My friend has a unique ministry. He helps churches heal from what is often years of dysfunction, abuse and sinful patterns of repeated behavior leaving scarred believers in its wake. I pray for him regularly and have mentioned his book in previous blogs. Nealy a year ago he led a retreat for a church that had issues in its past. The live blog during the retreat was encouraging as it chronicled God's work in surfacing these areas of sin and the subsequent healing.

I attended one of the healing and restoration services of a church that went through the process. What I saw was rare - and very encouraging. The pastors that had been (these are my words, not my friends, so if it is a mischaracterization I apologize in advance) abused by the church leadership had a huge weight lifted as the church leadership repented. Sitting behind the (former) pastor, I watched his body language shift from tense and braced for rejection through release of years of emotion to healing and ultimately, heartfelt embraces with the leadership that had been so abusive.

My friend has a new book coming out and I hope if you've experienced anything like what I described above that you'll pick up a copy. In case you're wondering what a book with the title Body Aches: The Experience of and Response to Corporate Discipline of Your Church could be about, Ken has included a chapter on his web site that tells his own (often painful) story. It has a happy ending - really. God has used that pain to comfort and ultimately be a great deal of help and encouragement to others - its like He promised in 2 Corinthians 1:3,4, so I guess I shouldn't express such surprise : -)

God is at work in a number of churches. Like much of God's work it is often so "small" and seemingly inconsequential that it is difficult to take it as the beginning of a revolution. But I am hopeful that people who are willingly obedient (think of the faithful obedience of the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1), often at great personal cost, will yet have a huge impact for the advance of the Kingdom.