Book Review: Don Hebbard's Healing Hurting Churches

Editor’s note: Dr. Don Hebbard is a speaker, marriage and family therapist, and author, in addition to serving as a professor at Amberton University in Dallas, Texas. He is the founding executive director of the Family Center in Dallas, the Genesis Center for Christian Counseling in Atlanta, and the Institute for Marriage and the Family in Oklahoma City. For the Siburt Institute, he serves as one of the church consultants for our Church Health Assessment tool. Last year, Hebbard published the book Healing Hurting Churches: The Economou Process, and we are happy to be able to publish the following review, written by our research associate, Shelby Coble.

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For over thirty years, Dr. Don Hebbard has sought to partner with hurting churches for the sake of healing. As he is one of the Siburt Institute’s authorized consultants for the Church Health Assessment, we want to call your attention to his new book. Through the systematic approach that he calls “the Economou process” (explained below), he seeks to help churches in crisis. A licensed marriage and family therapist, Dr. Hebbard uses case studies from his years of experience to share some prevailing challenges churches face and the necessary steps for their path forward. Healing Hurting Churches: The Economou Process explores the wounds churches face and the ways in which to heal them.

Leaders in the church can utilize this book as they anticipate or face transitions which require healing, whether spiritual or emotional. While seasons of healing within the church are often rushed, Dr. Hebbard offers the transformative suggestion to slow down and assess wounds before engaging in an intentional pursuit of healing. Church leaders can use Healing Hurting Churches as a tool for specific wounds faced in their leadership team or congregation. Dr. Hebbard explores the common wounds that arise from church leaders and the need for others to understand their causes, signs, and what churches can do to move toward healing. Crisis within a church can take many forms, and readers may find particular chapters in the first half of Dr. Hebbard’s book helpful for their specific situation. 

However, the second half of Healing Hurting Churches may be the best place for readers to start. Church leaders will find hope through his “Economou process,” which combines theology, systems theory, inductive preaching, and process consultation. When they are used together, Dr. Hebbard believes the church moves toward restoration and rebuilds trust in leadership. If church leaders find themselves lost for direction after transitional wounds plague their congregation, Dr. Hebbard’s book can provide next steps in order to begin the healing process. There is no shortcut to healing, but purposeful decision making can propel churches in their patient pursuit of healing. If churches are deciding whether or not consultative assistance would be helpful, this book outlines the phrases of consultation with primary questions, primary emotions, and consultant goals and tasks. Consulting provides a trusted relationship with a person in a multi-dimensional role to walk alongside a church with the power of God to heal and move forward. 

Based on Dr. Hebbard’s attention to resolution through his Economou process, church leaders can utilize this book as a resource to discern their next steps during transitions or crises. The natural tendency during times of pain or uncertainty is to rush through to resolution. However, Healing Hurting Churches offers the perspective that true restoration and healing can only come through the slow, intentional process of moving together in order to seek God’s plan for healing.