Pastors

Want to get your own pack of church mental health awareness cards? Order them here.

Mental health stigma is culturally a huge problem. Stigma is when someone views you in a negative way because you have a distinguishing characteristic or personal trait that’s thought to be, or actually is, a disadvantage.

It limits people’s motivation to engage in the treatment, getting the help they need, but also in the activities they are currently involved in, like church. Further, it can actually cause some mental health symptoms to create further harm and isolation.

The way you fight against mental health stigma is educating yourself and others as well as create a culture open to dialogue and not shaming or guilting others who you feel are different.

[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.]

Ever since I wrote the article 10 Facts To Know About Teens and Vaping, it has been at least the second most viewed article on our site. The article itself was actually written out of necessity because several youth pastors in a Facebook group were asking questions and not getting any answers.

This article is more out of having the content and helping the Church out in understanding the facts of the situation. The topic is very tricky because many times the experts on the topic are the people who use. So the fight is a bit of a disadvantage when discussing this, yet those from a Christian perspective tend to argue out of ignorance anyways and many times it’s one of fear.

The new wave of evangelism and discipleship within churches are small groups. We see men’s and women’s small groups, small groups for young married couples, small groups going over specific books of the Bible, or based on location.

Interestingly, clinical mental health programs typically can have a strong focus and foundation in group as they offer a unique way for people to help connect and work on their mental health symptoms.

But are Christian mental health groups possible?

May is Mental Health Awareness month and we want to encourage you to be able to better communicate with your congregation and community about mental health and how the Church can come alongside them.

Here are a bunch of resources for you to use for your church.

Churches and pastors are truly at the forefront of interacting with people, especially in America. You get to sit and talk with people about sin, grace, redemption, and edification. But many times the scope of a pastor’s knowledge becomes limited when someone comes in feeling suicidal, having a manic episode, or struggling with an addiction to drugs. It’s at this time you need to be helping connect the person to a professional counselor who is trained, but how can pastors refer someone to counseling?

Busyness is a mentality that many in the American culture strive for. We see how it can take away from family, cause medical conditions, and lead to burnout. Pastors in America are not immune to this, in fact many churches where the badge of being busy as an honor. “Look at everything I’m doing” is a common generalized approach for pastors on social media. “Our church is doing it all and we are ‘doing it with excellence.'”

While I’m not against meeting the needs of your community and congregation and never would push for anything less than your best at what you do, I believe that busyness is a lie.

This month is Autism Awareness Month (and May is Mental Health Month if you are scheduling out) so we wanted to help churches figure out how they can participate in their own way. Below are several things you can do, from the very simple posting a social media post to the very involved of implementing a strategy.

The hope is that this first of all shows more alignment from the church with mental health and developmental delays. Beyond this, we hope that conversations start and maybe even revival for people with developmental delays and mental health may begin in your communities.

[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.]

Vaping is definitely the new fad for nicotine and with this new instrument, there are a lot of unknowns. This can be problematic for counselors and church leaders, especially for one of the most under-reported populations, teenagers.

Yes, teenagers are using vaping and using it a lot.

So we wanted to give you ten facts to arm yourself when talking with teenagers, teachers, and parents. Hopefully these are relevant for you and make you all the more wiser.

Want a free printer-friendly copy of this policy? Download it here.

I’m part of several church Facebook groups, constantly trying to keep in touch with what is happening in ministry. Many of these groups are open, honest, and raw, asking questions about mental health you may not actually ask in front of your senior pastor or elder board. One such question is what goes into creating a church suicide prevention policy.

I get excited by helping people bring mental health into the church, but I also want to encourage mental health professionals to listen up too. This is your opportunity to get your foot into a door of a church and help your community out.