As a Christian church, we seek to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. To do so we reflect on scripture, reading about his actions and ministry. One of the ways that Jesus established God’s authority and love was in the many times he healed the sick and showing compassion and acceptance for outcasts. As long as I have been connected to FUMC, I have found our church to embrace Jesus’s practice of showing compassion and care for those who suffer. We offer prayer and support for those dealing with serious illness, with grieving a lost loved one, with struggling with family conflict, and with financial crisis, just to name a few of those experiencing trauma in their lives that we desire to comfort. So how is our mission now different when more than five years ago we chose to become a trauma responsive church?

If you do not have that 5 minute “elevator” conversation in your head (which you could share to help another person understand what it means that we are “trauma responsive”) I strongly expect that you are in good company with many of your church friends. After all, at FUMC haven’t we accepted the spiritual need to support and comfort those struggling with life’s pains, with trauma, all along? Are we just intending to do it better, with more intention now that we are “trauma responsive”? 

Absolutely, being a trauma responsive church is a commitment to being attentive to respond to trauma “better”. However, the essence of being a trauma responsive church is developing the capacity to seeing what often has been invisible, the impact of the unhealed, frequently unrecognized wounds left by trauma and to understand and be responsive to the needs of those experiencing that impact. 

There are four “Rs” that serve as a guide to being a trauma responsive church (if you know them already contact me, we would like you on our team): Realize, Recognize, Respond, and Resist (if you didn’t already know them contact me, we would like you on our team). We Realize the widespread impact of trauma on people and our community, we Recognize the signs and symptoms of trauma in individuals and families, we Respond to the needs of others by integrating knowledge of trauma into our planning, policies, and practices as a church, and we Resist re-traumatization of individuals. 

Making the four R’s part of our church culture requires evolving. See if you can notice how we do some things differently in worship that is part of addressing trauma. Ask Amanda or Jennifer about changes in how we are doing child and youth ministry to incorporate new trauma sensitive practices. Continue to attend, or try out workshops offered by TRC. 

Ok, I get that you are not likely to have time to join our team; however, you can make a substantial contribution to our effort this month by completely the survey we are conducting, which will be both on line and available in a paper copy. Our goal is to receive 100% participation, as it is important to hear from everyone connected to our church (not only those singing in the “trauma choir,” but also those who do not think that they can carry a tune). Information on when the survey is available and how to get it will come out soon.