Good Shepherds

 Many have experienced very painful spiritual abuse and I have been traumatised by it myself.

We are familiar with many tragic stories. We see on the daily news how preachers abuse women and children. We can start to look at pastors and priests as enemies, but that would not be fair.

Who has never been misunderstood and hurt by their parents? Maybe some have. But imagine a world without parents, a world without a mother's love.

There are pastors who are guides for deeply wounded people, preachers who pass on God's love and lift up people who have been ruined.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not only a great theologian, but also a faithful pastor. He was a good shepherd in Germany during the Nazi era. He was not only the leader, but also a role model for the faithful Christians in the national church.

He sacrificed his life before the end of the war. He was executed by the Nazis. He was a heroic pastor and he was by no means the only one.

In 1941 in Auschwitz, a prisoner managed to escape. In retaliation, ten prisoners were to starve. One of the ten wailed loudly because of his wife and children.

The priest Maximilian Kolbe was also there. He volunteered to go to his death for his traumatised father. He spent three weeks with the other nine victims in the death bunker, where he comforted the others with faith and love. He was a true shepherd.

Countless preachers have suffered voluntarily in prisons, not only in Nazi Germany, but in communist and Islamic countries.

As a young man, I was depressed and needed a therapist. As a newly converted Christian, I also needed a good pastor. Unfortunately, my first pastors were very legalistic, manipulative and authoritarian. Instead of understanding and compassion, I experienced spiritual abuse.

I was rejected and shunned and I broke down. But I didn't stay down. I thank God for good pastors who helped me later.

My father was a psychiatrist. He didn't become a believer until he was 88, but he was a good doctor. I met Christians who were very grateful for his care.

I have also seen terrible abuse in psychiatric hospitals. I never want to discard good psychiatry because of bad psychiatry.

I also never want to disregard good pastors because of bad or even cruel pastors.

I have often been disappointed with pastors and sometimes badly hurt, but I would never have come to where I am now without good pastors.

Pastors are just people. So many have been hurt by parents, but imagine how we could live without parents.

In the Bible, Jesus is the Good Shepherd.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jn 10:11 NIV

He is our role model, whether we are fathers, mothers, pastors or employers.

I thank God for good fathers and mothers, good teachers and therapists, for good doctors and nurses, for good pastors and preachers.