What to Do When the Church Has Wounded You

Every year, 2.7 million Americans stop going to church. Most walked away from something that wounded them. In this episode, discover what God says to the person whose church let them down, and where the road back actually starts.Natalie Runion grew up as a pastor's daughter in Cincinnati and spent her whole life in the church. Then she watched her family get pushed out of the congregation her father served. She spent decades after that wrestling with whether God and the church were the same thing, or whether she could pull them apart.She's not alone. Every year, roughly 2.7 million Americans stop going to church. The researchers who study why keep finding the same pattern: something happened inside a place that was supposed to be safe, and it never got addressed.Most people don't make a dramatic exit. They just stop showing up, one Sunday at a time, until the seat they used to occupy sits empty and eventually no one mentions it.Church hurt is a wound that comes from a place that was supposed to be safe. The pain makes sense. The anger makes sense, and so does the exhaustion with organized religion. This episode takes those feelings seriously before it asks anything of the person carrying them.Over the years I've met far too many people who have been hurt by the church. Some were judged without being loved. Others watched a leader they trusted collapse under the weight of a moral failure, and the collapse took their faith in the institution with it. A few found their way back. Too many never did. I know that behind each of those stories is a person who walked through a door looking for God and came out carrying a wound instead.Psalm 27:10 was written about the people closest to you, the ones most supposed to be safe, who weren't. What David says is that even in that worst-case abandonment, God stays. He holds you close. The people who hurt you in the church were supposed to represent Him. When they wounded you instead, He stayed. What God thinks of you stands apart from what those people did to you.Through Natalie's story and Psalm 27:10, this episode makes the case that you get to keep God and leave behind what broken people did. The faith doesn't have to go with the institution. The road back starts with God, before it goes anywhere else.Also in this episode: a free resource called How to Keep Your Faith When the Church Lets You Down, available at dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/church.BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:Why church hurt spreads beyond the original wound and into how a person thinks about God and communityWhat Psalm 27:10 says to the person whose church did the abandoning that a parent or leader was supposed to doOne concrete step you can take toward God this week, before you think about the institutionHe was there before the wound. He's still there now.Share This Episode:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/243Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail:https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemailWant to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast.https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/Rate and Reviewhttps://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/reviews/new/Connect with BartFacebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylivesWebsite: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.comFeeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here.Mentioned in this episode:Join Our Private Facebook CommunityIf you're looking for a place to connect with other Daily Devotions listeners and pray for each other, I'd love for you to join our private Facebook community group. Come find us at https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/group