In Healing Wounds, Renewing Faith: Confronting & Recovering From Church Trauma, Rev. Father Jason Carson Wilson, M.Div., offers a comprehensive guide for those who have experienced trauma within religious communities. This book provides a compassionate exploration of church trauma's emotional, spiritual, and psychological impact and presents a path toward healing and restoration of faith. Overview: The book opens with an in-depth analysis of the lasting effects of church trauma on individuals, exploring how such experiences can profoundly shake one’s spirituality, self-perception, and overall well-being. Rev. Wilson emphasizes acknowledging these wounds to begin the healing process. Structure: Divided into ten chapters, the book covers various aspects of church trauma and the healing journey: 1. The Impact of Church Trauma - This chapter examines the emotional and psychological toll that church trauma can take, discussing the loss of trust and self-esteem and the effects on mental health, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD. 2. Understanding Faith and Spirituality - The author delves into the role of faith and spirituality in our lives and their connection to healing, emphasizing the importance of rebuilding one’s spiritual foundation after trauma. 3. Recognizing the Signs of Church Trauma - This chapter highlights the common symptoms and behaviors associated with church trauma, including emotional distress, social withdrawal, and loss of trust, offering insight into how these manifest in affected individuals. 4. Unpacking the Causes of Church Trauma - Rev. Wilson explores the various causes of church trauma, including spiritual abuse, toxic leadership, and doctrinal conflicts, and how these contribute to the deep wounds experienced by survivors. 5. Navigating the Healing Journey - This chapter provides a roadmap for survivors, outlining the steps to acknowledge and heal from trauma. It emphasizes the importance of self-compassion, rebuilding trust, and reconnecting with spirituality. 6. Building Trust and Restoring Faith—This chapter focuses on rebuilding trust in religious institutions, oneself, and others. The author discusses strategies for faith leaders and therapists to foster transparent, respectful relationships that promote healing. 7. Addressing Spiritual Abuse - This chapter addresses the specific issue of spiritual abuse, offering guidance on how to recognize, confront, and recover from such experiences within religious settings. 8. Seeking Professional Help: Therapists and Faith Leaders - Rev. Wilson highlights the critical role of professional help in the healing process, discussing the benefits of therapy and the importance of collaboration between therapists and faith leaders. 9. Reclaiming Your Faith: Rediscovering What Matters - This chapter encourages survivors to rediscover their personal beliefs and rebuild their spiritual practices meaningfully. 10. Moving Forward: Embracing Hope and Restoration - The final chapter offers hope and encouragement for the future, emphasizing the possibility of restoring faith and finding a renewed sense of purpose and connection. Conclusion: Healing Wounds, Renewing Faith is a vital resource for anyone affected by church trauma. It offers a compassionate understanding of the profound impact of such experiences and practical guidance for healing and reclaiming one’s spirituality. Rev. Wilson’s approach is empathetic and empowering, making this book an essential companion for survivors and those supporting them on their journey toward recovery and renewal.

An effective plan to help those suffering from wounds inflicted by the church find spiritual healing and a renewed sense of faith. Raised as a conservative Christian, minister and author Carol Howard Merritt discovered that the traditional institutions she grew up in inflicted great pain and suffering on others. Though she loved the spirituality the church provided, she knew that, because of sexism, homophobia, and manipulative religious politics, established religious institutions weren’t always holy or safe. Instead of offering refuge, these institutions have betrayed people’s hearts and souls. “People have suffered religious abuse,” she writes, “which can be different from physical injury or psychological trauma.” Though participation and affiliation in traditional religious institutions is waning, many people still believe in God. Merritt contends that many leave the church because they have lost trust in the institution, not in God. Healing Spiritual Wounds addresses the church’s dichotomous image—as a safe space and as a dangerous place—and provides a way to restore personal faith and connection to God for those who have been hurt or betrayed by established institutions of faith. Merritt lays out a multistage plan for moving from pain to spiritual rebirth, from recovering theological and emotional shards to recovering communal wholeness. Merritt does not sugarcoat the wrongs institutions long seen as trustworthy have inflicted on many innocent victims. Sympathetic, understanding, and deeply positive, she offers hope and a way to help them heal and reclaim the spiritual joy that can make them whole again.

Move beyond Coping and Surviving to a Rejuvenating Place of Soul Rest How many of us find ourselves exhausted, running on empty with no time for rest, no time for ourselves, no time for God? Bonnie Gray knows exactly what that's like. On the brink of fulfilling a lifelong dream, Bonnie's plans suddenly went off script. Her life shattered into a debilitating journey through anxiety, panic attacks, and insomnia. But as she struggled to make sense of it all, she made an important discovery: we all need spiritual whitespace. Spiritual whitespace makes room--room in one's heart for a deep relationship with God, room in one's life for rest, room in one's soul for rejuvenation. With soul-stirring vulnerability and heartbreaking honesty, Bonnie takes readers on a personal journey to feed their souls and uncover the deeper story of rest. Lyrical writing draws readers into Gray's intimate journey through overwhelming stress to find God in a broken story and celebrate the beauty of faith. Guided by biblical encouragement and thought-provoking prompts, Gray shows readers how to create space in the everyday for God, refreshment, and faith. She also offers practical steps and insights for making spiritual whitespace a reality, right in the midst of the stress-frayed stories in every season of life. "We live in a culture that brags and boasts about being busy. Into that reality steps Bonnie with a new idea. Whitespace is an important concept and Bonnie has captured it perfectly. If you're exhausted with being exhausted, read this book. If you feel too busy to read this book, then that's probably the best sign of all that you need it."--from the foreword by Jon Acuff, New York Times bestselling author of Stuff Christians Like

God, says Paul Sibcy, is everything that is. All of us—faithful seekers or otherwise—have some area of confusion, hurt, or denial around this word, or our personal concept of God, that keeps us from a full expression of our spirituality. Healing Your Rift with God is a guidebook for finding your own personal rifts with God and healing them. Sibcy explains the nature of a spiritual rift, how this wound can impair your life, and how such a wound may be healed by the earnest seeker, with or without help from a counselor or teacher. Healing Your Rift with God will also assist those in the helping professions who wish to facilitate what the author calls ultimate healing. The book includes many personal stories from the author’s life, teaching, and counseling work, and its warm narrative tone creates an intimate author–reader relationship that inspires the healing process.

Central to God’s character is the quality of holiness. Yet, even so, most people are hard-pressed to define what God’s holiness precisely is. Many preachers today avoid the topic altogether because people today don’t quite know what to do with words like “awe” or “fear.” R. C. Sproul, in this classic work, puts the holiness of God in its proper and central place in the Christian life. He paints an awe-inspiring vision of God that encourages Christian to become holy just as God is holy. Once you encounter the holiness of God, your life will never be the same.

Balancing sound biblical exposition with sensitive pastoral care, Stephen Seamands shows that because Jesus experienced abuse, shame and rejection, he understands the hurts we experience today. And Jesus' response to pain and suffering gives us hope that we too can experience forgiveness and new life.

“Somewhere deep inside each one of us is a burning desire to finally become the person God created us to be.” Do you suffer from spiritual or emotional wounds that are keeping you from reaching that goal? The bestselling book Be Healed is based on retired Catholic therapist Bob Schuchts’s popular program for spiritual, emotional, and physical healing. Incorporating elements of charismatic spirituality and steeped in scripture and the wisdom of the Church, this book offers hope in the healing power of God through the Holy Spirit and the sacraments. Schuchts, founder of the John Paul II Healing Center, sensitively shares his own journey of healing after enduring a series of betrayals in high school—his father’s infidelity, his parents’ divorce, his older brother’s drug addiction—and his subsequent periods of struggle with God and faith. Be Healed includes helpful tools such as charts, tables, lists, reflection questions, and personal challenges to guide you on your journey of healing. Schuchts’s trusted process for finding inner peace and healing is boldly Christ-centered, maintaining focus on the person of Jesus as “the life-giving and ever-present physician of our souls.” Schuchts will help you recognize your brokenness and find your hope and healing in the risen Christ.