Laura Howe 0:01
Hey there, Laura here for the next two weeks the podcast team is going to be enjoying a spring break. But don't worry, they'll still be new episodes every week. For the next two weeks. We are jumping back to share a few of the most viewed sessions from past church mental health summit.
I can't wait to share some of these fantastic talks and resources with you. I'm also excited to share that the 2023 summit is open for registration. Over 50 speakers from around the world are coming together to equip the local church to support mental health in their churches and community to check out the speakers and to register for free. Go to churchmentalhealthsummit.com.
From Hope Made Strong, this is The Care Ministry Podcast a show about equipping ministry leaders and transforming communities through care. supporting those in your church and community not only changes individuals lives, but it grows and strengthens the church. But we want to do that without burning out so listen in as we learn about tools, strategies and resources that will equip your team and strengthen hope.
Hey there welcome to The Care Ministry Podcast. The show today is a flashback to one of the top viewed sessions from our 2021 Church mental health summit with Reverend Will Van Der Hart. Now Will is director of Mind and Soul foundation and is an associate at St. Dionis Parsons Green in London, England. The Mind and Soul foundation is an incredible resource for Christians and churches to understand and support mental wellbeing for their congregants and for their community. Now, Will, has been an advocate in the faith and mental health space since his own mental health struggles following the London bombings of 2005, you will see Will is just not a clergy leader and advocate but he is also someone who has lived experience with mental health struggles, and his journey wrestling with his experience and his faith has led him to be a thought leader throughout Britain in the world. Now in this session, will offers a deeper dive into theology and mental health. So I am sure that it will be one that you are going to go back to time and time again, each time hearing something different. And something that will challenge you in a new way because I certainly have experienced that myself. I am so grateful for the wisdom and teaching of thought leaders from around the world that come together and present at the church mental health summit and I am so excited to share this 2021 session with you.
Reverend Will 2:39
Hello, I'm Reverend Wolf and heart. I'm a founding director of the mind and soul Foundation, exploring issues of emotional mental health and Christian spirituality. And I'm also a priest here in London, where I've been working for the last 17 years specializing in issues of emotional and mental health. And it's my privilege to speak to you today at Church Mental Health summit on the issue of towards a Theology of mental health. One of the difficult things about forging a theology of mental health is that the landscape we're working with is quite fractured. The secular landscape has largely been divided around areas of the mind and the physical body dualism,cartism duality particularly suggest that we have both physical and mental, those two parts of ourselves either interact or don't, but there's no space for the spiritual. And then we've got monism, physicalism, which suggests that the body is the dominant aspect of the self and the mind follows or idealism, which suggests the reverse that we're largely mental and the physical body follows suit. Within Christian context, of course, we've taken a completely different approach, we've actually edited down to the issues of the mind and the body and suggested largely that our mental health issues are spiritually orientated, that there isn't any space if you like for the physical consideration, or for the mental consideration, because mental health issues are issues are orientated around a demonic attack or demonic possession or maybe spiritual weakness, or even spiritual virtue, or a supernatural battle.
And the result of, of that landscape has been that Christians over the centuries have suffered greatly because of a failure to acknowledge that much of their mental ill health has been orientated around their physical, physical, or their mental ill health rather than their spiritual, ill health. And I want to suggest to you today that if we're building a theology of mental health, it's formed around Trinitarian monism. This idea that actually we're not just physical or mental beings, but we're mind body and spirit that God has created us in His image.
If we adopted Trinitarian monism and idea that that the mind, the body and the spirit or inter-react, mental health becomes significant to the life of the whole person. And we're likely to assume that Mental health as a natural causation rather than a supernatural one. We recognize that mental health affects the well being of a person, not just their illness, but actually their health. And we acknowledge that mental health can be formative can shape that there's a redemptive facet to mental health to. The World Health Organization suggests that mental health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life can work productively and fruitfully and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.
Within the context of the church, we've often had a theology of illness, and that has left us failing to acknowledge that investing in and supporting mental well-being has a fundamental impact on our ability to live life and life and all its fullness, to celebrate what it is to be built and created as children of God. So what is Christian well-being to you? One of the questions you might ask is, What does Christian wellbeing look like? Is it complete healing? Is it a deliverance ministry? Is it the ability to endure? Is it joy in difficult circumstances? Is it improvement or a journey to betterment? How we answer those questions will have a very big implication on what we believe that God believes around mental health.
In my experience, particularly of working against the stigmatization of Christians with mental illnesses within the context of the church. I've seen an over realized eschatology in Luke 17: 21, it says, the kingdom of God is in your midst. Now, this is certainly true but the result of an over-realized eschatology and a spiritually dominant view of mental ill health has been that Christians have not found a safe space within the church to express their emotional pain. Because the claims and the determination of other Christians has been to eradicate their mental illness, their mental health struggle. In the context of a kingdom that has arrived, in Luke 22: 18, it says the kingdom is yet to come and many of the struggles we have in the minor struggles that might endure for a lifetime, but they won't endure for eternity. If we over realize our eschatology, then mental health issues become stigmatizing and dangerous. And we need our churches to be welcoming and warm places where people can journey to recovery, or even journey in maintenance with the Lord who loves them, and has called them into being. So this first theology if you like, a known theology, rooted in maybe one Samuel 18: 10 soughts madness is a theology of spiritual illness and if we have a theology of spiritual illness, as I've mentioned, already, mental health largely becomes a result of sin or demonic activity. Diagnosis is a measurement of spiritual value, oh, you're depressed? Well, you need to choose the joy of the Lord or you're anxious, you need to not worry and trust God, those kinds of statements that actually erode a person's sense of confidence and spiritual well being. Treatment becomes a primarily spiritually in approach as we sought about deliverance ministry, prayer ministry and obedience to teaching. And often this leads to stigma and exclusion and mental health is often perceived to be a result of spiritual etiology. Behind all this is some supernatural power. In within my organization, and most often nation, we're passionate for this idea that the church might treat suffers mental health issues, in the same way that it might treat people who suffer from physical illnesses that there'll be parity between the two, that if you take medication, because of diabetes, you should easily equally be enabled and supported in your medication to treat your depression.
So a theology of spiritual illness is not a theology which we would support because the theology of spiritual illness doesn't seem to sit with this Trinitarian monism that says, the mind, the body and the spirit all work together, that they're all important. What about a theology of religious virtue? Well, this is the idea that actually, we're suffering in the mind because somehow that suffering is an expression of God testing us something that many people have mental health issues believe it's a strengthening process. It's some sort of religious battle which we need to win in order to demonstrate our virtue to go on to serve the Lord. Certainly, Joan of Arc experienced this kind of an idea that there was sort of power that there was a supernatural battle happening in her mind which mirrored her victories, if you like on in the physical battlefield. And Mother Teresa was advised by her spiritual adviser, Archbishop Pereira that her agony was a grace granted by God and a purification and protection against pride following the success of her work.
That's a remarkably unhelpful suggestion. Here's a woman who was deeply depressed for 20 years, and her spiritual adviser suggesting that God has caused her depression in order to keep her humble. Sadly, many Christians fall foul of this theology of religious virtue. It suggests that God causes mental health issues for his divine purposes. That emotional distress demonstrates virtual brings a person closer to God, that there's a spiritual ideology, again, to this mental health condition. And the treatment options are not even offered, they're withheld, because why would we take away what God has ordained? Now this might seem like a radical theology to you. But it's amazing how this can be imbibed into Christian conversation within the context of church. God is making you stronger through this depression, go won't test you beyond what you can bear. God is going to reap a harvest of redemption from this depression from this anxiety. No, God is doing a deeper work of revelation through your psychotic illness, you know, this prophetic value in your psychotic dreams and hallucinations? All of these suggestions rooted in the idea of religious virtue theology, all of them largely unhelpful to the sufferer.
So how do we move forward from a religious theology of spiritual illness or a theology of religious virtue? Well, we can end up back in, we can end up back in a more medicalized view. And elements within the church are moving towards a theology, which again, takes us back into physicalism, or even idealism and leaves us without a spiritual element. And I'm really aware of that I'm really concerned that the church as it becomes more psychologically aware, and it reacts, if you like, negatively against those two theologies that I've just outlined to you, counter react by editing out a spiritual from our understanding of mental health. And so, we easily move into what we call a non theology of medicalization. So this is the idea that actually, mental health issues have a purely material or physical ideology, they are just issues of biology. Any religious experience we have, whilst we are mentally unwell is just symptomatic of disease. The suggestion that there's no redemptive or instructional value to mental health experience, and that mental health treatment should be exclusively medical, or psychological. Now, this is a difficult area for me because working as a priest with a team of psychiatrists and psychologists against a culture which is largely over spiritualized, mental health issues and the stigmatized people within the church because of their mental health issues. I've been a great proponent of medicalization, in terms of we've suggested strongly that psychological interventions are healthy and good for Christians, and that pharmacology is a really useful and important support in people's recovery.
At the same time, I want to really argue strongly that understanding us as physical, mental and spiritual beings is fundamental to our recovery, too. I have a GAD diagnosis of generalized anxiety diagnosis. I know that my recovery, which is an ongoing now, 20 year recovery is one that incorporates sometimes medication, certainly therapy, and absolutely prayer that the presence of Jesus in my life is fundamental to my psychological well being. And many of the people that we work with, within our organization, we say exactly the same thing, that you cannot dissect out the spiritual element of who I am, that God has ordained to me mind, body, and spirit. And I need to treat all of those aspects of myself in order to retain my equilibrium. And so that's why I want to, if you like, conclude this brief introduction, with a greater theology, I've issued the kind of, if you like, three non mandates, but I want to issue a theology of mental well being. In 1 kings 19: 4, we see the beginnings of an outworking of a theology of mental well being Elijah, in this instance, is suicidal. And he's been chased by Jezebel, who has been saying all sorts of things about him. He's physically exhausted, no doubt, he's psychologically disturbed. He cries out to God, I've had enough Lord take my life. But if we were to take a spiritual etiology here, we'd be saying, well, Elijah suicidal, you know, he's just experienced an incredible revelation of the power of God and yet now he lacks faith, we should be condemned, but God does not condemn Him. God doesn't exclude Elijah, God doesn't punish Elijah. God certainly doesn't say that Elijah's theology is out of line. Instead, God's God responds in this bio psychosocial model at trinitarian moralism, the deals with his physical health by by acknowledging that the journey is too great for him he causes him to sleep, you call you know, he offers him food to nourish him. He seeks to restore his mental and physical faculties and also his presence he, he encourages him to know that he's safe and in safe hands. So a theology of mental health isn't integrated biopsychosocial one that one that brings together the mind, body and the spirit, the community and the family. And Jesus expresses the full range of emotions himself. Now I love it that Jesus is there. The resurrected Jesus, the first thing he does is meet the needs of his disciples physical health by observing them fish, he affirms them and encourages him offers them compassion, he meets their needs, he treats them with great kindness. Even in their doubt, he offers them the full essence of himself, a theology of mental well being assumes natural etiology. In our experience as an organization, we have seen people, if you like, expressing issues of distress as a result of a spiritual causation, but 99 times out of 100 There's a natural causation to mental health issues. Dr. Rob Waller, who I worked with, he would treat people in secure psychiatric facility who often make spiritual claims. But when they're treated with anti psychotic medication, they make good recovery. And we've always said you can't medicate demons. If someone makes a recovery through pharmacology, then clearly their problem isn't demonic, if you like it's physical. The theology of mental well being as a continuum experience is not about over realized eschatology. It's the now and the not yet. God is calling us to live in these bodies, these tents, these places of struggle and these mines which is sometimes fractured and broken. That's not a status of deficiency. It's a prophetic view towards a kingdom of restoration. We want to adopt an integrated healing model that is medical, psychological and spiritual, where our pharmacology is complemented by prayer, where our psychological therapies, you know, affirm our Christian spirituality. We want one that's rooted in the dignity and identity offered to all of God's children. That the theology that we offer is one that restores human kind, it doesn't deride humankind that we are affirmed in our nature as children of God. We want one that offers the potential of redemption, of the impact of personal transformation on this journey. My own story out of PTSD from the London bombings in 2005. To my ministry, and emotional mental health has been a redemption story. If you gave me a red button to press to take away all of my mental health experience, I would never press it because I believe that I'm living God's redemption story now. And it's involved all of those aspects of health and healing. We want one that acknowledges the integration between the mind body and spirit and health in the context of community that we call to love one another in our brokenness, and that we can lead broken Pope John Paul the second and is important 1997 piece of work. The image of God with people with mental health says, Whoever suffers from mental illness always bears God's image and likeness in himself, as does every human being. So a true theology celebrates the whole person and stands with them in their suffering. A theology of mental health is a theology of the victorious Christ who is also suffering. The suffering Christ and the victorious Christ are one in the same. Our church will only be a valiant church, if it's a suffering church, a church that does not say great love and suffering, but loves in suffering. And so I want to advocate this bio-psychosocial practice that we see in the story of Elijah, that we seek to meet the psychological, the the physical, and the social, spiritual needs of those in our care. When we look at the history of our church, we realize that this theology has really been outworked through our leadership. John Bunyan said in times of affliction, we commonly meet the sweetest experiences of the love of God. And it's been on the shoulders of people like bunion, who suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder that we've seen our theology and our reformation bloom. Martin Luther, the father of the Reformation, struggled with acute anxiety, depression, and OCD and threw his pen pot at the devil Charles Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers that the UK has ever seen, preached for 20 years with an acute depression.
William Cooper, who wrote the only hymns attempted suicide, and was rescued by John Newton from the bath and from that moment he wrote his famous hymn, there was a fountain filled with blood, and Flores night Tyndale, if you'd like the father of the mother of the modern health service in the UK, suffered from bipolar disorder and was often ministering to people in acute suffering, we've already mentioned Mother Teresa and there are countless others. When we diminish or derived the ministry of those who are suffering with mental health issues, we derived the ministry of all of the spiritual giants who have formed the backbone of the contemporary church. And we do so at our peril. We're called to acknowledge that God is with us. And as Paul says, His power is made perfect in our weakness. If we really believe that we have to welcome a theology of mental well being, and say that God is at work here. He's a workhorse storing us. This is an hour not yet ministry. But these people in our care, maybe it's us need to acknowledge that we are mind, body and spirit, that we need to take a biopsychosocial model and approach towards healing and restoration. But we must not make healing our idol. But acknowledge that God can use us right now for His glory, that his dignity becomes our dignity, because he died and rose again for our sakes. And when we put our trust in Him, we are hidden in Christ, to live this life, for His name's renown. God bless you all, and enjoy the rest of your conference.
Laura Howe 21:31
Hey, thanks for listening. Reverend Will's talk is so refreshing but also super thought provoking. And I'm willing to bet that some things that he has said will resurface and come to mind over the next few days or even weeks, don't hesitate to come back and re listen to this one. And please dig in and do some research on your own. When we don't understand something, it can cause us to be nervous or shy away from talking about it. But as we know, so many people are been impacted by mental health. And so it's important to know what the Bible says about it and how we can talk about it. This session is just one of the examples of the 50 sessions that you have access to at the church mental health summit. To learn more about the upcoming event and to register, go to churchmentalhealthsummit.com Thanks for listening and take care
