The Vital Role of Church Community as Part of a Mental Health Support Team

Thursday, September 26, I will be doing a Quick Take at Mental Health and the Church Conference hosted by Key Ministry. Here is a sneak peek.

Photo: Dreamstime (Stock)

The church community is essential in the recovery and stability of the Christian afflicted with mental illness. God designed His Church to include the weak and strong in one body for His will. Paul illustrates this in Romans 14 with three points. 

1. It honors God (Romans 14:6); 

2. Christians are to bear each other’s burdens like Christ did (Romans 14:8-9); 

3. God is judging us and one judge is enough. (Matthew 7:1). 

Christ dwelled among us, died and rose for us in order to create a community radically different from the standards of the world.

How can the church community be a belonging and bearing community?

1. Showing compassion by listening and learning.
   Jesus looked with compassion on those afflicted, the hurting or the outcast. He was a listener like His Father, who listens to us cry out to him.

2. Showing compassion by praying for them and with them.
   Many Christians are quick to judge emotional pain as if you are not praying enough or it is a sin issue. Prayer is the most powerful weapon we have to welcome people and to ward off spiritual attacks. It is the way we communicate with our Father.

3. Showing compassion by loving and serving them and their family.
   Mental illness is scary. We want to avoid being uncomfortable. Many of us will go halfway around the world for a mission trip, but won’t help a hurting family during a mental health crisis. It can be easy to love and serve, make a reheatable meal, give a gift card for gas, food, etc., or help with household chores.

4. Showing compassion by serving with them. 
   When a person with mental illness is stable, invite them to serve with you. Invite them on mission trips. Work with them through their strengths to serve together. 

Personally, I have a church community that thrives in Romans 14 and the four points above, in obedience to God. This community has nurtured my ability to serve the Lord, who uniquely created my story to serve families with disabled children in Ukraine and beyond. My parents were pressured to institutionalize me claiming that I would be a burden and assuming that I lacked the ability to be educated. Many other parents face the same pressure for the same reasons. Yet, God has opened many doors in the field for me, from orphanages and nursing homes, to families stigmatized by disability, even from their local church. I have been living on missions overseas more than fifty times and in Ukraine about thirty times. God is glorified when His church is a place of belonging for all, and we encourage each other's differences, even being a part of an individual's mental health support team.