The three most effective things the church could do regarding mental health …

Unless you, a family member, or a friend have been diagnosed with a mental illness, you probably generally ignore the topics of mental illness and mental health.

Most people do, and it’s a shame.

It’s true we’re talking about these issues a little more … but just a “smidge” more. And just talking, usually only after another story appears about some kind of celebrity committing suicide.

Although the church still is doing little relating to mental health, it could make a huge impact on mental illness and mental health if it really wanted to. There are three ways the church could dramatically help those who suffer from mental illness and be a key voice regarding mental health; these three options I introduce below have to do with eliminating the barriers of cost and access to biblically-sound, clinically-excellent Christian counseling. I make that the focus because most people who need clinical counseling don’t get the help they need because they can’t afford it, and also because it isn’t accessible to where they are. So here are three things the church could do if it wanted to get serious about making its greatest possible contribution to serving those with mental illness and being a champion for mental health:

1. Hire Christian clinical counselors as church staff members. This will provide access to the greatly needed services of biblically-sound, clinically-excellent clinical therapy, and with the church paying the counselor as a staff member and providing the needed space, the barrier of access would disappear and the barrier of cost could be eliminated because there wouldn’t be any need to charge for counseling.

Now, considering the average church in America is comprised of only 90 people, a large majority of churches couldn’t afford to hire a competent, Christian clinical therapist to serve on staff. But there still are many churches who could. Those staff counselors could go beyond serving just church members – the churches employing counselors can open those services to the entire community in which they serve. Those counselors can also be valuable as training resources for other churches in the community.

I am a huge proponent of the church “owning” clinical counseling because people are FIRST spiritual beings. If you miss that, you miss the core of a person’s being. Churches being committed to serving the mentally ill by putting competent and qualified Christian counselors on staff enable such churches to minister to people in a holistic way.

Additionally, these staff counselors can also take charge of pre-marital and marriage counseling, relieving ministers of that work and going deeper in preparing and equipping couples for marriage. Most pastors I know thoroughly dislike — and are often untrained for — conducting marriage counseling for reconciliation when things go bad in marriages. Competent therapists are trained to help couples overcome their obstacles and to build mutually satisfying collaborative marriages.

So, these staff counselors could:

• • Provide greatly needed clinical therapy for the community.
  • Be a training resource to other churches and organizations.
  • Offer a more significant pre-martial equipping ministry.
  • Relieve ministers of the time-consuming but important work of effective marriage counseling.

2. Multiple churches pool resources to hire a Christian clinical therapist to share services. If your small church can’t afford to hire a competent Christian counselor to serve on your church staff, several such churches in the community could pool resources to jointly hire a Christian clinical therapist and together provide a Christian counseling outlet for the entire community that all of these churches could use.

3. If all of that is still too much, then supporting a ministry like Scott Free Clinic (SFC) is a great option. Using technology, SFC is as local to any church anywhere — technology makes us as local as the building next door! We have served people and churches all across the United States and around the world through the use of technology. Churches who can’t or don’t want to hire their own Christian therapist can use the services of Scott Free Clinic for FREE, but offering what support is possible would be a great help. We don’t receive ANY support from churches, but if churches saw the value of such a ministry to their own congregations and communities, providing what support they could offer could help us extend our services to many more people. Click here to read a blog post titled, “Here’s how YOUR church can have its own FREE counseling ministry providing FREE services …”

Wearing a ribbon doesn’t do much. Talking is a good thing. But directly addressing the need for competent clinical services by removing the barriers of access and cost and providing those services from a Christian therapist is a way of directly helping people change their lives. Doing this will open MANY doors to love the people in your congregations and communities, and provide MANY new opportunities to share the Gospel with people in your community who find a connection with your church through a competent clinical counseling ministry.

Stop for just a moment — just imagine the impact on lives if the church were able to remove barriers like access and cost and help people get the clinical help they need and to provide a far more significant pre-marital and marriage counseling ministry. The outcomes could be phenomenal!

That’s because taking action always accomplishes more than just talking.

Scotty