All Christians

I can’t believe I’m saying this full phrase, but “15 years ago…” 15 years ago when I was at the beginning of my time in youth ministry with Youth for Christ, I made a great decision to go back to school for a Masters in Family Ministry. One of the best things I learned in my education was the best way for myself to rest.

Self-care is vital for anyone, even more so when you are in an emotionally or cognitively taxing position like counseling or pastoral role. And it stings even more when we preach rest, focus on God, and caring for yourself and others, yet don’t practice as you preach. At times it feels like too many people need our support and not enough time in the day.

[Read more…] about Rest For The Weary

The world of mental health is still in its early days and the interconnection of Christianity and mental health is even younger than that. So connecting to thought leaders on the topic as well as finding resources so you do not have to reinvent the wheel is important. Our goal is to share not just resources, but evidence-based, Christian integrated resources for you.

For those that do not know, we have a lot of additional resources beyond the blog. Whether you want something we have put together as a kit in our shop or links to mental health resources your church needs to have on hand.

One of the resources we recently updated is our Books We Recommend You Read. Surprisingly, its the second most visited page on the site and we’ve added more books we’ve reviewed as well as a look into other books we will be reviewing upcoming. It’s important that what we share is something I would fully stand behind. Just as important, some of them I personally have differences of opinions, but the information still stands up, so you are not receiving biased ideals.

What books would you recommend us review that are at the intersection of Christianity and mental health?

[This article is part of a mindfulness series we have been writing about for years. Click the link to check out all of the other articles we have here.]

Mindfulness apps are a great investment to try out. Whether you want something to fall asleep to, need to use it to calm yourself when you were struggling with anxiety, depression, or anger, or just want to practice regular meditation, there are several options out there. We’ve discussed Headspace and the Christian interpretation called Abide previously and there is also an app called Calm. Another option is a website that has focused on falling asleep, reading Scripture, and partnering with Christian leaders and Christian celebrities called Pray.com.

The service has a full website you can operate as well as Android and iOS app for your mobile device. There are things available for free as well as their $5.99/month subscription if you are interested. For those who want to try out the free version, you can do the following:

• Get through the Bible in a year
• Sleep Psalms
• Meditative Prayers
• Collected Christian podcasts

I’m always about finding new resources, so I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one and encourage you to try to incorporate some kind of Christian meditative practice with Scripture or prayer in your daily life habits.

For those that are interested, they have posted a lot of their content on YouTube, including a few languages. Check out this specific one about Jacob’s story:

The month of June in the United States of America is wedged between Memorial Day at the end of May and Independence Day on the 4th of July. So it would make sense that we have made June PTSD Awareness month and while PTSD is so much more than military, it is a significant origins and where much of the treatment has been refined. One option for recovery is REBOOT Recovery, a Christian Trauma Recovery program that is evidence based and held within the Church.

Trauma, since the DSM 5 has come out, has become more narrowed to a specific definition. “Not all stressful events involve trauma. The DSM-5 definition of trauma requires ‘actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence’. Stressful events not involving an immediate threat to life or physical injury such as psychosocial stressors (e.g., divorce or job loss) are not considered trauma in this definition.” (Behav Sci) So while things are difficult, it’s not actual trauma.

But when trauma happens, the symptoms affect all areas of life and recovery can be difficult and lengthy. A couple of statistics to know:

• There are currently about 8 million people in the United States with PTSD. (Veterans Affairs)
• 22 U.S. veterans die by suicide every day. (22andtroops.com)
• More than two thirds of children reported at least 1 traumatic event by age 16. (SAMHSA)

So REBOOT Recovery ministry was created initially to help soldiers who have come out of combat but now has two other options with trauma in general as well as first responders. Check them out below and see if your church could host it. (Also, if you have RightNowMedia, it is available on there for free now)

For several decades now, there has been this disconnect that technology is causing more and more problems for students. Whether it is video games make kids violent or develop conduct disorder traits, social media is causing students to be anxious and have FOMO, or watching too much television is leading to students being depressed and isolated, there is this fight that teenagers are hurting themselves mentally and emotions due to technology. But what does quality research say to this, is technology actually making our children worse? This is a question many youth pastors, parents of teenagers, and mental health professionals have been concerned about.

An article in the Association for Psychological Science is titled “There Is No Evidence That Associations Between Adolescents’ Digital Technology Engagement and Mental Health Problems Have Increased” with that very conclusion. What makes this study very important is that “it looked at 430,000 10 to 15-year-olds… over thirty years compared TV viewing, social-media and device use with feelings of depression, suicidal tendencies and behavioural problems.” This is not a single survey of 100 students with just one type of technology that makes broad interpretations.

What Did The Study Find?

Whenever there were any changes over the years with someone’s mental health negatively, it was minor enough that there was no statistical significance. That means it is easier to say that a death of a loved one, a pandemic, an abusive or absent parent, or being bullied at school does effect a teenager’s long-term mental health negatively, but not technology. Further, in several cases like conduct disorders with television stayed the same for many years and in some cases like depression and social media, depression actually lessened.

The study broke it down with regards to conduct disorder, suicidal ideation, depression, and emotional problems per type of device or platform and then even further by breaking out the data between sexes, still not a single conclusive dataset that showed any significant trends of impairment.

“Overall, there was very little evidence for an increase in the negative associations between technology and mental health over time and some evidence to the contrary.”

What this means is that we need to stop blaming teenager behaviors on technology. But hasn’t that always been the secret? We don’t want to look inward to see if we were being a bad parent, that our children are just making poor decisions, or society and the Church is not stepping up in many places? It’s easier to blame this inanimate object than be introspective.

Further, confirmation bias is a VERY strong feeling. “I see it in all the kids that come to my youth group” is a conversation point I’ve heard more than once. But this is not research, it’s a viewpoint.

What Did The Study Not Confirm?

I want to also make sure not to reinforce other biased confirmations on the other side of the spectrum. This is not saying technology cannot be inappropriate. Cyberbullying is real, online pornography and gambling is too accessible for children and a known trap for addiction, and this study did not take into account excessive use of technology after already struggling with mental illness or poor relationships. Further, the type of content consumed is not discussed. 24-hour news cycles that promote anxiety-based content or witnessing traumatic video of high-profile events has been shown to further impair people who struggle with already diagnosed mental illness.

This also did not say there is no issues with mental illness in teenagers, just that technology is not the source as thirty years ago. We know overall statistics mental illness in teenagers has increased, whether because awareness has increased or otherwise is unknown.

I’d love to hear your comments below on this. Further, here is some known benefits from a doctor who is a popular YouTuber on the topic of video games.

We want to introduce you to our Church Assistance Program (CAP) for mental health. The idea is that there are barriers for people to getting into counseling beyond stigma, including finding a Christian counselor and finances. The secular world has an Employer Assistance Program if they need to refer someone to treatment, why wouldn’t churches? There are some churches out there who have attempted to do this, but we don’t want you to have to reinvent the wheel every time.

If you want to get your copy of the Church Assistance Program now, go visit our shop here. It comes with three models your church could utilize, direction on where to go with connecting with counseling agencies, as well as example forms that are actually being used by counseling agencies that are connecting with churches already.

I have reviewed a couple of books that have a lived experience perspective that are unique and powerful, like Amy Simpon’s Troubled Minds as a daughter in a Christian family with a mother who struggled with serious mental illness or Lamar Hardwick’s Disability and the Church as an individual with autism and being a pastor. But I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die by Sarah J. Robinson is the perspective of someone who themselves struggle with severe mental illness to the point of suicidal ideation. And even more so, the suicidal thoughts didn’t start until after she became a Christian, let the theological implications of that sit with you for a bit.

[Read more…] about I Love Jesus, But I Want To Die [Book Review]

I’m excited to let you know about this free summit that I get to speak at later on in May called Thrive & Cultivate: A Mental Health Summit for Church Leaders. This summit is all about how to care for yourself, supporting your team, and lending a helping hand to your congregation’s mental health needs. Mental health as a ministry is an incredibly important topic that I am grateful to be partnering with an organization that finds value in talking about the topic openly. Sometimes ministry is hard, and that’s a healthy and okay thing to admit. What’s not healthy is pretending that it’s a walk in the park all the time. We want to equip you with teaching and tools to help you on this journey of ministry. I’ll be giving a talk on “How Churches and Christian Counselors Connect.”

[Read more…] about Thrive & Cultivate Summit

May is mental health awareness month, this week being mental illness awareness week, one of many awareness events this year. This is an important time to be able to understand through awareness, education, and prevention about mental health and mental illness before it becomes a problem. So to support pastors, counselors, mental health professional allies, family members of those who struggle with mental illness, and those with mental illness, we want to share resources for you.

[Read more…] about Mental Health Awareness Resources

There are times where we have a whole series of articles around a single topic that tying them into one central article to reference them all is necessary. Kind of like a table of contents for the series. Christian mindfulness is a topic that is being discussed more and more, many times without a clear understanding of what it is or how it can properly integrate faith and mental health.

Below is a list of articles we have written or referenced on the topic of Christian mindfulness from a variety of perspectives. The intent is to continue to update this list moving forward as more content is discussed and shared.

[Read more…] about Christian Mindfulness [TOC]