Scot McKnight and his daughter, Laura Barringer wrote the book, A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture that Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing. TOV is the Hebrew word for “Good.”
This book has two parts. The first part describes abuses of power within several high-profile churches. The second part describes ways to promote a church of goodness, resisting the abuses of power.
More information about this book can be found at https://www.churchcalledtov.org/
I found reading this book to be sad. I have experienced abusive churches. I find the abuse can be subtle and the people within the church think everything is normal. I read other reviews of this book actually discouraging people from exposing abuse and encouraging people to submit to authority. They act as if these abuses are exceptions and that the worst part would be becoming a church not “following Scripture” and submitting to the authority from the preacher. The preacher is the most important role to some reviewers.
I found reading this book to be hopeful. Not everyone will agree with their view of promoting a “goodness culture.” But, as more and more people are exposed to the abuses, I am hopeful that some churches will pursue a culture of TOV.
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