Video Transcript: The Church's Response

Welcome back to mental health integration. This is week 11, part one, the  church's response. I am glad to be back with you. In the last section, we talked a lot about what you can do as a caregiver to take care of somebody, and in the  previous sections, all the way up until this point, we've been talking about what  you can do as an individual. Because most of this has been about who is this  person? What are they going through? How do I deal with that? How do I get  better? How do I do self care now? How do I take care of the people I love? And now we're starting to ask the question, what can the church do as a whole? And  what the church can do as a whole is largely going to be formed by all of those  questions. But then there's some extra steps we have to take, because now  we're applying this to a body of believers. So what do you do to support  someone you love. And what can the church do now, before we talk too much  about all of these steps and all of these things that you can develop, know that  there are stages that you're going to have to walk through and stages that you're going to have to open up in order to really effectively work with mental health  issues and your church. Now, I'm not saying you are going to be some sort of  hospital for the Mentally, you know, handicapped. That's not going to happen.  But as we talked about in week two, mental health affects. You know, mental  illness affects about one in five people in any given year and affects more than  50% of people during their lifetime. If you think your church is immune to mental  health issues and they're not at your church, it most likely means that people are hiding because they're scared of what comes what happens if their mental  illness comes out, it most likely means there's stigma around mental health,  whether that's coming from the leadership, or whether that's coming from the  culture in the church at large, or whether that's coming from the individuals with  mental health issues actually just forcing that on themselves in the average  congregation, if the average congregation is 75 people, you can expect there's  at least some mental health issues going on. I remember doing a workshop for a church. It was a very small church. They were on the verge of closing, and in  this church, they said there might be one or two people who have mental health  issues. We did a mental health Sunday and then a mental health workshop.  Those one or two people turned out to be three quarters of the church who were silent about their mental health issues because they didn't want to be  stigmatized. It was the vast majority, like these one or two people turned out to  be almost the whole church. So when you're walking through this, just know  there these people are already in your pews. If you are going to deal with mental illness effectively, this does not mean that you are going to turn your church into  the hospital for everyone in your area who needs a mental health support  system. It means that the people already in your care need support, and they're  going to get it from you finally. So that said, What can your church do, beginning  with the people in your own congregation who are already there? You don't need to go anywhere to find these people. What can your church do to support mental

health? Well, it starts with developing a theology of mental health. And the  reason you have to do this is because before you get to building programs or  doing mental health funding or anything like that, you need to be able to make  sure that you, the leadership of the church, is in Unity about what mental health  issues are and how they function. You need to be in unity about what God says  about mental health issues. And you need to be in unity in what kind of a place  this is going to be, that culture, establishment and those discussions, those will  dictate how we're going to, you know, work with the rest of this stuff.  Everything's going to roll downhill from this point, but we need to have the  discussion about what kind of a community this is going to be. What does God  believe among mental health issues? What do we need to believe about mental  health issues? How does this fit together? And if we start with that, we will be in  great shape to build a beautiful mental health space, because we've already  done the hard work, and yes, in many cases, this is the hard work to make that  happen so that support can happen. And support is hard work too, but if we're  doing support and trying to fight all these battles simultaneously, it's just too  much. So with this, we're going to ask some interesting questions like, Is mental  illness because a person is a sinner? Are they a sinner? Yes, they sin. But do I  have bipolar disorder because I am a sinner? No, it's because I have a  biological disposition in my genetics towards bipolar disorder, and it informs my  neurochemistry. My neurochemistry does not work, right, and that causes  bipolar disorder. So is this because I'm a sinner? No, does my sin contribute to  me having bipolar disorder? Well, if I'm doing things that don't help me, that are  sinful. That probably contributes to it not getting better. I mean, if I'm dealing with addiction and things like that, that's not going to help, that's going to hurt a lot. I  really need to deal with that if I'm dealing with other issues that sin. Could that  make it worse too? Yeah, but that doesn't change my biochemistry. It's that you  compound bad things with bad things and extra bad things that happen. So let's  just be realistic about this. These are not issues that are like taboo or anything  like that. These are just issues that if you want to get better, you have to walk  through them. We have to deal with our stuff. If we want our stuff to get better,  okay, it doesn't get better on its own. What if the person has unconfessed sin? Is that why they have mental illness? In my experience, probably not. Could it  happen, sure. But is that normally the cause of a mental health issue, especially  one like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia or severe anxiety, these big ones that  have like neurochemistry basis, if someone in your church has autism, is that  because they have unconfessed sin, probably not does unconfessed sin  contribute? Maybe, listen, having unconfessed sin and having things that you  are not bringing to the surface creates a feeling of anxiety because you don't  want to be found out. It creates feelings of tension in you, it creates feelings  where you're not feeling like yourself because you're not integrating. We talked  about in Genesis 1-2, the man and the woman are both naked and unashamed. 

There is complete vulnerability between the two of them. That's the model that  we're designed to live in. If you have unconfessed sin, we have already put on  the fake leaves. We are already running away. Is that the way we're meant to  live? No so is that going to contribute to our mental health issue? Probably it's  not going to make it better, hiding and running away instead of being our  authentic self. Absolutely, that's not going to help. But is it the cause of  something like autism or bipolar disorder or any of these other diseases? No, It's just a contributing factor in not helping. What if they do not believe? Well, we  talked about this a lot. They don't believe, and we heap Shame on them. That  doesn't help them at all if they don't believe, and we need to talk to them about  belief, then we need to do so in a loving way. Our job is to draw them closer to  God through love, not to judge them. We don't need to shame somebody who's  already struggling, or is it because of the sins of the family? Listen, generational  sin is like a real thing in some ways, right? Trauma goes down. Families,  agreement about what your power is and how you affect that power, it runs  down families. Mental health issues, a lot of them are genetic. But does that  mean it's because of the sins of our ancestors? No, my ancestors had some  really, really messed up genetics. To my knowledge, there's nothing that they do  to cause those genetics that is just a part of being me. That is the genetics I  inherited. My son and my daughter, they've got the same genetics that I do, at  least 50% so we'll see what happens is that because of my sin, that they might  have mental illness. No, that's not it, but it is because of genetics. So it is  important to say those traumas and those issues, those do need to be dealt  with. Things like personality disorders used to be access to disorders how they  were qualified a number of DSM ago, and access to disorders like that. They  were caused in large part, the theory was by trauma or neglect. So is that  because of a family history thing? Maybe, probably. But does telling them they  need to repent for their family trauma help? No. So I want to add a piece to this  paradigm, which is, is it helpful? Because we can really easily blame somebody  for something and make it really unhelpful, and that doesn't help anybody. It is,  by definition, not helpful. Is it because of the sin of Adam. Well, all mental health  issues entered the world when sin cracked in Genesis 3. So yeah, in some ways it is, but we're not going to go change his mind about eating fruit and bringing  chaos and destruction into the world, so that doesn't really help us. Yeah, sin  entered the world, but we can't take it back. Is it because of their failure? Maybe  if you fail at something big, and you fall into a depression because of it, because your body is no longer creating serotonin as a reward for actually succeeding in  life and doing good things. Yeah, that's kind of because of a failure. But is the  best way to fix that to say, hey, you need to repent for your failure. No, no. In  some cases it means you need to build self care practices in place that help you succeed at something. You need some wins, just like we talked about in the  habit section, those little wins begin to build on each other and begin to build 

momentum, right? So, yeah, we need, if it's their failure, great, they need to win  at something. What if it's because of their biology, then we need some  medications, probably to fix it. That's fine. We've talked about this a lot in this  course, some people need pills to get better. I'm among those people that's just  fine. Get the help you need. That's great. What if it's because of their trauma?  Then they probably need to work through this with a therapist, right? But  blaming the person who caused the trauma actually does not help. It tries to  create a scapegoat. You do need to tell the truth about the person who caused  the trauma. There's no way around that. You absolutely cannot heal. Help a  person heal, if you will not validate their trauma, there's been evidence,  especially with women who are raped, that if, when they talk about their raped  the first person, if that first person believes them, the trauma coming out of that  is significantly lessened compared to then if someone does not believe them or  dismisses them, so if it is because of trauma, believe them, take it seriously. But  it doesn't just mean like blaming that person for everything. It means  acknowledging the trauma, acknowledging exactly what happened means telling the truth about what happened, and then it means getting some serious therapy, because those problems, they actually in some ways, like injure our brain, and  we need to work through that no way around it. Is mental illness a spiritual  issue? Are there elements of spirituality? Yes, you have 10 weeks under your  belt of me talking about the spiritual issues in this you know what the spiritual  issues are in large part. So are there spiritual elements? Yeah. Do you need to  deal with those? Yeah. Are they a great opportunity? Yeah. Is mental health  issue demonic, this is one of those places where you need to be super, super,  super careful. And the reason I say this is because I have heard of more people  with a genuine mental illness say their church blamed it on something demonic  than you ever want to know. I have also heard cases where they were actually  demonic things going on. So could it be there's a chance? Yes, do you need to  be sure that it is before you blame the person who's going through it on that?  Yes, okay, in my. Experience, Satan is much more likely to use a mental illness  to his advantage than he is to create it from scratch. We used to talk about it as  like a boxer, you get in the ring and they're going at it and someone gets a cut  above their eye. Well, a good boxer will focus on that because it is a weakness,  and Satan is one of the most crafty beings in the history of everything. If we  think that he's not going to somehow focus on our weaknesses and take  advantage of every ounce of weakness we have, we are fooling ourselves. So  yeah, is there something demonic with mental health issues, often it is Satan  pressing his advantage. But that doesn't mean that he has created the  advantage. In most cases that I've seen with mental health issues, it is him  pressing an advantage, not creating an advantage. He is taking a biological  weakness or a disposition towards something and then just pushing it as far as  he can. Is this an agreement or stronghold? Once again, we're in spiritual 

discussions here. And do these things exist? Yeah. Do we need to deal with  them? Yeah, do we need to blame mental illness on them? No, we can do some  serious damage if we assign blame to something that doesn't actually have that  blame. If this is a mental illness that's genetic and we assign it a spiritual value,  then a person doesn't get better, we are spiritually abusing them. We've talked  about this a little bit. If you want to drive someone away from church as fast as  you possibly can and make sure that no one they ever know goes to church too, make sure that you tell them that their problems are demonic and spiritual when  they're biological, and then push them to try and get better. And when they don't  get better, they'll get frustrated and leave. That's just, that's just the nature of it  being completely blunt. If you want people to experience health and healing,  approach them with love and listen, you can get to the bottom of it, then get  other people involved. But listen, do not just shoot off into the direction that you  think it could be before you've really figured it out. And in most cases, in most  cases, you won't be able to figure out by yourself. You're going to need some  extra help. So get that extra help. Is this solely a mental health issue? You don’t  know, this is in this weird gray space. Everything is together in this weird gray  space in the middle. It's not like mental health issue over here, normal life over  here, instead, it is big gray space, or all that stuff tangled together. And in that  big gray space you have mental health issues, you have physical health issues,  you have self worth issues, you have all of it, and it all plays in the same gray  space. So is this solely a mental health issue? Usually no. But do mental health  issues contribute? Yes, and sometimes they contribute. By far the vast amount  of what's going on a mental health issue could be 99% of what's going on. That  is okay, but you need to talk and work through that and figure that stuff out, and  know that a person's disposition, how they act, what they believe, how they  interact with the world, and their mental illness, what you see is always going to  be where these two meet. It is never going to be just one or the other. And so  trying to untangle them, in some ways, is a waste of time, but being able to  name them and see what's going on that is really helpful. Being able to name I  am feeling this thing right now, right in my own case, my own trauma, we've  talked about this a little bit. We've talked about my first trauma being Brandon,  I'm so disappointed in you well, being able to unravel that from bipolar disorder,  where they were enmeshed, and where I was constantly ruminating on not  being enough when they're enmeshed, and we can just name, okay, here is this  not Brandon, I'm so disappointed in you, and here's bipolar disorder, and they're  both in this together. And we don't need to know whether this action, is this part  or this part? It's probably both. So normally, is this just one thing? No, this is, this is a multitude of things. Does the church have anything to say? Yes, please. In  psychology, we talk about the bio, psycho, social, spiritual modern model. This is your biology plus your psychology, plus your sociology plus your spirituality. And  these four elements make up a person, okay, your biology. This is the realm of a

psychiatrist. They are trying to help you get your neural connections to fire right.  Your psychology is often with a therapist. This is where we're starting to work  through our traumas, work through what's happening in our lives. But this is also where our friends are and they meet us. Because all this work isn't going to  happen at therapist office. Some of it's going to happen some going to happen  outside. Then your social circle. Who are the people that are surrounding you  that give you social support, that make your life go? Where do you play? Where  do you work? Where you act? Where do you do stuff? The church is in this  conversation. The church is a big part of this conversation. And then the spiritual part the church is this conversation for a lot of people. So here are four parts.  Bio, this is the psychiatrist, but sometimes we need to help people know that this is that that's what's going on. The psycho, the psychology, right? This is a realm  where the church has a little bit to say, because you're going to be working back  and forth around issues of faith in this place, right? We talked about all those  questions of identity. Those are faith questions. They're in this box. Sometimes  social problems. That's in this box too. And finally, your spiritual problems. Does  the church have something to say? Yes, it has so much to say. It's not even  funny, and people desperately need to hear it, and that's why this, course,  exists. So please, please do the work so that you have the things to say,  because people desperately need to hear them. They desperately need to be  cared. They desperately need to know that you care. Does spirituality play any  part? Yeah, it plays a huge part. And as a church, we are the organization who is in that spot of Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches, and our job is to listen and be connected to Jesus so that we can then produce fruit. That fruit, in some  ways, is safety for people. It's love, it's community, it's grace, it isn't goodness  made manifest, and people desperately need that. So does spirituality play any  part in this? It plays a huge part, a huge part. So let's not forget the part we have to play. Is spirituality helpful or hurtful? Well, that depends on what we're saying, is spiritual, isn't it? I am not going to say that certain like certain spiritual  disciplines, are good or bad. I will say, if you believe God hates you, you're not  going to like your spirituality is not going to do you any favors through this  process. And if you believe God loves you, your spirituality will do you favors  through this process. It's one of the reasons we focused so hard on helping you  understand your value as a person starts in Genesis 1-2, not in Genesis 3. The  Genesis 3 is about breaking something good. It's not about being made as  something bad. If your spirituality can come to the plate and give you the hope  that you need to move forward, it can be one of the most helpful things in the  world, because that's what you're counting on. What you need to know is that  what you believe creates space for the rest of this conversation. As I said, the  rest of what's going on in your church around mental health flows straight  downhill from this one topic. If you need to take the time as a leadership team to go through and develop out your theology of mental health, I think that is a 

beautiful idea. If you need to take some time and work through your own  thoughts, that's great. If you want to just steal a bunch of my thoughts, that's  fine, but go double check them. Go make sure that when you look at your Bible  and when you look at what healing. And all of this looks like that. It jives. If you  need help building out this conversation, there are experts out there. There are  therapists in your area who have been wrestling with this stuff for years, who just want a church to finally take it seriously, because they take it so seriously in  almost every community we work with, there's a therapist who is dying to be  heard because their church has largely ignored them and they don't want to be  ignored. In many spaces that we work with, there are therapists who just want to contribute to the theology of the church because instead, they're treated like an  off ramp. Get off and see this person, and then they'll help you get better,  instead of as vital to the life of the church. Actually, this is what Jesus has to say  in the midst of this, if you develop out your theology, you can help people in  profound and beautiful ways, just the theology that we've developed in this  course, I hope, helps you embrace people, helps you experience people as  valuable, helps you experience yourself as valuable, helps you understand how  to connect with God differently. That theology matters, because that helps us  connect with the life of Jesus. If you can do that same thing in your church  without even building anything, without doing the hard work of starting programs or doing anything like that, just acknowledging these things, you can create  space that is so safe for people that so many people are waiting for and relying  on. 999 I will see you then.