Video Transcript: Introduction

Hi. I'm Brandon Appelhans, welcome to Mental Health Integration. We are going to be spending a bunch of time looking at mental health the Bible, how they  work together, how we've seen mental health and the Bible, and what that  means for us, personally and our churches. I am really excited for you to go  through this course. We are going to be doing some serious work. There's no  way to talk about mental health and not do some serious work. And so instead  of just a normal class experience, you're going to get to dive in to what this  means for you personally and how you're going to interact with your own self a  little bit. I'm really excited for you to engage in that process, and because of that, we're going to have a little bit different expectation than you might in some  courses. Now, to start out with mental health in the Bible, we have to think  galactically about this whole thing. Because when we think about God,  sometimes we think about the universe and what's going on with the entire  universe at the time. And we think, Oh, man, I am just so small. I might be this  little star over here, or maybe that one over there. But when we think about  mental health, we also have to think about how God cares about us as  individuals, and about how incredibly precious we are. And because of that,  we're going to see things just a little bit differently in this course that it's not  about how big God is all the time, but sometimes how small he is in that he  meets us right in our very lives all the time. Not that he's small, but he meets us  in the middle of all of our stuff at every point in time. Now there's a funny thing  about mental health, and that funny thing is that often we don't see what's  actually going on. With most diseases. You can take an x ray or cut somebody  open, or look at something to say, Oh, this is the problem. I see there's a cut.  We must need stitches. I see that there's this fracture in your X ray. You must  have a broken bone. But with mental health issues, nothing is simple. There are  problems everywhere, and all we get to see are the symptoms of those issues.  It's like trying to diagnose flus versus covid versus all of these other problems,  but not having a test, because all we have to look at are the symptoms. In some  cases, it's like looking at a shadow and trying to decide what the person behind  that shadow looks like. It's really difficult, especially when all we see is the  outline. All we see is a piece of the puzzle, and we don't actually see what's  going on underneath, because of that, mental health issues are often confusing.  They're often couched in a little bit of doubt, while we think this is what's going  on, but we're not sure, and because that, they can become extra complicated.  So how are you as a church leader, supposed to deal with these issues that  seem clouded at best, sometimes that are diagnosable, that are real issues, but  that we don't know how to deal with. And do that from a theological perspective,  these are really big, hard problems suddenly, and that's what we're going to be  tackling in this course. Now the outline for this course is really going to be fun.  We are going to start with the biblical case for mental health, in that we're going  to start with Genesis 1, and we are going to look at what it is to be created, to be

human, what it is that God did in the very beginning, and what it is that we're  made for. Then we're going to start stepping through into Genesis 2 and see  how it is that we were put together. And in Genesis 3, how it all went sideways.  Then we're going to take a step back and we are going to look at the biological  case for mental health. Now, when we talk about the biological case for mental  health, these are big issues, and they get diagnosed, and we have to look at  why they get diagnosed, what those diagnoses are, what they look like, how  people function with those diagnoses, how common they are. You need to know  what you're stepping into when you start talking about mental health, because if  you have a congregation of 100 people, and you expect one person out to have  a mental health issue, but actually 25 do. That changes the way that you  approach your mental health conditions, how you approach your congregation,  how important this is, and how much you need to integrate it. And if we. Have a  great understanding of what we're stepping into, we can do a better job  mobilizing, mobilizing ourselves and our churches to be ready to meet the need, and that's really what we're going to look at. Now, after we look at that, we're  going to start looking at case studies for mental health in the Bible. Specifically,  there are a number of biblical characters who go think through things like  depression. And we need to look at their lives, how they get through, what helps, what doesn't, where God meets them, what he does. And really understand, is  this cohesive with the Bible? Is this really what's going on now, a number of  scholars have taken jabs to try and say, Okay, well, I think that this character in  the Bible is actually suffering from this condition. We're not going to do that. And  the reason we're not going to do that too much is it doesn't matter what specific  type of depression or anxiety a character in the Bible might be going through if  it's bipolar or if it's a schizophrenic tendency, or if it's just a straight depression,  we can we can only see the symptoms in the Bible, and so just like that shadow, we're not going to try and sketch out. This is what this girl looks like from her  shadow. Instead, what we're going to acknowledge is, this is the shadow that we see. And now what do we do with that? So instead of making diagnoses, we're  going to ask, what are our action steps? What does this look like? What does  this mean for us? And instead of reading into the Bible, this is how we must see  this perspective. This is how we diagnose it. We're going to see what does this  tell us about who we are and what our lives mean? After we start looking at  those case studies in the Bible, we're going to focus on how to get well. There  are tangible steps that people with mental illness can take if they want to get  better, and some of those are really difficult, and some of those are really  straightforward, but it's not very often that all in one place. You can see these  are the steps that you need to take if you want to get better, and this is how to  walk through those steps in the most humane way possible to make sure that  we care for someone in a loving and Christ like way, even though they're going  through something incredibly difficult. So we'll talk through things like self care, 

through therapists, through psychiatrists, through all of these issues, and then  start also talking through where is God in the midst of all this, and how do we  work with that, and that's what brings us to the opportunity of growth, because  

anytime we go through something incredibly hard like this, there is an  opportunity for us to grow through it. We're going to talk about post traumatic  growth. We're going to talk about integration and how God meets us in these  places, and how our theology can match up and drive our own experience, and  how it informs our experience, and how that cycle, what we call a hermeneutical  spiral, can change how we view ourselves, how we view God, and the further  along we get on that, the more we can be changed into who God made us  originally to be before sin correct the way that we interact with the world and  ourselves after going through the opportunity of growth, we need to talk about  supporting people. There are a lot of people who deal with mental health issues, and if you're stepping into a position where you're helping lead or just leading a  church or congregation, you need to know how to support the people around  you. Also, the rates of depression are incredibly high for pastors, at least in the  United States, so having the knowledge and understanding of what people  might be going through and how you can walk them through that, and how you  can get the support you need. It's a very interesting experience, and I want you  to be able to walk on both sides of this thing really well and know confidently  that you are making a difference in people's lives, and that that difference is  informed by who God is, by how he acts, and by who you are as a child of God.  Finally, we're going to ask at the end of this, what can the church do? Now, the  church exists not just to worship God and to be there the worship exists to make tangible changes in the world that bring the kingdom of God closer, in a tangible  way, to how we see the world. And mental illness are a big issue. So what can  the church do? Does the church need to sit this one out and say, This is a fight  for mental health professionals, or is there a role for the church that only the  church can fill? I would argue that there are few things that only the church can  do, that only you can do, that are vitally important with mental health issues.  Because while we can work with somebody's psychiatry or somebody's therapy,  reintegrating how someone sees their faith is a church job, and that's something  that has to be done, because it's not just someone's mental health and not just  their brain chemistry that falls apart, we can also see how they view themselves, how they view God, how they view their support systems, how they view their  community. We can see it cracks forming along all of these things, and then it's  up to us to ask the question, do we have a role to help this person get put back  together? Do we have a role in helping these people rediscover who they are in  deeper, more profound, more beautiful ways. And I think that's exactly the role  the church has now. We do have some expectations for this class. I know  surprising part of this class is going to be doing some self work, and I need you  to take it seriously, because you can't change somebody else if you don't go 

through that personal change yourself. And this isn't in order to finish this class,  you need to do this work, but in order to make a difference in your community,  you need to do this work. And that's really the point of this class, is we want you  to be able to be change agent in your own community, in your own  congregation, and that takes effort, and my job is to help you and give you the  tools that you need to do to do that work, and it's your job to do it. So engage all  of yourself. Can't just bring a piece of yourself to this because it's not a piece of  you that is going to go and do this work. It's all of you. Second. Take this work  seriously. If you just want to move through this course and get it done so that  you can check it off and say that you went through a mental health integration  course, that's fine, you can do that, but you'll miss all the good stuff. This affects  the people you know. This affects a lot of people that you know, and you being  able to engage this work well will dramatically change how you interact, how you work with people, and how people experience God's love, I hope, in really  profoundly beautiful and intense ways. So it's up to you whether or not you are  going to take this work seriously or not. Number three, do the homework. The  homework in this course exists to give you extra not just work, that would be  silly. It's to give you extra knowledge and understanding on these topics, so that  when we jump into lectures, you already understand a little bit of what's going  on. Secondly, the lectures are not going to cover everything that's in the  homework. The reason being that if we assign a few TED talks, if I have you  watching a TED Talk by Brene Brown, who is one of the foremost researchers  on shame, she's going to explain shame better than me, because she's one of  the best in the world with it. So listen to her. We'll talk about shame a little bit,  but I want you to engage her material and engage what she's saying well, and  then we'll go through some other pieces, but we're not going to overlap the  content too much. And finally, the last one, these are serious topics, but there  are also topics that you have to laugh at a little bit. Don't take yourself too  seriously. Through this process, we're going to have some fun. We're going to  enjoy our time together as much as we can. This is not going to be, you know,  staring down the rabbit hole and going, Oh, this is going to be terrible. What a  dark and arduous trek this is going to be through mental health. We're going to  have a lot of fun, and I hope you can laugh early and often through the process.  Now, the basis of this class we already talked about a little bit. There is a  theological basis. Where is this in the middle of God's story? Where are we in  the middle of God's story? How does this all function. There's a physical basis.  How does this apply to mental health issues right now? And there's an  integrative piece. How did those two pieces come together? We're going to be  looking at all three of these, and everything in this course is going to be.  Through all three parts of this. Now, there's some basic assumptions in this  class too, and if we just get these out of the way, then we know that we're on the same space and on the same level. Assumption number one, all people matter. 

There's not a person on this planet who is better or worse than any other  person. All people are made in the image of God. God likes them all. So we're  going to treat this course like every person matters, because they do. Second,  these are not small problems. We'll go through the rates of mental health in  section two. But these are not issues that affect one or two people. These are  issues that affect 1000s, millions of people, and they do so in profound ways.  These are not small problems. Third, God cares for the whole person. He  doesn't just care for every person. He cares for every part of every person. He  cares for your mental health. He cares for your physical health. He cares how  you're processing what's going on in your life. He's he cares about how you see  him and how you see yourself. He cares about your relationships. He cares  about how your brain is acting. He cares about whether you can trust yourself.  He cares about all of you. And if we go into this with the assumption that God  cares for everything, we're going to do well together. Now when we see a picture like this, sometimes we have to stop and ask, how did this person get here?  What's going on? Many people when they're working with mental health,  assume that this is what mental health looks like. It looks like a homeless person sleeping on the sidewalk with their dog, hopeless, alone, broken. But this has no bearing to their normal life, because mental health issues are somewhere out  there. I'm here to tell you that that is true in some ways, mental health is out  there, but it's also in here. It's in your congregations. Sometimes it's in your  family. It's definitely in my family. Sometimes it's near friend group. But it's not  just something that stays out there because it's too big, there's too much of it,  and it can look like anything. Mental health issues don't look white or black or  Latino or Asian. They look like everybody. They don't look male or female. They  look like both. And so when we think of mental health issues, instead of just  thinking of them with one skin tone or in one geographic location, we have to  ask the question, How is it people different than me are struggling with this?  How is it people the same as me are struggling with this? How is it that  everything hinges just on what your brain is doing what your childhood was like,  how trauma works, and those questions have no bearing on skin color or sex or  anything anybody's brain can be broken, that includes the homeless person, that includes a woman who looks absolutely nothing like me, that can look like  anyone. That said, I hope you enjoy these, this three credit course, I hope you  get a lot out of it, and that you grow tremendously through it. And it's an honor to be able to walk you through what this course looks like. I look forward to joining  you in section two of week one.