The Complexities of Collective Trauma
I can picture it like it was yesterday. A hushed room of people gathered together, even though the hour was not the normal church hour. Weeping could be heard, prayers being offered, suffering filled the air, tangible to even my small fourth grader’s body. A member of the youth group at the church where my dad was serving as youth pastor had been shot. Trauma had come to our church, and together, collectively, we grieved.
Decades later, I remember the faces of hurt and confusion as I sat with members of the church I now pastored who could not understand why their last two pastors had been removed. It seemed they all had heard different stories. The secrecy and lack of clarity hovered over this congregation like a black cloud. Trauma had visited, and revisited, this church. Collectively, they were given no option to grieve. Their pain was not given a hushed room of weeping and prayers. Rather it was hushed, brushed under a rug, only to linger as unhealed wounds do.
When we speak about trauma within the church, we often think of circumstances similar to the first example I shared. Neighborhood shootings, public clergy abuse or misconduct, a natural disaster destroying a church building. While these are all examples of ways trauma may appear within the church, the truth is that collective trauma is much more complex than these examples want to suggest. Research in the field of trauma is demonstrating more and more that trauma is not limited to one time events, but includes experiences of ongoing suffering. Like the second example given, churches that are repeatedly subjected to abusive leadership can experience trauma. To understand how this is possible, one must understand exactly what is collective trauma, the nature of historical trauma, and the destructive nature of silenced suffering.
Kai T. Erikson was the pioneer researcher in the field of collective trauma. He defines it this way,
“...a blow to the basic tissues of social life that damages the bonds attaching people together and impairs the prevailing sense of communality.”
This definition paints a clear picture of the impact of collective trauma. It is first and foremost relational in that it disrupts their sense of community. When we consider this characteristic of collective trauma, it is almost easier to see the second example above as collective trauma as the level of secrecy around the dismissal of pastors and the lack of space to express suffering caused separation amongst congregants. Their sense of community was disturbed by a growing lack of trust.
It is important to note that when speaking of collective trauma, these “blows to the basic tissues of social life” do not have to be recent. In fact, much research has been done in the field of historical trauma focusing on the ways in which trauma experienced in the past is able to impact future generations within that community. This is particularly true when people have not been given space to grieve, where their pain has been silenced, and healing has not been offered.
What all of this tells us as pastors and church leaders, is that when we are seeking to lead our churches well, we must be aware of the church’s experiences of collective trauma. We would do well to study the history of the churches we lead and discover any moments that may have threatened the congregation’s sense of community. We must pay close attention to those moments of pain that were silenced, hushed over, and not provided room to heal. These experiences of suffering will continue to linger under the surface and will inhibit the congregation’s ability to fully relate as a community until it is healed. The truth is, my first example of the church walking together through a traumatic loss of a teenager caused less damage on the church as a whole than did the quick dismissal of pastors from the church I served as an adult. Why is this? Well, the first church was able to name and grieve their pain, the other was left in a cloud of questions they dare not ask. As church leaders, if you desire to help your congregation be healed of collective trauma, do not let suffering remain hidden and pain unnamed. I will provide more in depth healing processes for collective trauma in part 4 of this series, for now I simply invite you to begin prayerfully asking God to reveal to you any ways in which your church may be silently suffering. Is there collective historical trauma lingering under the surface preventing your church from being the community it is called to be? Let God give you his eyes to see what wounds your church may be carrying.
