New Orleans | Mental health and the church were the topics of a panel discussion led by National WMU’s Sandy Wisdom-Martin on the Cooperative Program (CP) Stage at the 2023 Southern Baptist Convention’s Annual Meeting. “Mental health challenges are often simultaneously overlooked and stigmatized in our church settings,” she said. “As Christians, we’re called to encourage those around us with the love of the Lord…”
Illinois native Gay Williams, a licensed clinical counselor and co-director of Hawaii-Pacific Disaster Relief, shared that just as people have physical injuries, they also have spiritual injuries in churches. “And it’s not a sin issue,” Williams stressed. “It’s not people who’ve necessarily done anything wrong except a normal human response to a crisis or a difficult time in their life.” While an individual might need to talk with a biblical counselor or pastor, they also might “need a psychologist or a psychiatrist who can give them medication to help them heal from an injury.”
One of the worst things church members can do to spiritually stigmatize and further injure someone experiencing a mental health issue is to tell them, “Well, if you just pray about that some more, or if you just have a little more faith, then that wouldn’t take place, or you could overcome that,” said Jerry Haag, president of One More Child in Lakeland, La.
Good training in recognizing mental health issues is important “because the average layperson is not set up to do that” stressed Keith Gates, National RA Challenger Ministry consultant.
By becoming more educated about the issue, Kay Bennett, executive director of Baptist Friendship House in New Orleans, said we become “less judgmental towards a person, allowing them to feel more free to open up… And that’s when the healing starts.”
Watch the 30-minute discussion on YouTube.
– Compiled by Lisa Misner