When your home might not be a safe space.

What happens when the Vicar has lived the text before he ever preached it?

Today we looked at Domestic Violence and looked to raise awareness about this in our community.

Karen, our parishioner and boardmember of GenWest, shared her information about what is happening on the front line of those that support domestic violences. She also shares some important statistics which make the information very real.

As well as this, our Vicar does something rare and holy: he steps into the pulpit not as a distant Bible teacher, but as a survivor of domestice violence. Growing up in a home marked by domestic violence, he knows the sound of a slammed door, the terror of unpredictable rage, and the silence that shame demands.

He uses the gospel of the day to speak into this situation. John 14:1-14 are words read at funerals or whisper to anxious hearts: “Do not let your hearts be troubled… In my Father’s house there are many rooms.”

But what if “home” is the very place that troubles you?
What if the only room you know is a prison of control, fear, or fists?

Our Vicar walks through John 14:1–14  — not to offer cheap comfort, but to tell the truth:

• The many rooms of God’s house are a promise of safety — not a cage of false unity.
• Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life — exposing every counterfeit “way” of coercion and gaslighting.
• The “greater works” Jesus promises are not magic tricks; they are a church that stops pretending and starts protecting.

With vulnerability and pastoral wisdom, he shares his own story of childhood survival — not for sympathy, but for freedom. He names the lies that kept him silent. He offers a vision of faith where leaving an abusive home can be an act of discipleship, not betrayal.

And he asks the hard question: What will our church do to become a safe house for the next survivor?

If you know of anyone who is in a domestic violence situation, it might be helpful to listen to this with them in a non-confrontational way. You might start the conversation with "Hey I heard this talk at church. Want to listen to it with me and tell me what you think??"