Posted on 11/28/2018 12:01:20 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
I wrote about my family’s and others’ experiences in my upcoming book, Troubled Minds: Mental Illness and the Church’s Mission. These are stories every Christian should know because the people affected by this system failure need our help. The church is equipped to advocate for and walk alongside people with mental illness. Our shame and abandonment are the last things people affected by such illness need.
In general, the church tends to handle mental illness in one of three ways: ignore it, treat it exclusively as a spiritual problem, or refer people to professionals and wash our hands of their trouble.
When we ignore it, we acquiesce our responsibility to be the church, who “must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12). We send the message that our faith isn’t big enough to handle problems we don’t understand. Mental illness does raise challenging questions, but such questions do not threaten God. And they are not inconsistent with Christian theology—all creation is groaning under the weight of our sin. Our minds are no less cursed than the rest of us.
When we treat mental illness as a spiritual problem, prescribing more faith or prayer, we suggest suffering people aren’t eligible for God’s grace. We behave like the Pharisees, whom Jesus said “don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden” (Matthew 23:3-4).
(Excerpt) Read more at qideas.org ...
Yes, mental illness can be fostered, or exacerbated, by people’s choices. But such people are no less deserving of compassion and help than those with other lifestyle-related diseases like HIV, diabetes, and heart disease. And just as most pastors do not claim they can heal broken bones and cancer through their seminary training, church leaders should know when they’re in over their heads with psychological issues—and they usually are.
At the same time, when we refer people to professionals without walking alongside them with love and acceptance, we abandon them to a system that doesn’t give people what we might hope it will. Churches must refer people to professional help—but they must also confer with those professionals and provide friendship and love to suffering people.
Churches can help in many ways, several of which you can find described in my book. A few of the simplest ideas are these:
1.) Talk about it. Every year, more than 25 percent of the U.S. adult population suffers from a diagnosable mental illness—mostly quietly and in shame.
2.) Assemble a network. Before a crisis, find professionals with a variety of specialties. Build relationships with them, ask for advice, and be ready to partner when someone needs care.
3.) Foster friendships. People affected by mental illness need friends who will not abandon them when they’re symptomatic.
4.) Walk through treatment. Visit the hospital. Bring casseroles. Help with the cost of medications. Ask how treatments are going. Minister to people with mental illness in the ways you minister to people recovering from surgery or enduring cancer treatments.
My family has always been in the church. Dad was a pastor for 10 years. When schizophrenia came knocking, we were steeped in church life, yet the church was mostly silent on the reality of mental illness—and we got the message that we should be silent as well. This silence was isolating and cruel.
Yet our greatest moments of hope have come through encounters with individuals in the church who have made eye contact, visited Mom in prison, answered late-night phone calls to help her sort through her thoughts, showed up for small group when Dad cried every week. These are simple acts of love that reflect the heart of our creator, who knows far more than we do about how wretched we all are.
Like it or not, the church is the first place many turn in crisis. And fair or not, the church’s silence or rejection feels like rejection from God. We cannot keep turning away from the most vulnerable among us. It’s time to be part of the solution.
Causal
Great suggestions.
With the opioid crisis in America, the Christian churches need to step up to the plate to provide a healing pathway for these unfortunate souls. We know those suffering from opioid addiction are much to blame for their addiction. However, the bell tolls for all of us.
The opioid addiction is no different from the other biological manifestations that afflict mental illness. These are biochemical abnormalities in the neural fabric of the brain created by a multitude of causes.
The Church should generate the non-judgmental network to provide the love, sensitivity, kindness, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the professional help for these unfortunate souls handicapped by their mental performance.
Amen.
It’s been said that the number one prescription is for depression. One of the Leviticus 26 curses for walking away from God is “sorrow of heart”. It’s not the church’s responsibility to play shrink, but to call people to repentance, which will help many depressed people.
One of the spiritual weapons against depression is the gift of tongues. 1 Corinthians 14:4 says, “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.”
This verse, while comparing tongues to prophecy, tells us one of the benefits of the gift of tongues - it edifies the individual.
True mental illness is a chemical imbalance in the brain.
Sure. This has just been my experience.
The Salvation Army are the good guys.
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