Wellness

When treating kids with trauma, I remember these two crucial elements: therapeutic relationships are essential, and being developmentally appropriate is honoring. For the sake of children, let’s join in the play.

For many, a mental illness—theirs or a loved one’s—cuts right into the way they see themselves, God, and their community of faith. Here are ways people need the Church to step up and connect.

I encourage churches to actively train and deploy “Christian firemen”—running toward those being devastated by the “flames” of mental illness when everyone else is running away.

Mental health is the great mission field of the 21st century, and it is time the Church recognized its God-given role. The involvement of the Church is the missing piece necessary to transform our broken system.

Leading a youth Bible study on mental health can provide fascinating, applicable insights for students.

Just below the surface, it affects daily interactions, vision casting and strategic planning. It affects how we relate to God and how we relate to others. I call it Post Traumatic Church Disorder.

Community Health Evangelism/Education (CHE) incorporates physical and spiritual education with a special focus on prevention of disease, not treatment after the fact. These medical missions heal an transform communities.

Recent blog posts from former pastor Steve Austin show that before his apparent suicide, he had come out as queer and his wife, Lindsey Austin, was hospitalized for significant mental health problems.