What is the purpose of this website? Shatteredtrust.com is the website of the Barnabas Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting fairness in the church workplace and supporting staff associates who have experienced workplace abuse in the church. What is church-workplace abuse? Church-place abuse has to do with senoir pastors mistreating their staff employees How do you define senior pastor mistreatment? Senior pastor mistreatment is not a leader having a bad day and taking it out on a staff member. It is not being strict, demanding, opinionated or picky. The harm of senior pastor mistreatment goes far deeper than just causing inconvenience, discomfort or disappointment. Senior pastor mistreatment is an encroachment, offense or violation that causes an associate to experience a psycho-emotional wound or trust injury. What is a trust injury? Simply put, a trust injury is a broken heart. A trust injury occurs when a person of authority or relational significance in any way harms an individual under his or her care. It is a violation of power, a breach or trust, a breaking of boundries. Such an injury devastates staff associates to the core of their being. A wounded associate's world is broken and impaired. He or she has been harmed by someone trusted to represent God's love and provide care, guidance and protection. Can you give an example? A friend of mine who had served a large church for many years as a lay leader, decided it was time to embrace ministry as a vocation. With the pastor’s encouragement and support, he received Bible training, quit his job and joined the church staff as a full-time assistant. He considered his senior pastor boss to be a close friend, a man he could trust; or so he thought. Soon, something happened that would send him reeling.      Not long after joining the staff, the senior pastor asked him to deliver closing remarks following a guest speaker’s sermon. My friend had never done this before. He knew, though, that the senior pastor was aware of this fact, and assumed he would offer assistance if needed. However, when time came, the pastor did not assist him and the closing went badly. Following the service, while there were people still in the auditorium, the senior pastor approached him angrily and rebuked him before all who remained.     For my friend, it was as if a bomb had exploded under him. He felt shell-shocked; unable to think or breathe. After the encounter he slunk away, found an empty room, and sat alone in stunned silence. Before long, another staff member found him and offered an explanation. Apparently, it was the senior pastor’s pattern to set associates up to fail, so he could render forceful on-the-spot correction. It seems his intention was to impress upon associates that he alone was the boss.          My friend felt betrayed; traumatized by a leader he both loved and respected. It took a long time for him to recover his inner strength and self-esteem. The incident caused him to be tentative and watchful. He wanted nothing so hurtful to ever happen again. Is  senior pastor mistreatment widespread? Sadly, this sort of story is not unique or unusual.  A growing number of church staff associates are enduring mistreatment at the hands of their senior pastor bosses. Senior pastor mistreatment occurs when senior pastors, over time or by virtue of one catastrophic event, use power, position, authority, or influence to control, manipulate, or otherwise exploit staff associates. What are the effects of senior pastor mistreatment? Wounded staff associates are left feeling shocked and bewildered. They wonder what could have possessed their senior leader to treat them so abusively. They are mystified by the fact that the mistreatment seemed to be sanctioned by the church itself; an institution considered sacred, trustworthy, and safe. They have questions concerning what they can do, where they can go, and whom they can trust. But most of all, through the pain, staff associates are confused and angry. They feel abandoned, left to speculate alone about what went wrong in their church. How can a called and committed senior pastor become a wounding agent? Wounding senior pastors are not born; they are made. Some are abused as children or have been emotionally damaged by their dysfunctional families. Some give into egotistical thinking and develop wounding habits. Through leadership training, others come to believe that appropriating a ministry vision is the first priority. Sometimes senior pastors act out in destructive ways because they are overburdened by stress, burnout, vocational guilt, or a conflicted sense of self. In such cases narcissistic, compulsive, and depressed dependent tendencies contribute to a senior pastor’s tendency to mistreat others. Any one or combination of these factors can compel senior pastors to become wounding agents.