People get wounded in life. This could be from a number of different sources, and one of the nice aspects of the Body of Christ is a lot of wounded people actually get desperate enough to fully embrace the Truth and live it with all their heart. The “tax collectors and prostitutes” entering the Kingdom of Heaven first and all that. God is in the redemption business and He loves a good story that glorifies Himself.
Of course once wounded people come into the Church, there is some healing that needs to be done. That is okay because the Church is uniquely gifted to heal people, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, because we have the Spirit of God. And with God nothing is impossible. Sometimes this healing takes a short amount of time, and sometimes things must be endured over a longer period to build character and bring things to completion, but either way, the Church is the perfect place to facilitate that.
It is therefore the cause of great sorrow to God that the Body He has designed to be a place of healing is the cause of abuse.
That doesn’t mean that every time someone feels “hurt” by the church that the church does something wrong. The “rich young ruler” might have felt very “hurt” by Jesus, but Jesus was not being harsh nor cruel but redemptive in His design to answer the question, “What must I do to be saved?”
But along with the authority and power to redeem comes the ability to abuse. It is always correlative. And it happens, and has happened.
What is so tragic about this is that the healing must come, again, through the Church. It can come no other way. The wounded seek to run or hide or become isolated or even codependent somehow, but the answer is within the Body of Christ.
It is difficult for those genuinely wounded by the Church to hear this, which is completely understandable. But the answer is not in bitterness or division or isolation, but experiencing the proper testimony that the Body was meant to be.
Granted, that can be hard to find, but that doesn’t negate the truth of it.
I’m reminded of Elisha and Naaman, from 2 Kings 5. Naaman was the commander of the Syrian army, and Elisha was the prophet in Israel. Naaman has leprosy and hears about Elisha from his Israelite servant. Naaman seeks out Elisha for his healing, with money and everything, in a letter to the king of Israel. The king of Israel fails to have faith, and instead freaks out because he thinks Syria would get offended and there might be armed conflict once Naaman isn’t healed.
But Elisha hears about it and says to the king of Israel, “Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me, and he shall know there is a prophet in Israel.”
Elisha sends a messenger to Naaman and tells him, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.”
Naaman actually gets furious at this. He thought there would just be this wave of the hand and the prophet would heal him. Or he thought about all the rivers in his home country that are “better than all the rivers of Israel.” And so he “turned and went away in a rage.”
But his servants (this dude had some cool servants) say to him, “If the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says, ‘wash and be clean’?”
So Naaman obeyed. And he was made clean.
As an aside, Elisha refused to take any money for it, by the way, even though Naaman offered. But Elisha’s servant runs Naaman down and takes money for it. And then Elisha’s servant gets leprosy.
The truth is that the Church, both local and universal, has been designed to be the place for healing. And by place, I do not mean the structure you meet in. The only holy place left on earth is the gathering of those who love Him more than anything, who gather in His name. Where they gather, there He is in the midst.
Naaman dipped seven times. You may not see healing immediately or soon. But if you are involved in a fellowship that receives you, encourages you, and yes, even corrects you in love, endure with them. Invest in the people (not programs or institutions) and you’ll see eternal reward.
And I included the aside about Elisha and Naaman because the Church heals and redeems without seeking anything from the redeemed. They don’t do it for earthly profit but for eternal reward. There is a consequence for seeing godliness as a means of earthly gain. Love is given freely. It isn’t love unless that’s true.
As much as God is in sorrow over the fellowships that wound where they should redeem, it brings God joy to know of churches that can (and do) say, “Please let the wounded come to us and they will know there is a church in this place.” And I rejoice with Him.
If you don’t know of a fellowship that is healthy and brings healing and restoration and redemption … well, I know of a couple, even though many surely exist beyond what I am aware. I’ll always try to encourage your inclusion wherever God would lead you.
Peace.