All Christians

At the beginning of the year, we shared the beginning of a series by Hope Made Strong called Keys to Resilience. Recently they released another video that highlights one specific key in self-care, noting Scripture, research, and why self-care is not selfish. I check out this video and be ready for something we want to release very soon that talks about this very topic.

Last month, Christianity Today (CT) wrote an article for their print magazine titled “Empty Pews Are an American Public Health Crisis.” The concern it expresses is that many Christians have been vocal about “religious freedoms” that prevent them from getting vaccines or covering their faces with masks and so are to be exempt from mandates, yet this has led to many within this group to leave the church when churches require masks as well as many not in the “religious freedoms” groups to leave when churches do not follow local guidelines or people become more than vocal about their beliefs.

The authors then make an interesting statement within the article that “Religious participation strongly promotes health and wellness,” using a research article from JAMA Psychiatry titled “Religious Service Attendance and Deaths Related to Drugs, Alcohol, and Suicide Among US Health Care Professionals.” The research article, which CT does note, cites that 29% of medical workers who say they attend religious services frequently are less likely to become depressed, 50% less like to divorce, and 500% less like to commit suicide than those who never attended. But then CT starts to make comments that the article did not say, like Christians have “far fewer “deaths of despair”—deaths by suicide, drug overdose, or alcohol.” They even reference 12 other articles that address some mental health research to support their finds.

Their claim is “that religious service attendance specifically, rather than private practices or self-assessed religiosity or spirituality, most powerfully predicts health.” In essence, just showing up to church will magically heal your mental health or substance misuse. Am I taking their claims and stretching it a little? Yes. But that’s the point, so are they. Unfortunately they are making a complete guess as a correlation and selling it as fact (or causation).

My friend over at KeyMinistry, Dr. Stephen Grcevich, gave some great insight on this article as well that also note concerns with these associations:

One assumption in much of the research on the mental health benefits of church is that vulnerability to mental illness is equal among church attenders and non-attenders. What if that’s not the case? What if there’s something about church that leads to an overrepresentation of the “mentally healthy” compared to the general population? What if church is less accessible to individuals and families with a greater vulnerability to mental illness because the ability to engage in church activities self-selects individuals lacking the functional impairment seen in common mental health conditions.

Is it possible that Christians who are medical or mental health workers fair better than their counterpart? We see this possibility in one study, but that does not make it a fact. Nor can we then easily blend that over to all Christians.

In fact, that we have organizations like KeyMinistry or Church And Mental Health trying to bring the Church into a conversation with mental health professionals, hitting numerous barriers in so many ways from within the Church, and churches regularly asking “how do we do this, no one else is doing this” should suggest that the Church may not be as open armed to mental wellness as CT offers.

It is my experience that Christian faith, a true relationship with Jesus does in the long run improve mental health. But I do not have a mental illness and I do not believe just being in a church building to hear about the Bible magically fixes everything. I have a guess that a devoted Christian who prays, seeks service in God’s name, is a good steward of not only their finances but of relationships, evangelizes, and reads Scripture will have an improvement with mental health. This includes going to Church faithfully, but it is my belief that this is a piece of the puzzle. Many ethics boards also say suggest this, even secular ones who say spirituality is important and should be part of the counseling process. But we need to be careful that because of COVID mandates and Christians leave the church, that everyone’s mental health is definitely going to get worse.

In fact, I remember how because of the hardships of Paul that the Gospel was furthered, not because attendance was high. Because of true persecution in the Middle East, Christianity spread throughout the world. And when Jesus showed up, it was not always happiness and peace, yet it was good. Maybe we need to look to see if the Church is furthering the mission of Christ to all people and my hope is that we can do more, better for those who struggle with mental illness and substance misuse, just as Jesus is recorded for seeking out not those who are well, but those who are hurting and broken.

This is a call to my Christian brothers and sisters, understand what is actually being said. And publishers, we really need to do better with what we publish.

I am a fan of constantly learning, whether it is about my faith or about clinical counseling. You’ve probably seen our whole host of books we recommend reading on the topic of Christian faith and counseling (and honestly I do most of that through Audible with audiobooks). Besides going through books, another great active source of information is through podcasts where we get to listen to experts on Christianity and clinical counseling, noting how they are investigating and tackling tough issues.

Below are three podcasts I have listened to regularly and highly endorse not only for the strong faithfulness to Christian theological truths but also good, ethical, clinical counseling advise. I have all of these subscribed and while I’m still working on catching up all the episodes, but I highly endorse these.

CXMH Podcast

Website

Description: CXMH is a podcast at the intersection of faith & mental health, hosted by Robert Vore & Dr. Holly Oxhandler. We bring together faith leaders and mental health professionals for honest conversations.

This was my first experience with a Christian podcast and honestly what gives me hope for Christian counseling podcasts. This is definitely made with strong academics in mind, so do not expect this to be a beginners dive into Christian counseling. Yet, they make it very approachable for pastors and lay Christians to understand how churches can bring mental health support into their congregation and community.

The Care Ministry Podcast

Website

Description: Building a culture of care in your church can feel as complex as the people you serve. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Laura Howe offers listeners practical resources and actionable strategies to support leader’s well-being, strengthen volunteer teams and equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to care for your community.

I’m a fan of everything that Laura Howe does, so naturally her starting a podcast is an instant subscription for me. Even better is she does not have an American-centric mindset of counseling that this website definitely has along with other known publications and therefore will hopefully offer a broader perspective on issues.

The Faith and Mental Wellness Podcast

Website

Description: Welcome to the podcast integrating faith and mental health where we have real conversations at the intersection of both clinical and lived experience, hosted by Brittney Moses.

Brittney is making an impact on mental wellness in the Christian community and I’m very hopeful about her progress. Do note that this is not a consistent podcast like the other two, but the material is very good.

There are several podcasts out there and I certainly only have so much bandwidth of listening, so if we missed one you think should be listened to, share it in the comments below.

Joni and Friends has always had a strong place in my heart. Their YouTube channel has always had a strong emphasis in Scripture and church doctrine while focusing on compassion and to engaged those who may need our support. They have a new campaign that was just announced this month called “Until His House Is Full” that looks to support not only those domestically in the United States, but around the world who have disabilities and need the Gospel.

Here is their mission with this campaign:

In El Salvador, nearly 1 in 10 people live with a disability. Their challenges are exacerbated by unemployment, lack of services, poverty, and crime. For families like Levi’s, getting access to medical care and a desperately needed wheelchair is almost impossible.

At Joni and Friends, our biblical commission from Luke 14 tells us to go out quickly into the streets and the alleys and bring in people living with disability so that God’s house will be full. As we share the good news of Jesus, we provide wheelchairs and essential support where it’s otherwise unaffordable or unavailable.

I previously talked about our purpose as a ministry to go serve those who are hurting and in need. So of course this fits within our mission.

The video that kicks off the initiative is below, it is impactful and commanding, but with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a New Year coming up, it makes sense to do nothing else but highlight this.

I was introduced to Dr. Alison Cook not through her book first, but the social media content she was sharing online. If you have not, you need to go check out her Instagram as she is constantly sharing counseling wisdom that integrates Christian faith into it with nuggets of Instagram images. So naturally I needed to read her book Boundaries for Your Soul.

I will say up front that my clinical counseling modality is not the same as hers. Alison makes it quickly known that she subscribes to Internal Family Systems (IFS) which she explains the model well along with how she integrates faith. In contrast, I myself am an Integrationalist therapist that primarily sit with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Solution Focused Therapy, but very much Trauma Informed, Systems therapy informed, and Client-Centered Informed. Because of these differences, I’m not going to speak on the the actual treatment modality with regards for Christian counselors or for pastors how may or may not agree with different parts of IFS theologically.

Healing The Whole Self

Alison does a great job of discussing how one can integrate faith into their counseling. Of all of the counseling models, Christian counselors most easily could do so with IFS whereas many other counseling models struggle with identifying is it primarily about counseling or faith but struggling to fully integrate.

The goal is not to eradicate parts of your soul carrying anger, fear, sadness, envy, or shame, but to lead them with curiosity and compassion.

My biggest inspiration in this book as a counselor, Jesus can heal our cognitive and emotional wounds. We see it in Scriptures beyond the physical wounds healed and we need to invite Jesus to our whole selves, not just the Sunday church practices. I think many times we see Jesus as the Savior but forget the Redeemer and Healer or simply do not offer that part of ourselves to him because of shame and pain.

Our Review

Many books talk about the faith and counseling, but fail to address how to integrate the two, Alison does not miss this. With that, we give it a 4 out of 5 and highly encourage you to check it out now.

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We are a fan of bringing awareness and appreciation towards mental health and substance use and for the past several years have pushed the different months where awareness is being given to mental health, suicide awareness, autism awareness, or minority mental health awareness among others. But we have not done anything for pastors other than recognize the holidays of Christmas and Easter.

October is Clergy Appreciation Month and October 10, 2021 is Clergy Appreciation Day. Here are some Scriptures for you.

“The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.”

1 Timothy 5:17 (New International Verson)

“Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.”

Hebrews 13:17 (NIV)

So how do we appreciate and honor our pastors?

Having been in youth ministry for eight years, it can feel like running on a treadmill. Your job is to witness to the lost, care for the hurting, and feed the sheep of the Church while raising up leaders, preaching, in many cases not getting paid enough and worrying if your church will have to shut your door. Have something planned on a Sunday and on social media.

Honestly, a simple thank you to the pastors and saying a prayer for them might be a start. Gift cards for coffee or Chipotle are always appreciated. If they have children and they are okay with it, offer to babysit their kids so they can go on a date or offer a local timeshare so they can go on vacation. Give your pastor a sabbatical.

As a final point that might be a hot take, but lasting change is more about, how can the congregation take up the role of evangelism, volunteering, and discipleship that is led by the pastor, but not completely done by the pastor. I believe this would be a great way to show appreciation by taking lead.

Focus on the Family last year talked about Pastor Appreciation Month that I wanted to share. Also, do not forget the pastor’s spouse either.

Earlier this year, we spoke at the Faith + Mental Health Summit. We wanted to share the video this week for you, noting this can be helpful for pastors, Christians, and communities to consider practicing and Christian counselors to implement.

We want to continue to bring more awareness to integrating faith and mental health and this is another chance to do so. Also, if you want to see our specific talk we gave at the Thrive & Cultivate Summit for free and early before we publish it here, sign up for our newsletter as we will be distributing it in a couple of days. Don’t miss out.

We’ve talked about suicide and suicide prevention a lot. Whether it is our Church Suicide Prevention Policy you can get for free or all of the national resources you may want to share in your next sermon or podcast or needing to understand the always controversial conversation of suicide being a sin, this is a topic that is talked about maybe more than any other on this blog. And with September being Suicide Awareness Month, we want to bring it up again.

But this time, we want to talk about a different aspect, support for those who have lost someone to suicide. Here are some statistics from the resource I’m about to share:

• Every 40 seconds, someone dies by suicide, leaving 6-8 loved ones grieving devastating loss.
• Approximately 45 million people have been greatly distressed by suicide, in the U.S. alone. Many grapple with horrific, stigmatized loss, debilitating emotions, and complex personal challenges.
• Adult loss survivors are nearly 10 times more likely to consider suicide themselves in the initial months following loss. 
• Suicide loss survivors are 64% more likely to attempt suicide, and 80% more likely to quit their jobs or drop out of school – compared to those who have suffered sudden loss to a natural cause.

Alliance of Hope is a resource for people who have lost someone they care about to suicide, whether a parent, spouse, child, friend, coworker, or neighbor, we know this population needs support. I love their motto “‘suicide postvention’ is suicide prevention.” Here is a quick video of what this means:

Alliance of Hope has an online forum, their solution to finding likeminded people the same way Celebrate Recovery or AA helps those with a substance use addiction. They also have a huge list of books to go through and while not all of them are religious, they will help. And for those who have been able to grieve, they even have an area where you can help volunteer yourself to support others who are in the midst of it or to help bring awareness to your community or church. They also have a hope after suicide brochure you may want to look at getting.

To be clear, if this article looks a little fragmented, it’s because these are the statistics, Scripture, and notes I have for my presentation with the Church Mental Health Summit that goes live September 10, 2021. If you watch it on that day, it’s free. If you want to get access to it after that fact, use our affiliate code to sign up and catch everything all year long for you and your church.

Scripture and addiction

Paul sent Timothy to the Ephesian church due to poor Biblical teach and tolerating immoral behavior and laid out what a church leader should be.

Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. They must keep hold of the deep truth s of the faith with a clear conscience. They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons. In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything. A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well. Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 3:1‭-‬13 (NIV)

Paul then talks about idolatry, impulse control, and God’s plan for Christians

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:12‭-‬13

Types of addiction

• Among people aged 12 or older in 2019, 60.1% (or 165.4 million people) used a substance (i.e., tobacco, alcohol, kratom, or an illicit drug) in the past month. [SAMHSA]

Alcohol

• Among the the almost 140 million current alcohol users in 2019, nearly half had binge drank in the last month. Among those binge drinkers, 16 million people or nearly a quarter of them are daily heavy drinkers. [SAMHSA]
• This is not an issue that is only for the community, many pastors also have struggled with this issue, leading to many issues within the Church including a high suicide rate and domestic violence for pastors which we will talk about later. This has led to high profile pastors ending their life, leading their job, or quitting ministry all together and leaving their church with more questions than answers. [New Spring Church]

Drugs

• Most pastors (76%) oppose marijuana use, as of a study in 2020 by Lifeway Research [Lifeway] compared to all Americans at 60% wanting recreational use. [Pew Research]
• Unfortunately, there are no statistics with drug use for pastors. Imagine a pastor having such strength to talk about their own recovery? It’s certainly out there, several pastors who are involved in Celebrate Recovery‘s Celebrate Pastors in Recovery. Unfortunately, it is more stigmatized than pastors with pornography, mental illness, burnout, alcohol misuse, or domestic violence.

Pornography

• 64% of Christian men and 15% of Christian women say they watch porn at least once a month. Comparing this to 1 in 5 youth pastors and 1 in 7 senior pastors use porn on a regular basis and currently struggling. That’s more than 50,000 U.S. church leaders. 43% of senior pastors and youth pastors say they have struggled with pornography in the past. [Covenant Eyes]
• A Barna research study has even higher statistics, finding most pastors (57%) and youth pastors (64%) admit they have struggled with porn, either currently or in the past. But less than 1% recommended telling their congregation. LESS THAN 1%. [Barna]

Burnout

• There are several Christian leadership articles out there on how to battle church burnout, but one survey done recently by Faithlife is the 2021 Pastoral Mental Health Report and identifies that 40% of 25-40 year old pastors feel burnt out and 36% of of 41-60 year old pastors do as well. We work with poor boundaries, working at home, not seeing our kids, working more than 50+ hours on a salary less than what McDonalds’ minimum wage is, and being under appreciated.

Pastors and suicide

• Pastor, mental health advocate Jarrid Wilson dies by apparent suicide, wife reports
• Why Are So Many Pastors Committing Suicide?
• A young pastor preached about depression, then killed himself. His widow wants to help others by talking about it
• Megachurch pastor takes his own life after struggle with mental illness

What Can We Do To Fix This?

• Let’s publicly talk about it.
  One area I didn’t list in my areas of addiction is pride. But we know it is something many pastors struggle with. I see in in the Facebook groups of youth pastors being victims to it from senior pastors, senior pastors posting not wanting to look bad, and issues of threats and poor leadership. We need to open up.
• Churches, pay for pastors’ insurance so they can access treatment.
• Go to counseling pastors, even if to get a check-up
• De-stigmatize it or normalize the conversation
  I told you pastors are not talking about their own recovery, such as with drug use. Imagine a Church where we can be honest about our own weaknesses, shortcomings, and not fear being exiled. This starts in leadership, first and foremost, with pastors and elders. If you want your congregation and community to be honest, you need to be honest yourself. Unfortunately, this concern is only preached from the pulpit with citing a single Bible verse or two and completely dismissing any scientific or behavioral conversations. We say its wrong and move on, ignoring our own addictions, shortcomings, and how to receive help if we are doing so.
• Find prosocial activities
  That Faithlife survey I referenced with burnout also talked about what pastors do to handle stress which included great things such as exercise (48%), being with family or friends (54%), and prayer (65%) but also included such things as alcohol (9%) which was never made to get rid of anxiety and social media (42%) and television 60%) which we know is not a way to relax but distract and sometimes make stress worse or blur boundaries of work and home life. Take care of yourself or you will have nothing to give. And serve your family as they are your first mission field. [Pastoral Mental Health Report]
• Celebrate Recovery/Accountability in Celebrating Pastors in Recovery