Healing
Your Church Hurt by Stephen Mansfield
If
there was ever a time the right book came to me at the right time it
is this one. Healing Your Church Hurt by Stephen Mansfield is an
excellent book on the subject everyone of us in church deals with but
afraid to even mention it. If you have been attending church or a
member of your church for any length of time you have run into it.
Experienced it. Endured it. Broken by it. Bitter because of it. Even
turned away from God because of it. Its not God's Word that hurt you
in a bad way. Nothing from the Bible. In fact, most of us would admit
we would rather be smacked in the face with a Bible than being hurt
from an insensitive word from a fellow brother or sister in Christ.
Our
expectations of church and how it is supposed to be and operate are
so much different than the realities each one of us experience. We
look at God's house as a fortress. One we can run into for
protection, for love, for kindness, for learning, for encouragement
or just plain hide. We do not enter these divine gates for ridicule,
distrust and out right cruelty. But if you are a true church goer you
have in fact experienced the downside and the dark-side of the
church.
My
church hurts, and I do mean hurts, run deep to my very core. Dare I
say even to my soul. That in fact is true. It is when such hurts
which we perceive as inflicted upon us by another begin to slowly at
first infect our souls with bitterness. A bitterness from Satan
himself. Like a cancer growing undetected until it appears too late.
We are so bitter that the church now begins to represent the very
thing that causes us pain. Anything associated with it now becomes a
cruel reminder to us.
Author
Stephen Mansfield hits it on the head. How we go beyond the memories
and continue to re-live the very thing, memory, situation, people and
persons that deepen the wound and place ourselves in the very dark
pit we desire to escape. He refers to it as, “The Season of Hell.”
Through the course of the book I was determine to use the principals
used and taught by the author. Regardless of the pain I knew and did
feel through my own personal Season of Hell it had to be done. Which
in turn prepared me for the next Church Hurt.
This
book is for 99% of those who have called church home. There is no
doubt in my mind that anyone has been so perfect not to have
experienced a Church Hurt that cuts them down to their knees.
I
personally have had to re-read many of the parts of this book.
Revisit my Season of Hell on occasion. I can safely say I can
remember the events, people, the words and the physical pain deep
within my heart. But I no longer re-live them. No longer let the
teeth of the trap inject the poison of bitterness continually into my
soul without my permission any more.
Is
this a life changing book? For me, Yes. Going deep into scripture to
the very Hebrew and Greek words originally used. Learning and
applying God's Word directly into my life. Seeing the reality of the
situations. Addressing why I would even consider the opinions of such
people valid or of any value to me? Many of those who speak do so
without knowing or caring at the time. As they go through life it
becomes second nature to them. The bitterness pouring out of them
without question. Ask them to pass the salt and they find some way of
releasing some of the bitterness at you like some splattering water
balloon. Trying to get everyone wet.
I
have always had a problem with authority. Nearly everyone I have met
who had some title never was able to live up to it. In fact, many of
which are just the opposite and determine to hinder anyone who dares
to work towards achieving more and helping others to do the same. One
thing I have learned from this book that those within the church are
held to a higher authority than the rest of us. They often forget it
is God they serve. It is God they must answer too. We too forget. For
we too answer to God. The wicked things we do even if we are unaware
have consequences that we will be judged for. The problem is we are
too afraid to make known or to call another out when obviously what
they are doing or done is wrong according to scripture. The procedure
for such is spelled out plainly in God's Word. Still we, as well as
I. have become to afraid to do it. It is simpler to just leave and
hop to another church.
In
his book Stephen Mansfield gives us the blueprint on what questions
must be answered before joining a church. Before leaving your church
and searching for another. Going beyond the entertainment factor to
the heart of service. Is your church preparing you for the work of
the Kingdom? This question must be answered by each of us.
This
book is worth twice its costs. I find it a much needed part of the
puzzle in my daily walk with Christ. Church hurts will continue to
come. You will not be able to avoid them unless you have taken the
easy way out and left the very brothers and sisters that need you.
Ones you have not even met yet.
