Skip to content
  • Home
  • Come out! Be free!
  • Who I am
  • What I post
  • Books
    • Return to Your Rest: A Spirit-to-spirit Journey
    • We Confess! The Civil War, the South, and the Church
    • The Elijah Blessing: An Undivided Heart
    • The Esther Blessing: Grace to Reign in Life
    • What About Women: A Spirit-to-spirit Exposé
  • Connect
Menu Close
  • Home
  • Come out! Be free!
  • Who I am
  • What I post
  • Books
    • Return to Your Rest: A Spirit-to-spirit Journey
    • We Confess! The Civil War, the South, and the Church
    • The Elijah Blessing: An Undivided Heart
    • The Esther Blessing: Grace to Reign in Life
    • What About Women: A Spirit-to-spirit Exposé
  • Connect
Key Truths

Healing from toxic church – seeking what is precious, and truly God

Bullying/mobbing: Beige wooden peg "people" grouped on dark concrete so that it appears a whole crowd is against one

Sabotage, coerce, shame: Bullying in the church

  • Post published:June 4, 2025
  • Post category:Healing from Toxic Church
  • Post last modified:June 8, 2025

It’s agonizing to be bullied – and it can happen to an adult, in the church. Supposedly godly people, seeking to control, plot to sabotage, coerce, shame.

Continue ReadingSabotage, coerce, shame: Bullying in the church
Bucking the system: Pencils neatly lined up on a paper point to a row of empty check-boxes. But one red-lead pencil points the other way, to a red outline of a heart.

Bucking the system: Shunning, submission, Jesus

  • Post published:April 2, 2025
  • Post category:Healing from Toxic Church
  • Post last modified:June 8, 2025

Jesus grew up in a religious system God had instigated, and people had hijacked to use for their own ends. Jesus’ life shows us when and how to buck the system.

Continue ReadingBucking the system: Shunning, submission, Jesus
Sunset over Sea of Galilee, October 2009

Woman walking on the water, you are ordained

  • Post published:March 12, 2025
  • Post category:Healing from Toxic Church/My Story
  • Post last modified:May 19, 2025

When asked if I wanted to be ordained, I waited on the Lord. I’m still in awe! And I can encourage you: When he calls you to walk on the water to meet him – GO!

Continue ReadingWoman walking on the water, you are ordained
Young woman looking weary and burdened rests against washer door in laundromat.

Women, false responsibility and the church

  • Post published:January 11, 2025
  • Post category:Healing from Toxic Church
  • Post last modified:May 28, 2025

A distorted view of “women’s responsibility” is deeply embedded in the church but often hidden in a fog. Here’s what people may expect of us – but God does not.

Continue ReadingWomen, false responsibility and the church
Standing beside the Rhône, looking out on the river’s quiet waters and, in shadows on the far bank, Avignon, France. Just visible, against the blue sky, the outline of the bell tower of Avignon Cathedral and the massive roofline of the Palace of the Popes.

“Burned out on religion? I will give you rest”

  • Post published:December 5, 2024
  • Post category:Healing from Toxic Church
  • Post last modified:March 10, 2025

“Religion almost killed me,” she said, then paused, waiting for my response. I had no words. But I believed her – and I could identify. She saw it in my eyes.

Continue Reading“Burned out on religion? I will give you rest”
Bronze monument high on a tall base: A soldier stands facing a sitting woman with a child hugging her on either side. Woman looks up to soldier; he looks down to her. She holds his right hand in both of hers.

This “good Christian girl” is a woman now

  • Post published:August 1, 2024
  • Post category:Healing from Toxic Church/My Story
  • Post last modified:May 21, 2025

I was a “good Christian girl” until well into middle age. Then, God led me where I did not want to go, to show me what I desperately needed to see.

Continue ReadingThis “good Christian girl” is a woman now
The red, white and blue "Christian" flag and the red, white and blue American flag fly, each on a separate pole, side by side.

O say, can you see?

  • Post published:July 11, 2024
  • Post category:Healing from Toxic Church
  • Post last modified:March 12, 2025

I did not dream that, in my lifetime, leaders in the US church would convince so many to embrace such skewed views of God, Christianity and country.

Continue ReadingO say, can you see?
Hazy view from the pew of a church service: People are standing, some with hands upraised, before "Jesus" written in huge block letters on a massive white screen.

The world in church clothing

  • Post published:June 20, 2024
  • Post category:Healing from Toxic Church
  • Post last modified:June 7, 2025

Lord Jesus, show me when the church is not the church, but instead, the world in church clothing. Show me when a system is competing with you for my heart.

Continue ReadingThe world in church clothing
Hand of woman wearing "Sunday dress," bracelet and ring rests on top wire of a barbed wire fence. Hazy green fields and trees lie beyond the fence.

Exploited in the church, but Leah no more

  • Post published:May 16, 2024
  • Post category:Healing from Toxic Church/My Story
  • Post last modified:June 7, 2025

“I’m Leah!” I cried. I had given myself to a church culture that had used me and used me, while profoundly rejecting my personhood, my adulthood, my worth, me.

Continue ReadingExploited in the church, but Leah no more
Three guys paddling a canoe on a quiet lake at sunset

A spirit like Caleb’s – fully following God

  • Post published:February 14, 2024
  • Post category:Healing from Toxic Church/My Story
  • Post last modified:June 8, 2025

At a crucial moment in my life, Henry Blackaby and Caleb of old encouraged me: Regardless which way anyone else is rowing, you be filled with following God.

Continue ReadingA spirit like Caleb’s – fully following God
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 6
  • Go to the next page
Key Truths logo: In forest hangs a worn bronze key with the word, Restore, engraved on it. Text: Key Truths

Topics I write about

Explore more Key Truths

Keytruths.com (c) 2011-2024. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV) 2011.

  • Home
  • Come out! Be free!
  • Who I am
  • What I post
  • Books
    • Return to Your Rest: A Spirit-to-spirit Journey
    • We Confess! The Civil War, the South, and the Church
    • The Elijah Blessing: An Undivided Heart
    • The Esther Blessing: Grace to Reign in Life
    • What About Women: A Spirit-to-spirit Exposé
  • Connect
Copyright - WordPress Theme by OceanWP
account android arrow-alt-circle-down arrow-alt-circle-left arrow-alt-circle-right arrow-alt-circle-up arrow-down arrow-left arrow-right arrow-up author bars behance blogger bluesky buffer caret-down caret-left caret-right caret-square-down caret-square-left caret-square-right caret-square-up caret-up cart-menu-1 cart-menu-2 cart-menu-3 cart-menu-4 categories chevron-down chevron-left chevron-right chevron-up clock close comments cookies copyright coupon-discount date-modified date-published discord double-arrows-down double-arrows-left double-arrows-right double-arrows-up dribbble envelope-open envelope eye facebook fax flickr foursquare github gmail google-drive grid-view hashtag hollow-ring homepage instagram ios level-down-alt level-up-alt line link linkedin list-view login logout long-arrow-alt-down long-arrow-alt-left long-arrow-alt-right long-arrow-alt-up mastodonmedium messenger mobile-menu mobile phone pinterest place qq quote-left quote-right quotes reading-time-hourglass reading-time-stopwatch reddit rss scroll-to-top search shazam shopping-bag shopping-cart side-panel-opening-2-left side-panel-opening-2-right side-panel-opening-left side-panel-opening-right skype slack small-arrow-down small-arrow-left small-arrow-right small-arrow-up sms snapchat soundcloud spinner spotify stackoverflow sync telegram threadstiktok times-circle tinder trello tripadvisor tumblr twitch twitter viber vimeo vine vkontakte website wechat whatsapp windows wishlist xing yelp youtube zoom