A Letter from Bishop Chris (SEptember 2024A)

Friends,

I’ve spent the last couple of months reading or re-reading several books that deal with issues of power, shame, control, and abuse.

• Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church by Diane Langberg

• When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community from Emotional and Spiritual Abuse by Chuck DeGroat

• Something’s Not Right: Decoding the Hidden Tactics of Abuse and Freeing Yourself from Its Power by Wade Mullen

• Healing the Wounded Heart: The Heartache of Sexual Abuse and the Hope of Transformation by Dan Allender

• Becoming a Church That Cares Well for the Abused, Brad Hambrick (General Editor)
  (You can get this last one as a free downloadable .pdf at Churchcares.com. I will be giving copies of this book to our clergy later this month at our Clergy day)

I share the list with you in hopes that you’ll consider reading at least one of these books. If for any reason you can’t afford to buy one, I will pay for it. Just send me an email.

While abuse isn’t a topic many people want to think about, I believe it’s vital that the Church and her leaders grow in our understanding of this issue.

And why? Because this is a Gospel issue.

At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus stood up in the synagogue in Capernaum to describe what his ministry would be (Luke 4:16-21). Quoting the prophet Isaiah, he said:

"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."

Jesus was clear. He came to affect change in both captives and oppressors. His intention was that this would occur in the spiritual realm through our deliverance from sin and death. But he also meant it for the realm of our physical and relational lives.

As Brad Hamrick writes in Becoming a Church that Cares Well for the Abused:

“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.”

Hambrick continues: “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.” (from Hambrick, pp. 3-5)

Because the Diocese of the Mid Atlantic seeks to live out the Gospel, I believe it is imperative that we develop churches which seek to protect our most vulnerable from abuse including children, youth, and adults. We must also learn how to care for those among us who have been harmed or abused by others. And we must learn to understand how abusers groom people and communities so that we can help our churches be safe.

I hope you’ll join me in this important Gospel work.

Blessings,

+Chris