Laura Howe 00:01
From Hope Made Strong, this is the Care Ministry Podcast, a show about equipping ministry leaders in 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, as we learn about tools, strategies, and resources that will equip your team and strengthen hope.
I'm Laura Howe and welcome to The Care Ministry Podcast, we are just a few days away from May, which is always a big month with Hope Made Strong because it is mental health awareness month.
And we're doing a couple of things to bring more awareness around mental health. But the big offer that I'm so excited about is focused on encouraging churches to plan a Sunday morning service on the topic of mental health.
Now, this can be tricky for a lot of pastors and we're gonna get into that later in this episode. But I try to make it easy for you by offering a toolkit called Mental Health Sunday, if you are considering hosting a mental health Sunday, but don't know where to start, or maybe you've done it before, and you just need some fresh, creative, creative ideas, then I encourage you to go to mentalhealthsunday.com and download this free toolkit.
Now last week's show is a full walkthrough of this whole resource. So if you want to get a detailed look on how to get the most out of the Mental Health Sunday toolkit, then you're gonna want to go back and check out episode 84.
But in this episode, we're going to talk about three tips that will help you talk about mental health on Sunday.
Now to start off, I want to address some of the reasons why this topic is so hard to discuss or approach from the stage. And the first one is that for leaders, they don't want to say the wrong thing and I can totally understand that because in 15 years of talking with people and providing counseling and supporting those who are struggling with mental health, each and every conversation that I've had with people has been unique, not one person has had the same situation and circumstances and response and what might be supportive to one person, the next might not find that approach helpful at all.
So I can understand why there is concern that mental health is so personal, that it can be hard to talk to a crowd or to a whole audience. So rather than overcoming that, we just say you know what, talking about mental health, it's, it's easier just you know, to do that one on one, rather than speaking to a crowd and potentially offending someone.
But I want to encourage you to take a more general approach focusing on decreasing stigma, and creating a safe and welcoming space and showcasing the grace and faithfulness of God because then you are able to connect with everyone on this common ground. By not talking about mental health, we are missing a huge element that people are struggling with on a daily basis and if we aren't bringing hope into these spaces, people feel alone and ashamed and embarrassed and we definitely don't want people to feel that they we want them to feel hopeful and supported.
Many leaders also struggle with not feeling like they have the expertise to address such a sensitive topic. They say things like well, I'm not a counselor, I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist. I'm not qualified to address these issues. And my response to that is thank you for recognizing the limitations of your expertise. I would much rather this hesitation than ministry leaders stepping outside of their expertise by offering trauma or therapy to people.
But friend by talking about mental health on a Sunday morning is not stepping into the role of a counselor. You're simply identifying that your church is a place for people who struggle with mental health and that they are welcome there. There's nothing to be ashamed of and that as a family as a body of Christ, you will walk alongside people as they find hope and healing.
You don't have to be the solution for those who are struggling with mental health. You don't have to offer treatment and solve a problem or anything like that. You just need to create safe spaces for those who are seeking hope and healing.
Now the last common pushback I hear about having a mental health Sunday is that churches don't have the resources to follow up and by talking about it from the stage you're opening this can of worms that you will not be prepared to deal with and I agree that talking about mental health on a Sunday morning, you want to it's ideal to have a strategy or a plan rather than just kind of throwing it all together just to fill in a week.
However, let's lower the expectations of it. You don't need a robust mental health ministry or counselors on the ready in order to talk about mental health, a very simple follow-up plan and next steps is all you need. And bonus, you are given these free In the mental health Sunday toolkit, so there you have it.
If this is your first time addressing mental health from the stage, you're likely going to get some really false positive feedback from people, you're not likely to get a deluge of needs or a lineup of people needing counseling the following week.
I think having a simple follow-up plan and clear next steps is all that is needed. While talking about mental health, maybe outside your comfort zone. It offers hope and can transform the culture of your church.
Stigma is broken. People feel that they belong and are validated, you create a safe place for people to seek support and you offer hope in a situation, that first many it has been dark and hidden. And well, stigma around mental health is slowly decreasing. Thank you, Jesus for that, I still find that it is very present in many of our churches.
But there is nothing like the local church and in our communities and the services that are available for people. There are organizations that can provide counseling and services and support. But there is nothing like the community that is created in the local church and it is in this community of support, that people's lives are changed. When people feel like they belong. They have value and purpose and are given hope, man, their lives are transformed.
Your local church is positioned in the neighborhoods of your community. So it has the greatest opportunity to impact people. And real people deal with mental health struggles me you, our neighbors, our friends. So as a church, this is an area that we can offer hope and support him. If you're wanting to talk about mental health on a Sunday morning, but don't know where to start, I want to give you three tips to get you started and I don't think it will be any surprise that tip number one is to download Mental Health Sunday, go to mentalhealthsunday.com where you can download the entire toolkit.
Now I have said this price to be what you call pay what you want, meaning that if you want this for free, then you can set the price at $0. But if you see how this is valuable, and you want to contribute to the cost of producing it, then feel free to set the price at what you want. I don't want cost to be a barrier to you getting all the tools and resources to create a Sunday morning service that speaks about mental health.
And the toolkit is split into three different sections and last week's episode, Episode 84, you'll go through them all, but the three sections are digital resources, service resources, and midweek resources.
All the heavy lifting is done for you to promote, prepare, present and engage with people on mental health. So tip number one, download the Mental Health Sunday toolkit you will be so glad that you did.
Now the next one or the second tip I do recommend is that you plan a follow up like I mentioned earlier, it's important to have a follow up plan when talking about this impactful topic, but it doesn't have to be fancy just needs to be intentional. In the toolkit, I offer three things for follow up strategies. One, a five day devotional to a small group curriculum partner with Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries for that, and three monthly ideas for your church to keep the conversation going. My Church has also offered live prayer for people after church service as an immediate response to needs and prepared a list of counselors in the local area that we could refer to if people share more in depth needs or need further support.
Follow up doesn't need to be intensive, but I think it's responsible to have some, you know, think ahead and offer some options for those who identify they would like further support. Now I do want to highlight this small group curriculum is called the sanctuary course this you can Google it and you can get it on your own outside of the toolkit. I just link it in the toolkit because it is phenomenal.
It's called The Sanctuary Course and it is a free eight-part course for small groups designed to raise awareness and start the conversation in local churches regarding mental health. I personally have run this group before. It is phenomenal. It is amazing. I highly recommend it. So that's definitely one free thing that you can do as a follow up is host a sanctuary course.
And just so you know it doesn't take a lot of training. It is everything you need. It's kind of like a turnkey small group. So it is really really great.
Now the third tip to talk about mental health on a Sunday morning is to make it Invitational. Everyone can relate to mental health struggles we all grieve, experience stress overwhelmed, sadness, anxiety, these this is common ground that I think everyone can relate to. So why not invite your community to Join in the conversation. Historically people have not been treated well if they're struggling with mental health, maybe they were bullied or discriminated from their had received discrimination from their friends and family or perhaps their job did support them. Or maybe even the church have blamed them for their struggles.
By speaking about mental health in a compassionate way, pastors are creating safe spaces for people to seek support. We forget that mental health is a part of health, it's part of our overall well being. And we all struggle at times. And by bringing the message from from the stage about mental health you are saying that our church won't judge you our church will punish or blame them for struggling but support and walk alongside of them.
Instead of isolating and shame-based messages, they discover that they are not alone, that God is with them and the church is for them. Actually, you are not alone is the theme of this year's mental health Sunday, and it speaks directly to the core of what people are facing. In the Mental Health Sunday toolkit I've included the design files for door hanger invitations.
This will allow you to customize them for your church and make mental health Sunday Invitational mental health is a common experience for us all. The church needs to address this, but I realized this can be really hard. We don't know what to say we don't want to say the wrong thing. We can feel unqualified and unprepared.
But I encourage you to use these three tips to help you host a mental health Sunday one get access to the mental health Sunday toolkit from mental health sunday.com To plan your follow up and three make it Invitational people are desperate for hope and a safe community to belong to. By talking about mental health you are telling people that your church is safe to find hope and healing. Well, thank you so much. I hope you enjoy The Mental Health Sunday toolkit.
You are not going to regret grabbing that and I look forward to connecting with you soon. Take care God bless
