Mental Health & The Church
September/October 2024
Mental Health & The Church
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Mental Health & The Church
In many instances my clients were not just the children who had come to my office for help, but also the parents who came with them, most often mothers. Mothers who were exhausted, anxious, depressed, lost, and breaking under pressure―struggling to know how to help themselves and their children.
The Glimpse Project is a resource that gives you the ability to peek into the life and ministry of our Lutheran Brethren missionaries. New Glimpse Projects of Taiwan and Japan were released this year, along with companion study guides for each series.
For five days we watched our young people take in God’s Word, praise his name together in worship, and join each other in prayer. They experienced fellowship through afternoon activities, games with emcees, climbing mountains, and more! Hundreds of students are growing in Christ!
One of my biggest priorities is supporting students as they go through challenges in their lives. I am not a mental health expert, but I am here to tell my story and share advice coming out of my successes, as well as my failures.
It was a Saturday. I was trying to finish a sermon but couldn’t quite get it done. Feelings of sadness didn’t help. Maybe going for a walk would. It didn’t. Despite the beautiful fall afternoon, the sad feelings only increased. They reached a point of almost overwhelming me with their power. I knew I had to do something.
Mental health problems are difficult to talk about because we simply don’t do it much. As a result, we don’t always know what to think or what to say. Yet mental health problems are extremely common. In any given year, about one in five persons, regardless of age, will experience a mental illness.