In his journey of healing from the trauma of childhood abuse, one question has haunted Tim LeCroy. Why didn’t anyone — from family members to church members to pastors to church friends to school teachers and administrators — step in and stop the abuse?
Now the senior pastor of Grace and Peace Fellowship (PCA) in St. Louis, LeCroy wants to ensure that children and adults who attend PCA churches will never have to work through that same question. LeCroy brings a survivor’s sense of urgency to the 12-member Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault Study Committee, which he chairs. The committee’s study will extend beyond child abuse to provide clarity and best practices for pastors and elders encountering situations involving physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.
A Day of Reckoning
The committee’s work comes at a time when the Protestant church has faced an onslaught of abuse allegations.
In February 2019, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News uncovered more than 700 credible accounts of abuse by 380 church leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). A 2018 investigation by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram discovered 400 allegations of abuse against 168 leaders in independent Baptist churches that are not accountable to the SBC.
“It’s also a Protestant problem, and a deeply human one,” said Marvin Olasky in a 2018 WORLD investigative report. WORLD uncovered issues of sexual misconduct at a number of Protestant churches and institutions, including incidents with a pastor at Tates Creek Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Lexington, Kentucky, and a separate incident involving a college pastor later connected to Redeemer City to City in New York City.
A Change in Attitudes
Beyond responding to current events, the study committee’s formation represents a shift in pastoral attitudes toward abuse. Pastors have realized that issues of abuse are more complicated than previously thought, says Darby Strickland, a counselor with the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation and a study committee advisory member.
“I have seen the tide shift from conversations being shut down because we have to protect the marriage institution to people being willing to ask broader questions about abuse,” she said.
The more pastors ask, the more they realize how complex this is. Strickland said pastors call her after counseling a couple because they realized they were dealing with domestic abuse and are grief-stricken over what they’ve missed all along.
What’s the Urgency? Gospel Faithfulness
Pastors, women’s ministry leaders, and researchers have observed that the church’s response to complex issues of abuse impacts the way churchgoers, particularly young churchgoers, view the body of Christ. A 2019 survey from LifeWay indicated nearly 1 in 10 young evangelicals have attended a church less frequently because they did not feel safe from sexual misconduct. One in 10 evangelicals ages 18-34 reported that they stopped attending a church because they didn’t feel that the church took issues of sexual misconduct seriously.
When church leaders learn to recognize and respond to abusive situations in ways that value the safety of victims — and foster their healing — the church models Christ’s behavior and ministry. Strickland noted that when abuse victims do not believe the church cares about them, they will leave the church.
“Scripture is clear, the heart of an oppressor is the opposite of the heart of Jesus,” she said.
When church leaders learn to recognize and respond to abusive situations in ways that value the safety of victims — and foster their healing — the church models Christ’s behavior and ministry.
LeCroy sees a connection between caring for the abused and Jesus’ parable about the lost sheep in Luke 15.
“Jesus says He will leave the 99 to get the one, and when He gets the one, there’s great rejoicing in heaven. This is about evangelism and going to get the lost. People are suffering.”
According to counselor and trauma expert Diane Langberg, the church that cares well for the abused looks “more and more like her Lord, which is ultimately the point. She’s the body, and He’s the head. A body that does not follow its head is a sick body.”
Because rates of depression, anxiety, and addiction are higher among abuse survivors, the church’s ability to lovingly handle cases of abuse could save people from long-term health consequences. Since rates of suicide are higher among abuse victims, and because domestic violence sometimes leads to homicide, LeCroy believes the church’s willingness to act can save lives.
Coming With Humility
Strickland hopes the committee begins with a strong understanding of oppression, identifies what it looks like, and explains why wise care is critical. She and Langberg have seen the damage churches inflict by ignoring abuse or responding poorly. But the study committee’s work will be useless if the denomination doesn’t approach these subjects with humility.
In humility, the church can communicate that abuse survivors have a place in the church. And as those survivors speak, the rest of the church will listen to what they have to say.
“We need to listen and learn from them about abuse and what is needed for healing,” Langberg said. “It is incarnational work.”