Spiritual Abuse Recovery Workbook

Make Sure Ministries highly recommends Mr. Henke’s workbook. He never mentions any particular group, be it a seemingly good Bible church or a little or well known cultic group, like the ones that knock on your door. He simply points out the attributes of high-demand, authoritarian religious groups. He then helps the reader to see how these have impacted their life. We always have copies available.

In the mid-90’s I learned about spiritual abuse by a combination of a very bad experience and reading one of the best books on the subject, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse. This book was sent to me by two very close friends who had no idea that I was struggling with just that issue. I was questioning how godly men were arriving at a very wrong conclusion.

The book explained to me that I was caught up in a legalistic “system” that makes it very difficult to be right at the expense of “authority.”

Looking back, it is easy to see God’s hand in this. As I read the book, I marked it up while I learned that my “problem” was a legalistic mindset about how God works with us. I had learned the truth about such “systems” and now I was free of it. 

And that experience opened my eyes to a very large problem “within” the Church.

In the interactions I had afterward with others who experienced abuse, I learned how to help the wounded recover. I met with scores of people who were confused by the hurt they experienced.

Between my own experiences and research, I wrote many articles. It was then that I realized I had the content for a workbook on spiritual abuse recovery. A workbook was what I wanted to produce. Because it would be a practical tool for both the individual and a small group recovery, or support group.

I printed, collated, bound and distributed the Spiritual Abuse Recovery Workbook by myself. I estimate over 1000 were printed and the vast majority were given away for free. But the reach I had was tiny compared to the need.

The person who sent me the book Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse while I was struggling is the person who helped me publish the workbook. It is now available worldwide through Amazon and Apple Kindle, Ingram/Spark, and Barnes and Noble as they say, “Wherever books are sold.”

As I look back on the 25 years since my experience of abuse, I see why God allowed it to happen to me. The many individuals and groups I helped afterward would not have happened without that experience. Now, I feel like I am bringing the purpose of God full circle with the availability of the workbook anywhere and everywhere. For instance …

A week ago, I had a Zoom meeting with three ladies who had exited an abusive church in Malaysia. One had ordered my workbook from our Texas office but now wanted to know if it was available in digital format in Malaysia. Not yet. The digital version will come in a couple weeks. But this Zoom meeting illustrated to me the need for the workbook around the world. Spiritual abuse is a larger pandemic than Covid and the workbook is a better vaccination than the Covid vaccines. When you know the truth, you are free!!!

I will have more to say later but for now I wanted you to know about the publication of the workbook.

August 6, 2021 E-Letter