Healing for the Spiritually Wounded (Part 2)

Your Call

You may be a new church planting pastor, an active member of a local church, or a seasoned veteran of faith and ministry. There will come a time when you will be called upon to help someone like my friends, Ruth and Fred. How can you effectively do that? What steps can you take to bring them to a place where they can once again trust God and others?

As one who is “seasoned in ministry”, I have found that age and experience can sometimes cloud our judgment or color our perception of people. It’s true, the longer we’ve been around, the more we realize that things aren’t always as they seem on the outside. People come to us and we “size them up”. We look them over. We ask “what’s their agenda”. Sometimes we are right to do that. Other times, we can misjudge and lose an opportunity for real ministry. Let’s be sure to ask the Holy Spirit for wisdom and discernment as we are confronted with these who come our way. Let’s allow God to use us in a way he hasn’t used us before.

Church Hurts Hurt Deeply

The hurts inflicted upon people by bad church experiences are some of the most difficult types of hurts to heal. In the church we have such high regard for the people around us, especially the leadership. When those for whom we have the highest regard hurt us by violating our trust, we are devastated. The pain runs deep.

Yes, the scripture does say, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted” (Proverbs 27:6). It means that a true friend must sometimes take a tough stand when we are moving in a direction which will ultimately be detrimental to us. But in a situation involving spiritual abuse, the “wounds” inflicted are anything but trustworthy. They are wounds by “false friends” which do not lead to our good and may take years (or even decades) to heal. But heal they must!

It’s been said, “Hurting people hurt people”. If we do not help people onto a path toward spiritual and emotional healing, the hurt will spread. Those with unresolved anger, bitterness and distrust are unwitting carriers of spiritual disease. Like a physical cancer, that disease will spread even in a healthy church body. It is incumbent upon us as church leaders to shepherd these wounded saints on their journey toward healing.

Part 1 | Part 3