Book Review: Challenging Leaders

This review first appeared in our Social Issues Bulletin – Issue 56 which is available to download here.

Preventing and Investigating Allegations of Pastoral Malpractice
Edited by Graham Nicholls
Christian Focus Publications, 2023 (£10.13, 10ofthose)

Challenging Leaders is aimed at those who want to understand and address abuses of power within Christian contexts. And with the growing list of scandals in our evangelical constituency alone, it is certainly a necessary book for our times.

We are desperate for leaders who, like Jesus, are characterised by servant-heartedness, loving strength and a complete dependence on our heavenly Father. We do not want leaders who run roughshod over their staff and congregations – nor do we want ones who are so paralysed by fear of mistakes that they refrain from doing anything at all. We need leaders with the wisdom and confidence to help shape ‘communities where the gospel is lived out’ and where ‘the love of Christ [is reflected] more and more’ (p. 31). We need our churches and parachurch organisations to be places where abuse does not take place – or, when it does, is dealt with promptly and appropriately. We need them to be places where both survivors and abusers can find the support that they need.

Challenging Leaders cannot, of course, achieve all or any of this by itself. Those kinds of changes need time, commitment and, above all, the Holy Spirit›s work in our hearts. What this book can do is to help us understand the issues involved so that we have the knowledge necessary to make changes.

I could commend Challenging Leaders to you for all sorts of reasons. One is that it provides a variety of case studies and diagnostic questions which help readers to translate the discussion from the abstract to the concrete. Another reason is that Challenging Leaders is comprehensible to those of us who aren’t specialists. There’s no need to have a background in psychology, psychiatry or sociology to find it beneficial. Nor do you need to memorise a dictionary of acronyms in order to make sense of any given chapter. And so I could go on. But my most compelling reason for recommending you read Challenging Leaders is personal. I have been incredibly blessed by evangelicals at their best. But I also have PTSD and I have been deeply scarred by evangelicals who have got things badly, badly wrong. In Challenging Leaders’ nuanced portrayals of survivors, helpers and abusers, I recognised the different players in my life.

One of the most profound moments of recognition was the statement that ‘someone who has been deeply hurt by the church … may initially make a few light and even flippant comments about their experience’ (p. 75). Yes. Oh yes. I don’t make light of the darkness because I find it amusing. My flippancy arises partly from my own lack of understanding about how truly horrific my experiences have been. But the main cause of my flippancy – as the authors go on to explain – is my desire to scope out my listener’s trustworthiness. I want to know whether she or he is generally inclined to deal well with hurting people. More specifically, I want to know whether they are able to deal well with me today. Even with those I love most, I may still be flippant or vague while I try to figure out whether they have the wherewithal to listen to me right now. Here and elsewhere, Challenging Leaders does a fantastic job of capturing the trauma mindset. It helps its readers understand the extent of trauma sufferers’ hypervigilance and the different ways in which that relentless alertness can manifest itself.

The example above might be one of the points in Challenging Leaders when readers feel overwhelmed by the scale and complexity of the problem. But the authors never leave us there. Instead, they suggest manageable ways to approach the situation and/or the sufferer. For instance, following its warning against interpreting trauma responses as a personal affront or ‘as being of great spiritual significance› (p. 72), Challenging Leaders suggests a better way to approach the sufferer. The suggestion is a very simple one – acknowledge the sufferer’s very real distress (p. 73). And that’s something we can all do. Perhaps it might have been helpful here to include some concrete examples of some simple phrases which could help. (For instance, I’ve found it helpful just to hear a friend say, ‘I’m so sorry that you’re going through this’ or ‘That sounds horrific’). Even so, by recognising the restorative value of small things, Challenging Leaders provides steps to help us shed our paralysis and be a helping hand for those in need.

Challenging Leaders also provides helpful explorations of the biblical framework and theological principles which underpin these pastoral nuances. The first chapter (‘Spiritual Abuse and Scripture’) highlights the Bible’s condemnation of leaders who have mistreated their charges (pp. 21-23). A later chapter (‘Developing Healthy Procedures’) briefly explores our Lord’s heart for justice (pp. 98-99). Neither of these things should be revelations to the reader. And yet, it’s vital to have them included. As Challenging Leaders points out elsewhere, it’s easy – for a powerful leader, vulnerable members and everyone in between – to make the mistake of thinking that ‘because a church leader is gifted or widely used in their ministry … they could never be abusive.’ (p. 46) Given that leaders have (usually) had extensive theological training and the fact that their roles tend to involve their expounding the Bible, it is also easy to become persuaded (or be led to believe) that ‘to question the church or the leader is to question God.’ (p. 58) These beliefs can subtly infiltrate and then dominate our thinking. And that makes it essential for books like Challenging Leaders to keep on restating this simple truth: ‘God’s heart of justice upholds the rights of the poor, the vulnerable and oppressed.’ (p. 98) Survivors may believe that their needs don’t matter, but the Lord never will.

It’s worth noting that we can easily fall into the parallel trap of assuming that only leaders can be abusers. As Challenging Leaders points out, leaders might themselves be abused by those in their churches or organisations. An abusive culture can ‘develop through a dominant family, a group or an individual’ (p. 47) as they ‘become over-critical, falsely accuse and even persecute those in leadership’ (p. 7). Leaders may find themselves facing false allegations or unsubstantiated complaints (as in the example scenario on pp. 121-122). They may also have scars of their own from difficult past experiences. All these things make it essential that we heed Challenging Leaders’ call for every member to play their part – ‘no matter how small we feel that may be’ (p. 35) – in creating a gospel-centred culture. And, equally importantly, that culture must be as keen to allow potential victims to speak (p. 98) as it is to ensure that the innocent are not wrongly punished (pp. 99-100).

It’s true that Challenging Leaders can be a difficult book to read. None of us want to confront challenges like these. But if we want to recognise and prevent abuse in churches – let alone if we want to help the hurting – then we need the reminder that each of us has the potential to bring immense pain into other people’s lives. We must stop turning a blind eye to the harm that Christians (and perhaps we ourselves) have done to others. But we also need Challenging Leaders’ reminder that each of us can, in the Lord’s kindness, be part of a survivor’s healing and restoration. Even more than that, we need the encouragement that we can all help create communities where real unity enables every person to flourish. For those looking in, that kind of unity can provide ‘a very powerful witness and testimony to God’s character’ (p. 40). So even as Challenging Leaders calls us to recognise the awful shadowlands of abuse, it also paints an irresistible portrait of our God and how he would have his people be. For that kind of joy, I’d say that the discomfort is well worth enduring.

Challenging Leaders is available to purchase directly from Affinity or through all good online book retailers.

The above review was submitted by an independent, bona fide contributor, who, for personal reasons, has asked to remain anonymous. We are happy to agree to this request.