Safe Church

Safe Church Ministry is thrilled to know about, and to let you know about, Hope for the Sold, an organization that works to end sexual exploitation, in part by offering excellent web-based resources. 

In contrast to God’s beautiful design, the sex industry takes an incredible gift and uses greed, violence and coercion to exploit God’s image in people and to destroy God’s design for relationship.

The troubling reality is that pornography, shown to be damaging to children, remains a pervasive problem easily accessible to children — even through supposedly safe education resources like EBSCO. 

A recent article in Christianity Today highlights a few of the reasons why it can be difficult for those who have survived abuse to be in church.

Silence is no longer an option. In this watershed #MeToo moment, the Church must be ready to respond to sexual abuse. How will it happen in your classis?

Did you know that Safe Church Ministry started out as the Office of Abuse Prevention? Think of the heartache avoided by preventing abuse before it happens. Surely churches belong at the front lines. 

Amy’s story can help us understand what it is like to experience abuse from a trusted church member, and then not to be believed when she tried to tell about it.

This story should help us realize that sexual assault must never be minimized and there must always be proper discipline administered to those who abuse their power. This too should remind us of the devastation that sexually inappropriate and assaultive behavior causes for women and men in all walks of life.