Episode 58
Starting a Mental Health Movement: Advocating for Mental Health Ministry in Your Church with Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund, Author of "Blessed Youth" (Part 2)
Bishop Julius C. Trimble is the Resident Bishop of the Indiana Area of the United Methodist Church.
Bishop Trimble has the personal mission to encourage all people with the love of Jesus Christ to rise to their highest potential. It is his commitment to his personal mission that led Bishop Trimble to create the “To Be Encouraged” Podcast along with co-host Rev.Dr. Brad Miller.
Bishop Trimble says, “I am compelled by Jesus to share with you an encouraging word or two about Jesus, theology, the Bible, the pandemic, the environment, racism, voting rights, human sexuality, and the state of the United Methodist Church.”
To Be Encouraged with Bishop Julius C. Trimble is to be published weekly and is available at www.tobeencouraged.com and all the podcast directories.
https://www.inumc.org/bishop/office-of-the-bishop/
In episode 058 of To Be Encouraged with Bishop Julius C. Trimble, the guest is Reverend Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund, (https://sarahgriffithlund.com/) an ordained minister in Disciples of Christ and United Church of Christ. Lund is an author of several books on mental health, including “Blessed Youth: Breaking the Silence About Mental Illness with Children and Teens.”
Episode 058 of To Be Encouraged focuses on breaking the stigma of mental health in faith communities, especially in churches. Our guest Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund shares personal stories and other important information on mental health advocacy within faith communities to create awareness and support for those who may be struggling with various mental health issues.
Among the topics discussed are the importance of preaching about mental health to encourage people to seek help and the significance of Mental Health Month in May. Dr. Griffith Lund also highlights the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) as a source for trained volunteers who can share their stories and other helpful information.
Churches can offer educational programs and support groups for those dealing with mental health challenges and caregivers. There is also the "WISE" program, which is a ten-step process for churches to become more welcoming and supportive to people with mental health challenges.
Among the most important issues discussed is breaking the stigma of mental illness and acknowledging that people with mental illnesses are blessed and not forsaken. Mental health ministry can be an outreach opportunity to show the love of Jesus to the community and to create a truly welcoming and supportive environment.
Parents also need to closely monitor their children's online activities to ensure their safety. The Internet can provide such connections, but it can also be harmful. Churches can unintentionally be places where judgment towards children's behavior can occur. Therefore, some churches have created spaces and programs that are welcoming to children who may have ADHD, autism, or sensory issues. Additionally, mental health ministry could be created within faith communities to further address these issues and create welcoming environments for everyone.
To combat the suicide epidemic and gun violence associated with mental health issues, partnerships with other organizations such as schools, social service agencies, and healthcare facilities are necessary.
Faith communities can provide spiritual support groups for mental health, with guidelines available from the United Church of Christ.
The emphasis is that all people are loved, and mental health issues can begin to manifest even in infancy. Eliminating barriers for people with mental health issues is essential for creating welcoming environments in faith communities. Churches need to be proactive about the mental health of their members and the community they serve. By taking action, mental health ministry can be an outreach opportunity to show the love of Jesus to the community.
Episode 058 with Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund is Part two of a two Part Episode featuring a discussion about Dr. Lund's book "Blessed Youth." Part 1 is Episode 057 about "Breaking the Stigma: Encouraging Mental Health Ministry in Faith Communities and is be available at https://tobeencouraged.com/episode/057
Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund can be contacted about her books and speaking opportunities at:
https://sarahgriffithlund.com/
Her Ministry is Blessed Mind
Transcript
You. So you provide
Speaker:a gift for me as I was reading Blessed Youth,
Speaker:and I really would like you to expand on it a
Speaker:little bit, Sarah,
Speaker:because this is kind of a theological word
Speaker:as well. Blessed. I think about the Sermon
Speaker:on the Mount and different translations of the word, but the word blessed,
Speaker:you, you breathe for me, you breathe new life into that word on
Speaker:what it means to be holy as well as whole.
Speaker:Whole and holy.
Speaker:H-O-L-Y So can you say
Speaker:more about what blessed? I said this a few days
Speaker:ago in a sermon, that our sacred worth is not subject
Speaker:to debate. So God has already blessed us
Speaker:to be loved, but there's so many other
Speaker:voices that come in. So what does the word bless it?
Speaker:How do you breathe that life into
Speaker:that as being holy and whole? Thank you so
Speaker:much. Mental health is what
Speaker:impacts our emotions, our feelings, our behaviors,
Speaker:our relationships. Mental health impacts everything.
Speaker:And so when we are having a mental health challenge, it impacts our
Speaker:moods, how we think and feel about ourselves. And so
Speaker:oftentimes, mental illnesses will cause a
Speaker:low self esteem, a feeling of worthlessness,
Speaker:a feeling of hopelessness, despair. The part of our
Speaker:brain that processes mental illness is also the similar
Speaker:part that processes spirituality. And so
Speaker:one of the side effects of it is feeling like God
Speaker:has abandoned us because our brains
Speaker:have sort of blocked that spiritual pathway. And so people
Speaker:can feel utterly abandoned and forsaken
Speaker:by God when they are really in what I call the valleys
Speaker:of the shadow of mental illness. And so
Speaker:in the midst of that, I want to remind myself
Speaker:and other folks that we are blessed.
Speaker:We are not cursed, we are not forsaken. As we
Speaker:hear Jesus say, blessed are the poor in spirit,
Speaker:blessed are those who live with mental illness and
Speaker:their loved ones. This reminds us that we are more than
Speaker:our illness. We are more than our diagnosis. We are more
Speaker:than our label. We are more than what's broken about
Speaker:us. We are made in the image of God,
Speaker:and we are Jesus's beloved disciples,
Speaker:part of God's family. And so I have to remind myself
Speaker:because like a lot of folks in my family,
Speaker:we have generations of mental health challenges. We have bipolar
Speaker:disorder that is genetic. So I can see four
Speaker:generations of people in my family that have bipolar
Speaker:disorder. And so someone might say, wow, is that a family curse?
Speaker:This passed on from generation to generation
Speaker:who here sinned? And so that's just
Speaker:kind of always there for me, because that's so much how we
Speaker:talk in the Christian faith, right?
Speaker:Cursed and sin, it's all throughout the Bible.
Speaker:But really, would God do that? Would God take God's
Speaker:precious, beloved people and curse them with generations of
Speaker:bipolar disorder? Not. My God. That's not
Speaker:a God of love and grace. My God says,
Speaker:you know what? You're human, you're beloved. You have a brain.
Speaker:Sometimes our brains are made differently. And so
Speaker:I like this idea of neurodiversity.
Speaker:We all have diversity in the ways our brains work.
Speaker:And when folks like your mother in law get support and help,
Speaker:these different brains can be beautiful, can create art,
Speaker:new ideas, talents.
Speaker:And a lot of our best thinking and original ideas
Speaker:come from people whose brains are different.
Speaker:And so that's also part of this idea of blessed
Speaker:and to really focus on the beauty and the
Speaker:giftedness that we all have. No matter what mental
Speaker:health diagnosis we have or medications we take.
Speaker:It'S so important to realize that everyone has
Speaker:a story and also the understanding of
Speaker:from birth on, we often think of
Speaker:people at a certain age things being noticed or diagnosed.
Speaker:But in your book, you talk about even early on as infants
Speaker:and mental, some of these things are
Speaker:happening. I think back now on some things as a parent,
Speaker:looking back, I said maybe we were really missing some
Speaker:things that were going on. Or even I think of things,
Speaker:language that I confess before God and all of our podcast
Speaker:listeners that I think back on words that I used or
Speaker:thoughts that I had that really were not healthy. You know why? When we
Speaker:said, well, those are bad kids as opposed to good kids,
Speaker:bad behavior and all of these things that without
Speaker:thinking about it, stigmatize and label,
Speaker:when really our stories are maybe a lot more complex than
Speaker:we extend enough grace to understand.
Speaker:Does that make sense? I know I'm rambling a little bit. But maybe you no,
Speaker:it does make sense. Yeah. And I think our church can be
Speaker:places where that judgment comes out.
Speaker:So I think we all have stories of encounters at church
Speaker:with our kids where it's like, oh, is my
Speaker:kid being bad or is my kid acting in a way that's
Speaker:not wanted here? And so our church has
Speaker:a playground. We have a space for kids to be in the sanctuary
Speaker:where there's no pews or soft pillows and carpeting.
Speaker:And other pastors are starting to create spaces where
Speaker:children can be themselves if they have ADHD
Speaker:or autism, that whatever way they behave, they're not being bad.
Speaker:They're just trying to manage all of their
Speaker:sensory stimulation. And so
Speaker:to not label kids or punish them
Speaker:just because their brains have them acting
Speaker:and thinking a little different, too many families that are staying home,
Speaker:they're not coming to church because they're tired of being
Speaker:judged or having their kids labeled or feeling rejected.
Speaker:And so it's really a convicting moment that
Speaker:there's more we can do, there's more grace and
Speaker:love. We can show people. So to be
Speaker:proactive about that. So what would it look like for your
Speaker:faith community to have a mental health ministry
Speaker:where you create spaces and programming that are
Speaker:welcoming of youth who are neurodivergent,
Speaker:who have autism, who have ADHD,
Speaker:who have social phobias and really don't feel comfortable
Speaker:interacting with other people.
Speaker:That is so fantastic. I hope those who are listening the
Speaker:last church I served before I was elected a bishop had a mental health
Speaker:ministry that only came about because laypeople came
Speaker:to me. I was a pastor and they educated me and
Speaker:they said, Pastor, we are just missing it. There are people in
Speaker:our church who are hurting. They're kind of quietly dealing with things.
Speaker:And then we linked with Nami and another support group
Speaker:and provided space for a support of ministry.
Speaker:We highlighted Mental Health Awareness Month and I
Speaker:made a public commitment to preach several times
Speaker:around this. But it was laypeople who actually came and
Speaker:parents and adults. We had one person
Speaker:who had been traumatized because she had been in a train wreck
Speaker:and that created a whole post
Speaker:traumatic stress illness and she helped lead
Speaker:us creating this ministry. I'm saying this because I know someone
Speaker:may listen to the podcast and wondering, how do
Speaker:you get started? This kind of leads to my next question how
Speaker:do you become mental health advocates in the faith
Speaker:community? How do we think about I've been to several of our churches
Speaker:that do have that play space, and I thought I said, boy, I wish
Speaker:I would have when I was an active pastor at the time,
Speaker:created space for noise in the sanctuary
Speaker:or in the same space so parents wouldn't have a
Speaker:reason to not come to church. We would eliminate
Speaker:those barriers. So what does
Speaker:it mean to become mental health advocates and
Speaker:how does one get started? Maybe there are people
Speaker:hearing this or others who work
Speaker:in this area,
Speaker:in their work life, but they don't bring that to their faith
Speaker:space. Thank you, Bishop, for your
Speaker:leadership and advocacy. Preaching about mental health makes a
Speaker:huge difference to break the silence from the
Speaker:pulpit because like I said at the top of this conversation,
Speaker:the stigma is really the barrier that prevents people from
Speaker:getting help and support. So preach about mental health. May is Mental
Speaker:Health Month. So preach about it. Pray about it out loud in
Speaker:your corporate prayer of the people. And then bring in
Speaker:Nami. The National Alliance on Mental Illness. They have trained volunteers
Speaker:who want to share their story and can share a mission
Speaker:moment in worship. Have an educational program
Speaker:after church. Our church has a Nami support group that meets
Speaker:here. They have family to family support groups,
Speaker:the caregivers of people with mental health challenges. They need
Speaker:support there's peer to peer support groups from Nami.
Speaker:Nami is always looking for good places to meet that are safe and
Speaker:welcoming and inviting mental health. First aid is another
Speaker:great training in the United Church of Christ. I help develop a
Speaker:whole resource called Wise,
Speaker:welcoming, Inclusive, Supportive,
Speaker:Engaged for mental Health wise.
Speaker:And it's a whole ten step process and a church then votes
Speaker:to become a wise church. And part of that is
Speaker:a covenant, a beautiful promise that
Speaker:this church makes to be welcoming, inclusive,
Speaker:supportive and engaged. And a key part of that journey to
Speaker:be wise is education.
Speaker:Learning about what is mental health, learning about
Speaker:what would you do if someone comes into your church in a
Speaker:mental health crisis? How can we love and support them?
Speaker:What does it mean to have a pastor who needs to go on medical leave
Speaker:for their mental health? What does it mean to be an advocate in
Speaker:Indiana as we try to pass Senate Bill One to fully fund
Speaker:mental health crisis support? How can people of faith
Speaker:leverage the teachings of Jesus to love our neighbor and
Speaker:call our Senators so that they will fully fund mental health care?
Speaker:So it really is an exciting ministry opportunity
Speaker:and it's also a wonderful outreach opportunity
Speaker:to show the love of Jesus to our community.
Speaker:And so mental health ministry, if it's something that you all are interested
Speaker:in, I would pray that you would start the conversation
Speaker:and you can read books to help get the conversation going.
Speaker:So Blessed Youth has a free study guide you can
Speaker:find on the Chalice Press website.
Speaker:Speaking of youth, when we talk about peer to
Speaker:peer, is there a way for peers? I can think
Speaker:back down. Our oldest son, many years ago was
Speaker:really trying to be a friend to a friend who was going
Speaker:through a traumatic time and came to me and asked for all
Speaker:I remember saying is try to be the best friend you can be. I wish
Speaker:now looking back, I was maybe better equipped
Speaker:to have to really been sensitive to what he was dealing with because
Speaker:it may have been a life crisis situation.
Speaker:Is there peer to peer training? Because a lot of times the person that
Speaker:someone in high school or junior high might speak to
Speaker:might be a friend before, as Brad was saying, they would
Speaker:necessarily contact their parents.
Speaker:Yes. So there is peer to peer training, mental health First
Speaker:Aid has a youth training and Nami,
Speaker:the national Ants on Mental Illness is working with schools
Speaker:to create these peer support groups. And we have churches
Speaker:who their youth group is a mental health peer support group.
Speaker:They meet after school to do homework together,
Speaker:but they also have check ins and they check in
Speaker:with each other about how their mental health is doing.
Speaker:And so faith communities can have
Speaker:these mental health support groups and like I
Speaker:said at the beginning, the spiritual connection to a living
Speaker:God. We can have spiritual support groups for mental health
Speaker:and the United Church of Christ. We have a whole guideline
Speaker:for how to do that. My church has a spiritual support group and
Speaker:what it is, is a safe space to check in and
Speaker:to pray for each other as part of our holistic care
Speaker:for our mental health. Sarah I'm going to stay United
Speaker:Methodist, but I sure am liking some of what the United Church of
Speaker:Christ is doing. So I hope you're willing to come,
Speaker:maybe do some of that training for some of our folks as well.
Speaker:We can just work across ecumenical relationships
Speaker:and do that. We do have ecumenical partners.
Speaker:So if you look at the United Church of Christ mental Health Network,
Speaker:it has a synagogue that has used this resource and
Speaker:is a wise synagogue. We have Episcopal and
Speaker:Presbyterian churches and now we have nonprofits that have
Speaker:found this wise model. You can adapt it to your culture and
Speaker:context. So it really is just a beautiful model to
Speaker:help journey alongside people.
Speaker:We can't do this on our own in Silos anyway.
Speaker:This is an epidemic, is it not? Sarah we are talking about
Speaker:the epidemic of suicide, for one.
Speaker:I don't even go off in this tangent too much, but gun violence is
Speaker:so often associated with mental health
Speaker:issues. I just noticed in a couple of the recent episodes, they're almost a
Speaker:weekly deal, but there was obvious social
Speaker:media and phone calls reaching out, basically saying,
Speaker:I'm going to do this because I'm ending my life, exceed some
Speaker:people. But my point is, you have to be in partnership with other
Speaker:church, with social service agencies, with our schools,
Speaker:with our medical health facilities and all because
Speaker:it is a crisis that we need to leverage every resource at
Speaker:hand. Am I correct in sharing that?
Speaker:Amen. You read my book, because that's what Book of Youth is all
Speaker:about, partnering families with faith communities, with schools,
Speaker:with mental health professionals. Well, I think my yes,
Speaker:my encouragement is that the church pastors
Speaker:and lay leaders, you can initiate this in your community
Speaker:because there's a historic division between religion
Speaker:and the sciences. And so there's a lot of mistrust.
Speaker:There is this assumption that faith people just want
Speaker:to pray it away, that we just want the Lord
Speaker:to save us. Thoughts and prayers don't always cut it all the way,
Speaker:do they? Right. So they need us to initiate, say, we realize in
Speaker:addition to prayer and Jesus, we need doctors
Speaker:and therapists and social workers. So we want to invite you to partner
Speaker:with us. We're waiting for that. Thoughts and prayers is one part
Speaker:of it, but you got to take action. You got to be physically I love
Speaker:what you said earlier about being physically engaged.
Speaker:Sometimes it means intervention and other things as well and
Speaker:having that going on, and that's awesome. And I'm certainly a
Speaker:believer in that. And it all goes back, if I'm understanding you, Sarah, to some
Speaker:of your personal stories about your own family, your niece and so on.
Speaker:Bishop about your mother in law.
Speaker:I've got stories in my family about borderline personality disorder
Speaker:that could go off in a big tangent about but it's all very
Speaker:personal, but it is relevant to our whole societal health
Speaker:at large. And that's what I think. We can do something in the church
Speaker:as an initiative point, whatever church we're in.
Speaker:And however, the church can have a true impact in society through saying,
Speaker:okay, here we're making a stand. And to
Speaker:show that encouragement through caring for each other,
Speaker:slowing down and asking,
Speaker:how is it with your soul? Oh, yeah.
Speaker:That sounds a little bit of Wesley and doesn't it? Bishop yeah, that's a little
Speaker:Wesley in there. Sarah, I know we're kind of running out
Speaker:of time, but you made reference to a book. Was it awakening
Speaker:around the brain? And what was the name of that book? And author Dr.
Speaker:Lisa Miller at Columbia University wrote the new
Speaker:book The Awakened Brain. The Awakened Brain.
Speaker:Okay. It's about neuroscience and spirituality, cutting edge
Speaker:research, and it's very much affirming of our
Speaker:churches, and our whole purpose is to support
Speaker:people's spirituality. Little did we know that is mental
Speaker:health ministry awesome. Well, friends, I would
Speaker:just say, even though you've heard reference to that first book,
Speaker:you should get is Blessed Youth. So if you get that, this should
Speaker:be a national bestseller. In fact, get the book if
Speaker:you read it. If it doesn't bless you, I'll buy back from you
Speaker:if you can find me in person. There you go.
Speaker:I did have one final question.
Speaker:Comment, Brad, before we bring our time together, and that was
Speaker:in the book. It makes reference and this is very relevant,
Speaker:the role that social media has played. And I've had some discussions
Speaker:in my own family around the blessing of social media
Speaker:and technology and the multiple digital platforms
Speaker:as well as I won't call it the curse, but the downside
Speaker:of that and how sure, we understood
Speaker:experience bullying, but maybe not at this kind
Speaker:of level with social media. Can you say you make reference to
Speaker:this in the book in terms of the role social media has played
Speaker:in exacerbating this
Speaker:pandemic, if you will, epidemic of
Speaker:mental stress?
Speaker:Yes. We need to watch very closely how our
Speaker:children engage online. My niece, who did
Speaker:die by suicide, she found the means to die on the
Speaker:Internet, and there are resources
Speaker:that will alert you to any searches
Speaker:like that. So we always need to know, what are our children reading,
Speaker:listening to? Who are they connecting to? Because the Internet
Speaker:can help us as well. There was research about
Speaker:high school students, and it found that students with an authentic connection
Speaker:were less likely to have suicidal thoughts,
Speaker:depression, anxiety. And it didn't matter if that was an in person
Speaker:or online. What mattered was an authentic,
Speaker:caring connection. So the Internet can give us that,
Speaker:but it also can harm us. And so for
Speaker:us as adults, we've got to monitor very closely
Speaker:what type of activities our kids are
Speaker:doing online. One of the greatest search phrases
Speaker:on Google last year, right at the top two or three, was the
Speaker:phrase, how can I heal, and I think it's informative to
Speaker:us. But in terms of our conversation here and bringing
Speaker:it around, Sarah, one of the things we love to do, the theme
Speaker:of our whole podcast here is to be encouraged. So would you share
Speaker:with us just a thought, an encouraged word, encouraged thought,
Speaker:that you have to kind of help us to
Speaker:wrap up our conversation here today. Well, I love
Speaker:Psalm 23. It's one that a lot of us hear throughout
Speaker:our lives. And the reason I love it is because of this promise
Speaker:that even though I walk through the valley of the shadows,
Speaker:I fear no evil, for you are with me, you comfort
Speaker:me. So no matter what you are going through, be encouraged.
Speaker:For God, who is a living, loving God, is with
Speaker:you through the valley of the shadows and you will reemerge
Speaker:into the light of love, with hope, with God's
Speaker:promise and with God's love. Thank you
Speaker:for sharing that, Bishop. I want you to close us under your own closing thoughts
Speaker:in prayer in a moment here. I just did want to say that our guest
Speaker:today here on To Be Encouraged is Sarah Griffith Lund
Speaker:and her latest book is Blessed Youth Breaking the
Speaker:Silence about mental illness with children and teens.
Speaker:And you can find her@blessedmind.org
Speaker:and at Sarah Griffith.com
Speaker:and we'll put links to everything she is about at our website,
Speaker:encouraged.com. Bishop, final word
Speaker:of encouragement and a prayer, please. Sometimes people are
Speaker:looking for a sign and maybe this podcast might be just
Speaker:a sign you were looking for that you are loved. Often say
Speaker:I try to explain grace in this way, using my spiritual imagination,
Speaker:if you will, that God has a printing press in heaven
Speaker:and God is making name plates and name
Speaker:tags in heaven, everybody's name. And on the back of
Speaker:your name tag says, you are loved.
Speaker:So I want everyone to know that you are loved. It's not subject to
Speaker:debate. It doesn't have to go before the state legislature,
Speaker:the US congress or the Supreme Court. God loves
Speaker:you, and there's nothing you can do about it but receive
Speaker:that love. Psalm 71 says in you, O Lord, I take refuge.
Speaker:Let me never be put to shame in your righteousness.
Speaker:Deliver us, deliver me, rescue me, incline your ear to
Speaker:me, save me, be to me a rock of refuge, a strong
Speaker:refuge to save me. We pray that God will be
Speaker:your rock and that this podcast may be the sign of encouraged,
Speaker:that you need it. For today you
Speaker:are loved. And in the name of Jesus, I ask
Speaker:blessings upon all who hear.
Speaker:And we thank you for listening today to the two
Speaker:B encourage podcast with Bishop Julia C.
Speaker:Trimble. I'm your co host, Reverend Dr. Brad Miller.
Speaker:Until next time, friends. We encourage you to always do
