Hope & Healing for Collective Trauma
As we conclude our series looking at the implications of collective trauma on congregational health and flourishing, we turn our eyes towards healing. Though collective trauma is devastating, though it can paralyze a church preventing faith communities from living into their God given mission, though it is widespread, there is hope and healing is possible. At Restor(y) we adamantly believe that trauma does not have to write the church’s story. A new story is possible.
In this post, we are going to introduce you to the process of healing we’ve developed here at Restor(y). This journey of restoration was created prayerfully and in dialogue with research in trauma studies, restorative justice studies, and restorative theology studies. Before we dive in, a couple of important things to note:
Healing is not linear. Though this restorative process identifies 5 stages, a community does not always move simply from one stage to the next. Often there is a need to revisit a phase of the healing process multiple times on the journey. Sometimes, even when a community reaches the final stage of embodying their new narrative, there is a need to go back yet again to a previous stage. This is to be expected and is not a sign of failure but rather evidence that deep healing is taking place.
Healing is individual. Judith Herman in her work with individual trauma victims notes that a key to trauma healing is ensuring that the victim has control and is the director of their own healing journey. This is true for collective trauma as well. The restorative process needs to be owned by the faith community seeking healing. Some congregations may find they need to lament longer than others, some may find that they need to return again and again to a time of collective awareness as more trauma from their past is revealed. Every congregation’s journey is different.
Recognizing that healing is not linear and it is individual, the following restorative journey is used by Restor(y) as a framework. We partner with local congregations to walk them through this process fully aware that one church’s journey will not mirror another’s. Truthfully, every congregation will even experience these phases of healing differently. We simply use this framework as a tool to guide the journey, which is ultimately led by the Holy Spirit.
With that being said, let’s look at the needed phases of collective trauma healing:
Collective Self-Awareness: Like all trauma, collective trauma is often silenced but its healing requires it to be named. Collective trauma, especially within the context of a congregation that can often have people coming and going, can often be difficult to name. Often, individuals within the community have different understandings of what happened and have varied experiences within the same congregation. In order for healing to come, the faith community will need to come to a place of collective self-awareness in which they are able to together recognize the trauma they are carrying, even if that means honoring the pain carried by a few and lamenting the way others silenced that pain.
Lamenting: Biblical lament is a gift from our Good Shepherd. Biblical lament is when we weep over the suffering we see and in our weeping choose to turn our eyes to God as we cry out, “This is not how it’s supposed to be.” As our eyes meet his we discover his too are filled with tears as he joins our cries telling us that this is not how it is supposed to be. In this biblical expression of lament there is healing power because it is in encountering our suffering God who weeps over brokenness, it is in aligning our heart with his in those moments of recognizing what should not be, that we can begin to understand that he is doing something to restore all of creation. Communities facing collective trauma would do well to take time to engage in this form of lament during their healing process.
Testimony (Witnessing & Confession): “They will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.” -Revelation 12:11. I have not read this verse the same since studying trauma. The healing power of testimony, of both naming one’s suffering and having the pain of it witnessed and held by another, cannot be understated. As churches navigate the process of restoration, discovering how they as a community can engage in testimony by naming suffering and learning to hold one another’s pain will be central to their healing. For some faith communities these testimonies and bearing witness to suffering will also move the community into a time of confession, confessing how they have perhaps perpetuated trauma within their walls by not previously making space for the suffering of others to be voiced or confessing ways in which they chose to allow trauma to write their story. This confession is not condemning but rather freeing, moving them to a place where they can choose to live differently.
Imagine: If trauma is not going to write the church’s story then the church must learn to imagine a new way of living. The truth is, a faith community will never be the congregation it was before experiencing trauma, but it can still be a church fully living out its call from the Lord. As congregations walk towards healing, God begins to awaken their imagination to what it would look like for them to live in freedom and full restoration. This can be an exciting time for a faith community and it is important to engage the whole congregation in this imagining that all might be filled with a sense of hope.
Embodying a New Narrative: As faith communities begin to both name what has harmed them as well as what they believe God is calling them to, the invitation becomes one of beginning to embody their new narrative. What story is God writing for them in response to the story trauma had previously tried to write? How can they begin to both tell this new story and live it out? Though this may seem like the end of the healing journey, remember healing is not linear. It is okay, and quite normal, if during this process of learning how to embody this new story your faith community needs to revisit a time of lament or testimony.
This is the framework we use at Restor(y). We find that by engaging churches in these different stages of healing, not necessarily in order and always recognizing that there is an ebb and flow between stages, can move faith communities towards living out the story God is writing for them. Each stage is filled with prayer and guided by the Holy Spirit. This journey is also not meant to be done alone. As you read, if you’ve been struck by part of this process and believe it would benefit your church family, we invite you to contact us to discover how we can partner with you. Remember, trauma does not have to write the church’s story, a new story is possible.
