Abuse & The Church - Chalcedon Releases Important Lecture Series
In an encouraging development, the Chalcedon Foundation has released a superb new lecture series (start here) by Martin Selbrede on a much needed topic - abuse and the church.
Watching this lecture series was personally very edifying and helped my wife and I process pastoral abuse we had faced at our previous church. Though the abuse we faced was not of the nature of physical or sexual abuse, all kinds of abuse is addressed in this series and it will be helpful for almost anyone.
Beyond that the church really needs to hear this difficult message. Pastors, elders and those in authority especially. Both so they can identify current injustices and so that they can avoid future pitfalls.
I would like to publicly thank Martin Selbrede and those who helped to produce this work for their labors in this effort. I trust it will bear much fruit and help churches to implement real reforms.
My wife and I’s personal story of pastoral abuse was astounding and perplexing to us at the time, but sadly, our story was not rare a story. Although details may differ, those who have suffered under church abuse in other ways will recognize similar key hallmarks of abuse. As we watched Selbrede’s second lecture (below) about “circling the wagons” there were probably fifteen different times where what Mr. Selbrede described was exactly our experience the hands of our pastor and elders.
Individuals, husbands and wives, pastors, local churches: Take the time to go through these lecture series. They are incredibly helpful, well supported and well delivered.