About Me
Mike Cosper is the Pastor of Worship and Arts at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY, where he’s served since its launch in 2000. He leads a team of worship leaders that serve at campuses around the city, and is one of the founders of the 930 Art Center, an art gallery and music venue located at Sojourn’s midtown campus. Mike has produced or executive produced several albums of re-tuned hymns and worship songs with Sojourn Music,featuring musicians and songwriters from within the church. Mike also serves as an executive elder, working to keep the mission moving forward and the vision clear within the team.
In addition to writing here, Mike contributes regularly to the The Gospel Coalition blog, and has written for Reformed Worship Magazine. Faithmapping, co-written with Daniel Montgomery, will be published by Crossway in 2013.
Mike is a multi-instrumentalist and a songwriter who has been heavily involved on all Sojourn’s records. He has a wife, Sarah, daughters Dorothy Jean and Maggie, and a dog named Ginger.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Mike,
I too believe in total depravity. But abusers do not abuse because their wife is sinning first. I tried to explain to you that I would get hit for anything at all, just coughing sometimes. You need to understand abuse and it is clear that there is no realistic complementarian teaching on abuse. I would like all complementarians to stop teaching the unilateral submission of the wife until they really understand and feel what it means to be routinely beaten as I was.
“I think there are some presuppositions (theological ones, in particular) that aren’t shared. I believe in total depravity. We’re all sinners. I don’t see (pastorally) any benefit to denying this reality. I don’t think that acknowledging this reality is “blaming the victim”, particularly in the context of a church that is regularly confessing sin and acknowledging that we’re all sinners.
I understand your point though – that in conversation with an abuser one mustn’t give an inch to his attempts to blame the victim.
As for the specifics of this ***hypothetical*** case, I can only say that I wanted to deal with certain issues in the letter. An actual case would deal with actual events, and would look much different, including (potentially) referrals to specialized help.”
Mike,
I need to explain something in no uncertain terms. The abused wife cannot get help, so you will never know about the “actual case” until the wife has put up with abuse for years. That is why you need to say something that is useful to the wife from the pulpit before you know the details of an actual case. You need to say something that does not make it sound like the sin of the wife has brought on the violence of the husband.
As I have explained in previous comments, I was often hit because my husband had a left-right confusion, and he thought that I was being disobedient if I did not follow his instructions exactly. This is the reality of an abused wife. This is the reality that complementarians do not speak to.
Total depravity to me, means that some preachers put the submission of the wife above the safety of women and children. THAT is total depravity and I hope God brings an end to that kind of depravity. Please review what you have said and remember that I was beat up routinely for years, prevented from further education and from work, now single, in debt, planning to work into retirement, and like other survivors of abuse, dealing with major health issues. I would like to see the church say something useful. Please please say something useful, please.