Mental Health in the Church – Interview with a Pastor

Mental Health in the Church

As the leader of the local church, a pastor’s understanding of mental health and wellness is important for the general flourishing of the community they shepherd. Different pastors have a variety of personal opinions, spiritual schooling, pastoral experience, and life experiences. All of these can come into play when navigating how to care for their church and those in it. It is important that we hear from pastors about their current thinking on mental health in the church and wellness overall. We must also allow them the space to share what they need to learn to feel supported to support others as they minister in Jesus’ name. I interviewed my pastor to learn more about his experience in this area. 

Setting the Scene—Defining Mental Health and Wellness

Me: Can you tell me about the demographics of your church for background? Pastor: Our church is a rapidly growing church, predominantly Asian, with increasing diversity, operating out of Philadelphia and a second campus in Cherry Hill. We’re about 50/50 men and women, 25% married couples, 20% children/college students, and the rest, single young adults. We are a Gospel-driven, reformed theology church.  Me: How would you define mental health?  Pastor: This is a widely interesting topic, and the definition has changed over time. It used to be that the term mental health was only talking about clinical and serious mental health issues, like schizophrenia, severe depression, etc. Overall, I would define mental health as a broad range of emotional, psychological, and genetic predispositions that trigger a variety of behaviors in individuals, typically that disrupt a person’s ability to think or act with clarity.  Me: (Laughs) You seem to have a solid definition here. Do you see any difference between mental health and mental wellness overall?  Pastor: Well, sure, I think it’s been a big change since the 2010s—I worked for a pharmaceutical company during that period and noticed that the industry moved from labeling drugs that were person-oriented (for example, bipolar) to adding new categories for drugs, such as “allergy,” “pain,” and now “wellness.” The wellness category added a new dimension, and now the focus is less on physical health in our society (paired with many other factors such as COVID) to mental wellbeing and “self-care.”

As the leader of the local church, a pastor’s understanding of mental health and wellness is important for the general flourishing of the community they shepherd.

What is it like to pastor during this time period and the renewed focus on mental health? 

Me: Does our church take a specific stance on mental health concerns?  Pastor: You know, many different groups or denominations have different approaches to this topic. Much of the evangelical world would agree with the idea that the secular world has made incredible advancements in the areas of medications to treat mental health and behaviors, and this is not an area of the church’s expertise; therefore, there is no issue with accepting all use of medications to treat a condition for example. Then, on the other hand, you have reformed and deeply traditional churches that feel most mental health challenges can be handled through pastoral counseling and scriptural wisdom because the Bible speaks to the true understanding of the human mind. Our church strikes a middle ground—for instance, if you were to break your arm, you would get treatment for that arm and its pain. In the case of a mental health concern, it is appropriate to seek help when your mind is “broken” (for lack of a better term). Now, we also believe that the pastoral care piece AND counseling piece is also critical for a person’s true and whole recovery in combination with medication if appropriate—especially in a community. Loneliness and isolation grip our society and are the cause of many mental health concerns, and as such, we believe being in community begins and maintains a healing community as God intended His church to care for each other. 

Me: What is it like to be a pastor right now (surrounding this issue)?  Pastor: Most pastors do not feel equipped to handle what is coming to them…most seem to land either on the side of fear about addressing it or complete ignorance on the topic. I feel like most pastors need more help, information, and training on this topic—it is only going to grow as a need among the church. It is difficult to feel like it is being handled well because it can be draining to go through all the aspects of being a pastor (that fun administrative piece) to then counseling eight different people on a wide range of challenging emotional, mental, and spiritual needs. The concern is around pastors who don’t want to address the need and tell the person suffering that they need more faith to overcome.  Me: So then, what DO you need? What do you wish were out there to support you as a pastor?  Pastor: I try to keep a research-based and scholarly approach to how I learn and continue learning, but to be honest, the content is really lacking. Many of the gospel-centered scholarly journals don’t talk about mental health. Sure, they talk about pastoral care/counseling, but for things like marriage troubles mainly. I would love to see more resources that are practical and allow the faith community to address mental health, not leaving it just to the secular world, which then forces our hand to have no Christian teaching and comfort and truth provided to the person going through the struggles. I’d love to see more conferences and seminars in this area as well.  A Final Reminder—Jesus Loves Those Experiencing Mental Health Concerns Me: I know from your sermons every week that you always close by focusing us back on Jesus and His love for us. How do you think Jesus would close our conversation? Pastor: Bottom line, Jesus offers compassion and gentleness towards those suffering, but with a pointed clarity about their situation. For instance, take Mark chapter 5 when dealing with the main experiencing a demon (not saying all mental health concerns are demonic). But in this case, Jesus connects with a man that others have put in chains and cast aside into the graveyard, addresses the root issue at hand with clarity and authority, helps the man become calm and of sound mind, and then connects him to the mission of the Church once he was set free. Just as Jesus was falling apart Himself on the way to the cross, Jesus connects with those suffering the deepest human afflictions, and has the utmost compassion and care for His people. Jesus is the one who ultimately offers all the soul rest that is needed, with the mind and heart following.