You may think that we’ve evolved too far to ever go back to anything resembling New Testament church leadership. Not so! Hardy Clemons of the Second Baptist Church in Lubbock, Texas, writes of the “team” model his church adopted instead of the more common...
Scripture encourages us to overlook petty offenses and to forgive our brothers and sisters in love. Sometimes we may even forgive a large personal offense, as Joseph did when he forgave his brothers for selling him as a slave. After years of captivity, Joseph was able...
After reading so many of your experiences, I’ve come to believe that the problem of wounding by the church requires solutions in two areas. **First, people who’ve been wounded need to find healing through biblical communication. **Second, the church needs to return to...
Who is being wounded? No surprise—church members. This is to be expected, as there are more church members involved in the situation than church staff members. More than a third of the respondents, however, were lay leaders in the church when they were hurt, so...
More responses to the question about “If you could advise the body of Christ about how to prevent hurt or how to heal hurt, what advice would you give?” Again, read between the lines to discern the hurt that elicited this advice, and notice how many fall...
As preparation for writing this book, I put up a poll on my blog and invited anyone who had been wounded by the church to answer a few simple questions. Many of YOU answered, and I am so grateful for your honesty and transparency. Frankly, I was unprepared for the...
