ABSTRACT
Dan sat in a chair in a dark room, tears streaming down his face, paralyzed with shock and despair. He had no words to express the horrible situation with which he was being confronted. Dan and his wife, Emily, along with their two children, Sarah and David, had attended a community church for the past five years. Both Dan and Emily had been raised in a small Midwestern town where church was an integral part of the community and where church attendance was an important routine in many people’s lives. They had expected to continue this tradition with their own family even though they had moved far from their hometown. They had even enrolled their children in the church’s Christian academy where they were in the third and fifth grades. Dan and Emily had been proud to be members of this congregation and had supported the church with their time, money, and talents.
