of the freedom Christ has won for us. He...

Table of contents

• PART ONE: Key Concepts for Pastors and Ministry Leaders
• PART TWO: Key Responses from Pastors and Ministry Leaders
• Appendix A
• Appendix B