The Bronsons Build a Survivor Care Network

Our society is a wreck. Economy, healthcare, education, housing, everything is a mess. There's a palpable desperation in the air, and it's been there for a long time. Quietly smouldering, like a spiritual malaise.

This is exactly the time Jesus' church should be shining. History and scripture would tell us that at this point, the church should step in and provide belonging, community, comfort, direction, practical support and financial aid to the lost, abused, hurting, confused.

Instead far too much of her is too busy sacralizing her own sin, letting abusive shepherds run rampant, or whistling through the metaphorical graveyard. If we look at the headlines of the last calendar year, there isn't a lot of apparent reason to hope that the American church is going to suddenly awaken and respond the way the gospel requires. We hope, we pray. But we also watch. And wait.

Jesus tells us, "By your fruit shall you know them."

The fruit is rotten. Good things are happening in the American church, to be sure. But not every tree in the orchard is about the same work. Men and women (particularly women) are fleeing the doors of the American institutional church with horrific stories of systemic, life-long abuse and high-control religious practices. These things - sexual abuse, cover-ups, theft, kidnapping, domineering, deceit, clergy abuse, and more - have no place in the church of God.

The names and stories should be anathema by now - Vision Forum, IBLP, Bill Gothard, Doug Wilson, the CREC, Paige Patterson, "Quiverfull," "stay-at-home daughters," Voddie Baucham, the SBC sexual abuse crises - and yet, the "good churches" have not taken up the tools prescribed by Jesus to deal with the problem. Instead, there's been an awful lot of heads going down into the sand, an awful lot of "growing weary in well-doing," an awful lot of understandable exhaustion, and an awful lot of downright apathy.

David and I both feel deeply called to practical ministry. For almost 15 years, we’ve worked together in light of the Gospel to liberate people from oppressive ideas and theology, provide practical help to extract people from whatever is chaining them down - poverty, abuse, lack of education, etc. - and build and keep safe communities based on compassion, curiosity, respect, autonomy. Places where intimacy with God and one another can blossom.

Ministering in that way was exactly what caused 90% of the conflict and conflagrations that eventually led to us leaving vocational ministry (and it was certainly a mutual decision). The gospel, as it turns out, isn't always welcome in all the places that say it's welcome.

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Okay. We all know online church isn’t "real" church, and online communities, while incredibly valuable, are never going to be able to fill the void left by in person, local communities. This is both a practical and biblical reality: for "church" to have its intended effect and benefit on both body and soul, it's gotta happen "in person."

But our local communities are under attack. They are scared. They are looking for safety and security, and have in many cases been rendered "like sheep without a shepherd," and like those sheep, they're scattered to the hills.

They have no 'home,' spiritually speaking, and are (in most cases) finding it next to impossible to find a safe spiritual community that will also take them "as they are," messy and needy and often very spiritually confused or hurting.

But this situation is EXACTLY what the church is for: to provide a safe place. To put up walls around those who have been abused by the system and those who dissent from the system. To provide nourishment and comfort to the wounded. To amplify the voices of truth. To break chains of oppression. To unite together against the powers of evil and fight for goodness, for the marginalized, the abused, the rejected. To be the place where "Your Kingdom [has] come, and Your will [is] done," the place where the Kingdom of Heaven's rules and ways are already in effect.

The church’s job is to stand with those under attack and say, “You have to go through us,” submitting ourselves to the same abuse of those we now call family. This has always been how the church has functioned, going back to Day One. It is an embassy - a place where citizens of the Kingdom can come as they try to live loyally to Jesus in the exiled places they find themselves.

It's not happening. So we figured - here we are, Lord. Send us.

THAT’s the work we want to do. THAT’s the work that feels so incredibly powerful and important right now.

We’ve been doing this work outside of the church for five years now. It very slowly evolved as we wrestled with our own establishment deprogramming, and navigated how to do things in a way that honored all of the values that are important to Christ and to the gospel.

In October, we moved back to Kansas City with a little nest egg and a dream. The dream? To build a safe place of healing and resistance for those who loved Jesus' gospel but were beginning to despair that it was true.

The idea was to create educational resources that help folks who have suffered under religious abuse, to help survivors in dangerous situations get to safety, and to create resources to help churches awaken to just how much we've lost our first love.

[[No, we're not suggesting everyone's equally culpable. But as long as we defensively hold ourselves back from grieving the wound just because we weren't culpable, our problems will continue. Humility and accountability is needed. Grace is needed. Reflection is needed. We need to ask ourselves some hard questions. And we need some answers as to how we got here from our leadership.]]

And we've been going right after those problems.

So, we’re five months in and here’s what we’ve done so far:

Additionally:

The Problem: Time

When we started this project, we knew that it was going to be a long shot, and that it would have to start "working" in a limited amount of time. There are over a hundred families represented in this community already, and we feel an acute sense of responsibility to continue this work.

Unfortunately, it's not possible for us to work "normal" 40-hour a week jobs AND continue to serve survivors, plus manage the logistics that have come with running this "underground railroad."

So we have to pick: the precious people in this community, or a regular paycheck. We want to pick the former. We want to leap to our feet in answer to that need.

But we have to secure support to do it. This work, we can do. This work actually makes our bodies and mental health better. This work actually improves our children's health, both physical and mental, and makes their challenges easier, too. If we are able to get this network established, then that's a situation that would also greatly benefit our family. We are not martyrs.

Additionally, we do not want to live on donations. We are trying to build a family work that can support us. We would love for all donations to go directly to the people we serve. I believe we will be able to generate sufficient resources for those outside the community that we'll be able to finance our families apart from the donation pool for survivors. That's the ultimate goal.

But right now, there are so many systems that need to be built and so much that already needs to be maintained, and it’s taking full-time work from two of us to just keep it going.

What We Hope to Build:

//How You Can Help//

Short term: We are trying to raise $15,000 to cover start-up expenses and fund our family until we can secure full support. That looks like paying ourselves and Erin (Margaret's co-founder, another survivor who's working with us) enough to keep our own lights on - this is just covering living expenses; no 401ks or savings accounts are getting funded here. If we raise enough, we also have immediate financial needs within the larger community that we can start to address.

Long Term: We are revamping our Patreon to become a funnel for getting resources to survivors, funding our "Underground Railroad," and oppression-proofing this work (e.g., disseminating as much information as possible as far as possible). We are going to be swimming against the current, and that means things are going to happen that will threaten to shut us down unless there is some money to protect us. If you feel led, have a look at our Patreon and consider offering monthly support. Long term, those funds will go into serving the community directly.

Thank you. These are "the least of these." These are the "little children" who were 'caused to stumble." The causes of their stumbling have largely avoided consequences in this life. We know the Lord of all the Earth is not mocked. And we are grateful for your help in "giving a cup of cold water" in His name.

This is a scary time for so many of us; the future is so unknown, but I’m hopeful that we can find ways to organize together and rally enough to both survive and live and oppose and resist. Thank you, thank you for helping us build safety for a group of people who have, in many cases, never known safety in their entire lives.

Grace and peace be with you.