Today in the Mission Yearbook - Empowering clergy and other church leaders to help care for congregants’ mental health

Webinar by Synod of the Covenant and Science for the Church looks at what’s working in Michigan and Ohio’

May 24, 2023

Dr. Addie Weaver

Wrapping up their three-part series on Mental Health, Science and the Church, the Synod of the Covenant and its partner, Science for the Church, recently offered an hourlong conversation on churches and church leaders who are offering mental health services to congregants and to their communities. Watch the webinar here.

The panelists gathered by the Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick, Synod of the Covenant executive, and the Rev. Drew Rick-Miller, project co-director for Science for the Church, were:

• Addie Weaver, Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan.
• Ikeshia Smith, a clinical psychologist in Canton, Ohio.
• Susan Jennings, minister for pastoral care and mission at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Dr. Ikeshia Smith

Weaver’s presentation focused on Raising Our Spirits Together, a clergy and science partnership designed to increase access to treatment for depression in rural Michigan.

“Michigan is a pretty rural state, where clergy are serving as de facto mental health providers already,” Weaver said. Together with colleagues, Weaver talked to clergy in the southeastern part of the state “about how we might be able to collaborate, bringing together mental health intervention, science, clergy knowledge and expertise, the visual and performing arts and technology” to create a program “that would support clergy in meeting the needs of their congregants and their communities in a way that would not be a significant burden,” Weaver said.

Raising Our Spirits Together integrates cognitive behavioral therapy “with elements clergy already are doing to support folks,” including praying, active listening, engaging congregants in church activities, and helping them focus on “the positive, using Scripture to lift folks up,” Weaver said.

The Rev. Susan Jennings

In cognitive behavioral therapy, “We want to help people be able to understand the importance of taking action and doing things even when you don’t feel like it,” Weaver said. “Clergy said, ‘We do that a lot when we talk to people with depression. We invite them to come to fellowship hall on Sunday nights for Bible study. We invite them to come to Wednesday night groups when we’re writing cards to our congregants who are in the hospital or nursing home care.’”

“There are nice ways to build a program that emphasize the strengths of mental health treatments,” Weaver said. “We always have a Scripture that connects, and time for prayer requests.”

The partnership works for many reasons, according to Weaver. “Clergy get in a really authentic way the fact that their congregants are suffering,” Weaver said. Church members and friends “have unmet mental health needs, especially in the rural context. There are a lot of barriers people face in order to access care,” including the shortage of providers, especially in rural areas. In addition, “many people are much more comfortable seeking help from clergy, family or friends.”

The Rev. Drew Rick-Miller

Smith is part of Mind Your Business, an organization founded in November 2019 by Minister Marquez Johnson. “He realized a lot of people in churches were talking to their pastor about things the pastor was not equipped to handle,” Smith said. “His vision was to help leaders help people cope with everyday stress. We are there to be a support to them.” A tenet of Mind Your Business is “It’s OK not to be OK.”

Up to 10 people usually show up for sessions, and sometimes the crowd swells to about two dozen. Mind Your Business seeks out mental health providers in the communities it serves and operates The Hub, which helps people with utility bills and food.

One of the biggest impacts has been on people suffering grief and loss, Smith said. “You’d be surprised how many individuals are carrying around something very, very heavy,” Smith said.

Two months ago, Mind Your Business helped 20 pastors complete a course on mental health first aid training “to understand the symptoms,” Smith said. That helps them tell congregants, “Here’s what I can do while we’re connecting you with a mental health provider.”

Jennings leads the Mental Health Referral Panel at Westminster Presbyterian Church, which has published a booklet helpful to Grand Rapids residents. Since the panel’s founding in 2015, 180 individuals and couples have been served, “and there has been increased education and awareness through adult education and faith formation programs,” Jennings said.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Donna Costa, Food Service Manager, Stony Point Conference Center, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Amanda Craft, Manager, Immigration Advocacy, Office of the General Assembly

Let us pray

Holy God, you call us to love you with our minds. Bless those who are devoted to study and teaching. By their fruits strengthen our minds and wills and so bless your church. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Does faith have a place in mental health?

Faith leaders, mental health providers share their insights and experiences during a thought-provoking webinar

October 8, 2022

Religion can be used for healing and uplift — and to oppress, marginalize and shame people.

Photo by Priscilla du Preez via Unsplash

That and other takeaways emerged from a recent webinar titled “Does faith have a place in mental health?” The Associated Press, The Conversation and Religion News Service sponsored the webinar. Dr. Natasha Mikles, assistant professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Texas State University, moderated the panel, which included Dr. Thema Bryant, president-elect of the American Psychological Association, who’s an ordained minister in the AME Church, a trauma psychologist and trauma survivor; Dr. David Morris, a publisher and literary agent who wrote the book “Lost Faith and Wandering Souls”; and Rabbi Seth Winberg, the senior chaplain at Brandeis University.

Watch the webinar here.

Dr. David Morris

Mikles asked panelists if religion could be “a double-edged sword confronting mental health issues.” Morris said faith can indeed “bring health and be the source of unhealth.” A professor of his used to tell students religion “is the one thing that repels and attracts people at the same time.” Religion is always in context, Morris said, and it depends on who’s talking about it, how the terms are defined, whom it’s for and whom it’s excluding.

Bryant said there’s both positive and negative religious coping. In the former, the person might say, “I believe God is loving and cares and wants to help me.” But others are taught God is “harsh and mean and tries to catch me messing up.” Bryant works with survivors of sexual trauma who tell her that while the trauma may feel overwhelming, “even if I don’t get justice, this person has to answer to God, who believes me if nobody else does.”

Dr. Natasha Mikles

Bryant often hears aphorisms including “I’m too blessed to be stressed.” But the reality is “I can be both at the same time.” Some of her clients won’t even admit they’re depressed. “They think if they say it, it makes them depressed,” Bryant said.

Morris said people who are grieving the death of someone close to them are often “given platitudes about how their loved one is in heaven” and are advised by otherwise well-meaning people to move on. “It takes time,” he said. “People acknowledge their sorrow through lament. It’s something I think religious leaders understand. But in this world of easy faith, we can overlook those emotions.”

Dr. Thema Bryant

Winberg said it can be helpful for students to read the rabbinic back-and-forth of the Talmud, which dates back to the 6th century. “I sometimes encourage students to talk with me or anyone else in that kind of open way,” Winberg said. “A person of faith can ask questions because the Talmud has so much open speculation and dialogue. … That seems to be something they appreciate. They don’t expect rabbis to be open to that, but that’s where rabbinic Judaism started.”

Bryant has heard preachers take to the pulpit to talk about their own grief and even about going to therapy. “Let our humanity show up,” she advised preachers. “We want people to be authentic.” Work mental health into the liturgy, she suggested. “There is depression, anxiety, violence and trauma in biblical stories,” she noted. “Pray for people struggling with addiction.”

Morris said it’s important for religious leaders “to have a well-rounded approach, not just in the Bible, but in human relations and tradition.” Like Pastor Rick Warren and others have, “it’s important for leaders to talk about mental health from the pulpit,” Morris said.

“We are embodied. We can’t serve God without a healthy body and healthy mind, and we need to reduce as much stigma [to seeking mental health services] as possible,” Winberg said, recommending free eBooks offered by the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab.

Winberg said the pandemic has brought “a kind of suspended animation” to students’ social, emotional and spiritual development. “I think students have suffered from the lack of interactions. It does something to you to be physically distant from people in extreme ways. I think young people have lost that twinkle in their eye,” he said. “It’s not so obvious what the right response is, except to be present with them and to let them express those really uncertain feelings.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Laurie Griffith, Associate Director, Constitutional Interpretation, Office of the General Assembly
Leann Gritton, Budget Specialist, Theology, Formation & Evangelism, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Dear Lord, we thank you for your church and its witness and ministry. Be with the ministers and servants who love you, carry their crosses and bear witness to your love for the world. Do not let them get discouraged in their ministry. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord of the church. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Mental health panel discussion leads pastors to reveal the stress of their pandemic losses

Self-care and restoration are major topics during webinar

January 2, 2022

the Rev. Bertram Johnson

During a Pastors and Church Leaders Mental Health panel discussion, four church leaders discussed ways that stress has manifested itself in their lives — and in the lives of those they serve.

The Rev. Bertram Johnson spoke about his work at Union Theological Seminary in New York City,  where he offers spiritual health care support for students.

In the midst of the environmental crisis, along with racial, economic, social and gender justice crises, Johnson said seminarians wonder what the church has to offer to people facing existential questions like, “How will I or my family survive this?”

Acknowledging there are many challenges, Johnson remembered how distressed students were during the pandemic. The only sound you could hear when the city was shut down was sirens, Johnson said.

“It felt like too big of a burden for them to bear, so I encouraged them to pray whenever they heard the siren,” Johnson said, “to pray that God’s Spirit was with the person needing and now getting help, to move from it from a place of despair to a sense of hope.”

The Rev. Amantha Barbee of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia, talked about her personal losses. Her mom died in July 2019. Then during the pandemic, she lost 18 people close to her. Finally, she heard a voice in her head saying, “Amantha! Who do you think you are? Stop.”

For the first time since she was 16, Barbee took a month off. She went with her sister to the Dominican Republic. The first day together, they kept picking up their phones.

“The fact that it was hard to stop was very telling,” she said. “We kept picking them up and then looking each other, saying, ‘Stop.’”

Barbee feels like she now has strength to go back to whatever the new normal is. She looks at self-care through a different lens now, wondering what harm she might cause if she doesn’t take care of herself.

“We have to have self-care, or we will perish,” she said. “Yet we often don’t take time to do it, because we need to be needed.”

Dr. Jason Whitehead, a therapist in private practice in Denver, started a new worshiping community, Reframe, in March 2020, right when the pandemic started. During that time, he said he would sometimes just stare at the screen wondering what to do.

“If I can’t go out for coffee to find out what is meaningful in people’s lives, or how I can be supportive, well, I just felt paralyzed,” he said. “My community was now on a monitor.”

As an introvert, it didn’t bother him that much to be on the screen. He didn’t miss all those meetings. What he did miss was the chance to connect — and the ability to make the choice to reach out and connect.

Instead of connecting through mentoring and coaching, which helped him make connections to what was happening in his life, he withdrew, turning inward rather than toward community.

“The stress, even if it’s good, like a prophetic word or a hard conversation, pushes me away from those that it would be good to connect with, to be in healthy relationship,” he said. “I call it disconnection, which then limits our holy imaginations.”

The Rev. Dr. Pablo Rivera, a 1001 NWC and Vital Congregations coach and a consulting trainer on suicide prevention skills certified by Life Works, is president and founder of Life Assisting Fellowship Corporation.

Working with pastors and church leaders to increase awareness and skills to prevent suicidal behavior, he said it is impossible to be a church leader and meet the expectations of church members today.

Johnson pointed out that extroverts in the community where he worships also feel disconnected from the people they’re trying to serve. This can cause depression and isolation.

“The goal of self-care is healing, people restored to community,” he said. “When Jesus healed people, they went and told other people. When you find what is working for you around self-care, tell someone. I encourage you to share it with others, saying, ‘This is working for me; you might want to try it.’”

Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Bridgett Green, Vice President, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation and Editorial Director of Westminster John Knox Press
Hannah Green, Assistant Trust Officer, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

Gracious God, thank you for the life of witness and ministry of those who have gone before us. We are grateful that the well of your Spirit never runs dry. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Panel explores emotional toll of pandemic

Presbyterian Mental Health Network hosts first major event

May 10, 2021

Image by Natasha Spencer via Pixabay

The psychological weight of living through today’s challenges, from COVID-19 to racial oppression, was acknowledged during a panel discussion hosted by the Presbyterian Mental Health Network.

“It’s been sustained traumas for all of us now for months but also acute trauma for each of us at various times,” said Dr. Valerie Lipscomb, a literature professor at the University of South Florida and clerk of session at Kirkwood Presbyterian Church in Bradenton, Florida.

However, not everyone responds to crises in the same way, noted the Rev. Dr. Bridget Piggue, director of spiritual health at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta. For example, some people might view being quarantined as an annoyance while others might find it deeply disturbing.

Piggue also noted that there are people who feel out of sorts because they’re used to having conversations with adults but are now spending time with children.

“There’s a disorientation occurring in your body and so based on past experiences you may enter into grief, you may enter into depression,” she said.

The panel discussion, which featured three speakers with varied backgrounds and perspectives, was the first major event for the Presbyterian Mental Health Network, a resource that was called for as part of a Presbyterian mental health initiative adopted by the 223rd General Assembly (2018).

“We want to help be able to connect churches in different parts of the country that are trying to do similar types of ministry … so that we can learn from each other and grow from each other and innovate better and faster by learning from one another,” said Rev. Dan Milford, who’s the network’s moderator and pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in San Antonio, Texas.

The discussion, which is posted online, was led by Tara Rolstad, a network member, public speaker and founder of Shattering Stigma with Stories.

Lipscomb noted that some people are dealing with anger and fear related to feelings of loss of control.

“I really think it’s important to just keep going back to the basics of our faith,” she said. “We’re not in control. We’re not supposed to be, right? And to remind ourselves that it is God who is in control.” But at the same time, “it is OK to acknowledge and accept our fear and our anger and our normal human response to that but to just keep re-centering ourselves in our faith.”

Rev. Dr. Jerry Cannon, head of staff at C.N. Jenkins Memorial Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, talked about the pandemic robbing people of the “ministry of presence” by limiting home and hospital visits and keeping ministers and others from gathering around families in normal ways, such as when someone dies. He also lamented that some people have had to say their final words to dying loved ones by phone.

Another burden for some is systemic racism. “African Americans have had to deal with that stress pre-pandemic and now you have a pandemic on top of that,” he said. “Those layers are piling one on top of another,” without the church being open to affirm the affected individuals.

Cannon, a proponent of therapy, said pastors should not be reluctant to look beyond the church when a member is struggling.

“If it is outside of my boundaries, I will say not as a disclaimer but really as an offer to them and to myself, you know, ‘Can we look for outside resources?’” he said.

Piggue said that sometimes helping people to find the right language to describe what they’re feeling can be comforting and grounding. She also said there’s value in just letting people talk, and if necessary, helping them search online for a therapist.

Finding some form of release through journaling, meditation or yoga also can be beneficial, Cannon said.

A change of perspective also might be in order. “I think it’s important to confront and realize that we aren’t going to go back to normal,” Lipscomb said. “For me, the grieving process and dealing with it as a grieving process is a positive way of looking at it. We are assured that the Holy Spirit will be with us as we grieve and will walk alongside us and comfort us.”

 Darla Carter, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
So Jung Kim, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Shawn Kang, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

God, your compassion for all your children is reflected in the lives of so many people in your church. We thank you for their quiet faithfulness as they minister, each in their own way, to those around them. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Effort to create Presbyterian Mental Health Network moves forward

‘People are so hungry for this type of ministry,’ officer says

February 14, 2020

There’s a growing cultural understanding that mental health is an integral part of one’s whole health, and the church can play a vital role in it, said the Rev. Rose McCurdy, vice moderator of the new Presbyterian Mental Health Network.

A steering committee recently met at Columbia Theological Seminary to discuss the new Presbyterian Mental Health Network. (Contributed photo)

With that in mind, a steering committee of nearly 20 people is forging ahead to solidify the fledgling network as an information hub (and useful resource) for Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastors and members who are looking for ways to better serve the mental health needs of their congregations.

“Our mental and emotional well-being is directly tied to our spiritual well-being and in our ability to connect with God, and I think because that’s becoming more and more apparent that our churches — our people in the pews — need to know that their whole person is also cared for, by God and by their church,” said McCurdy, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Winneconne, Wisconsin.

The network was called for as part of the Presbyterian mental health initiative adopted at the 223rd General Assembly (2018).

The network’s steering committee recently met at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, bringing together people from diverse backgrounds to put the framework in place to work toward the committee’s ultimate goal: encouraging congregations, presbyteries and seminaries to do mental health ministry and to learn best practices for doing that.

The session resulted in the selection of officers and the approval of bylaws and a mission statement as well as a discussion about priorities.

“Our mission is to educate and equip the church to walk compassionately alongside people living with mental health issues, recognize neurodiversity and encourage mental well-being,” said the Rev. Dan Milford, pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in San Antonio who’s now the steering committee’s moderator.

Mission Presbytery in Texas brought an overture to the 223rd General Assembly in St. Louis to implement and move forward from 2008’s “Comfort My People: A Policy Statement on Serious Mental Illness.”

The establishment of the mental health network springs from the approval of that overture and will include resources, such as a mental health toolkit, to help pastors and others.

Ever since this ministry has become public, “pastors have just like poured out to us,” McCurdy said. “It just seems like people are so hungry for this type of ministry and they think it’s such a big topic they don’t know where to start or how to tackle it.”

The mental health movement in the church is taking shape during a time when many people across the country are grappling with mental health issues, from suicides to drug overdoses, as well as the aftermath of hate crimes and gun violence, said Donna Miller, associate for mental health ministries.

She noted that nearly one in five U.S. adults will have a diagnosable mental health condition in any given year, according to the National Institute on Mental Health.

“One of the things that’s very important to get across is the idea that mental illness can happen to anybody,” Miller said.

The network wants to change the way people think about, discuss and approach mental health issues in the church.

In the past, the church sometimes has been “a part of stigmatizing people who are living with mental illness as though it were their fault, as though they needed to do something differently and then they wouldn’t have mental illness anymore,” Milford said.

Being aware of available resources and able to make appropriate referrals for individuals and families is important, Miller said.

The Presbyterian Mental Health Network is intended to help “equip and support congregations so that they are better able to respond to the mental health needs in their midst, and people will find in the church a community of belonging where they feel supported and not stigmatized,” Miller said.

Information about the overall PC(USA) mental health initiative, including a new grant program and resources, is available at pcusa.org/mentalhealth, the PC(USA) Mental Health Ministry website that launched in August.

To increase the visibility of the network, the steering committee is planning to have an exhibit on display at the 224th General Assembly, set for June 20–27 in Baltimore.

Darla Carter, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:   

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

David Staniunas, Office of the General Assembly
Marsha Stearley, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray:

Gracious God, you have faithfully walked with us through all these years. As we look toward the challenges ahead, lead us in the ways that you would have us walk. Amen.