Introduction to the article.

I came to Christ as a teenager from a broken home.  Since then, I have been interested in healing and wholeness.  God called me into the pastoral ministry to help people become whole persons in Christ during my second year in college. 

While attending Asbury Theological Seminary during the early 80’s, I took a course on “Healing and the Christian Faith”.  The late Frank Stanger’s book God’s Healing Community contained a brief testimony about a pastor applying the healing steps to a local church body through preaching. 

I preached and taught on healing, both physical and emotional, for 13 years of pastoral ministry before that testimony bore its present fruit.  Reflecting about my ministry showed me that my theology of healing was too individualistic and my theology of equipping was overly program oriented.  What I mean is that my theology and ministry of healing focused on the individual rather than the church.  I had not yet integrated my theology of healing with my theology of equipping.  The Holy Spirit led me to this reflection through my D. Min. experience. 

My initial interest in pursing a D. Min. arose from a desire to become a better equipper of a local church for growth.  Working on my “Biblical Studies” paper on Ephesians 4:7-13, titled “Gifts for Growth” broadened and deepened my understanding of a pastor’s equipping role. 

Furthermore, I gained an important insight from doing the “Theology of Ministry” paper on “Equipping the Abused Church for Healing”.  This insight helped me to grasp that pastors of abused churches further the abuse by seeking to improve things through developing new programs or entering a membership campaign before addressing the need for the church's healing.  Possibly, many of us make this mistake because of personal ambition, Pastoral dedication, response to the myopic expectations of the dysfunctional church, etc
 
I had witnessed a wonderful turn-a-round situation at a very challenging church before entering my D.Min. experience. I was asked to pastor a very troubled church. I agreed to go. As I heard and read the history of that previous appointment, I learned much how this church was beat up by the following: their own clannishness; an impoverished pastoral history; recruiting people into the choir because of their singing ability alone; allowing the choir to become the autonomous focus of the church; many years of overlooking immorality at a time when the church appeared successful; an untactful pastoral purging of the immorality out of the choir; twenty-five years of pastoral leadership into an all glory now spirituality with very little discipleship; and years of hearing a very judgmental gospel. 

As I read the texts for my “Theology of Ministry” course, the idea for writing on “The Pastor as Equipper of the Abused Church for Healing” came to light.  I presented this idea to Dr. Seamands as the focus of my March 1997 “Theology of Ministry” paper.  He affirmed my focus and commented on the paper afterwards that there was “much to be gleaned from my research”.  As I point our later in my paper, “While many Christian authors write about spiritual abuse and recovery from spiritual abuse, no one to my knowledge approaches this theme from the perspective of the pastor.  While these Christian self-help books speak to a real need and offer valid help, I do question their individualistic approach.  I also question the neglect of this issue by people in both pastoral theology and in church growth.”

The research section of my paper examines the abused church and offers both prescriptive and preventive ways of ministering healing to such a church.  I am very indebted to the Kolb Model for the research method of this paper and to Dr. Steve Seamands for his encouragement to pursue this theme. 

If you pastor an abused church, I encourage you to reflect upon your own ministerial placement, your personal-pastoral journey as well as analyze the underlying, contributing issues and parties of your particular situation.  May the Holy Spirit grant you much insight and holy boldness in facing the resistance points to applying the research of this paper.  May Christ equip you for your ministry of equipping the abused church for healing. 

B.  Personal Description

On September 29, 1973, my Christian life began with a personal commitment to Jesus Christ.  Following this experience, I was introduced to "the good, the bad and the ugly" of the Charismatic movement.  God called me into full time ministry with a focus on bringing people into wholeness in Christ for the sake of equipping them for service. 

My experience of attending Presbyterian College in Clinton South Carolina and graduating from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina showed me the importance of education for ministry in today's world.  During those years, I actively sought to pull diverse Christian campus organizations into praying together and working together with some success. 

After graduating with a BA in Sociology and a minor in history, I attended Asbury Theological Seminary.  Following my graduation in 1983, I have served various urban and rural appointments along with serving in various district committees and conference boards.  I was ordained a Deacon in the North Carolina Annual Conference in 1984, and an Elder in 1987.  Before being appointed as pastor of this very troubled church, I was the pastor of a challenging church for four years and witnesses a great turn around. The pastor-parsih relations chairperson in that church, wrote the following in support of my application to Asbury's D. Min. program, "He is extraordinary as a team worker and the best leader of 8 pastors in 26 years.  John initiated programs that have been 'lifesaver' at our church.  He knows when to lead and when to follow.  He is the best I have ever seen at handling constructive criticism.  He is kind, compassionate, and quick to forgive.  He knows how to handle people smoothly and his ethical integrity is irreproachable."

C.  The Particular Situation:  An Abused Church

The island church was an abused and abusive church.  These isolated islanders have been beat up by the following: the hardships of island life; an impoverished pastoral history; their own clannishness; many years of overlooking immorality in the choir and in the musicians;  twenty-five years of any an "excessively spiritual", tough, uneducated evangelistic-preacher; three years of an untactful teaching-pastor who fired immoral choir members during a Sunday morning worship service before a capacity crowd of tourists; and four years of an administrator who got the church back in shape financially although Vietnam hovered over this "mean man"

This church has also been abusive of each other and of their pastors.  A member told me of times when a choir member would have the former PH pastor out of the pulpit and crying in a pew.  Working from the premise that "hurt people, hurt people", my focus is on "Equipping the Abused Church for Healing."

II.  Analysis of Issues.

A.  Underlying, contributing issues

Pentecostal influence and one wealthy family:  Although the community rejected the Pentecostal influence from the mainland in 1920, it came into the church 30 years later through a pentecostal man and his family.  Since he married into the wealthiest family in the island community who liked his pentecostalism, his position was secure. 

The coming of a former Pentecostal Holiness preacher entrenched the Pentecostal influence within the community and church.  Over the years, lively Pentecostalism grew and grew with very little focus on spiritual discernment and holiness.  This factor contributed to much spiritual confusion that remains within the church and the community today.   Also, according to several people in the church and in the community,  three brothers made sure that Rev.   stayed here by saying no to anyone wanting him to move.  Related to this was the control that some in the choir exercised over Rev..  The longer he stayed, the less authority he had to be prophetic because of his pastoral connections.

Spiritual abuse:  The pastor, other local church leaders and conference leaders abused the church by overlooking the moral problems within the church even before the choir became very famous and the new sanctuary was built.  Even more damaging than this was the hurt inflicted by the former  Pentecostal Holiness pastor's successor who purged the moral problems out of the church on a Sunday morning before a capacity crowd.  This not only split the community deeply, but also ran off several tourists.

Independent minded fishermen:  Being a island community of individualistic fishermen, they are not accustomed to working together as a group which makes it difficult for them to view the church as a body.  Being a clannish people, they spend much of their time and energy trying to see who is going to be in power over the church and the pastor.  Their clannish behavior also seems to contribute to the view of the pastor as needing to function as a father figure who keeps all of the children in line.  As one of the locals put it, you can't deal with these people by being nice, but by making them fear and respect you like Rev. _ did.

The attitude of squatters:  These descendants of those who squatted on this land and fought twice in court to keep it have a wanting something for nothing outlook.  It never bothered them at all that in the past tourists paid 75% of their budget.  Nor does anyone see the contradiction of inviting a youth group from out of state down to do the actual labor for needed repairs that several of our members who are builders could do..  One of the main reasons pastors did not stay years ago was because of growing weary of some members having to go around to others members to collect enough money to pay the pastor.  Although many members have plenty of money now, their giving to the church is poor.  This something for nothing attitude is also seen in wanting to use the church for a wedding, a funeral or whenever else they need it, but staying away otherwise.

The appointment system:  Being on a circuit from the founding of the church for over 50 years did not get the church off to a good start.  I understand that several pastors were sent here who preached all kinds of theology and whose lifestyles were not Biblical.  Evidently, the conference came to see this island church as a dumping ground for misfits.  When the church people learned that the conference was not going to appoint Rev. anywhere else they used this information to their advantage.  The conference failed the church by not moving Rev. and dealing with the moral problems before the new sanctuary was built.  They probably feared the tourists would leave and the conference would loose money.  The conference also failed the church by appointing a tactless, charismatic, ordained elder here after the former Pentecostal Holiness pastor.  The conference could have done better than appointing a former Pentecostal Holiness and former Assembly of God pastor who had not completed college nor gotten over Vietnam.  The appointment system is responsible for sending pastors here who did not have either the integrity, the gifts and graces, the personal wholeness or the training to lead the island church in a healthier direction.

The Lord:  As I look over my past 14 years in the pastorate, I see how God has been at work through my mistakes and success to prepare me for this place.  This is the first appointment that the Holy Spirit ever revealed to me before the D.S. asked me to pray about it.  God even worked through my experience of leading a women's Walk to Emmaus with at least eight abuse cases to build my confidence about going to this troubled church.  I needed an appointment that would both assist with my Doctor of Ministry work and be helped by it.  This has proven to be true.  The island church  needed a pastor with my combination of experience, giftedness and gracefully strong leadership which my predecessor lacked.  The Holy Spirit worked through the Biblical interpretation course to broaden my vision of equipping a church for ministry to include healing.  He also worked through my initial written work for this course to help me see that equipping an abused church for healing could be the possible focus for a project and my dissertation. 

B.  Contributions of Various Parties

The local members:  The church people really have gone out of their way to welcome us.  They along with some of the new blood joyfully participated in the celebration of a new appointment ritual and received my opening sermon well from Jesus' prayer for unity in John 17.  At first, I was surprised at what little things they asked my permission to do.  They have been beat up worse than I anticipated.  In church business meetings and in private conversations, people have communicated their hope for a new day.  They were so glad that our former D.S. encouraged me to be a gracefully strong leader here.  They were glad to see me lead in having communion more often and to propose a "Setting Your Church Free" workshop for the Fall. Both the consultant and I felt very positive about the level of participation and the results of that event. It also was a major step forward for them to approve the idea of buying The United Methodist Hymnal.  The church  had only had the Cokesbury Hymnal before then.  Although they had never done a stewardship program, they were open to trying a commitment campaign like Frazer Memorial's in Montgomery AL. 

There are still some unresolved hurts among the inactive members.  Like the Frosts, some are gun shy about returning after all the infighting and pain.  The former choir members from all accounts are still living wild lives. They have about destroyed the little pentecostal church in the community.  They focus mainly on being purged out of the church while ignoring why they were purged.  As a United Methodist pastor, I represent the denomination that kicked them out.  Several active church members feel that the newer pentecostal  pastor did them and his church a disservice by accepting them as members to sing in the choir and play music.  Although relations between the two churches continue to be strained, we are seeing signs of healing.

The D.S.:  Our former D.S. hand picked me to go to my previous appointment which was a good experience.  Along with thinking this appointment would be supportive of my further education, Tom thought I was the person to come here and lead these people further into historic Methodism.  His successor appreciates my work here and is supportive of my staying here for a while.

New Blood:  While historically this has been known as a very clannish church, they have become more open to new blood actually serving in important offices.  Some of these new people waited until they knew what kind of person was coming as their next pastor before actually joining.  However, there still remains an underlying unresolved concern about allowing new blood into the decision making bodies of the church--for example, one family still wants to hold most of the power.

The pastor:  I believe the pastor's influence is crucial for the well being of a church.  My sermons have been Biblically based, and real life oriented with a concluding emphasis on God's grace.  The people are responding well to these sermons and Bible studies.  I think this is due to my preaching with a focus on God's grace instead of a meanness focused on self.  Another deliberate emphasis on my part is to describe Biblical people as being just like us so that the people begin to believe that God's grace can really help them too.  An additional item which I attribute to the providence of God is that many of my friends from Rocky Mount are among those tourists who came before the purging.  Already, some have returned and commented that things are much better now. 

C.  The Most Significant Issues

One of the most significant issues is spiritual abuse.  Time alone will not heal the wounds or keep this kind of pain from occurring again.  The pastor's equipping role in healing the abused church is a pivotal second issue  Related to this issue is how does a church properly handle discipline/conflict issues..  An even deeper issue would include life in the Spirit as the people of God.  Interacting with these four issues would be spiritual warfare concerns.  My purpose in the rest of this paper will be to explore this abuse further and to offer both prescriptive and preventive ways of ministering healing to this abused congregation.

III. Theoretical Reflection

A.  Understanding the Abused Church Theologically

The apostle Paul warned the Ephesians Elders of ravenous wolves.  In Acts 19:28-30, Paul said, "Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.  Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.  I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.  Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after then.  The apostle Peter warned elders of the dangers of being spiritually abusive.  In I Peter 5:21-3, he said, "Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers--not because you must but because you are willing, as God want you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock."  The churches in Galatia serve as examples of abused churches who were led into Jewish legalism. 

B.  Understanding Spiritual Abuse from Modern Writers

As I consider the activity and inactivity of certain previous pastors, local church leaders and of the denominational leadership, spiritual abuse serves as a good umbrella to place all of these experiences under.  Juanita and Dale Ryan, quoted by Enroth, offer the following definition of spiritual abuse:  "Spiritual abuse is a kind of abuse which damages the central core of who we are.  It leaves us spiritually discouraged and emotionally cut off from the healing love of God" (Enroth  16).  Ken Blue, quoted by Enroth, points out that such spiritual abuse comes through clergy and church people who are so "narcissistic or so focused on some great thing they are doing for God that they don't notice the wounds they are inflicting on their followers" (Enroth  17).  This blindness to dishing out spiritual abuse is compounded when we add the abusive backgrounds of people in clannish, isolated areas.  Such people have become accustomed to their victim status which the clergy and/or other church members compound by drilling even deeper into them "feelings of shame, humiliation, inadequacy, and dread" (Enroth  76). 

Johnson and VanVonderen list ten characteristics of abused Christians: 1)  a distorted image of God; 2)  preoccupied with spiritual performance; 3)  distorted self-identity as a Christian; 4)  problems in relating to spiritual authority;  5)  have a difficulty with grace;  6)  problems with death to self teachings;  7)  difficulty with personal responsibility;  8).  a lack of living skills. 9)  difficulty admitting abuse; and 10.)  difficulty with trust  (41-50).  In getting to know the people of the church, I have observed these characteristics.  They have heard so often that God sees their righteousness as filthy rags that many wonder how does God view the unsaved.  They easily judge one another's spiritual performance by their own standards.  Very few here understand or have even been taught about their new identity in Christ.  I got the impression at my introductory visit with the PPRC that they wondered if they were worthy of another pastor after being condemned so much.  I even noticed how the people received every compliment like a glass of fresh water.  I have seen both overly dependent compliance and open defiance to my spiritual authority.  I understand both of these reactions are powerless attempts to prevent getting hurt.  Some expressed their difficulty in opening up and being real because those who gave them permission to do so in the past couldn't handle it.  The other characteristics of spiritual abuse that I have seen are also tied into their clannish, isolated history.  There are many here who continue to stay away while they are not sure they can trust this church once again after so much pain.  Two other clues to the spiritual abuse here would include spiritual confusion and a lack of genuine joy among many.  Jeff VanVonderen, in his book When God's People Let You Down, adds the following characteristics of wounded Christians: avoiding getting close; enjoying doing anything in church that does not involve deep interpersonal interaction; and running from commitment (16-18).  The latter two characteristics really showed themselves in the response to our commitment campaign this year. 

Arterburn and Felton's Toxic Faith rightly points out how a Christian's "faith is tainted from many other sources" (xv).  The roots of bitterness and unresolved anger over the loss of a child, broken relationships, etc. have poisoned the faith of many in both the church and in the community.  Over two and a half decades of an attractive choir and powerful preacher led many to look for a religious high instead of growing deeper in their faith.  I pray that the church will continue on its present path of healing.  Compared to their past, I do see them progressing in Arterburn and Felton's characteristics of a healthy Christian faith:  focused on God, growing, respectful, free to serve, feeling more valuable, vulnerable, trusting, individualized, relationship oriented, personal, balanced, nondefensive, nonjudgmental, reality based, able to embrace their emotions, able to embrace their humanity, and loving (293-314).  We will see in the next section how this understanding of spiritual abuse can inform a pastor's ministry to an abused church as we discuss the equipping role of the pastor for healing.

C.  The equipping role of the pastor for healing

While many Christian authors write about spiritual abuse and recovery from spiritual abuse, no one to my knowledge approaches this theme from the perspective of the pastor.  While these Christian self-help books speak to a real need and offer valid help, I do question their individualistic approach.  I also question the neglect of this issue by people in both pastoral theology and in church growth.  Therefore, I begin this section with the Biblical basis for the pastor's equipping role for healing an abused church.

I titled my Biblical Studies' paper on Ephesians 4:7-13 "Gifts for Growth".  My interest in this passage arose from a budding Doctor of Ministry focus on the pastor as equipper of a local church for growth.  I shall share brief applicable excerpts from that paper for my purpose in this paper.  "In the first division of Ephesians, Paul desires for these Christians to know their high calling in Christ.  The primary theme of knowing their high calling involves the formation of a new community of God's people-the church (1:22-23).  In Christ, this new community reconciles people separated from God and one another (2:19-22; 3:6)" (Crowe  2).  Paul's focus on "their high calling in Christ" recurs in Ephesians' second division.  Here Paul exhorts his readers to 'walk worthy of their calling in their relationships in the church, in daily living, in marriage, in family matters, and in work.  "Throughout division two, the readers are called to the functions of the new community that God purposed for them in Christ….My particular passage of scripture falls within subdivision four (4:1-16) of division two.  In subdivision four, Paul describes the worthy walk in terms of the unity of the church.  The first section (4:1-6) in this subdivision introduces the call for unity within the church.  The next section (4:7-13) describes Christ giving gifts for realizing that call….Subdivision six  (6:10-120) moves the readers back to the Epistle's earlier context of "heavenly places."  However instead of focusing on being blessed and seated with Christ in the heavenly places, Paul focuses on warfare with wickedness in the heavenly places.  The devil schemes through such wickedness to hinder the church at Ephesus from living out its high calling in Christ.  The first section of this subdivision (6:1-13) opens the readers' eyes to the true nature of their struggle to walk worthy of their high calling in Christ.  The second section of this subdivision (6:14-20) describes in detail the Christian's armor for victory amidst this spiritual conflict" (Crowe  2-3). "While the epistle's opening subdivision (chapter 1) introduced the readers to the source of their strength for living our their high calling, the concluding subdivision (6:10-20) places their struggle to live out their high calling in Christ within its true paradigm"  (Crowe  5).  This paradigm of good and evil supernaturalism is not only true of churches as a whole struggle to be faithful, but also of pastors who are Christ's instruments for fulfilling that high calling through "equipping the saints for ministry".  We will address the interaction of spiritual warfare with this issue later.

The key word in Ephesians 4:12 related to the purpose of this paper is "equipping." katartismon.  This word’s military usage speaks of fully furnishing an army.  Its civic usage speaks of pacifying a city which is torn by factions.  Its medical usage speaks of setting a broken bone or putting a joint back into place.  The basic idea of the word is that of putting a thing into the condition in which it ought to be (Barclay  149). 

Pastors would do well to heed VanVonderen's statements "It's unfortunate that the only advice you're likely to get from Christians is "C"mon, forgive and forget.  Why can't you just let it go?  The truth is that the wound you've received won't simply go away. …Doling out sympathy pats and allowing people to wallow in self-pity without offering real help and strength--this is worse than no help at all" (19).  Another key point for pastors would be that people bring onto church the same interpersonal dynamics that go on in their families.  This insight provides pastors and their families opportunities to teach Christian interpersonal dynamics both by modeling and by words.  VanVonderen's three sets of "one anothers" offer both the outline and the content of such modeling and teaching (50-72).  Pastors need to encourage wounded Christians not "to sit by, wishing that other people would make the church what it should be"  (VanVonderen  20).  Abused Christians need to hear that their "own health and growth are at stake and so is the work and witness of the church as it offers the world the light of hope"  (VanVonderen  28).  Pastors can hold before battered Christians the possibility of God transforming their pain into wisdom and compassion they need to help another Christian.  A pastor of an abused church dare not set up new ways of reaching out to unsaved, hurt people when a church itself  exists in such pain.  Having made such mistakes in the past, I hope that others will gain wisdom from my mistakes.  Pastors also need to confront the victim mentality of some who "use the past to excuse their present lifestyle, behavior or poor choices" (VanVonderen  130).  As equippers for healing, pastors need to encourage people not to blame, but to seek God's empowerment to change what they can. 

Spiritually abused churches need to follow VanVonderen's "four R's of recovery: Rest Rehabilitation, Release and Risk" (169).  Such churches need to rest in God's healing presence to mend their own souls before hurrying to heal others' hurt souls.  Pastors need to take such churches through the rehabilitation process of unlearning unhealthy relationship skills.  Pastors and church leaders also need to consider that "…hurtful relationship dynamics often exist in churches because people imitate what they observe in the leaders"  (VanVonderen  90).  Furthermore, they should honestly examine themselves to the Holy Spirit convicting them of dishing out spiritual abuse by not using their authority when necessary.
VanVonderen offers an excellent description of how the relationship traits of unhealthy families are recycled in church relationships.  To accomplish full rehabilitation, churches and pastors must release unhealthy relationship dynamics along with unhooking from its losses and risk relating to others in healthy ways that will bring new life.

In wrapping up this focus on the equipping role of the pastor for healing, I want to share some helpful insights from Porter's "Piecing Together a Shattered Church" and Ogden's The New Reformation.  Porter offers the following suggestions for healing an abused church:  accept all reports with a grain of salt; draw strength and wisdom from past appointments; focus on the pastoral basics of preaching and visitation rather than initiating programs; combat the spirit of failure through constant encouragement and a focus on God's love and power; help the church to focus outward and discover its hope renewed; and focus on occasions when the church can celebrate God's blessings.  Porter is the only author who offered the following personal points to pastors: redouble one's efforts in personal spiritual growth; meet with leaders for prayer prior to the worship service; be more open and ask for help from church members; be aware that healing takes much longer than we think; resist the Elijah complex of "I alone am left"; and look for signs of healing such as church leaders accepting greater responsibility for decisions.

Ogden adds to this discussion on the equipping role of the pastor for healing in terms of fixing what is broken, bringing back into proper alignment what is out of joint, and supplying what is lacking.  Like many churches, they need solid church conflict management and church discipline restored to its proper functioning in the body.  The church needs much teaching and grace to fix their broken life in the Spirit which I see in the rampant spiritual confusion here.  Lastly, they need an equipping focus on supplying what is lacking concerning how spiritual warfare interacts with spiritual abuse; the pastor equipping the church for healing; restoring healthy church conflict/discipline dynamics; and fixing the rampant confusion about life in the Spirit.

D.  Restoring healthy church conflict/discipline dynamics

The island church has a poor record when it comes to church discipline and conflict management.  Moeller's Love in Action states that "when serious conflict infiltrates a congregation, the church loses its power, strength, and purpose.  It can't attract and keep genuine seekers, it can't motivate or encourage its volunteers, it can't even meet its budget"  (47).  Whenever such a church is not effectively healed, the church becomes diseased and suffers an infection of bitterness that…can become terminal"  (Moeller  40).  A healthy church "…knows how to speak the truth fully to each other, yet in a loving and gracious spirit"  (Moeller  92).  Moeller goes onto share three common pastoral errors in handling conflict.  Previous pastors here have either overreacted and tried to control the situation or avoid the conflict until it became unmanageable.  The error that I must avoid is managing church conflict well but neglecting the needs of my own life and family.

In addressing this part of equipping the church for healing, pastors can seek to build up a reconciling and cooperative spirit within the church instead of seeking to stamp out all conflict.  Pastors can work toward this goal by growing more seasoned verses regressing into defensiveness and domination.  Pastors can mature in discerning the difference between moral absolutes and irrelevant, personal preferences.  Conflict battered churches need a strong dose of kindness and gentleness from their pastors.  Also, pastors need to pray for their critics and opponents. 

From my reading of the minutes surrounding the purging of the church choir, they failed to create a systematic approach to the problem other than authorizing the pastor to address it alone.  This approach personalized the conflict and assisted people in not hearing nor heading the rebuke other than as a personal attack.  Previous pastors' and church leaders' responses to conflict issues have directly influenced the healthiness of this church.  The same will be true of me as well.  The church needs a systematic approach to conflict issues that I and the church leaders work out together and then communicate to the church.

Keith Huttenlocker offers the following description of a conflict prone church: "has a high exchange because of living in a small town where they see each other a great deal; has high expectations; has high involvement; has a low trust level despite so much familiarity with each other; has a low understanding of the consequences of 'peoples' words and actions; and a low  respect for leaders which is often accompanied by a lack of respect for organization" (44-45).  He accurately suggests building up trust by affirming each other, accepting each other, providing support, demonstrating integrity in guarding others' reputations and dignity, and by offering respect.  As trust grows, people are valued as persons; genuine affection is found; people do not rush right out the door after worship;  people are honest and real; and people focus on being productive.  However, the lack of trust is seen in members treating each other impersonally; people do not visibly enjoy each other; people leave church gatherings quickly; people are judgmental and seek to tear down; people quench the Spirit; and people focus on looking good.

Keith suggests overcoming such conflict proneness by the church members developing more forbearance for one another since they see each other so much.  As they learn to accept the humanness of each other,  they will mature out of the petty insecurities of always protecting their perceived rights and defending themselves over trifles.  Like VanVonderen, he believes the pastor needs to teach relational skills and above all model for people the love of Jesus Christ. VanVonderen adds to this call for the pastor to model Christ's love how unhealthy it is for pastors not to be real, not to be honest and not to be relevant to people's real needs.  While he notes that respect must be earned, he encourages people to be taught to respect leaders unless the overwhelming evidence demands otherwise.

Sometimes, but not always, conflict situations involve a need for church discipline.  "The corrective task has long been thought to be a central pastoral duty…Most agree that it is necessary to ministry and that the task must be approached with great care, concern, sensitivity, and delicacy--and that it is fraught with hidden dangers"  (Oden  207).  As White and Blue point out in their book, "the idea of church discipline in many minds is confined to what one might call catastrophe discipline, discipline that waits until something goes wrong"  (19).  I agree with their analogy that this approach is like installing smoke detectors after the fire is already roaring.  They recommend a healthier approach of making church discipline one aspect of the ongoing spiritual direction of a church.  Healthy corrective church discipline can never be accomplished apart from the overall training of Christians in daily holy living.  Without such training, "catastrophe discipline is likely to be fruitless" (White & Blue  19).  White and Blue discovered that church discipline also failed where the church  only pursued the goals maintaining church purity and restoring the sinful Christian.  They recommend also pursuing the goals of reconciliation to God and others in Christ as well as freedom from bondage, guilt, and fear of criticism by fellow Christians.

These authors list the following obstacles to such a healing approach to church discipline: "a limited view of church discipline apart from the larger context of godly living; cultural prejudices and fears which lead us to mind our own business and leave people alone; the limited belief that anointed preaching of Scripture will alone produce a holy church; fear of honestly confessing our sins to others; fear of change; and a lack of sensitivity to the horrors of sin" (White & Blue  27-29).  Too many churches, like the church at Corinth, flatter themselves on how loving they are of members living in open sin.  Such churches sin themselves and spiritually abuse people by avoiding corrective church discipline.

Like Moeller, the authors highlight that "misguided efforts at discipline breed resentment and division" (70).  They propose that community censure and peer pressure brings repentance more than a rebuke from an authority figure.  They have found, like Moeller, that when an authority figure administers discipline, it does nothing good.  It very often only does harm.  It hardens those corrected without humbling or instructing them.  Only discipline by the community is Biblical and restores sinners.  All in all healthy church discipline sets people free to live as we were designed to with power, joy, and love.  In addition, VanVonderen lifts up the importance of church leaders making the church a safe place from those who openly ignore church discipline by holding them accountable (VanVonderen  94- 95). 

E.  Fixing the confusion about life in the Spirit

VanVonderen raises the question about "why people have been hurt and let down in so many churches?"  to which he answers, "Believers are walking in flesh--and they're even doing it in the name of walking in the Spirit"  (136).  While I realize the limitations of my approach, for my purposes here,  I can only relate my research in this area to the needs of churches such as this one although some of this will apply to all churches.

Whenever life in Spirit becomes solely experience oriented at the expense of good Christian education all kinds of hurtful problems arise in the families of a church, in the worshipping community, in church administration and in the church's witness in the community both locally and around the world.  This can only be corrected by a wholesome emphasis on and rebuilding of Christian education in the church.  Like the church at Corinth, several churches need to move from an individualistic spirituality to a body spirituality.  For churches caught up in a "spirituality that leads people in an "all glory now" direction, Fee's focus on the Holy Spirit establishing the church as an eschatological community of the future in the present would be timely.  This would involve discipling the church to walk in the Spirit related to every aspect of daily living.  Such a church would do well to plunge the depths of Fee's question, "What does it mean to live in the Christian community and in the world as the people of God?" (98).

Basically, this church needs to mature in Christ by holding both the Word of God and the Spirit together in its Christian discipleship like Nathan and Wilson call for in Empowered Evangelicals.  Many would also be helped in overly spiritual churches by growing comfortable with facing the natural consequences of their actions and taking responsibility for these choices .  Such a balanced understanding of life in the Spirit would move them from merely "experiencing" God's presence to actually walking in the Spirit as they do their Christian discipleship in daily living.  Another important issue for churches with an overly subjective, supernaturalist heritage would be in the area of discerning God's will.  People also need help in gaining a Biblical view of the place of the mind, the emotions and the physical effects of life in the Spirit.  Another helpful idea would include Ogden's proposal of combining a focus on the spiritual gifts of the body with the call of pastors to equip the body for ministry.  Bringing clarity to life in the Spirit would also broaden the evangelistic vision of a congregation to actually involving them and call them to reach out beyond the boundaries of the church walls.  As their view of life in the Spirit gains clarity in worshiping God, the choir and the preacher's preaching style would gain less prominence as people matured out of the audience-performer outlook.  Ultimately, as a church grows in Biblical living in the Spirit Christ comes to be viewed as the head of the church and the place of the pastor's Biblical equipping ministry is received as well as evaluated Biblically.  As a church became well grounded and less confused about life in the Spirit, it would help its members avoid spiritual abuse which produces toxic faith. 

F.  Supplying what is lacking concerning spiritual warfare

Earlier, we established the spiritual warfare context of our focus on spiritual abuse, the pastor's equipping role for healing spiritual abuse and the healthy handling of church conflict/discipline issues.  Anderson and Mylander believe in the importance of a church taking its painful memories and corporate sins to God for healing and forgiveness.  Where a church body has been hurt or abused as well as their corporate sins give the devil an opportunity in the church.  It is a wise idea for a pastor not to lead his/her church through Anderson and Mylander's "Setting Your Church Free" workshop.  Anderson and Mylander’s Setting Your Church Free recommends using at outside facilitator such as a retired pastor, a denominational official or a capable leader from a nearby church  (181).  This workshop can be a very helpful first step in bringing healing to an abused church during a pastor's first year.  Throughout the Bible, the people of God have been called to times of corporate confession and repentance.  While some call these times "Spiritual Freedom Workshops" others call them "a solemn assembly".  "The solemn assembly has become a tool to heal and restore some trouble churches, as they come to terms with their destructive behavior, toleration of sin, and spiritual indifference….In cases where the solemn assembly was seen as an event, effects were short-lived.  In congregations that used the service as the beginning of a new pattern of relating to God and one another, the transformation has sometimes been dramatic"  (Leadership, Summer 1996).  Some of the common strategies for following through on this kind of experience include personal prayer, praying a written group prayer at all church meetings, and the pastor preaching a sermon series related to this event.  The third idea is very similar to the application of the healing steps from Stanger's God's Healing Community in a sermon series as page 122 points out.

VanVonderen writes clearly about "God's purpose for us, and Satan's hatred for us--a hatred so strong that he would do anything to bite and devour us.  Satan lost his frontal attack--the crucifixion of Jesus.  Now he would step up his guerilla attacks-the infiltration of Christ's body" (25-26).  He goes onto ask, "Is it any wonder that our Adversary, the 'Wolf', majors in destroying relationships inside the body of Christ.  Is it any wonder he wants to drive people out of the church altogether?"  (39).  Paul warned the Ephesian church not to let the sun go down on their anger and thereby give the devil a foothold (Ephesians 5:26, 27).  He also encouraged the church at Corinth to receive back the repentant brother in II Corinthians because he was not unaware of the devil's schemes (II Cor. 2:5-11).  For an abused church to be healed, it must remove every foothold of the devil opened by "lingering resentment, the loss of interest in prayer or reading Scripture, and the desire for revenge"  (Moeller  52).  Moeller goes on to point out that as a pastor "I could almost predict the appearance of trouble in my church according to how much progress we were making spiritually" (64).  This means that the devil will be greatly enraged by any church that makes significant progress toward healing spiritual abuse; restoring healthy, Biblical church conflict/discipline procedures; and maturing more fully in the life of the Spirit through the pastor's equipping role for healing.  Even in preventing problems related to preventing these issues from becoming problems again, "churches must utilize spiritual resources to deal with spiritual problems, not just in crisis, but as a regular part of their life together" (Moeller  193).  Churches need this because the most common source of spiritual abuse, unhealthy handling of church conflict/discipline issues, and resistance to any aspect of a pastor's equipping role comes as a attack from the unseen spiritual world of evil.  Tom White concurs with these writers that "no less important is dealing with strongholds that plague our corporate fellowships" (16).  His approach for breaking such strongholds is similar to the authors of materials for "Spiritual Freedom Workshops" and for "A Solemn Assembly".

I believe in the validity of Wagner's concern for the "three levels of spiritual warfare:  (1) Ground-level spiritual warfare, which is ordinary deliverance ministry; (2) Occult-level spiritual warfare, which involves spells and curses by spiritual practitioners of darkness; and (3) Strategic-level spiritual warfare, which deals with territorial principalities and powers" (68).  What I cover here relates basically to level 1 and 2 of spiritual warfare, but it would be wise for a pastor seeking to equip an abused church for healing to learn about level 3.

Last but not least in this spiritual warfare focus needs to be some concern for the pastor and other church leaders equipping a church for healing to be prayed for instead of prayed on.  These people are in the very heart of the battle.  The devil knows if he can strike the Bishop, the D.S., the pastor and/or local church leaders then the sheep will flee as easy prey.  Terry Teykl reports that a recent study showed that after ten years in full time ministry, 70% of pastors have lost their holy boldness and confidence in Christ.  Teykl's prayer manual for hedging pastors and other church leaders in with prayer is a vital tool in supporting who role is equipping churches.  Teykl's concern is that our pastors might be the least prayed for and the most preyed on persons in our local churches today.  Peter Wagner definitely believes that "the higher you go on the ladder of Christian leadership, the higher you go on Satan's hit list" (67). 

IV. Application

A.  Implementing Insights About the Abused Church

1.  Be a shepherd by not lording it over this church, but by being an example to this battered flock.  One way that I seek to do this is by respecting the opinions of various officers instead of getting into control issues over trifling matters.  I believe that this is what my former District Superintendent meant by offering this church gracefully strong leadership.  This kind of leadership that knows when to let go and when to take hold will go a long way in building up trust within this church.

2.  Communicate Christ's love for the church which has been hurt to the central core of its identity.  God's love through me, my family and others is the key to lifting this church out of its spiritual discouragement.  This means that I and my family must continue growing more loving in Christ.  This also means bringing in evangelists and others for special events who will communicate Christ's love to these people.

3.  Relate to this church through preaching and teaching how the pain of living in abusive clannish relationships gets recycled into the church.  There are various examples of unhealthy clannish relationships in the Old Testament that would serve this purpose well.  Connected with this would involve addressing the abused person's victim status and steps to overcoming it.  Included with this needs to be a strong emphasis on dealing with bitterness and anger over events that block our walk with God.

4.  I have already sought to bring healing to the 10 characteristics of spiritual abuse by using such tools as Healing for Damaged Emotions with the Leader's Guide and other books by David Seamands on Sunday nights with a great response.  Next, I plan to teach on our identity in Christ using some materials by Neil Anderson.  In the future, I will do a sermon series on a church's identity in Christ on Sunday mornings.

5.  A sermon series from I & II Corinthians or Galatians would provide the Biblical basis for addressing the issues of spiritual abuse in churches then and now.  I will make sure to include in this series comments about the danger of judging one another's spiritual performance.

6.  Continue complimenting the church and various members personally.  I have also found it helpful to have the church secretary place a thank you to someone or to some group in each Sunday's worship bulletin.  Now that we have a homepage, the church finds it encouraging to hear compliments from others who visit it.  We even placed one such e-mail in our recent newsletter.

7.  Reaching out to the hurt who are afraid to come back whom preaching and teaching at church will not reach.  Included with this will encouraging them not to sit by with a victim outlook, but to do something for their own health and progress.  This will be challenging and time consuming, but I trust that in the long run it will prove helpful. 

B.  Implementing Insights About the Equipping Role of the Pastor for Healing

1.  As I address this issue within the congregation, I will be growing more deeply in my personal pastoral identity of incarnating this focus, paying the price for holding to this focus, and then witnessing new life emerge as the church becomes healthier.  Throughout all of this, I plan to heed Porter's personal point for me as the pastor to double my efforts in personal spiritual growth.

2.  Address the lack of interdependency here between pastor and people through preaching, teaching, and dialoging about the pastor's equipping ministry as the Biblical bedrock of pastoral ministry.  This foundation needs to be laid for freeing the church from unhealthy ways of relating such as seeking a pastor to do everything, seeing the pastor as the resident expert, wanting an inspirational Band-Aid, viewing the church as a possession, and expecting the professional pastor to do what they are paid to do (Ogden  91-94).  Parallel to this will include leading the PPRC to measure pastoral and church success in terms of "an increasing number of people who will take responsibility for the spiritual welfare of God's people or to make a significant impact through their witness to Christ in the world in word and deed (Ogden  98).  I will rejoice the day I hear less of 'the pastor should..' or 'the church should…' and more of 'we are the church, let's be…'.  This will involve my functioning as a change agent and utilizing my Vision 2000 workshop materials on "Leading Your Church Through Change".

3.  Communicate healthy Christian relationship dynamics by word and example as a pastor and as a pastoral family.  This along with seeking to disciple the members  in VanVonderen's three sets of 'one another' verses about Christian relationships.

4.  Avoiding setting up new programs or going into a major new membership drive while the church remains in such pain.  Although I have done this in the past with the encouragement of various church growth tools, I now see wisdom to the contrary.  I must prayerfully discern the presence of enough healing to move forward in these two important areas.  I will base such discernment on the perception of the church's resting awareness of God's healing love; their level of rehabilitation into healthier relationship dynamic; their release of the painful past, and their willingness to risk new attempts to relate the gospel to others.

C.  Implementing Insights About Restoring Healthy Church Conflict/Discipline Dynamics

1.  Avoid the erroneous responses of my predecessors while intentionally keep my guard up against ignoring both my personal and my family's well being throughout the conflict that will come as part of the healing process.  For some reason, this has been more difficult to do since entering seminary than before.

2.  Disciple this church to speak the truth in love and guide the church's leadership into a systematic approach of addressing conflict issues together.  This needs to be done within the context of discipling the church in Christian holiness.

D.  Implementing Insights About Fixing the Confusion Concerning Life in the Spirit

1.  Disciple this spiritually confused church in Christian holiness which will involve teaching about walking in the Spirit verses walking in the flesh.  Closely related to this will be focusing on the church as an eschatological community.  I trust this would transform four major characteristics of their spiritual confusion: 1).  An "all glory now" spirituality; 2).  A passive view of evangelism being the pastor's job; and 3).  An audience-performer view of worshipping God, and 4).  Lacking a Biblical vision that the church's unity and ministry in the Spirit transcends both clans and the boundaries of this small town.

2.  Seek to lead the church toward uniting Christian experience, knowledge and practice through a stronger Christian Education program.  I hope this would lead to a merging of the church's belief in the gifts of the Spirit with the pastor's Biblical call to equip the church for ministry.

E.  Implementing Insights About Supplying What is Lacking Concerning Spiritual Warfare

1.  I am already making some progress in strengthening the church's prayer life as it relates to the issues of spiritual warfare.  I have made a handout available about praying for God's protection around the Bishop, the District Superintendent, the pastor, and local church leaders.  I also constantly work this topic in my preaching and teaching as it applies.

2.  Lead the church beyond the good accomplished in our "Spiritual Freedom Workshop" on November 3, 1996.  We need to be more faithful in praying our prayer action plan during Administrative Council meetings.  It would be helpful for me to continue writing prayers of confession for Holy Communion in light of the steps to personal spiritual freedom.  I also need to preach to these issues of our renouncing apathy, discouragement, poor finances, attacks on praise and worship, self-will, worldly influence, and attacks on relationships along with the rest of the prayer action plan. 
It did concern me and the workshop leader that people participated well about their church, they did not share as openly about their personal part in these events.  Neither did they directly address the pastor and the events surrounding the purging of the choir.  They must come to terms with that part of their experience for the sake of their own healing and the healing of others.  This remains a big pile of garbage to attract the  devil's rats. 

F.  Some Resistance Points to Implementation and Overcoming Them

Given what I know about this church from before and what I observe presently, implementing the pastor's equipping role for healing will meet some resistance.  Already, some of the leaders communicate a need for me to do more for the sick and shut-in while heading in my current direction.  I need to pray more about this as well as bring this up in future formal and informal discussions.  Otherwise, whenever I preach on this subject some might think that I'm getting defensive and trying to lord it over the church.  By practicing healthy Christian relationship dynamics in love myself, I hope they will see that I really do have the church's best interest at heart. 

Another difficult focus to implement surrounds healthy church conflict/discipline dynamics.  Given their poor experience in the past and the spiritual bondage that remains, I expect responses to range from hesitation to overwhelming fear.  Again, prayer is a central way of addressing this difficulty.  Preaching about the interaction of spiritual warfare with church conflict/discipline dynamics is another avenue to overcome this obstacle.  I am certain that until the church willingly talks about and releases what they would not talk about during the "Freedom Workshop" this church will remain in bondage and unhealthy. 

Conclusion

The most important insight that I have gained from doing this paper is that pastors of abused churches further the abuse by seeking to improve things through developing new programs or entering a membership campaign before addressing the need for the church's healing.  This church does need new programs to attract children, youth, and new residents on this island.  Financially, we need more income which new members or even more visiting tourists would bring.  For four years, the church has rented its fellowship hall to a budding new church in the community.  Our leaders appreciate the money this has brought in, but see that June of 1998 is the time for both churches to stand on their own two feet.  They will only be ready to do this as they open themselves up for some radical equipping for healing which will be very costly for all of us. 

Already, I have witnessed powerful spiritual attacks upon myself, my family and against some of the more mature, healthy members of this church.  To me, this is like a church version of 'The Empire Strikes Back'.  The devil does not want this church  healed and back in action.  Nor does the whole domain of darkness want me and others here to equip this church for healing.  If I only keep some of the local members happy or fall into some egotistical control game, the devil would jump for joy and the church would die in agony.  If more of the laity of such an abused church could see the eternal conflict raging over their spiritual lighthouse, what a difference it would make in their involvement and willingness to co-operate with the healing process.  This is my dream to see this church win this spiritual war as well as for me to grow in this aspect of a pastor's equipping role.  May what all us, as pastor and parishioners, learn through this experience also benefit other pastors of abused churches.

 Annotated Bibliography

Anderson, Neil and Charles Mylander.  Setting your Church Free.  Ventura, CA: Regal Books,  1994.  A book for which many pastors having been waiting for that offers the Biblical basis for leading a church into freedom, along with a detailed plan for a freedom event.

Arterburn, Stephen & Jack Felton.  Toxic Faith.  Nashville, TN:  Oliver-Nelson Books, 1991.
    An excellent description of why people turn from God to a toxic faith and how people find their way back to a real faith in a real God.

Barclay, William.  The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians rev. ed.  Philadelphia PA:  The Westminster Press, 1976.  A commentary on Paul’s Epistles to the Galatians and the Ephesians.

Crowe, John.  "The Gifts for Growth."  Biblical Studies 800.  Asbury Theological Seminary, 1996.  An exegesis paper that lays the Biblical foundation for the equipping ministry of healing that Christ calls pastors to.

Enroth, Ronald.  Recovering From Churches That Abuse.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1994.  A wonderful book filled with testimonies of people who have recovered from abusive churches.

Fee, Gordon.  Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God.  Peabody, MA:  Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1994.  Written from the perspective of a radical middle between classic Pentecostalism and historic Evangelicalism, its seeks to expound for the first time Paul’s theology of the Holy Spirit and the Church.

Huttenlocker, Keith.  Conflict and Caring.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1988.  It contains an excellent discussion of the emotions of conflict, the conflict prone church and overcoming conflict proneness. 

Johnson, David and Jeff VanVonderen.  The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse.  Minneapolis, MN:  Bethany House Publishers, 1991.  This book offers the most complete description of Spiritual abuse & its Victims, Abusive Leaders & Why they are trapped, as well as a helpful outline for post-abuse recovery.

Moeller, Robert.  Love in Action.  Sisters, OR:  Questar Publishers, Inc., 1994.  It offers wise, workable, and consistent guidelines for preventing and solving church conflicts through putting love in action.

Nathan, Rich and Ken Wilson.  Empowered Evangelicals.  Ann Arbor, MI:  Servant Publications, 1995.  Written by two Vineyard pastors with a forward by J.I. Packer, this book describes what many are calling the “Third Wave” in which churches are incorporating the very best of the Evangelical and Charismatic Worlds.

Oden, Thomas C.  Pastoral Theology.  San Francisco, CA:  Harper & Row Publishers, 1983.
    A good modern comprehensive restatement of classical pastoral theology for the building of a clear “church age” pastoral identity.

Ogden, Greg.  The New Reformation.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan Publishing House, 1990.
    Ogden calls the church to complete the unfinished business of the Reformation through returning to an apostolic model of ministry in which pastors equip the laity for their ministry.

Porter, Richard.  "Piecing Together a Shattered Church,"  Leadership.  Spring, 1988.
    This article by one who pastored a church shattered by clergy moral failure offers not only sound pastoral advice, but also sound personal advice for pastors of such troubled churches.

Rowell, Edward.  "The day our church repented,"  Leadership.  Summer, 1996. 
http://www.christianity.net/le/6L3/6L3091.html  (November 20, 1996).
A moving testimony of a church participating in a day of solemn assembly and how it may restore a spirit of peace to a church.

Stanger, Frank.  God's Healing Community.  Nashville, TN:  Abingdon Press, 1978.
    A classic book on healing which offers a useful discourse of the Biblical roots and the contemporary relevance of the church’s healing ministry. 

Teykl, Terry.  Preyed On Or Prayed For.  Anderson, IN:  Bristol House, Ltd., 1994.
    Written by a United Methodist pastor, Terry lifts up the reality of spiritual warfare against pastors along with offering detailed Biblical guidance on praying for pastors.

VanVonderen, Jeff.  When God's People Let You Down.  Minneapolis, MN:  Bethany House Publishers, 1995.  Obviously head and shoulders above others, Jeff offers the most honest description of the damage people experience in churches and the most helpful assistance in finding healing.

Wagner, C. Peter.  Prayer Shield.  Ventura, CA:  Regal Books, 1992.
    A more general book on praying for our pastors, and other Christian leaders with a powerful chapter on the “Secrets of Pastors’ Prayer Lives.”

White, John and Ken Blue.  Healing The Wounded Church.  Downers Grove, IL:  Intervarsity Press, 1985.  Here is a challenging perspective that church discipline is unhealthy whenever it is done separate from the overall training of Christians in holiness.

White, Tom.  Breaking Strongholds:  how spiritual warfare sets captives free.  Ann Arbor, MI:  Servant Publications,  1993.  A more general book on spiritual warfare with a chapter on dealing with strongholds that plague churches with a comprehensive appendix on binding and loosing.

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