Comfort in the Ashes: Explorations in the Book of Job to Support Trauma Survivors

Navigating Trauma in the Church

It’s time for church leaders and believers to stop offering prettily packaged responses from a safe distance. It’s time for us to sit in the ashes with the hurting, our Sunday clothes covered in dirt and grime, our faces lined with tears. Trauma brings people to the ash heap, so that is where the church needs to go.

The church should serve as a refuge for people in pain. And yet, we often end up unintentionally causing more hurt to trauma survivors. Theological platitudes and positive thinking aren’t simply dismissive to those who suffer, but they inevitably retraumatize the wounded. Does the Bible have anything practical to offer for church leaders as they engage the pain in their congregations?

Biblical scholar Michelle Keener shows us that the book of Job provides embodied and practical answers for the church today. In this incredible tool for ministry leaders and trauma survivors alike, Keener offers:

• deep wisdom at the intersection of trauma theory and the book of Job for Christian communities
• reflection questions for ministry practitioners and those walking alongside those who have experienced trauma
• engagement with the idea of a shattered worldview and how to overcome the effects of that experience.

Comfort in the Ashes helps leaders navigate their own trauma and gives practical guidance for supporting others whose worlds are falling apart. God meets us in our ashes and our pain. It’s time for the church to do the same.

Michelle K. Keener (PhD, Liberty) is an associate research fellow with the Kirby-Laing Centre for Public Theology and the director of discipleship for a growing church in Las Vegas. She is an award-winning novelist and devotional author. Keener and her family live in beautiful southern Nevada.