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Sessions related to mental health are not a common feature of many conferences on worship. Yet mental-health-related concerns affect as many as one in five people at any given time, with one of every twenty-five people living with serious mental health challenges. More than four in ten people in the United States experiences a psychological disorder in their lifetime. What we say or fail to say about these challenges in worship settings can be profoundly formative for how Christian communities respond to these challenges
We hear a lot about using person-first language. Yet it is still common to label people with their mental health diagnosis. Christians and churches can offer another way to describe our common human identity.
It is far more common to hear about physical ailments than mental ones in congregational prayers and worship. Psychiatrist Warren Kinghorn explains why mental health issues and people with mental illness should be acknowledged in Christian worship.
What we say or fail to say about mental health concerns in worship settings can be profoundly formative for how Christian communities respond to these challenges.
It is important for financially stable churches and Christians to build relationships with those in poverty. But the reason may be different than what you might assume.
People treated as the last and the least often feel unwelcome inside churches. That is why some church plants create a worshiping community outdoors. Many of their discoveries also apply to indoor churches.
Those who experience homelessness, poverty, physical or mental illness, or addiction understand things that more privileged people may never know. Raising up peer chaplains from within this group can lead to renewal in both outdoor and building-based Christian communities.
Jesus’s example of laying down his life for others inspired Martin Luther King Jr. and the U.S. civil rights movement. This theology of how to engage undeserved suffering can help congregations deal with pain.
What churches profess and what they do sometimes clash. Sharing stories, sitting with those who suffer, praying, and listening in silence for God can help churches harmonize theology and sociology.
Providing charitable support and development assistance to people in need can and does work, but, like any important activity, we must learn how to do it well.
Cornelius Plantinga Jr. gives an opening plenary lecture at the 2017 Taking Your Church to College.
Is it possible to work in international development without hurting those we are helping?
