12/8/25

The Church: Helping or Hurting?

I'm always looking for resources to learn from that support Biblical counseling, discipleship, and "evidence alternatives to self-help." Looking at Genesisprocess.org I saw a book for sale that offers the founder's life story about experience in the Church. The more I grow the more I realize that prayer of intercession is Lost and Found God's way (Isaiah 65:1, Romans 10:20)

Today we planned on going to the Catholic church Pax Christi but my friend canceled. I've latched onto the idea that every church has "true believers, make believers, and non-believers." I can enjoy every church where Christ is evident and enjoy conversations that reveal what we believe rather than arguing about topics with little value (2 Tim 2:19-26)

The Church: Helping or Hurting is described as;

A guide to practical Christianity, making individuals and churches safe and effective for helping wounded people heal. 

This book provides the understanding for individuals, churches, and agencies to help people who want to change actually be able to change. Michael’s primary question in writing this book was this: how can we assist the church at being safe and effective at helping hurting people heal?  This book is a synopsis of what he has learned over the past 45 years in his efforts to help wounded and addicted people.

If you have a heart to help hurting people, this book will aid you in understanding—“what helps and what hurts”.

The book argues that while the Church is God’s design for spiritual growth, it has often wounded people through hypocrisy, legalism, abuse of power, and lack of love, driving many away from Christ rather than toward Him.

One-Sentence Biblical Summary

“The Church may wound through human sin, but Christ still heals through His bride when she walks in truth, humility, and love.”

  • Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. - John 17:17

  • Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. - Ephesians 4:15

  • Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. - Colossians 1:18

PROS

Ways the Book Faithfully Reflects Biblical Truth

1. Calls the Church to Self-Examination

Biblical Alignment:

Value:
The book confronts complacency and calls the Church to repentance. This reflects Christ’s repeated warnings to the churches to examine fruit, motives, and faithfulness.

2. Amplifies the Reality of Church Hurt

Biblical Alignment:

Value:
It exposes how spiritual abuse and hypocrisy push people away from God. Scripture clearly condemns shepherds who exploit or neglect the flock.

3. Emphasizes Love Over Legalism

Biblical Alignment:

Value:
The book highlights relationship over rigid rule-keeping. This reflects the heart of the gospel, faith working through love.

4. Encourages Authentic Community

Biblical Alignment:

  • Acts 2:42–47, Romans 12:9–16, Hebrews 10:24–25, Everything in common,  Love each other with genuine affection, enthusiastic hope, confidence hope, patient in trouble, and keep on praying, ready to help those in need. Encouraging ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. Not neglecting our meeting together.

Value:
It affirms that genuine Christian community heals rather than harms when built on humility, truth, and shared life.

5. Gives Voice to the Wounded Without Silencing Them

Biblical Alignment:

Value:
The book models compassion toward those hurt by spiritual leadership. God never dismisses broken voices.

CONS

Where the Book Can Drift from Full Biblical Balance

1. Risk of Generalizing the Entire Church

Biblical Tension:

  • Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 5:25–27, 1 Timothy 3:15, Jesus church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. Christian code of conduct in the household of God. This is the church of the living God, which is the pillar and foundation of the truth.

Concern:
The tone can imply the Church as a whole is primarily harmful. Scripture affirms the Church as Christ’s bride and the pillar of truth, even in its weakness.

2. Heavy Focus on Institutional Failure Over Personal Sin

Biblical Tension:

  • Romans 3:23, James 1:14–15, John 16:8, Everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Temptation from desires, 1) enticed, 2) dragged away. 3) sinful actions, 4) allowed to grow, 5) gives birth to death. It's visible by the Holy Spirit, poured out on all people, He convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.

Concern:
The book can over-emphasize leadership failure while under-emphasizing individual accountability for sin and repentance.

3. Limited Emphasis on Church Discipline

Biblical Tension:

Concern:
In seeking to avoid legalism, the book can soften the biblical necessity of corrective discipline, which Scripture frames as loving and restorative.

4. Potential to Encourage Deconstruction Without Reconstruction

Biblical Tension:

  • Jeremiah 1:10, Ephesians 4:11–16, Titus 1:5, 2 Cor 10:4-5, We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God. Pastors and elders are given to build up the church, the body of Christ, maturing people united in the special work each is appointed. 

Concern:
It is strong at tearing down broken systems but sometimes less clear on how to biblically rebuild healthy church structures. Christian Code of Conduct for the Church Militant

5. Emotional Narrative Can Eclipse Doctrinal Clarity

Biblical Tension:

  • Colossians 1:28, 2 Timothy 1:13, Jude 3, So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. Wholesome teaching shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. Defend the faith that God has entrusted to us. 

Concern:
Personal stories are powerful but must remain anchored in sound doctrine to avoid shaping theology primarily through experience.

The Biblical Tension the Book Surfaces Well

The Church is both:

  • Holy and flawed

  • Spirit-filled and still sinful

  • God’s instrument and man’s responsibility

Key Scripture Holding This Tension:

God places His treasure in jars of clay so His power, not ours, is seen.

Bottom-Line Assessment

Where the book is strongest:

  • Naming real wounds

  • Calling for humility and repentance

  • Re-centering love as the primary witness

Where discernment is required:

  • Avoiding anti-church sentiment

  • Holding both justice and grace

  • Rebuilding with biblical structure, not just emotional healing

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