Every Pastor Can Do This

Whether you realize it or not, at least 30% of your church is dealing with some kind of abuse, and great care must be exercised in handling these matters. The potential for destructive actions is high, even when the actions taken seem relatively harmless and minor. One of the most important things for a pastor to do is to act responsibly, within their own level of competence, and contrary to the popular book title, everyone is not competent to counsel every situation. 

Even so, there are some things that any pastor can quickly and easily learn to do that will help them handle an abuse victim with appropriate care.

While these seem intuitively obvious, there are some significant aspects that are not necessarily so, and it will be important to spend some time learning how to put these things into practice. We offer a course that will help you recognize and respond to abuse in your church (The 4 Tools). 

Of course, most pastors will also want to ask how to graciously handle the abuser’s side of the matter, so here are three more things you can do.

In order to do these things, you will need to trust the victim’s own assessment regarding the level of danger that they face. You will need to familiarize yourself with the services and organizations in your area. It is even better if you can get involved and spend some time learning how to help those organizations. You will need to learn how to recognize abusive dynamics in a variety of contexts. You will need to understand why a commitment to autonomy and privacy is so critically important in these very dangerous situations.

This will take some time and effort, but it is well worth it. If you would like to explore how to put these principles into practice, we would be happy to help you and your church obey God's command for religious and civil leaders to defend the oppressed (see Psalm 82).