A lot of times we think we’re one of the few who’ve been hurt by a church, when in reality we aren’t alone.
Often what happens next is we find another of “the few” who’ve been hurt and we build new relationships established on mutual pain.
This can cause us and them to avoid healing.
A lot of people use being church hurt as a reason to create distance, or attack, rather than as an opportunity to draw closer and strengthen a community.
This plays out clearly in the movie Spiderman: Far from Home. In the previous movie, End Game, we watched Tony Stark give his life to save everyone, which made him the Christ figure in that movie. In Far From Home, he’d left Edith for Peter Parker, giving Peter access to all the power Tony had left behind. Again, Tony is the Christ figure in the story and Edith is therefore a picture of the Holy Spirit. The movie then shows the enemy figure, Mysterio, as well as his team. His entire team, including himself, is made up of people who were hurt by Tony. In other words, his team represents the people who’ve gathered based on their mutual painful church experience. The rest of the movie is this team of “church hurt” people projecting artificial problems to the citizens of earth, while simultaneously doing real damage. They then project a false hero who is actually the enemy in disguise.
What’s the point?
We’ve all been church hurt in some way. It’s what we do after that matters. Keep in mind, Jesus called Peter satan.
Peter didn’t leave.
He drew closer.
Later he denied his “pastor” 3 times (which would be wise for us to also realize, not only had Peter been church hurt but now he hurt his pastor…in other words, sheep bite too, and our pastors have also been hurt by us)
Peter’s responses through all of it made him a main voice for God to the earth and a leader of the very church he’d been hurt by.
And of course, there are real spiritual abuses and bad leaders that I’m not talking about with this post. Only looking at the other side for now.
If you’ve been hurt, you aren’t alone. Stay close. Get closer. Forgive. Serve. Love. Reject offense. And for God’s sake, build relationships from healing, not wounding.