Healing Your Church Hurt by Stephen Mansfield is a very bold, straightforward book that teaches the simple, but not easy, basics of finding healing when you have been hurt in a church setting. It leads us to find true forgiveness. In a very clear manner, Mansfield walks us through the following:
- He examines the lives of great men of God from the history books, pointing out how each of them could have easily given in to hurt and bitterness, yet all of them pressed on into the destiny that God had for them.
- He explores the paradox within ALL of us: the incredible potential for good, as well as for evil.
- He leads us to think through our own church hurt experiences… in detail.
- He brings us to the truth, that we need to accept our own responsibility for our hurt. To do our part… to forgive and let go. And after letting go, to become completely whole again in Jesus.
This is one of the most well-written books that I have read in a long time. It is incredibly easy to follow and is very straightforward about where the actual problem within our hurts lie. The main issue is in our expectations. We go to church, expecting the people there to represent Jesus. Expecting them (even though we don’t admit it) to be perfect. To never let us down. I think there are 2 main things to learn from this incredible book:
- Do not put your hope/expectations in people. Do not try to find Jesus’ perfection in people. PEOPLE WILL LET US DOWN. Churched people are just as wounded and imperfect as unchurched people. The only difference is that we have found a Savior.
- This goes with the old saying… “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” – Epictetus. We all face challenges in life and we all get hurt. The important thing is which direction you go when you face those challenges or when you get hurt.
Overall, I believe that anyone who has ever been hurt in a church setting should read this book! In fact, anyone who has dealt with anger and bitterness in life can benefit from it. It hits straight to the heart of allowing God to fix our own issues of unforgiveness instead of expecting others to come and “bow down” to apologize for the wrongs they have done to us. We cannot be used of God until we let go of the unforgiveness in our lives.
Do you have a story of church hurt? Or do you know of someone who has been through it? I have a free copy of this great book to give away. Send me an email telling your story and I will pick one person to receive this free book.
Want to begin reading now? You can download the first chapter here for free: Healing Your Church Hurt Excerpt.
To learn more about Stephen Mansfield, you can check out his website here: The Mansfield Group.
I received a free review copy of Healing Your Church Hurt from Tyndale Blog Network in exchange for this review.
[…] of them. I would so love for each one of those ladies to get a copy of the last book I reviewed (Healing Your Church Hurt by Stephen Mansfield). Men are flawed. We can’t find Jesus through them. I tried that for years […]