Author Mike Cosper joins Curtis Chang in this episode of Good Faith to investigate the unsettling realities of authority in churches and the unchecked power that often breeds toxic church environments. Drawing from his latest book, The Church in Dark Times, Cosper emphasizes the urgent need for megachurch accountability, using the infamous Mars Hill case as a stark example of what can happen when authority goes unchallenged in religious settings.

The conversation delves deep into the intersection of leadership and the harm that can result from abusive practices within churches, both emotionally and spiritually. Curtis and Mike highlight the necessity of robust church governance to protect communities from potential religious scandals, and examine the lasting impact of these toxic environments on individuals. Recovery from this kind of spiritual harm requires intentional efforts from both the church and affected individuals to rebuild trust and healing in the aftermath of betrayal.

This episode challenges listeners to confront the realities of toxic church environments and consider the importance of safeguarding church values through accountability. It’s a powerful reminder of how unchecked authority can disrupt not just individuals, but entire faith communities. If you’re interested in understanding the complex dynamics of church leadership, spiritual harm, and recovery, this episode offers valuable insights that can help guide the way forward.

This excerpt has been edited for length and clarity.

Curtis Chang: We tend to think that the encounter with sin, abuse, harm is something that contradicts the gospel, versus actually wrapped up in it. This is why we want to cover it up, deny that it happened – or if it did happen, we don’t want to deal with it or grieve it. But going through abuse and harm is part of the gospel we have to remember.

The gospel narrative is God himself, in Jesus, coming in to take on and go through abuse and institutional betrayal of the highest kind. And so if we’re going to follow Jesus, it does mean following his way through it. But it’s really hard work. It is the work of the cross, picking up our cross to bear and recognize the evil that is present in the world. And it forces us to recognize oh, the gospel is not some magic fairy dust that we sprinkle over the world such that we are now exempt from evil and harm and sin.

Mike Cosper: The other thing that happened for me, was that it unlocked the gospel in a lot of new ways. In particular it unlocked the story of Peter in really profound ways. Preachers love to sort of punk on Peter for being impulsive and all the rest of it. But what I look at it now is Peter thought he knew what was going on. He was also profoundly naive in certain ways, and he becomes who he becomes ultimately because he was so naive, because he got so many things wrong, because he denied Jesus three times on the night of his crucifixion and had this night of misery, this dark night of the soul kind of experience that we see reconciled at the end of the book of John.

That made me recognize that the suffering of all this, the disillusionment, that’s just a normal part of the Christian life. I think probably everybody has to go through some season like that. And if we don’t normalize it, it actually incentivizes people to deconstruct, because if disillusionment and disappointment isn’t normal, then they go ‘well, this has no place in the church. I’ve got to find a tradition, a spirituality that makes room for my disappointment and disillusionment.’ I think that’s a massive disservice we do to Christians.