Dr. Ndunde: “Healing in Community”
It is a deep honor to welcome you here tonight. I am Kenyan, and I welcome you as we begin this special gathering under the theme “Stronger Together.” The phrase is not simply the headline for this event.
Over the past decades, many of you in this room have worked with people through grief, loss, violence, in the slow and patient work of repair. You know what it looks like when a church becomes a place where sorrow is shared, where healing takes root. Tonight, I want to cast a short vision for that work — for why healing is most powerful when it happens in community, and how that truth shapes everything we do going forward.
When people are wounded, their first temptation is often to hide. Pain tells us that we are alone, that our story is shameful, that no one bears this kind of hurt. The voice of despair whispers that silence is safer than confession. But we know another truth: healing begins when someone else shows up to listen.
In the broader field of mental health, there is a rising consensus that healing is social and communal. Notable figures in psychology and pastoral mental health are now writing about it. The literature is converging on what many of you already live out: that relational connection, attachment, and communal practices are central to recovery.
I spoke to Karen Kornelson, the leader of trauma healing at SIL. She told me that this approach was ahead of the curve:
Long before community-centered healing became a trending topic in academic books, this work rooted itself in the conviction that healing happens in small groups, in communities where people share, listen, pray, and then live alongside one another. The core of this program is the healing group. That is where wounds are named, where shame is confronted, and where identity is reformed in Christ and community.
What the Bible says about healing together
From the start, God designed human beings for community. The Children of Israel were to live as God’s people in community, with certain codes that they were to keep. And through storytelling and careful study, they passed on values and lessons that were significant for life and in their relationship with God.
The same is observed in the New Testament. When we open the Book of Acts, we first see believers doing life together: “All the believers devoted themselves to teaching, to fellowship, to sharing meals, and to prayer” (2:42). They met together, they shared what they had, and there was no need among them. That, friends, is a picture of community — of belonging, of healing together.
Even in sorrow! Think about the children of God, when they were in Babylon: they gathered together in lament. They wept together. They healed together. They refused to hide their pain and to be alone. “By the river of Babylon, we wept as we remembered Zion” (Psalm 137:1). They were able to confront their pain, together.
That is what we encounter in every healing group. When people find the courage to come together — when they realize that “I’m not alone” — they begin to do what Scripture tells us in Galatians 6:2: they bear one another’s burdens. When people tell the truth about their pain and discover that others are listening, something sacred happens. It is more than emotional support; it is the presence of God among his people.
In Matthew 18:20, Jesus said, “Where two or three gather in my name, I am in their midst.” This is a spiritual reality. When two or three gather in his name, especially in a place of pain, Christ himself stands among them. He becomes the unseen member of the circle — the one who listens first, who understands completely, and who quietly begins the work of restoration.
Community is holy ground where we sit together in God’s presence — where hearts begin to open and the Spirit begins to move. Stories that were once silenced are spoken, and shame begins to lift. And slowly, healing begins.
God’s presence among the wounded
Beyond Scripture, there are other reasons it is important to heal in community. Psychology — my wife is a psychologist — tells us that shared storytelling and lament are pathways to discovery. Brian Morton says,
The world, the human world, is bound together not by protons and electrons, but by stories. Nothing has meaning in itself. All the objects in the world would be shards of bare, mute blankness, spinning wildly out of orbit, if we didn’t bind them together with stories.
Trauma fragments people’s stories. It scatters their memory; it scatters their identity and meaning. Storytelling enables survivors to weave their experiences into a coherent narrative, restoring agency and voice.
Scholars have noted that communities affected by trauma use storytelling to reorganize fragmented experiences and honor multiple perspectives that foster belonging. When a person shares trauma, the listener’s brain often responds by mirror neurons, creating shared emotional resonance. Their neural processes foster empathy and connection—the very glue needed for communal healing.
Sharing suffering breaks silence and isolation. It opens space for God’s presence among the wounded. One of the deepest wounds of trauma is the sense of being alone in one’s pain. Empathy and validation tells the survivor, “You are heard. Your pain is real. You are not alone.” Validation also aligns with God’s own heart for our suffering, as we see in Psalm 56:8 and many other places.
Growing God’s own network of care
Through collaboration across the Trauma Healing Alliance, the ministry continues to reach more and more people. In SIL’s global trauma healing service alone, we have supported self-sustaining programs in more than 50 countries, with at least 30 translation projects. The phrase “self-sustaining” means something spiritual: it means that healing has taken root within communities. It is no longer something we deliver to them; it is something that is living among them. The Spirit of God is growing his own network of care, of hope, and of restoration.
And so, brothers and sisters: What is God inviting us to do tonight?
God is inviting us for a renewed commitment to be present. God is inviting us to build communities where people can meet God in the midst of their pain. To keep circles open, to be safe enough for honesty, steady enough for hope. Healing in community is not just what we do; it is who we are. In fact, we are the Body of Christ. His healing presence flows through our togetherness.
As we serve others, we discover something beautiful: we ourselves are healed too. Every time we listen with compassion, the Spirit softens something in us. Every time we work with other people through their pain, our own hearts are restored a little more. That’s the mystery of God’s grace: healing multiplies when it is shared.
My hope, friends, brothers and sisters, is that when you come out of this place, you will prioritize healing in community. The Trauma Healing Alliance continues to grow. Today we have many organizations, many individuals, many churches, that are participating in many trauma healing activities throughout the world. This is our program — something we hold lightly, to give to everyone.
I thank you! God bless you.
See Dr. Ndunde’s recorded session from the 2025 THI Global Community of Practice event in Nairobi, Kenya, and learn more about finding healing in community through our small group programs.
