Teach how to care for the mentally ill

Excerpts from a Sermon by Kay Warren

Kay Warren, one of the founders of the Maanshan Church, used strong testimony and biblical teaching to encourage the church to take part in caring for the mentally ill during the sharing of the worship of the Chinese Church on April 4th.She used the word "church" in English to remind the church how the church can take care of the needs of the mentally ill: 

C Caring for and supporting individuals and families 

Luke 6:36 says "Be merciful as your father is merciful."This does not require a church with a large number of congregations.Just let the people in your church have a compassion, compassion, and gentle attitude. This does not require a penny to achieve this.A caring church only needs to make the congregation concerned about the determination, because as long as the suffering and pain of our fellow human beings touch their hearts, it will be done. The depth of sympathy we can give and receive is the benchmark by which we measure the success of our lives. Because everyone wants and wants love, we want to be accepted, needed, and valued.We are disciples of Jesus Christ, we are like Christ.If God is love, then what we should be good at is to love others.So when we talk about people facing mental health challenges, the first thing we can do, the most important thing is: decide to care.When we see him, pat him on the back, hug him, maybe give him 20 yuan is not enough, because each of us wants friends, we all want to be cherished, people don’t want to be a project of other people’s ministry, people Wanting to be needed is part of how we feel human.When mental illness dehumanizes us, they need companions and friends.You may or may not know, but mental illness makes people lose their human characteristics, and it makes people feel unlike ordinary people.But being friends with them is something that every church can do.You don’t have to be a big church, you don’t have to have a lot of money; you don’t have to have any good projects, you don’t have to have a lot of employees, or even a lot of volunteers.It is enough for every believer to extend the hand of friendship.When I talked to the church, I heard many times about making decisions to care for the mentally ill people in the church and their families. I would hear people saying, "Do you know? People with mental illness and these mental illnesses, I’m both Don’t understand, our church doesn’t know how to deal with such diseases. We are the church. We don’t know how to help them get out of the disease. Let mental health professionals take care of the sick!” Swinton said, “Let’s not say: Someone has a mental illness, so I don't need to care or my church does not need to participate. I have to turn the words around and say: There is a person suffering from a mental illness." Suddenly we understood that this is the responsibility of the church.No, we don’t know what to do with medical care?We are not necessarily good at this, but when you are talking about a sick person, it is said in our bible to receive the command from God to serve the sick.You and I don’t have enough money for all the treatments we need, we will never have, but what if we decide to be each other’s listeners?What if we hold hands with each other for a while and confirm the importance of each other?What if we comfort each other with the comfort God gives us?The famous writer Taylor Caldwell said that the real need of man, his most urgent need is for someone to listen to him, not as a patient, but as a human soul.You can start to support people with mental illness or their family members in the church or you can provide information.Regarding where they can join the support group, if your church is not ready to start, we have suggestions for you. It is the National League of Mental Illness, the League of Grace for Mental Health, New Hope, Saddleback Church, all these groups have support Group information is something you can start to provide to caring for mentally ill patients or their family members. 

H Actual help needed  

Sometimes mental illness is called "no symptoms". I remember that I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and when I was receiving treatment, for months, friends and church members brought us food, and they took the initiative to clean it up. House, help me run errands, take me to see a doctor, and take care of my children.But I have a feeling if someone in your church is diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, or depression, or anxiety, etc.If this were announced in a Bible study class, it is likely that no one would say, "Can I take you to the doctor?" No one wants to take care of the children, no one wants to wash the toilet, or buy some groceries.In fact, the church can do it.If we are willing to take responsibility, not just someone who has been diagnosed with cancer or someone who has just had an operation, but someone who has just been diagnosed with depression, we can all help. "3 John 17:XNUMX" says, "Whoever has the wealth of the world, sees his brothers in poverty, but is choked with compassion, how can the love of God exist in him?" We can help solve practical needs. 

U Encourage and equip volunteers  

In your congregation, you are all kind people. They are looking for things to do. In addition to deciding what color the church’s kitchen should be painted or who brings flowers to the altar decoration, people want to do something meaningful, and community organizations must To seek help, they must seek volunteers.There are ready-made people in the church, sitting on their benches, you can provide some basic training and consultation or in prayer, or help through the maze of mental health programs in those places, how to find a therapist or psychiatrist or leader Support groups, these are the training you can give volunteers and give them opportunities to serve people with mental illnesses in the family.The Bible says in "4 Peter 10:XNUMX" that "God has given each of you gifts" "from his various spiritual gifts" "manage them well so that the gifts of God" can flow through you "You and I have been given the gift of service. As a member of the church and congregation, you can ensure that your volunteers are trained and then mobilized to serve. 

R remove the shame 

This is within the power of the faith community.In fact, this is probably the most powerful thing, and what you can do as a faith group is to eliminate the debilitating stigma and exclusion.For those who suffer from mental illness, this community of faith is what I call the force of legalization in society. If the church says you are okay, you are okay. If the church says you are okay, you are okay.Do you know the first reason why most people with mental illness do not seek help?That's because of shame, no one wants to be labeled as having a mental health problem.We sometimes think of a nervous person sitting in a corner, or talking to himself under a bridge, or a violent picture, or someone who has a nervous breakdown and is talking to a fire hydrant.In fact, there is still a long distance between normal depression and anxiety. If you lose your loved one, or get fired or you are struggling financially or you have health problems, you will have anxiety and depression will have some fear. , There will be some worries. This is at one end of the range. The person who may be hovering under the bridge with a severe mental illness is talking to himself, and it is at the other end of the range.The range of mental illness is very wide, so when an anxious person is because they just lost a job or they are worried because they are not sure whether they can do it financially, it is normal, if someone feels frustrated because of their marriage It's broken, or the health crisis makes them miserable. These are normal emotions. There is nothing wrong with it, but sometimes when these emotions start to dominate, the person can no longer work normally.They can’t do their jobs, they have trouble getting up in the morning, maybe they sleep too much, or they don’t sleep at all, or they think about going back to school. It’s really, really hard.When those normal emotions start to really affect someone’s daily life, then we start to think that there may be mental health issues, so in terms of shame, it’s important to know that there is a continuum, if we know we can say: "Hey, This is a part of my life. The brain is a part of my body, just like my kidneys or heart. It is an organ in my body and it also has problems.” Look at Jesus, sickness is not a sin. It is not a sin to have a problem with the body or brain.Once Jesus was asked by someone who wanted him to be fooled when they saw a blind man. They said, "Jesus, whose fault is this? Is it his fault? Or is it his parents' fault?" Jesus said, "It's not. Nobody’s fault” He said: “God works in this man’s blindness, but it is not caused by sin”.When you can accept that something wrong with your body or brain is not a sin, it doesn’t mean you’re guilty. It doesn’t weaken your beliefs. Repent of all sins is not because you pray that everything will change. Mental illness is a part of our body. When you let people know that illness is not a sin, your church is a place where people say that illness is not a sin. In fact, this is a A safe place, let people bring their brokenness, and then we can start to remove the shame. "Ezekiel 34" God punished the spiritual shepherds of Israel for failing to take care of the weak sheep.He said: "You pushed the weak and sick sheep aside, you actually pushed them aside. Ezekiel 34:4" says: "You did not strengthen the weak or heal the sick or bandage the wounded", but He went on to say "I will take care of them, and I will bandage their wounds."We have the example of Jesus himself. He healed the sick and restored their health, so in the Old Testament, God said: "Shepherd of Israel, you have to look after the weak." Jesus said, "I want to heal the sick." , I want to restore health to those who need help."The apostle Paul said: "The church is like a body, and every part of it is necessary and vital. Even those parts that seem weaker than others. So I feel that the Bible says it clearly, sickness or weakness, It does not mean that we have no value or that we have a mental problem. To remove the stigma does not require money, no special training, it does not require an extensive plan, only your heart and decision. 

C Every church can cooperate with the community 

 You see, the church can do so much, but the church cannot do everything.But every church has access to the mental health community and asks professionals to help, so you must have volunteers in your church, and you can compile a list of mental health groups or mental health experts, which are your churches Can refer to.You can hold a mental health education seminar for your church and other churches to participate.There is an organization like NAMI, the National Psychiatric Alliance. They will send free speakers to talk to your congregation, openly talk about mental illness in the forum, and let those with mental illness share their stories with their families. Normalize mental illness, give it a face and a name, so when we do this, we get rid of the mystery that we operate in the dark. Therefore, it is impossible for the church to do all this if we cooperate with the community.So, ask the mental health community to share what they know, and then we can give back what we can provide to let the mental health community know, oh, the church there is a safe place for people with mental illness. 

H Provide hope 

We may not be able to cure someone’s mental illness, but the church can give them hope.Over time, a person can learn how to manage their chronic diseases in roughly the same way as people with diabetes, learn to control their chronic diseases, what they can and cannot do.Speaking of suicide, we need information in the church... Many, many times suicide can be prevented. There are specific methods for training and teaching to provide comfort, sympathy and connection to those who live with suicidal thoughts and opinions.Suicide is not inevitable.Hope is the most valuable commodity, which we have in the church and can provide to people in deep pain.When people have serious physical problems, like cancer or other life-threatening diseases, if they cannot recover, we will never ignore them.If necessary, we will accompany them to the end. Why do we think it can treat people with severe mental illness, substance abuse disorder or addiction?Why do we say: "Well, as long as you take medicine or as long as you don’t drink or if you stay awake, you can be here, but if you’re not of that type, if your bipolar disorder is out of control or you don’t perform your You can’t be one of us.” Why do we say this to a person who is struggling with mental illness?People who may not be able to recover, they may not be fully healthy or sober, can we really throw them to the side of the road as if they are not important at all?The message of the church must be not only about this life, I mean, it is also about the coming life, which is eternal.Now it should also be about these information must be that we will be with you in your good time.When you experience a crisis, we will be with you, we will be with you, and we will accompany you to the end, those with severe mental illness, they may have ruined all their family relationships, but if They also lost the family of God, where should they go?This is not only dangerous, but also potentially fatal, but the church will give you hope at every stage of life. This is what makes us different from other organizations that try to help in this field. We must hold on to our position and continue to provide hope. "Hosea 2:15", God said, "I want to transform this valley of trouble (Valley of Achae) into the door of hope."These are my last words. Jesus said, "Give more to whomever you want." God has given you grace in your church and rich in so many areas. I pray that He will give you more to face People with mental health challenges, so that you can show the love and compassion of Jesus Christ even more. In Matthew 25, Jesus said, “Serve the poor or those in prison, either naked or thirsty. To serve them is to serve Him.” “Don’t serve the poor. Don’t be with those in prison, don’t dress naked people, don’t give water to those who are thirsty, just don’t serve Him.” Why is Mother Teresa, a missionary of charity, why do they give their love? Give it to the people at the bottom?Because they saw Jesus, He was in the incarnations of the most painful poor people. They knew that when they cared about these people, they cared about Jesus. There were many incarnations of Jesus, and sometimes He would incarnate as those with mental health problems. People, so I urge you to welcome them. By doing this, you are welcoming Jesus.