Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence are painful parts of our collective cultural landscape; 1 in 3 women, 1 in 4 men, and 1 in 3 teens experience Intimate Partner Violence in their lifetime. Every 9 seconds a woman is beaten. Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence is not just expressed as physical abuse. It is also thriving as alternative forms of control such as financial, psychological, emotional, sexual, and spiritual. Individuals are suffering in silence and in plain sight. As agents of the church, we can break the normative silence and offer a way forward that imbues personal agency and resurrection.

Before attempting to create sanctuary space, you must engage in deepening your own education around the layered complexities of Domestic and Intimate Partner Violence. Author and activist Joy De Gruy, postulates that we cannot heal what we do not understand. That is very true of Domestic Violence. We must not attempt to engage before we deeply understand the cultural and intimate landscape. 

Regional Ministers, please take note of the CCIW Domestic Violence Ministry page as a model for creating this ministry in your region.  Pastors, take a look at University Church Chicago’s website as a model for creating this ministry in your context. Here you will find resources listed on The First Christian Church of Pomona‘s website, which features California resources.  You can easily translate any page in Google docs to another language.

Individuals living in abusive situations have very little privacy, as a result, it is hard to keep a plan for liberation. You can access a customizable Lipstick Safety Plan here.  You can find digitized Safety Plan apps above in DV resources for survivors. 

Please do not consider your church a GA-1928 compliant church just because you add resources to your space, Education for your leadership is necessary to avoid unintentionally harming those in your midst, by saying the wrong thing.