I don’t know if you have ever struggled with mental illness, but I have. My father’s clinical depression took a huge toll on my family as I was growing up, and my own tendency toward being depressed has been a lifelong struggle.
I’ve been the Senior Pastor here for almost a decade. Early on, I had to decide how transparent I should be about my own depression. I chose the “put it all out there approach” for a number of reasons. First of all, I trusted our congregation.
We have a church culture that promotes being honest with one another, not judging each other, and bearing each other’s burdens. I knew that I could trust them, and they have proven trustworthy.
The second reason I decided to be transparent was I felt that by being honest about my depression, it would make it easier for people with other mental illnesses to seek help. It’s really much broader than just admitting to mental illness; I want the people who worship at Central to be able to say, “I’m not okay” in any number of ways. Failure to create this kind of open and accepting church culture contributes to a shallow church experience where one has to put on a mask to show up on a Sunday morning.
Third, I’ve found that mental health and spiritual health sometimes overlap or at least hang out in the same neighborhood. When I’m depressed, I usually find it hard to sense God’s presence, I feel guilty in areas where I shouldn’t, and I experience dread where I should feel hope. I have usually failed when I’ve tried to address these using spiritual resources alone.
It’s one thing to admit that mental health and spiritual health have a mutual impact on each other, but it is another thing to over-spiritualize all mental health problems. I doubt that anyone who suggests just trying to pray a mental illness away has ever truly experienced it. We believe that therapy and psychiatric medications are not only allowable but necessary to overcome some mental health challenges. My faith helps me deal with the pain of depression, and therapy and medication help me to develop stronger faith. I’m in therapy and on medication right now because I know that it will help me better comprehend God’s unending and unfailing love.
This isn’t a complete list of ways we are trying to offer a different sort of church experience, but it will give you a pretty good taste of what you will experience here. If this is the first post you’ve read in this series, please go back and check out the other ones. Starting in September, I’ll be doing a ten-week series on these ten ways that we are trying to provide a church experience that leaves you feeling like you’ve had a small taste of what it is like to be near Jesus and to enter his Kingdom.
