Imagine if you attended a church where your life struggle was never mentioned as an area to receive care, and, if it was mentioned, your struggle was the adversarial portion of a culture war commentary. How would your week-to-week experience of church be different? How would you hear words like “community” or “family of God”? For church leaders, step one is to realize that … [Read more...]
Painful hindsight: 6 pastoral lessons learned from a sex abuse scandal
I recently learned that a missionary whom I have known and trusted for twenty years has, for his entire adult life, been a sexual predator. He was respected, even revered, both by churches in the US and by thousands of people in the field. He used his position of power, influence, and trust to take advantage of women sexually. My wife and I made an emergency trip to the region … [Read more...]