All Christians

Recently I attended a two-day training for mental health and substance use providers who are partnering with Child Protective Services to better serve adults and youth who are involved in courts due to abuse or neglect. In that time, a video jumped out as not only inspiring and joy-filling but hits at a core tenet that God commands to Christian families, that fathers be involved in their children’s lives.

At the beginning of the year, we were excited to talk to you about three different conferences we would be at, one of them we announced, and the other two that were canceled before any material was published. The pandemic has really changed the landscape of a lot of things, including the conference scene.

If you didn’t know, September is National Suicide Awareness Month and one of the leading Christian voices in this area for the Church is Kay Warren who has her own life experience after her son committed suicide over seven years ago. She has made it her mission through her ministry Hope4MentalHealth to bring awareness about suicide and suicide prevention.

She just released a video with Dan Adams who is with Sources of Strength, a youth suicide prevention program using social media to educate teens and communities about suicide, bullying, and substance abuse.

I’m part of several youth and senior pastor groups that have been struggling with this time during the pandemic with burnout and exhaustion. In fact, I’m concerned that many people have found themselves to the point of being traumatized. Webinars, low attendance, letting go of staff, being fired yourself, and conflict due to masks or politics that make it feel as if Jesus is not at the forefront of the conversation.

Just because ministry is your calling does not mean you can avoid burnout. I’ve seen too many good ministers make bad choices because they hit a point of exhaustion.

Listening is an art form. we take it for granted because it is hard not to hear things but to truly listen to someone without distractions can be tough. Even in the time you clicked this link, read this paragraph, and think about clicking the video below, how many times have you gotten a notification on your phone, thought about a task you have to do later today or have a memory pop into your head that takes away even some time from paying attention.

Working with adults and families about Jesus and mental health requires that we hear the individuals fully, understanding we need to be fully present with them. This is a skill that, just like any skill, needs to be learned and practiced.

We are in the time within the United States where children are going back to school. This in and of itself can cause anxiety in children and teens, but now we have the fear of coronavirus, needing to follow strict medical protocol that adults are struggling with, and the fears of what it can do to our lives. Further, it has disrupted activities like social gatherings after school, sports, going to the library, etc.

Teresa Reynolds, LCSW, Director of Social Work Field Education at Longwood University, therapist and former K-12 school social worker joins the Key Ministry team to talk about the various perspectives on Fall 2020 back-to-school anxiety, as well as self-care strategies for students, parent, and educators to decrease fear and increase joy. Enjoy this video by Key Ministry.

Before COVID-19, we had several presentations at conferences lined up. In the last several months, there has been a significant shift of moving to web conferences or pushing conferences back a year in order to provide a safe environment. At this time, we have had organizations and churches reach out to us to resume speaking engagements and we want to make sure you know exactly what we are looking for in joining your event.

We actually have a permanent Speaking page under our Resources section in the navigation menu if you want to submit something later with the same form.

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

Of all the concerns of behavioral health concerns for individuals with mental illness, substance misuse, and developmental disabilities, the one that the Church does some of the more effective work is with pornography. But from a clinical standpoint, what does it mean to have a pornography addiction and how can the Church and counseling work together to help individuals overcome these problems?

Stress and challenges bring out the character in people, not from a standpoint of understanding mental illness, but how we respond personally. Joni Eareckson Tada has some words of wisdom that hits home for us here and hopefully will be edifying for you.