For years, I have spent a significant amount of time thinking, writing, teaching, and talking about the intersection of faith and mental health. The first article we ever published on this blog is titled Can Christians Go To Counseling? I wrote it on August 12, 20217, and we have been talking about integrating faith and mental health ever since. Much of my work has centered around a simple question: What would it look like for the Church to care well for people experiencing mental health concerns, disabilities, substance use, trauma, and the complicated circumstances that often accompany them? I have encouraged pastors to build relationships with mental health professionals, challenged Christian counselors to see the Church as a partner rather than simply a referral source, and written about the importance of creating communities where people do not have to choose between their faith and quality mental health care.
Over the past several years, those conversations have become increasingly personal for me. I still believe the Church has an important role in caring for people, while also recognizing that churches are not mental health clinics and counselors are not pastors. Each has a unique role, and people are best served when those roles can work together. But my practiced model was integrating a mental health ministry within the Church, though I have talked about other models churches could do. Recently, I entered a new chapter and began putting some of these other models into practice by creating City Care Counseling Center.
It’s a fully separate nonprofit Christian counseling center where we don’t just identify as Christians who are mental health professionals, but integrate our faith into counseling while maintaining all ethical expectations of our profession when serving clients who are not Christians or do not want to bring that into the counseling session. But when a Christian client successfully discharges, we want them to be connected to the church they attend and not only present, but belonging.
The Difference Between an Idea and a Practice
Moving an idea from a page or presentation into real life feels different. It is one thing to write that churches should develop better referral relationships with mental health professionals. It is another thing to sit down with a pastor, counselor, administrator, or community organization and figure out what that relationship actually needs to look like. The details suddenly matter. Who makes the referral? Who follows up? What can be communicated? What should remain confidential? How do we make sure people receive care when they cannot afford it? How do we help someone remain connected to a community while they are receiving treatment?
Those questions have reinforced something I have believed for a long time. The Church’s response to mental health cannot simply be a collection of good intentions. Good intentions matter because they show we care, but caring eventually requires action. Sometimes that action looks like counseling. Sometimes it looks like a pastor sitting with a hurting family. Sometimes it means connecting someone to disability services, substance use treatment, housing, employment, or medical care. Sometimes it simply means making sure someone knows that they still belong.
Good intentions matter because they show we care, but caring eventually requires action.
We Need Each Other
One of the dangers in conversations about faith and mental health is creating an either-or approach. We can sometimes hear the question as though we have to choose between professional mental health care and the Church’s ministry. I do not believe that is the right question. A trained counselor can provide what a pastor has not been trained to provide, just as a pastor can provide spiritual community and discipleship in ways a counselor should not attempt to replicate.
The goal should not be to turn the Church into a mental health clinic or to turn a counseling practice into a church. The goal is to build bridges between them. A person receiving counseling may need a church community. A pastor may need a professional to help someone with needs beyond the pastor’s training. A family affected by disability may need both clinical support and a community where their child is genuinely welcomed. A person recovering from substance use may need professional treatment while also needing relationships that continue long after formal treatment ends.
What Does It Mean to Care Well?
I have become increasingly convinced that one of the most important questions for Christians is not simply whether we believe mental health matters. The more important question is what our belief actually produces. If we say that people experiencing mental illness and disability are valuable, what does that mean when a family walks through our church doors? If we say we care about people struggling with addiction, what happens when someone relapses? If we say that counseling and faith can work together, have we developed relationships with counselors who understand both clinical care and the importance of faith to the people we serve?
Caring well also means recognizing that people are more complicated than the category we might place them in. A person experiencing depression may also be a parent, spouse, volunteer, employee, friend, and follower of Christ. Someone with a disability may also be a gifted leader, sibling, student, artist, or teacher. Someone struggling with addiction may also be deeply loved by a family and deeply loved by God. Mental health care should not reduce people to their symptoms, and ministry should not reduce people to their struggles.
Moving From Referral to Relationship
For a long time, I have encouraged churches to think differently about referrals. A referral should not necessarily be the moment when the Church hands someone a phone number and steps away. At the same time, churches have to respect the boundaries of professional treatment and the confidentiality of the people they serve. There is a balance between staying connected and keeping a professional relationship appropriately private.
That balance requires relationships to exist before there is a crisis. Pastors and ministry leaders should know who they can call when they encounter a situation outside their expertise. Counselors should understand the churches and communities where their clients are connected. Community agencies should know that churches can sometimes provide meaningful social and spiritual support. None of this requires everyone to do everyone else’s job. It requires people to know their role and who else to invite into the conversation when appropriate.
When appropriate and the client gives permission, we will get a signed release of information for the church and, just like any other support, will push for people within the church to step up as a network for the individual. So when we successfully discharge, that client may be in a mentorship program, Stephen Ministry relationship, small groups, volunteering, or maybe leading a ministry within the church.
Putting Years of Conversation Into Practice
Starting City Care Counseling Center has given me a new appreciation for the complexity of what I have been talking about for years. There are policies to develop, relationships to build, services to create, and countless practical details that never make it into a blog post. There are also moments of excitement when an idea begins to become real and moments when I am reminded just how much work is involved in building something that can genuinely serve people well.
But perhaps that is what makes this season so meaningful. I am not walking away from the conversations that have shaped ChurchAndMentalHealth.com. I am taking many of those conversations with me into a new environment and learning what they look like when real people, real churches, real counselors, and real community needs are involved. The goal is not to prove that every idea I have written about works perfectly. The goal is to keep learning, keep listening, and keep finding ways to serve people well.
The Work Continues
I still believe there is tremendous opportunity for the Church to become more engaged in the conversation around mental health and disability. Not because the Church needs to become something it is not, but because Christians have always been called to care for people who are hurting, isolated, vulnerable, and searching for hope. Professional mental health care can be one important part of that care, but it does not have to be the whole answer.
For me, this new chapter is an opportunity to keep asking the same question I have been asking for years: How can we help people experience professional care, meaningful community, and the hope found in Christ without forcing any one of those things to carry the entire burden? I do not have every answer. But I am grateful to have the opportunity to keep building, keep learning, and keep putting faith and mental health into practice.
