Battered Sheep

A good friend of mine recently pointed out a website that ministers to "battered sheep," people who have been badly hurt by abusive churches. For a number of reasons I can't recommend the website; it makes the mistake of blaming the wrong things (organized religion, formal church membership, taking membership vows) for the problems people have in churches--and the implications of these kinds of arguments are often that the problem is inherent to the church itself, and the solution is to leave it behind.

But the reality is that there are battered sheep out there, and it is way too easy to find them. And their solution to this problem, to the shame of the church and its leadership, is often to leave the place where they should be safe, protected, and loved because they've been beaten up and shattered. And they run away from the battering, often to places that are no more safe than the one they've left behind.

Why are sheep getting battered in churches? The simple answer is sin, of course. In order for there to be those who are battered, there must be batterers, and often those who hold authority in the church (as in marriages and families) do the wounding. They lose sight of their biblical role as servants and protectors and become aggressors. They use church discipline as a tool of vengeance or a means of promoting their own agenda. Perhaps it's because in some cases they haven't been trained well about what, exactly, an under-shepherd is supposed to do and be; maybe they aren't mature enough Christians to become as self-sacrificial as they need to be in caring for the sheep--but the end result, whatever lies at the root of it, is wounded sheep who run from the church to whatever appears to be the closest safe haven, who may never recover entirely from the injuries they have received.

While it's easy to sit in the pew and blame the leadership when a church member becomes a battered sheep,  the rest of us sheep ought to be asking ourselves how we might have contributed to the battering. On the most basic level, have we prayed for those who have been called to be leaders in the church? If our church has a nominating and voting method of choosing elders, have we been active in drawing the leadership's attention to men who meet the qualifications laid out in Scripture? Have we made our votes carefully and prayerfully?

Once in awhile a story will circulate of some tragic situation in which spousal or parental abuse results in death for the victim. Neighbors, family members, friends--those close to the situation may have remained silent even though they were aware of the abusive situation. And they must live with the guilt of knowing that they could have done something, but didn't. While we are called to submit to those God has placed over us in the church, we must never become "ostrich" sheep who stick our heads in the sand while others around us are being battered. We must lovingly, respectfully confront those who would batter the sheep, so that we don't share in the responsibility for their injuries.

We need to gently point the battered sheep--and the batterers--to the Good Shepherd who will never abuse his sheep. We need to turn to him ourselves, asking him to protect his church from those who would batter and tear his sheep. He is the one who will lead us in such a way that we will never want.