Equipping Church Leaders To Minister To Abused And Oppressed People

191 Pages·2017·1.34 MB·English

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Dissertation Projects DMin Graduate Research
2015
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Marion Winifred Duncan
Andrews University
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Duncan, Marion Winifred, "Equipping Church Leaders To Minister To Abused And Oppressed People"
(2015). Dissertation Projects DMin. 382.
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dmin/382
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ABSTRACT

EQUIPPING CHURCH LEADERS TO MINISTER
TO ABUSED AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE

by

Marion Winifred Duncan

Adviser: Ann-Marie Buchanan
ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH
Project Document

Andrews University
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Title: EQUIPPING CHURCH LEADERS TO MINISTER TO ABUSED AND
OPPRESSED PEOPLE

Name of researcher: Marion Winifred Duncan
Name and degree of adviser: Ann-Marie Buchanan, PhD
Date completed: October 2015

Problem
Miles (2011) maintains that no church community is “immune” to situations of
abuse, “yet,” he said, “pastors still receive very little training in this area” (p. x). As a
result, many victims of abuse are seen to experience secondary victimization on top of the
trauma that brought them to their church for help in the first place. This secondary
victimization has been caused by the utilization of simplistic scriptural solutions to
complex life situations. These solutions are well known in the churches and commonly
used, having been handed down from generation to generation. The pastors who use them
are intent on helping, not hurting, but by their very application of these simplistic
scriptural solutions to the lives of deeply hurting people shows a lack of understanding as
to how abuse hurts people to the very core of their being (Doyle, 2008; Duncan, 2003;
Tracy, 2008).
Method
It was the purpose of this doctoral project to test-run a course made up of five
pastoral educational modules specifically designed to help equip pastors to minister to
abused and oppressed people. A focus group of church leaders met for two hours each
week on Thursday evenings from November, 2014 to April, 2015, to test-run the full
course. Evaluations were completed at the end of each of the five modules. The
evaluative input is included in Chapter 5 of this project document. It was hoped that these
evaluations from the very clientele that they were designed to serve would be positive
and that they could be used to encourage seminaries to consider running such a course in
their core church leadership programs.
Results
The focus group affirmed 100% that this course be a mandatory part of the core
seminary program and for church leaders already in the field. Although the focus group
was a little curious about the need for such a course in the first place, by the end of the
first part of the first module they were in agreement with the necessity to equip church
leaders in such a way. What influenced them so strongly was the fact that every part of
the course was justified by Scripture and equipped with deep and appropriate Scriptural
solutions for the complex issues of abuse situations. What also caught them by surprise
was the extent of harm done that was evidenced in relevant books and research, that most
of them had no idea existed before participating in this project. They were shocked at the
prevalence of abuse across the whole interdenominational spectrum of Christian churches
that has been disclosed and brought to conviction in a court of law. There was also a new
realization of the significant number of abuse survivors a pastor can expect to find in
every congregation, and how that needs to influence the language and approach taken in
all church activities. By the end of the course, the group was fully aware of how God’s
people are in the midst of a spiritual battle and how child sexual abuse in particular is one
of Satan’s strongest weapons. We know this because 1 Peter 5:8 tells us that “your great
enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”
and it is commonly known that lions chase the weakest in the herd when hunting. But the
most influential aspect of the course that secured their decision to recommend mandatory
inclusion of this cause in the core seminary program was that it was all about the Gospel
message of setting people free from what binds them. It is God’s directive that we serve
as His ambassadors to “loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let
the oppressed go free” (Isa 58:6). The focus group acknowledged how this course
empowers church leaders to free up those who are bound by oppression, to claim the
promise of abundant living that Jesus gives us in John 10:10.
Conclusion
The researcher’s hypothesis was that church leaders would fully embrace the
training she proposes, if they could be shown that the justification for such a course was
biblical. This was achieved. The researcher had been determined to be a significant
element for a systems change in the organisation of the Christian church. This systems
change was not so much to convince church leaders that as children of God, we needed to
help people who are in trouble, but that as children of God, the Bible tells us that this is
the core of who we are as believers in Jesus Christ. In other words, unless we actively
learned how to utilise the Scriptures to set people free from the bondage of abuse and
oppression in these increasingly dangerous end-times, then we are neglecting our role as
ambassadors for Christ. This was realised by the focus group early on in the course and
fired their enthusiasm for returning for each and every module as other commitments
would allow. The focus group expressed alarm that this kind of training was not already
in place in the core seminary program. The sense of urgency that is required to achieve
any systems change (Kotter, 2012) had been achieved, at least, in this group of nine
research participants.
Andrews University
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
EQUIPPING CHURCH LEADERS TO MINISTER
TO ABUSED AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE
A Project Document
Presented in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Ministry
by
Marion Winifred Duncan
October 2015
© Copyright by Marion Duncan 2015
All Rights Reserved
EQUIPPING CHURCH LEADERS TO MINISTER
TO ABUSED AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE
A project document
presented in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree
Doctor of Ministry
by
Marion Winifred Duncan
APPROVAL BY THE COMMITTEE
____________________________ _____________________________
Adviser, Director, DMin Program
Ann-Marie Buchanan Bruce L. Bauer
_____________________________ ______________________________
Orville Browne Dean, Seventh-day Adventist
Theological Seminary
Jiří Moskala
_______________________________ ______________________________
Kelvin Onongha Date approved
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………… vii
Chapters
1. WHY CHURCH LEADERS TODAY NEED SPECIFIC TRAINING IN
MINISTERING TO ABUSED AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE……………… 1
Statement of the Problem ....................................................................... 1
Statement of the Task ............................................................................ 2
Justification for the Project .................................................................... 2
Description of the Project Process ......................................................... 4
Theological Reflection.................................................................... 4
Literature Review ........................................................................... 4
Development of Modules ............................................................... 5
Attendees ........................................................................................ 5
Evaluations ..................................................................................... 5
Church Leaders’ Participation ........................................................ 5
PowerPoint Presentation Content ................................................... 6
Proposed Pastoral Educational Modules ........................................ 8
Skill Development Expected .......................................................... 8
Expectations From This Project ............................................................. 9
Definition of Terms ............................................................................... 9
Secondary Victimization ................................................................ 9
Spiritual Abuse ............................................................................... 9
Dynamics of Abuse......................................................................... 10
When a Man is the Abuser ...................................................... 11
When a Woman is the Abuser ................................................. 14
Dynamics to Avoid Being Drawn Into .................................... 15
Dynamics of Child Abuse ....................................................... 16
Scriptural Application ............................................................. 18
Delimitations .......................................................................................... 19
Limitations ............................................................................................. 19
2. THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION .................................................................. 20
Intention of This Theological Reflection ............................................... 20
Outline of the Intention .......................................................................... 27
First Focus ...................................................................................... 27
Second Focus .................................................................................. 28
Third Focus ..................................................................................... 28
iii