What Happens in a Compassionless Environment

by Daryl Crouch (@crouchdk)

George (fictitious name) was a leader in our church. He was accused of mismanaging the church’s funds by the pastor. It was totally a false accusation. With this scenario there are one of three choice that people could make. First, they could side with the pastor. Second, they could have empathy. Third, they could have compassion.

 Siding with the pastor 

Courtesy of Morgfile  http://mrg.bz/q3b1J

Let’s role back the clock and give a little background on the pastor and the situation. The pastor shared with me several months before that he wanted me to help him take back control of the church. He felt George was standing in his way of controlling the church. My response was that no one should have control of the church except Jesus. He is the head. We all are here to work together as a team because we are the body.

There were some who sided with the pastor. The problem you have once you start fabricating a lie about someone or something it doesn’t stop there. The pastor set in motion a misrepresentation of George that he could not stop without revealing his own untruthfulness. The lie exploded like dynamite. So now the pastor has created a toxic church environment.

Showing empathy

It is important to have empathy towards others. Empathy gives us the understanding what someone is going through. The dictionary says empathy is, “The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.”

In the situation with George there were some who showed genuine empathy. During this time George and his family needed more than empathy. Some people at church really felt bad for George. Despite the injustice these members were so comfortable with the status quo at church that they did not want to rock the boat. It was bad enough that myself and George had to take a stand and simply walked out of the church not to return. This group did not understand why. They thought it is was a bad situation but church should go on as normal.

By their lack of action they began to live a lie. This church was being transforming into a dangerously toxic church. You cannot live a lie for long without becoming deadly. Sin is sin and has to be dealt with. Read Matthew 18:15-17.

Showing Compassion

George and his family needed people who genuinely cared. It is good to have empathy toward others. It is essential for empathy to be transformed into compassion. Matthew 14:14 says, “He had compassion on them”. You see with compassion there is an action that takes place. The scripture goes to say He “healed their sick”. What would have happen if Jesus had empathy instead? Then scripture would have said, “He had [empathy for] them” then instead of the healing it would have said, ‘He walked on by.”

Philana Crouch (@prcrouch) shared with me-“compassion is empathy with action.” The word compassion simply means to be along side of someone in their suffering or passion. So in this scenario what George needed was people to be along side of him and help along the way.

I like how Jeff Goins puts it in his book Wrecked. “If you’re really helping someone in pain—if you’re really experiencing compassion—you can’t help but hurt, too.” We live in a world that is broken. The only way to fix it is to allow Christ to reach through us. Change comes one person at a time.

Jeff Goins goes on to in his book Wrecked and says, “And if you are going to change something, you are going to have to enter into the brokenness and experience some of the pain therein. The only escape from this reality is to live only for yourself. And we all know what that gets us: exactly what we already have.”

It’s sad but this church has dwindled down from a growing church to only a small handful of people. Christ calls us not only to empathize but to show compassion to those around us.

How do you show compassion? How have you experienced compassion? Share a moment you have shown or experienced compassion.