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     May is National Mental Health Awareness Month. In general, the Christian Church has not handled their interactions with the mentally ill well. The American society is steeped in technology. Many people, especially the youth, have their heads constantly buried in their smartphones. This is having an ill effect on their mental and physical health. Not only are people not exercising, they are also experiencing mental health problems of depression, loneliness, stress and anxiety as a result of extended use of smartphones. In many cases this unhealthy use of their phones is the root cause of mental illness. When people who are mentally ill come to many of our churches they are either not welcomed and or mistreated. They are in search of love and compassion, but instead they encounter cold heartedness and stigmatization.

     Many pastors do not realize that their attitudes and hearts towards the mentally ill are reflected in the attitudes and hearts of their congregants. I do not think that the pastors’ have malice or forethought in their hearts, they just reflect the society of which they are a part. Nevertheless, the change in the church begins with the pastor. The pastor has a great influence on his congregants. In many cases his or her people come to him for counsel in their life problems before they would think of going to a professional counselor because they trust him or her.

     Steps can be taken to change the hearts and minds of the people if the pastor leads the way. First, the pastor can take courses on mental health, and encourage his people to take the courses too. The courses however, must be free or require payment of just a nominal fee. Second, the pastor can speak constructively to his or her members about mental health in a sermon or a talk. Third, he or she can have a mental health professional talk to his or her members. Fourth, he or she can put together a resource library on mental health for the members. Fifth, he or she can have an Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous groups meet in the church. Sixth, the pastor can start a partnership with professional counseling groups to refer the congregants to when they need counseling. Seventh, he or she can start a youth outreach ministry to people who have mental illness to welcome them into the church. There is a group in my area of Philadelphia, PA. that teaches congregants how to properly and constructively interact with people who have mental illness. It is called Mental Health First Aid. Eighth, the pastor can visit and encourage others to visit with members who have mental illness to show them love and compassion.

     For example, when a child commits suicide, the church members should go to the home of the parents to bring them food, prayers of healing and compassion, and offers to be on call to lend a helping hand. When Pastor Rick Warren’s son committed suicide, he was not shown compassion by his congregation. Pastor Warren had to admonish the people by telling them that people who have physical illnesses like diabetes and high blood pressure are not stigmatized for their illnesses. Therefore, people with brain disease of mental illness should not be stigmatized for their illness either.

     Many Christians believe that people have mental illness because they have sinned and God is punishing them for their sin like King Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible sinned before God. The King said that he was god, so God struck him with mental illness for seven years to humble him. The belief that mental illness is the result of God’s judgement for sin is not true.  It is no more true than high blood pressure is God’s judgement for sin. Mental illness is a chemical imbalance of the brain.

Signed: Renee D. Warring of Uniquely and Wonderfully Made Ministries

RESOURCES

https://www.biola.edu/blogs/talbot-magazine/2019/what-every-pastor-needs-to-know-about-mental-health-and-the-church