If you have ever struggled with any other mental health affliction, your experience attending church was probably either to suffer in silence while putting on a happy face, or else you just didn’t go.
No one talked about it. Ever!
To talk about mental illness with Christians was akin to spiritual suicide because the implication was that you must not have read your Bible. If you did, you should know that according to Jesus, you are already healed.
Most people with mental illnesses don’t go to church because they feel condemned and left out. Many other physical problems are discussed and prayed for all the time, such as cancer, back issues, heart issues, various surgeries, and so on.
But when it comes to Christians with mental health issues, forget about it!
So what’s the point of even going, right?
What in the World is a Mental Health Pastor?
Let’s face it, we pastors and others in the church have dropped the ball. Actually, most did not even know the ‘ball’ even existed.
Somehow, when reading all of those passages in the Bible where God talks about mental health, we must have just been asleep.
It’s not the first time the church has missed things. To be fair, the church is made up of, and run by, fallible people.
If you have not noticed, people often miss things, do dumb things, and need a swift kick in the pants before we wake up and get it right.
Thankfully, there are many pastors who have finally caught on that we need to be offering mental health care as well as physical care.
We finally realized, after reading our Bibles a bit more carefully, that we need to be praying for God to heal mental health issues as well as physical ones.
We are in good company though. It took Thomas Edison 1,000 tries to invent the electric light bulb.
When asked what it felt like to fail 999 times, he said:
I did not fail 999 times. I invented a light bulb that had 1,000 steps.
The Church Now Presents: Mental Health Pastors
Mental Health Pastors fall into a fairly new category of ministry. We are pastors that know mental health, have struggled with mental health issues, understand how to find healing from them, and know what God has to say about mental health.
It is our hope and prayer that in the future this will not just be a category of Pastor, but mental health awareness will be spread throughout the entire church.
If you are a Pastor and you are interested in one of our staff coming to your church to talk about Mental Health, please click below to contact us.