Challenges faced by Pastors in dealing with Mental Illness in their Congregation
Often the church is a place where many will turn to for help when dealing with life crisis. Here are some challenges pastors and church leaders may be faced with when dealing with mentally ill. The fact is no one needs to be an expert to care.
When Chuck and I joined a new branch of the church Chuck was already attending, the pastor was just starting out in ministry. He is still our pastor now and very anointed minister of God. However, he was very instrumental in helping getting Chuck on his feet without the so called years of experience of a seasoned minister!
So below are the challenges a pastor could potentially have to face:
##1 When the mind is broken how do we get to the spirit?
The mind is the doorway to the spirit. How does the person accept Christ? If they are not in touch with themselves can they make a commitment? Jesus showed us it is still possible even in the terrible case of psychosis we saw, however we will leave this discussion for another day.
##2 Lack of understanding or compassion from church members
Members may not always be very compassionate when it comes to mental illness. They may have their own pre-conceived ideas, may be prejudiced or have their own stigmas towards people challenged with mental illness.
##3 The unpredictability of the disease
Sometimes it may seem the one that pastor is helping with mental illness is recovering well or making strides…and them wham! They seem to be even worse than before. This could affect the pastor’s own confidence or he/she may feel inadequate about his knowledge of the disease.
##4 Lack of understanding or compassion from the pastor him/herself
If your mind is fixed that mental illness is a direct result of sin, or due to lifestyle or whatever ‘fault’, it would affect how much help you can render to the one challenged with mental illness. By extension, be honest with yourself, would you think the same way of someone who is challenged diabetes or lung disease? Would you blame sin or lifestyle? The fact is, whether sin or not, the role as pastors is to lead ANY person to repentance and forgiveness and help them live the abundant life whether they are challenged with psychosis or a lung disease!
##5 Assuming it does not affect your congregation
The Bible does admonish that we perish ie suffer for lack of knowledge. With 1 in 4 people challenged with mental illness, if you have at least 30 or so people in your congregation, you can be sure that there is someone among them that is either challenged or has a family member who is.
Because Chuck and I are open about our past experience, I can tell you there have been several, and I mean several people, who have come up to me after a speech, presentation or testimony to confide that either a child, sibling or themselves are challenged with mental illess. We must therefore out of necessity, get knowledge about mental illness because sooner rather than later, if there is not one person challenged with mental illness, one is going to come through the church door.
And you have to keep the door open!
To resolve an issue, rather than complain or bemoan about it, we can help with the solution. Please share this post with your pastor, leader, or someone who will be blessed! Thank you.
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