| |
Amongst Ourselves: A Self-Help Guide to Living With Dissociative Identity Disorder |
Tracy, Ph.D. Alderman and Karen Marshall |
| |
Antagonists in the Church: How to Identify and Deal With Destructive Conflict |
Kenneth C. Haugk |
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Authority, Leadership and Conflict in the Church |
Paul D. L. Avis |
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**Bait of Satan |
John Bevere |
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Battered into Submission: The Tragedy of Wife Abuse in the Christian Home |
James Alsdurf and Phyllis Alsdurf |
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Born Free: How to Find Radical Freedom and Infectious Joy in an Authentic Faith |
Steve Brown |
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**Cages of Pain: Healing for Disillusioned Christians |
Gordon Aeschliman |
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Caring Enough to Confront |
David W. Augsburger |
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Church Conflict: The Hidden System Behind the Fights |
Charles H. Cosgrove, Dennis D. Hatfield |
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**Church Discipline That Heals: Putting Costly Love into Action |
John White, Ken Blue |
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Communication and Conflict Management in Churches and Christian Organizations |
Kenneth O. Gangel, Samuel L. Canine |
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Conflict and Caring: Preventing, Managing, and Resolving Conflict in the Church |
Keith Huttenlocker |
| |
Conflict Management in Congregation |
David B. Lott (Editor) |
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**Confronting Jezebel: Discerning and Defeating the Spirit of Control |
Steve Sampson |
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**Connecting: Healing for Ourselves and Our Relationships a Radical New Vision |
Larry Crabb |
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**Dear Church: Letters From A Disillusioned Generation |
Sarah Cunningham |
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Domestic Violence and the Church |
Helen Conway |
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Domestic Violence: What Every Pastor Needs to Know |
Reverend Al Miles |
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**Faithquake: Rebuilding Your Faith After Tragedy Strikes |
Doug Herman |
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**Finding Hope Again |
Neil T. Anderson and Hal Baumchen |
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Firestorm: Preventing and Overcoming Church Conflicts |
Ron Susek |
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Free to Disagree: Moving Beyond the Arguments over Christian Liberty |
John Wecks |
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**Get Out of That Pit: Straight Talk About God’s Deliverance |
Beth Moore |
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**Healing for Damaged Emotions |
David A. Seamands |
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Healing the Wounded: The Costly Love of Church Discipline |
John White, Ken Blue |
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**Hiding from Love: How to Change the Withdrawal Patterns That Isolate and Imprison You |
Dr. John Townsend |
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**Hinds Feet on High Places |
|
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How Now Shall We Live |
Charles Colson |
| |
**How To Mend A Broken Heart |
Dick Imes |
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**Identity Crisis: Seeing Yourself as God Sees You |
Frank Santora |
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Is Nothing Sacred? The Story of a Pastor, the Women He Sexually Abused, and the Congregation He Nearly Destroyed |
Marie Fortune |
| |
Making Peace With Conflict: Practical Skills for Conflict Transformation |
Carolyn Shrock-Shenk (Editor), Lawrence Ressler (Editor) |
| |
Manual of Church Discipline (online book = http://www.reformedreader.org/rbb/ savage/mcdsavagetoc.htm) |
Rev. Eleazer Savage |
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**Messy Spirituality: God’s Annoying Love for Imperfect People |
Michael Yaconelli |
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More Light, Less Heat: How Dialogue Can Transform Christian Conflicts into Growth |
Joseph Phelps |
| |
Never Call Them Jerks: Healthy Responses to Difficult Behavior |
Arthur Paul Boers |
| |
People of the Lie |
Scott Peck |
| |
Plan B |
Pete Wilson |
| |
**Rejection |
Henry W. Wright |
| |
Resolving Disputes in Christian Groups |
Marlin E. Thomas |
| |
Risking the Truth: Handling error in the church |
Martin Downes |
| |
Set Free: God’s Healing Power for Abuse Survivors and Those Who Love Them |
Jan Coates |
| |
**Shame and Grace |
Lewis Smedes |
| |
**Shattered Dreams: God’s Unexpected Pathway to Joy |
Larry Crabb |
| |
**So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore |
Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman |
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Surviving Church Conflict |
Dave Peters |
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That We May Share His Holiness: A Fresh Approach to Church Discipline |
Tommy South |
| |
**The Bondage Breaker |
Neil T. Anderson |
| |
The Christian’s Handbook on Conflict Resolution: Biblical Principles for Restoring and Preventing Broken Relationships |
Greg M. Sumii |
| |
The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook |
Deborah Haddock |
| |
The God’s Honest Truth |
Darin Hufford |
| |
**The Gospel According to Jesus |
John F. MacArthur |
| |
The Journey Toward Reconciliation |
John Paul Lederach |
| |
The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict |
Ken Sande |
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The Trauma of Transparency: A Biblical Approach to Inter-Personal Communication |
J. Grant Howard |
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**The Wounded Heart: Hope for Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse |
Dr. Dan B. Allender |
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**The Wounded Spirit |
Frank Peretti |
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**They Like Jesus But Not The Church: Insights From Emerging Generations |
Dan Kimball |
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**Total Forgiveness Experience: A Study Guide To Repairing Relationships |
R.T. Kendall |
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**Trusting God’s People…Again |
Blake Coffee and Debbie Taylor Williams |
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**Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive |
John Eldridge |
| |
War in the Pews |
Chester Weigle |
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War in the Pews: A Foxhole Guide to Surviving Church Conflict |
Frank Martin |
| |
**War of Words: Getting to the Heart of Your Communication Struggles |
Paul David Tripp |
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**Well-Intentioned Dragons: Ministering to Problem People in the Church |
Marshall Shelley |
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**When Bad Christians Happen to Good People |
Dave Burchett |
| |
When Caring Is Not Enough: Resolving Conflicts Through Fair Fighting |
David W. Augsburger |
| |
When Christians Clash: How to Prevent and Resolve the Pain of Conflict |
Horace Fenton |
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**When People are Big and God is Small |
Edward T. Welch |
| |
When the Saints Come Storming in |
Leslie B. Flynn |
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**Who Can You Trust?: Overcoming Betrayal and Fear |
Howard E. Butt, Jr. |
August 14, 2009 at 9:49 pm
[...] Books on Spiritual Abuse and Related Topics [...]
August 14, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Great list Sherie!
A book I found helpful that is about ‘negative’ emotions is “The Cry of the Soul.” It’s not typically a book folks find under spiritual abuse, yet when I left my group I clave to that book, along with “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse.”
Here’s the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Cry-Soul-Emotions-Deepest-Questions/dp/1576831809
Two others I have found helpful (with writing exercises) regarding indoctrination are:
“Take Back Your Life” by Janja Lalich
http://www.amazon.com/Take-Back-Your-Life-Relationships/dp/0972002154
and
“Leaving the Fold” by Marlene Winell
http://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Fold-Marlene-Winell/dp/1933993235
I also have some listed on the right at the following blog, if you or anyone is interested.
They are listed under the side bar topics of
“Books: Recovery, Memoirs, Abuse, Thought Reform, Cults”
and
“Books: Mental, Emotional, & Physical Wellness”
http://tossandripple.blogspot.com/
Keep up the great work! You are doing wonderfully!!
In hope,
~carol
August 31, 2009 at 7:20 pm
I TOO still would rightfully rather see pastor first live a sermon instead of too often now merely preach it to others and I really do think it is so farcical how some sinfully, proud evangelical pastors are ready to condemn others, to gossip about, to now preach about the other person’s sins but someone how they can’t seem to deal with their own false abuse of others, their own sins, and their own false pride.. http://postedat.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/get-real-now/
November 12, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Hi, I spent nearly 20 years in a spiritually abusive church organization… I have been out of it for 4 years! I am convinced I would have never experienced the true benefits of recovery if I had still been there..
Adrian
November 13, 2009 at 9:11 pm
You bring up a great point. It is extremely difficult to heal when you are still in an abusive situation, whether that is a marriage, a family, a work situation, a church, etc. The fastest, easiest, and often best way to find healing is to get out of the situation and away from those involved, or at very least limit the interactions.
Adrian, you mentioned you have found some recovery and benefits. Are there specific things you have done beyond removing yourself from the situation that brought some of that healing? I think the top things for me were 1) removing myself from the environment, 2) finding discipleship with someone who took me step by step through my belief system at a rate of speed I was ready to embrace and helped me identify and correct beliefs that were unbiblical and unhealthy, 3) finding new relationships with people who validate/accept/truly love/encourage me, 4) identified specific areas that I could work on to improve areas where I was not the best person I could be and specific courses of action to take so I would not wallow in pain but could put my grief and pain to work in practical ways.
December 14, 2009 at 7:18 pm
terrific book list may i ask which ones you found the most helpful with dealing with spiritual abuse personally
wen
December 19, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I am sorry it has taken me a few days to get to this. I think these are the ones I found the most helpful.
1) Broken Hearts Shattered Trust: Workplace Abuse of Staff in the Church (practical stories but also a few tools to help rebuild the heart and trust)
2) Healing Spiritual Abuse: How to Break Free from Bad Church Experiences (good but could guide a wounded heart toward anger and resentment if they are not ready)
3) The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse (discusses spiritual abuse from a practitioners viewpoint, not a survivors)
4) Toxic Churches: Restoration from Spiritual Abuse (probably the most educational and helpful book because it does focus not just on education, but truly on restoration)
5) Identity Crisis: Seeing Yourself as God Sees You (for anyone who deals with not understanding their identity in Christ)
6) Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive (addresses the heart and how central it is to us and to how we relate to God)
7) War of Words: Getting to the Heart of Your Communication Struggles (one to read later on as you are read to reenter into healthy relationships and want to communicate well)
8)Bring ‘Em Back Alive: A Healing Plan for Those Wounded by the Church (about the roles of the shepherds, the flock and the sheep when one of God’s flock is wounded)
Maybe I will try to post reviews of each of these on the site to give a little more information about each and why I found it helpful/not helpful. As with any book it is only as good as the mindset with which you read it, and every author writes with their perspectives and their experiences. I see disadvantages with each book but read them for what I can glean from them to help not only my own journey but the journey I am trying to walk through with others.
December 14, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Hi,
Glad to see all the resources. Thought that you and your readers would be interested in my book: ‘Spiritual Abuse Recovery: Dynamic Research on Finding a Place of Wholeness’.
Information about my book, based on my doctoral reasearch, can be found on my website: http://www.churchexiters.com.
People can contact me at: info@churchexiters.com
Keep at it!
Dr. Barb Orlowski