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Ministry to Abusers

Truth in Love 135

How should we counsel abusers?

Jan 1, 2018

Heath Lambert: Joining us is Dr. Dale Johnson. He is the Assistant Professor of Biblical Counseling at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He is a member of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, and he is going to be speaking to us at this year’s conference on the importance of ministry to abusers. We are glad you’re with us. Dr. Johnson.

One of the things that is interesting to me is when we think about the topic of abuse, we almost always think about doing ministry with those who have been abused, and we absolutely want to do that, we want to draw near to people who have been hurt by domestic, physical, sexual violence, we want to draw nearer to them with the love and the care, and the truth, and the comfort of Jesus Christ. But as Christians, when we think about doing ministry in the context of abuse, we cannot only think about those who have been abused, we must think about doing ministry to those who are the victimizers, those who have done the abuse. That is an area of ministry that is easy to overlook.

Why is it that Christians often find it easy to overlook doing ministry to those who are abusers? 

Dale Johnson: Yeah, I think it’s a great question. We often have the tendency to almost feel like we’re complicit if we look toward the abuser and we want to deal with them in particular as opposed to neglecting the one who’s been abused. So, a lot of our attention has been focused on the abusee. We’re told in Scripture to make sure that we take care of those who are poor and oppressed and afflicted and so the church has tried to stand for them in a lot of different ways, so we have neglected, in many ways, dealing with the abuser. 

Heath Lambert: Christians are to be concerned to do ministry not just with those who’ve been abused, but with those who are the abusers. Why is it so important that we would focus on those who have committed acts of violence against others?

Dale Johnson: We’re called to share the gospel to every person, even those, who are in our minds would be far-reaching from the gospel, who do terrible things, to people who use and abuse people. It is the church who is called to share the gospel with them, to reach out to them with the grace of Christ, because that is the only thing that’s going to give them hope and help in their affliction. 

Heath Lambert: So, we’re going to focus as Christians on those who are abusers. We’re not going to neglect them in Christian ministry. But then that opens a whole other can of worms. How do we draw near to, how do we minister to those who are guilty of violence, those who are guilty of abuse? What are some things, some categories that we need to have in our minds as we do, biblical Christian ministry with those folks? 

Dale Johnson: Yeah. I confess, these are difficult issues and situations to deal with. Those who struggle in this particular area lack self-control. Often times, just as a bigger picture, we only think conceptually about those who abuse, while Colossians 1 makes very clear that we as people and God’s creation, were made by Him and for Him. The abuser often is acting in such a way as if the person that they’re abusing, is made for them; those are concepts that really guide the way that we think relative to those who are abusing because that’s a deception. They’re being lured and enticed, in a particular way, to believe, think, and act based on that idea as opposed to the truth of Scripture, being able to serve people and give themself for the sake of another, which is what the gospel calls us to.

So, they’re actually acting opposite of what the gospel calls us to in dying for the sake of others, they’re actually using others for the sake of themselves. I think that’s a critical concept for us to consider as we deal with those who are abusers. Another thing that I think we should also deal with is that there is typically consistent manipulation lying, issues of anger that are all underlying some of the struggles that are perpetual with those who abuse as well.

Heath Lambert: It sounds like there’s a lot of things that we need to have on our radar as we’re dealing with those who are guilty of abusing others, and that’s an important word as we wrap up this podcast; when you’ve got a podcast like ours, that is usually around 10 minutes or less, it’s impossible to deal with all of the topics that are raised by any given issue. What we try to do on our podcast is point you in a few biblical directions, but always point you to other resources that are available for you to get more information. This is one of those issues where I want to plead with our listeners to go get more information about how to do ministry with those who are guilty of abuse. This is risky, careful, important ministry, and you need to avail yourself a lot of wisdom and a lot of truth as you proceed with ministry in this regard. 

So let me point you to two resources that are going to help you here. I want to invite you to visit our website and find out more about our Annual Conference Light in the Darkness, biblical counseling, and abuse. We’re going to unpack what it means to do ministry in the context of both abused and abusers.


To read ACBC’s Statement on Abuse and Biblical Counseling visit our Committed to Care website.