NBA Announces New Incubate Partner, Broken Mended and Restored
Broken Mended and Restored
The National Benevolent Association welcomes Broken Mended and Restored (BMAR), as a new Incubate partner and affiliate that is committed to innovative approaches to health and social service ministry.
“I am excited to bring BMAR aboard as our newest ministry partner. As a partner, they enter our Incubate Initiative during an important season in the life of the Disciples church,” says NBA Director of Social Entrepreneurship Darnell Fennell. “As communities of faith, we are overdue having honest conversations about intimate and domestic partner abuse. The work of BMAR bears witness to the work that our denomination affirmed at our recent Disciples of Christ General Assembly through Resolution GA 1928.”
BMAR was founded in 2008 by Rev. Dr. Lisa Enders Tunstall. The nonprofit, based in Los Angeles, California, was created with the goal of bringing hope and wholeness to individuals impacted by emotional, spiritual and physical abuse while also educating the wider church on these issues.
BMAR, like all NBA Incubate partners, is a Disciples-related health and social service organization that has entered into partnership with NBA through a Memorandum of Understanding. Aligned with the mission of NBA, BMAR is an organization that equips churches with the knowledge and resources necessary to provide emotionally healthy environments for individuals living with emotional trauma and survivors of relationship abuse. BMAR believes the disease of relationship abuse and emotional trauma is a family affair that does not just affect the nuclear family, but the entire faith community.
“Partnering with the NBA Incubate Initiative will equip BMAR with the tools to maximize the impact of our organization by strengthening our infrastructure,” says BMAR Founder and President, Lisa Enders Tunstall. “We need help in fortifying our infrastructure to support greater growth. Through this partnership, we hope to learn more best practices for faith-based non-profit organizations that will help us grow, sustain and further our impact. We know through a partnership with the NBA, we will further acquire the knowledge and expertise needed in order to enlarge our capacity and impact.”
For more than a decade, the organization has held conferences for clergy and other leaders in the church in an effort to shed light on the type of abuse that often happens behind closed doors or goes unreported. Dr. Tunstall has made it her mission to break the stigma that says talking about abuse in faith communities isn’t necessary. About 95 percent of the communities BMAR works with include individuals and survivors who have been impacted by relationship abuse, spiritual abuse, or sexual assault. BMAR’s goals and hopes include seeing that number decline over time.
“This past May, I had the opportunity to visit one of BMAR’s weekly small group sessions. During the session, members of the group spoke of their gratitude about the meaningful impact of being part of this supportive community,” Fennell says. “Restoration is truly happening through the work of BMAR and, as NBA, we are so glad to be part of the transformation taking place.”
As the health and social services general ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the National Benevolent Association partners with congregations, regions, general ministries, and a variety of Disciples-related health and social service providers to create communities of compassion and care. Founded in 1887 by six women responding to the needs of the day and on their doorsteps, for more than 130 years the NBA has continued to serve “the least of these.” Learn more at www.nbacares.org.
