Thank you so very much for this article. I too have been wounded by the Church...more specifically the pastors of my last church, who were verbally and spiritually abusive. The Lord moved my husband and I to a new church home, and it's been about a year now; but I have recently found myself angry and upset that I still feel such deep hurt after trying to let God's forgiveness flow in and through me! It's an everyday battle, and it's tiring! I think about what was said and done to us everyday...I even have nightmares about being back there and getting into confrontations, trying to defend myself. I too recently told myself that if I just prayed and fasted more, maybe healing will happen quicker for me. I was also abused as a child, and the Lord brought me through that process of healing and I even wrote a book about it...I thought healing would be easier this time, but it's not. Thanks again, I realize now that I have to let God do the work in me and be patient, trusting He will do it.

How about the 50 million stages of Church woundedness? At the bare minimum, that's the number of people who have been seared in the flesh by church hypocrisy.

The modern church has become an unsafe place to be. People walk around with little insight into themselves or the pain they inflict on others. We have become a culture of Christian mythologists who talk a good game, but practice something far from what we say we believe or write about.

Countless times I have seen people wounded, discouraged and beaten up by those in leadership roles. God help us.

Some days I wish God would allow us to enter tribulation sooner than later so that false prophets would be shown for who they are, and stop making work harder for those of us comforting the ones who are suffering and cannot help where they are in life. Is it truly sin if a person is recovering from abuse or is mentally disabled? It appears most of those I encounter have the false belief that a person can effectively choose their sin as if it were a flavor of ice cream. If Paul could not control his sinning in certain aspects, neither can we!

Since 1983 I have been to more churches of different "christian"denominations than I can count, be they charismatic, community, baptist, non-denominational, pentecostal so forth&so on. So far, what I have found, is that most "christian" churches, even with the best intentions fall miserably short of being a "true" new testament church. For the most part they fall under the categories of being seeker friendly, cliquey, country clubbish, rock n' rollish, pretentious holy art thou, dry as a bone, so spiritual they're heretical or blasphemous of the Holy Spirit, they're feeding troughs or bakeries &c coffee clutches, new ageish, or so legalistic you can't breathe without asking permission. I could go on and on, but needless to say the majority of christian interaction I & my family have encountered have been so duplicitious that we refuse to waste our time on seeking anymore but instead seek a deep intimate relationship with Him that honors him incl. prayer,study of the scrips&learning etc

Wow! Your article hit it dead on the head. That is exactly what I have been feeling. In fact, it literally brought tears to my eyes (a little difficult to explain while at my desk at work) but I have always believed that God will show you things at exactly the right time. God bless you!!!

I'm a bit skeptical about the premise for this article. The pastor was so hurt? What happened? Perhaps this pastor overreacted emotionally. Was the criticism warranted? All criticism isn't just mean. . .maybe his behavior had something to do with his "being hurt". Why does he sound as though he lacks maturity? Grace is his answer. . .what's the alternative to preaching grace anyway? Legalists haven't hurt this pastor too?