David Henke - Spiritual Abuse Recovery Workbook: An educational and interactive resource to assist you on your path to freedom, healing, and peace.

Table of Contents

Spiritual Abuse Recovery Workbook

Copyright 2021 by David Henke

Revised and published 2021

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, scanning, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the author.

Published by Watchman Fellowship, Inc.

www.watchman-ga.org

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7375227-0-6

eBook ISBN: 978-1-7375227-1-3

to the Wounded Sheep who just wanted to serve God and please Him.

Table of Contents

NOTE

It is hoped that the reader will make this an interactive experience by utilizing this eBooks tools of highlighting as well as inserting numerous notes, in essence making this eBook a working journal of your recovery.

W hen I was a child, my family became involved with a spiritually abusive group. Subsequently, I spent nearly three decades of my life immersed in that belief system. Since I did not have any point of reference, at first, I thought the behavior I encountered was normal. Nevertheless, it was not a healthy emotional environment. Once I reached adulthood, the spiritual abuse I endured caused me to experience periodic bouts of deep depression and anxiety.

Even so, I held on to the groups theology, believing it to be true. I felt the beliefs were sound, even though some of the behavior among the leadership seemed harsh. I thought that the behavior was a result of imperfection, and God would eventually straighten it out; because after all, it was His group. He would take care of it. What I did not realize, was the behavior I observed was not a remote exception to the groups thinking, but rather supported by it.

Some years ago, someone introduced me to David Henke and his wife, Carole. We spent a very long day together. On that day, I was launched on a journey to true freedom in Christ and a personal relationship with Jesus. The oppression I had been under for nearly 30 years, gave way to joy and a healing of my spirit.

I would like to invite you to spend a day with David Henke, as I did years ago. You can do that by reading this workbook. Within the pages of this book, you will have access to his years of research and life experience in assisting people to find freedom and healing, as well as a relationship with God.

It is my privilege to recommend this Spiritual Abuse Recovery Workbook. Throughout the book, you will come to understand the nature of spiritual abuse, the abusers, and the roles that they play. In the process, I believe you will be able to identify harmful behavior and issues. With your newfound education, I believe that you can find the strength to break free from an unhealthy system and embark on a path to recovery.

You will notice that no groups, unhealthy churches, or cults are mentioned by name within the pages of this workbook. I think you will find this decision by the author to be a wise one. Once you learn how to identify a spiritually abusive group, you can easily apply the principles to groups in the past, the present, and those groups that have yet to be invented. After all, it would be impossible to list them all. Nevertheless, I believe that the education within these pages will protect you from spiritually abusive groups that you may encounter in your life. Armed with this knowledge, you can immediately identify what you are dealing with, and steer clear of involvement with them.

This workbook is an extraordinary resource. It is my prayer that it will be a blessing to you for a lifetime.

Deborah Dykstra

And he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.

Ephesians 4:11,12,14

F or two millennia God has called humble men with a servants heart to lead His Church as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors/teachers. These men do not hold their positions to be served, but to serve, for the benefit of the Body of Christ. It is the authors conviction that the vast majority of our spiritual leaders in Bible-believing churches are of this high quality.

The subject of this workbook concerns what the Apostle Paul called the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness. Not all who hold positions of spiritual leadership were called by God to that service; there will inevitably be some who called themselves. And there will be others who were called of God but were enticed away from following the humble example of Jesus. These men can be crafty and deceitful. Such leaders often wish to be served, not following our Lords example.

For those who have lost confidence in the Church or its leaders because of a terrible experience, I want to emphasize that you can recover. You can find a healthy church. You can, when you have recovered, place your trust once again in a godly Christian pastor. It is the purpose of this workbook to assist you toward that end.

S ince 1975, I have been intensely involved in researching, counseling, and writing about religious groups that exert a high level of control over the personal lives of adherents. I am the founder of Watchman Fellowship, one of the leading ministries focused on this issue.

Through the years I have become very familiar with the pain and suffering individuals experienced at the hands of false spiritual leaders. The methods these leaders use to exert control over their followers leads to a loss of freedom of conscience and personal liberty.

Most of the groups I have dealt with are cults that you would recognize if I named them. I will not for one simple reason. My goal is to deal with the dynamics of control in a religious setting. To name any group is to put the focus on that group and therefore take away the focus from the control that is so spiritually and emotionally damaging.

I want you to make the connection between the symptoms and methods I describe and the group of which you were a member. If there are points of connection, you may need the information in this workbook to free yourself from its clutches and begin a process of healing.

What I will describe is not limited to groups that are doctrinally outside the bounds of the Christian faith. This is a problem that arises from human weakness and need that frequently gets mixed up with religious practices and leads to problems that can affect doctrine or practice. Human weaknesses will be found in every religion. Someone with a need might use religion to meet that need; if they use it legitimately, then all is well. However, if they misuse religion others are often at risk. Such misuse of religion is called spiritual abuse. Usually someone in a position of power or influence is tempted to abuse his authority. The temptation to take shortcuts at the expense of ethics and the needs of followers is very real. I have found that the powerless and weak are seldom the perpetrators, because abuse is an exercise of power.