I’ve seen it too many times. Someone walks into church carrying hell on their shoulders, but they know how to fake it. Smile. Sing the songs. Nod at the message. Give out a few hallelujahs and amens. Shake a few hands on the way out. Meanwhile, inside, they are collapsing. Spiritually black and blue. Barely breathing. But nobody says a word because everyone’s trained to look clean, talk polished, and keep moving. What happened to the church?
Do you want to know what it looks like out here? It looks like people dragging themselves into buildings that feel more like malls and performance centers than places of healing. It looks like people sitting in pews bleeding out from childhood trauma, spiritual wounds, abuse, betrayal, manipulation, broken relationships, church hurt, and nobody even notices. What is even worse is that they notice and do nothing. You get handed a program, a smile, and maybe coffee, but no one asks what happened to you. Nobody sits down and says, “You don’t look okay, let’s talk.” No oil. No compassion. Just a pat on the back and another sermon about breakthrough while you’re breaking down.
I’m not talking about backsliders or people who “walked away from God.” I’m talking about people who love Jesus, love His Word, love His presence, but the church crushed them. I’m talking about leaders who got thrown out the moment they became too real. I’m talking about survivors of spiritual abuse who were told to “just forgive” and “move on” while their abuser kept preaching. I’m talking about the ones who dared to speak up and got labeled rebellious, divisive, fault finders, bitter, un-submissive, or dangerous.
We talk about revival, but we don’t want the mess it exposes.
You can have the lights. You can keep your stage and your social media platforms. Give me the broken, the raw, the ones who come in crying and don’t have to pretend. Give me the ones who’ve been left behind by the religious machine but are still clinging to Jesus like He’s their last breath. Because that’s who He came for. Jesus said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick” (Luke 5:31). Somewhere along the way, the church stopped looking like a hospital and started feeling more like a job interview. You gotta clean yourself up, put on a smile, and talk like everything’s blessed and highly favored even when your soul is on life support.
Here is what really gets me, a lot of the people responsible for the wounding are still up there leading, preaching, selling books, hosting conferences, building influence, and the ones they left bleeding? Forgotten. Ghosted. Dismissed. Talk about dysfunction!
“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the Lord (Jeremiah 23:1). You think God isn’t watching? You think He doesn’t hear the cries of the ones who were used, discarded, and left in the pews to figure it out on their own? You think He’s okay with the silence? No. He’s flipping the tables again, and this time it’s not just about money changers. It’s about manipulators, abusers, over-ups, gatekeepers, wolves dressed like church leaders, and if we don’t say something, if we don’t do something, then we’re just as guilty.
Church, do we want revival? It starts with repentance. Do we want to see God move? Let’s stop stepping over the bleeding sheep and start carrying them. Walk through your sanctuaries and look. Really look. There are people who’ve been sitting there for years, bleeding internally, just hoping someone will care more about their soul than their tithe and offerings. Someone who will sit beside them instead of shoving another service down their throat.
To the ones who’ve been hurt, I’m not gonna tell you to “get back in church.” I’m not gonna pressure you to return to the scene of the crime. What I am gonna tell you is this: God never left you. He never forgot you, and He’s not the one who did this to you. Jesus isn’t the one who gaslit you. He isn’t the one who covered up sin. He isn’t the one who abused His power. That was man. That was religion. That was broken people doing damage in His name. He’s still the Good Shepherd. Still the Healer. Still the One who leaves the ninety-nine to come find you. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). That’s who He is, and He’s not waiting for you to be perfect. He’s coming right into the middle of your mess, your mistrust, your exhaustion, and He’s bringing healing with Him.
To the church leaders, if we don’t get back to walking among the wounded, we’ve missed everything. If we care more about tithes and numbers than our grieving sheep, we’ve failed. If we’re too afraid to confront sin because it might hurt our platform or brand, then we are no longer a house of God but a house of cards.
The sheep are bleeding. The pews are full of pain, and the question is, will we see them, or will we keep pretending?
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on
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