Applying Rid of My Disgrace

After reading and reviewing Rid of My Disgrace, I had a question I wanted to pose to Pastor Justin about how we can apply this book. I got ahold of him, and he graciously gave me some time to talk.

Me: If we take the basic statistics that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men will be the victims of sexual assault in their life time, that means that in the church there are 3 in 4 women and 5 in 6 men who are walking beside our brothers and sisters who aren’t victims of sexual assault. How then can those 3 in 4 women, and 5 in 6 men grow in caring for and cultivating a culture where the victims of sexual assault feel safe and invited to share their suffering and seek real help? How can we specifically grow in how we posture ourselves on the issue and thus towards the victims of sexual assault so that they receive the grace of Christ in the Gospel from the very beginning?

Justin Holcomb: There are a few ways to help encourage the church and Christians to respond more graciously.

First, getting pastors to at least mention sexual assault as a place to which redemption is applied. I simply list all the ways grace applies to our pain or sin when I preach: addiction, broken relationships, sexual assault, eating disorders, etc. Just saying the word helps put it on peoples radar screens.

Second, encourage others to he honest by being honest about our suffering. Once leaders open up, others will see that the community can be a safe place to tell what happened.

Third, our book, posts at the Resurgence, lectures, and interviews are trying to make lots of people aware.

Fourth, driving the point that grace is for the suffering and we all suffer in various ways, is huge for tone setting for the church in general.

____

Thanks to Pastor Justin for taking the time to share these four ways that we can cultivate an environment in our churches to care for the victims of sexual assault. After I spoke with Pastor Justin this past week, I was delighted to hear one of our pastors do exactly Justin’s first point in his sermon this week, simply mentioning sexual assault as an area of suffering.

Again, if you’re interested in this book, you can purchase it at WTSBooks for a mere $10.55, or read my review of it here.