In the wake of rejection, abuse, gossip or betrayal, "Forgive and forget" or "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven" doesn't make the hurt go away.
No one expects the church to be perfect. But we do think that God's family should treat us with more kindness and compassion than the rest of the world does. Because our hopes for the church are great, the disappointment we feel when the church fails to live up to its promise is devastating.
Wounds caused by strangers are painful enough. Injuries inflicted by people we count as friends are crushing. Yet the wounds we receive at the hands of fellow Christians cause a wasting sickness of the soul. Left unchecked and unhealed, they affect how we view ourselves, how we relate to other Christians even how we relate to God.
Drawing from the volumes of letters he and co-author David Johnson received in response to their book The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, Jeff VanVonderen looks at:
why hurts in the church are so debilitating.
what a welcoming, healing church should look like.
how anyone who feels let down by God's people can move past the pain and establish biblical relationships in a healthy church.
Has a fellow Christian let you down? You can rise above the disappointment.
