This “good Christian girl” is a woman now
I was a “good Christian girl” until well into middle age. Then, God led me where I did not want to go, to show me what I desperately needed to see.
The world in church clothing
Lord Jesus, show me when the church is not the church, but instead, the world in church clothing. Show me when a system is competing with you for my heart.
Exploited in the church, I’m Leah no more
“I’m Leah!” I cried. I had given myself to a church culture that had used me and used me, while profoundly rejecting my personhood, my adulthood, my worth, me.
Illusionists! The abusers we have not seen
Some illusionists fool us to amuse us. Abusers and abusive systems fool us to control us. Freedom and life hinge on seeing the illusionists we have not seen.
To the exiles scattered by toxic church
Maybe the church has become bewildering to you. Leaders you trusted and people you respected are acting in ways that do not reflect who Jesus is, nor what they profess to believe. They have turned on anyone among them who appears to threaten the status quo. What is going on?
Nat Arnett / freeimages.com
Beware the illusion of refuge: Abuse in the church
Any number of motives can prompt leaders in our church systems to create an illusion that refuge for the abused exists, where it does not. “They say, ‘All is well, all is well,’ when it is not.” So how can we know?
Witchcraft in the church
In the church, those obsessed with manipulating, intimidating and dominating can pose as those serving God. And we can be very fooled for a very long time.
Shunning in the church
Any group that shuns is withholding your deepest needs in order to control you. That’s the opposite of loving you. It’s people you trusted, trying to erase you.
When Christian leaders reject God
I saw it for the first time in a meeting I called and led. No. Actually: I realized then what I had been seeing for years. It broke my heart. I’ve tried to tell the story twice before. Both times, I described what happened in that meeting, but did not include any backstory. Now it’s time to write the whole story. Bring honor to your name, holy Lord.
Cries of the shunned
In the middle of that dark-valley time, I often found myself alone with God, crying aloud and writing passionately in my journal. During that time too, I came to identify with David, the shepherd-poet-warrior-king, in ways I had not before. For David was also ostracized by people he trusted. And he cried out in distress - and in faith.