The Church as a Forgiving Community

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The Church as Forgiving Community: An Initial Model Julia A. B. Miller Liberty University COUN 506 B09 Professor West January 20, 2013 Summary In this article, Chad Magnuson and Robert Enright (2008) offer and explain a forgiveness model for churches. This model is designed to help churches become a place where forgiveness is given and received, where a church becomes a safe-harbor for hurting people. The idea is that when churches become a model for forgiveness and second chances, the rest of the community will follow suit. Magnuson and Enright (2008) acknowledge that each person has, at one point or another, wronged someone. They use the Bible to explain how forgiveness is “the cessation of resentment and the implementation or the resumption of a beneficent response toward an offender” (p. 114). Forgiveness is not forgetting the wrongs that someone has done. It does not mean that the relationship should become exactly as it was before the wrong was done. It does mean that the person who was wronged has decided to “offer mercy to someone who has acted unjustly” (p. 114). The point of forgiveness is to release the transgressed person from the prison of anger and hate, and this requires showing mercy to and following steps to forgive the transgressor. In this article, the steps are discussed and several models are examined, all of which lead to the same end, the forgiveness of the offender, which allows relief from pain and improves the psychological and physical health of the offended. Forgiveness should be given no matter what the offender does, but it is much more effective for both parties if the offender is sorry for his or her wrongdoing. The article explains how churches can use the forgiveness model in all areas of the church to educate its members and the public on the benefits of forgiveness, how to forgive those who have wronged
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