The Heart of Christ for the Abused
By: Everett Hornbostel
On Thursday, October 5, the Black Hills Area Baptist Association hosted a special pre-conference event prior to the 2023 Dakota Baptist Gathering. The event included a message from South Canyon Baptist Church worship leader, Joel Harris. He delivered a powerful message about The Heart of Christ for the Abused out of Isaiah 42:1-4. Joel pointed out to us the importance of Jesus’ humble and gentle interaction with the fallen world, bringing justice while not loudly proclaiming his presence or bruising the wounded. Joel addressed the issue of trauma, discussing the meaning of the Greek found in the New Testament (Luke 10:33-35) as well as the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament). The Greek word used is a word which means “wounds.” The main location we can see this word being used is in Isaiah 53, when we read about the suffering servant, the verb of trauma this suffering servant would receive, that He was wounded (received trauma) for our transgressions. By his wounds (trauma), we are healed.
When Joel wrapped up his message, Hollie Strand, a forensic investigator for the South Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, provided meaningful information from her experience in investigating crimes against children to help churches understand what it means to be a safe church in the Dakotas. She shared the importance of understanding at the root of the issue of abuse is spiritual warfare. In her presentation, Hollie shared statistics about abuse, including helping those in attendance to understand 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 7 boys will experience sexual abuse by the time they turn 18 with only 1 in 10 kids telling someone they were abused. Perhaps we wonder, “why wouldn’t a child tell someone they’ve been hurt?” There are a variety of reasons Hollie shared. Those include embarrassment, not understanding what has happened, fear of being blamed, they don’t want to upset or hurt anyone and fear of their abuser. Hollie also shared what a church can do if a child shares about being abused and helping families walk through an incident of abuse.
Following the presentations from Joel and Hollie, BHABA provided lunch. Along with the lunch, a discussion panel discussed some important topics about abuse. Josh Bonner, Kimi Harris, Hollie Strand, and I participated in the panel. The panel had an opportunity to share about wisdom learned through the various experiences represented on the panel to help churches understand how to be safe places who care well for the abused. Josh shared about the work done by the SBC Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force and their resource sbcabuseprevention.com. Kimi shared about a training available called “Mending the Soul.” I shared about MinistrySafe and other general church security topics and Hollie shared about what to do with reporting and discussed the topic of mandated reporting.
The message from Joel Harris and the Discussion Panel were recorded. If you are interested in hearing more, please reach out to the DBC office or your Church Relations Missionary.
