Episode 57
Breaking the Stigma: Encouraging Mental Health Ministry in Faith Communities with Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund, Author of Blessed Youth: Breaking the Silence about Mental Illness with Children and Teens (Part 1)
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://archive.inumc.org/bishop/
In episode 057 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.”
Bishop Trimble and Lund discuss the importance of mental health awareness and advocacy in faith communities.
Bishop Trimble shares about his personal connection with Sarah related to their ecumenical witness in Greater Indianapolis but also wants to discuss Sarah's writing on mental health, specifically her book, “Blessed Youth.” Trimble was emotionally pulled into the book while reading it and believes it would be suited for community reading. Bishop Trimble speaks about his mother-in-law who lived with them for 20 years due to her mental illness, but the Bishop’s children did not know about it because she received excellent care and support.
Bishop Trimble believes that being surrounded by support makes a significant difference for those with mental illness.
Lund discusses her inspiration for writing "Blessed Youth" and highlights the importance of understanding mental health as a form of physical health. Lund shares the importance of mental health ministry as an opportunity to show the love of Jesus to the community and provide resources available, such as a free study guide from Blessed Youth on the Chalice Press website. Bishop Trimble discusses mental health ministry in the church he once served and shares the benefits of having a mental health-friendly church. Lund emphasizes the need for lay people in starting a mental health ministry in their faith community and eliminating any barriers to participation.
Additionally, they discuss the Surgeon General's advisory related to the spike in suicides in youth and highlight the importance of strengthening spiritual connections to God and one another to prevent deaths of despair. Finally, they explore the stigma and shame often preventing people from talking about mental health and seeking help for mental illness and discuss the importance of shifting attitudes towards mental health so that it is viewed as part of overall health, much like dental hygiene.
Episode 057 with Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund is Part one of a two Part Episode featuring a discussion about Dr. Lund's book "Blessed Youth." Part 2 will be Episode 058 we be about "Starting a Mental Health Movement in your Church and Community and will be available at www.ToBeEncouraged.com.
Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund can be contacted about her books and speaking opportunities at:
https://sarahgriffithlund.com/
Her Ministry is Blessed Mind
Transcript
Hello, good people, and welcome to To Be
Speaker:Encouraged with Bishop Julius C.
Speaker:Trimble, the podcast where we look to offer
Speaker:an encouraging word to an often discouraged world.
Speaker:I'm your co host, Reverend Dr. Brad Miller. In today's episode
Speaker:of To Be Encouraged, we're focusing on mental health.
Speaker:Our guest is the Reverend Dr. Sarah Lund
Speaker:and she has a mission that revolves around the area of
Speaker:mental health to share hope and healing. She's an
Speaker:ordained minister in the Christian church, Disciples of Christ
Speaker:and the United Church of Christ. She's a pastor
Speaker:serving churches in Brooklyn, New York, Minneapolis and New
Speaker:Smyrna Beach, Florida, and is the regional minister of the Florida Conference
Speaker:United Church of Christ and vice president of Christian Theological
Speaker:Seminary in Indianapolis. She has Degrees from Trinity
Speaker:University, princeton Theological Seminary at MDiv,
Speaker:Rutgers University and Master of Social Work and McCormick
Speaker:Theological Seminary at D Men. And she has
Speaker:received the Dell Award as a mental health educator from the
Speaker:United Church of Christ and involved with several things along the area of
Speaker:helping serve as the men of disabilities of mental health justice on
Speaker:the regional staff of the UCC and is the senior
Speaker:pastor of the First Congregational United Church of Christ
Speaker:in Indianapolis.
Speaker:In particular in our context today. She is the
Speaker:author of several books blessed Are the Crazy
Speaker:Breaking the Silence about Mental illness, family in the Church,
Speaker:blessed Union Breaking the Silence about mental illness and Marriage.
Speaker:And the focus of our conversation today. Blessed Youth
Speaker:breaking the silence about mental illness with children and teens.
Speaker:You could find her at Sara Griffith.com
Speaker:and she is the founder of Blessedmind,
Speaker:LLC, which you could find@blessedmind.org.
Speaker:Mr. Treble, would you help us welcome our special guest to our podcast today?
Speaker:Yeah, I want to say welcome to my dear friend Sarah.
Speaker:We really appreciate your sharing this time with our listeners
Speaker:and we just continue to try to be co conspirators
Speaker:for good and grace and for getting into
Speaker:good trouble to make the world a better place. Thank you for your witness,
Speaker:particularly as we break open, pull back the curtain
Speaker:around mental health and our role as faith
Speaker:leaders in this space.
Speaker:Welcome. Glad to have
Speaker:you with us, Sarah. Just to kind of initiate our conversation,
Speaker:been mentioned that you're a faith leader in churches and you're involved with getting in
Speaker:good trouble. As Bishop has said here we're to find out more about that.
Speaker:But let's find out a little bit about you initially. Meaning tell
Speaker:us what about your faith story, how you came to know Christ
Speaker:in the first place and how your Christian faith journey
Speaker:has led you now to the path of being a pastor and an
Speaker:author, and particularly with an advocacy regarding
Speaker:mental health. Thank you so much. It's really an
Speaker:honor to be a guest on this podcast to encourage folks.
Speaker:And so thank you, Bishop and Brad, for this invitation.
Speaker:We are indeed co conspirators for goodness and hope.
Speaker:And I'm, like a lot of folks, kind of have a very
Speaker:mixed background in faith. I was baptized
Speaker:as an infant as a Lutheran in the ELCA tradition,
Speaker:grew up in the Disciples of Christ tradition
Speaker:was confirmed there, and then in college
Speaker:was introduced to a more
Speaker:evangelical flavor of Christianity in
Speaker:a Bible study that was run by university.
Speaker:And so my faith background really prepared me to
Speaker:engage in a deeper level in a personal way as
Speaker:I connected to Jesus as
Speaker:really more intimate relationship.
Speaker:And so I'm grateful for the people who focus on
Speaker:college students in that window of time when people are really searching for
Speaker:meaning and connection. And that was where I
Speaker:got my call to be a pastor, was while I was at
Speaker:Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
Speaker:Bishop, I know you have a connection with Sarah and share
Speaker:a little bit about your connection, and then what kind of things would you like
Speaker:for us to learn about her? Well, I think my connection with
Speaker:Sarah is relative to our ecumenical witness here
Speaker:in Greater Indianapolis. But also
Speaker:I really want to get into because I know we have a limited amount of
Speaker:time to her writing around in the area of mental health,
Speaker:particularly her more recent book,
Speaker:Blessed Youth. As I began to read the
Speaker:book, it began to evoke emotions, my own emotions.
Speaker:And you kind of warned the reader that this might happen.
Speaker:And as I got into the book, I realized I said, maybe this is a
Speaker:book better suited for a community reading.
Speaker:But I was so already pulled. When you're in a book,
Speaker:it pulls you in and you just can't stop reading.
Speaker:And I'll say a little bit. Brad and Sarah,
Speaker:my mother in law lived with us for 20 years.
Speaker:In fact, she first came to live with us. She's gone
Speaker:on to heaven. The older young granbury and our children
Speaker:are now three adult children. But our children grew up thinking everybody
Speaker:had a grandmother who lived with them, but they didn't know why she lived
Speaker:with us. They just thought everybody had a grandmother who lived with them.
Speaker:We kind of were raised in kind of a village environment. But while I
Speaker:was actually in my second year of seminary,
Speaker:when we were at seminary, Brad at Garrett in Evanston,
Speaker:my mother had to come live mother in law had to come live with us
Speaker:temporarily because she had mental illness and
Speaker:her mother had passed and she was living with her mother.
Speaker:And when her mother passed, she couldn't stay by herself.
Speaker:She attempted to do that, was offered meds
Speaker:and just kind of things were unraveling.
Speaker:And even though we had a small infant and we
Speaker:were living in a small student apartment in Evanston, she had
Speaker:to come live with us temporarily. And then eventually she
Speaker:had to come live with us permanently.
Speaker:Once I had my full time appointment and was serving a church in North Chicago.
Speaker:And at that time, by that time when
Speaker:we had our second child, she was living with us.
Speaker:And again, our three children kind of grew up with their grandmother,
Speaker:living with them up until the last one graduated. Our youngest
Speaker:graduated from high school, and she lived with us because
Speaker:she had a mental illness. They didn't know she had a mental illness because she
Speaker:received excellent care and support.
Speaker:And as long as she was on her meds and went to her
Speaker:therapy sessions and she was involved, was surrounded by
Speaker:church community, she was very active in the church, very active,
Speaker:volunteer in our food ministry and so forth. And so
Speaker:it makes a difference when you are surrounded by support.
Speaker:It doesn't take away the mental illness,
Speaker:but it does make a difference. And I say that
Speaker:by way of segue into saying, reading the book
Speaker:Blessed Youth introduced this may be in your other books as well,
Speaker:introduced me somewhat more to some of your story about your
Speaker:dad, about your niece, about your own childhood,
Speaker:and how I think this is so true.
Speaker:You kind of gave an insight to what I think many American families or
Speaker:many families across the globe experience, but no one ever knows
Speaker:about it. And no one knows about it. So I want to basically
Speaker:start with an open ended question, basically around what's early on,
Speaker:what we read in there, both from you and from
Speaker:the Surgeon general around mental health is physical health.
Speaker:Help us understand that a little bit. Sara mental health being
Speaker:is physical health. Thank you so much, Bishop,
Speaker:for sharing part of your story that is
Speaker:so beautiful, because it helps us realize that everybody has a story.
Speaker:We all have a story and we all have mental health.
Speaker:The reason why we don't often talk about it is because
Speaker:of stigma. Stigma is shame.
Speaker:It keeps us silent and it isolates us.
Speaker:Mental illness has been stigmatized for a long time,
Speaker:and sometimes the faith that we grow up in
Speaker:might interpret mental illness as a sin,
Speaker:demon, possession, punishment from God.
Speaker:And so thinking of mental illness in these ways makes
Speaker:us feel ashamed and reluctant to get help.
Speaker:So what we're trying to do is connect mental illness
Speaker:and mental health to other kinds of health.
Speaker:And our brain is an organ. Our heart is
Speaker:an organ. We can get heart disease.
Speaker:We can also get brain disease. And the more we learn about
Speaker:the brain, we know that it's incredibly complex,
Speaker:but it really is the hard drive to our whole system.
Speaker:And so I ask folks when I talk about mental health,
Speaker:how many of you have a dentist? Everybody in
Speaker:the room. How often do you see the dentist? Well,
Speaker:to prevent cavities, we go see the dentist for good cleanings.
Speaker:And throughout our whole lives, we take care of our mouth and our teeth.
Speaker:Oral hygiene, right how many of you have a therapist
Speaker:or a psychiatrist? A lot less people yet that
Speaker:is one of the most important parts of our body, our brain,
Speaker:yet we do not have good mental health hygiene. And so
Speaker:I'm really trying to help folks be more open and receptive
Speaker:to all the ways we can proactively take care of
Speaker:our mental health hygiene and have a therapist.
Speaker:Everybody needs to have a therapist just like you have a dentist.
Speaker:And so that language of mental health is health
Speaker:is part of this national conversation that just
Speaker:like you might bring a casserole or a hot dish over
Speaker:to somebody who's recovering from a heart attack or in chemotherapy,
Speaker:you're bringing food to the family. We want,
Speaker:likewise for good folks, to bring casseroles and hot dishes to
Speaker:people who are recovering from hospitalization for
Speaker:a psychiatric illness or depression or postpartum
Speaker:that's coming out now. More and more people are willing
Speaker:to acknowledge that happiness with the new baby sometimes
Speaker:comes with lots of struggle and lack of sleep and stress.
Speaker:And so we can be more open about these health
Speaker:needs. Get a checkup from the neck up, as Patrick
Speaker:says. Yeah, I like that. You're the first
Speaker:person I heard make reference to no casserole illness.
Speaker:Yes. Say another word where you just said a
Speaker:little bit about that, but can you expand on that? No casserole?
Speaker:Yeah. Mental illness is called the no casserole illness in
Speaker:our family. I write about in Blessed Union, our marriage. My husband
Speaker:sometimes will get in a pretty serious depressive episode where he's
Speaker:not able to get out of bed really for a few days.
Speaker:And so wouldn't it be beautiful if we had the type
Speaker:of community where we could openly say we're struggling?
Speaker:If you brought over a lasagna or chicken,
Speaker:this would really help and bless our families, but we don't.
Speaker:I've talked to other church groups where a mom struggling to
Speaker:raise three kids and two of them have mental health challenges
Speaker:and her anxiety is so high, and she said
Speaker:it would help so much just to have someone bring over a chicken dinner.
Speaker:One less thing for me to worry about and give my family a
Speaker:nice meal. So mental health is
Speaker:health helps to break down that stigma. And it's
Speaker:also related to this idea of parity and you see
Speaker:this in our healthcare system and insurance that we don't
Speaker:cover medical care for mental health as
Speaker:we do other types of medical care. So in the advocacy
Speaker:realm, we're really trying to advocate for equal treatment to
Speaker:equally cover with insurance anything related to
Speaker:mental health as you would any other kind of health disease
Speaker:or disorder. Wow. Can you say
Speaker:something about there's good data in your
Speaker:book, Blessed Youth around the impact of the pandemic
Speaker:and how it exposed the crisis, like the
Speaker:crisis of mental health, particularly with children and
Speaker:youth, but also what I call
Speaker:borrowing words from your book and from Martin
Speaker:Luther King, Jr. The fierce urgency of now. So the impact of the pandemic,
Speaker:what it has exposed, and why this
Speaker:current moment is important for
Speaker:not tacit advocacy, but really strong,
Speaker:urgent advocacy around support, around mental
Speaker:health. There is a
Speaker:fierce urgency of now. The Surgeon general
Speaker:issued an advisory, and this is pretty rare that the
Speaker:Surgeon General would do an advisory, but he did in
Speaker:December of 2021. And this is related to the spike
Speaker:in suicides in our
Speaker:youth. And so the data is still coming out. We're still updating
Speaker:it. The most recent data I read, talked about 60%
Speaker:of teenagers are expressing feelings of
Speaker:depression and anxiety. And we know that depression
Speaker:and anxiety, if unaddressed, can lead to
Speaker:suicide. And so I am really
Speaker:hoping that churches will take this seriously and that
Speaker:all of us who care about children and teens will have the
Speaker:conversation and create a safety
Speaker:plan for our children. It is my
Speaker:conviction that everybody, no matter what your
Speaker:age, needs a safety plan because suicide rates
Speaker:are going up for all of us,
Speaker:even elderly. The highest suicide rate of the
Speaker:general public are white men in their
Speaker:70s.
Speaker:Yes. And the rates are going up for boys,
Speaker:boys of color, and that's
Speaker:often not talked about. But the pressures on
Speaker:communities of color and the social unrest
Speaker:and the racial injustices are leading
Speaker:to deaths of despair. And so the faith community,
Speaker:this is where we can encourage each other, because the science
Speaker:is also showing that as faith communities,
Speaker:we have a key tool to help prevent these deaths of
Speaker:despair, and that is the spiritual connection
Speaker:to God and to one another.
Speaker:Dr. Lisa Miller is a researcher out of Columbia University.
Speaker:In her new book, Awakened Brain, she has done the science and
Speaker:she has the data that we can prevent these deaths
Speaker:of despair by strengthening our
Speaker:spirituality. She's Jewish. Yeah, she is
Speaker:Jewish. But she says in her research that spirituality is
Speaker:a living relationship with a living God who
Speaker:is actively loving us.
Speaker:Yes. And so the more we can strengthen our living
Speaker:relationship with a living, loving God.
Speaker:And this is really what I heard you say in your story about your mother
Speaker:in law, is that she was at church, she was surrounded
Speaker:by people who loved her, by you and the church. And I think that
Speaker:that was probably key in her recovery and in
Speaker:her well being. As part of her plan, in addition
Speaker:to a doctor, she had a pastor, she had a prayer partner.
Speaker:She spent time in the Word
Speaker:and encouraged through the living relationship she
Speaker:had with a loving God. Sarah, you said something I
Speaker:don't want to let get by, particularly for our listeners. You said a
Speaker:safety plan. What is a safety plan?
Speaker:So a safety plan is three people
Speaker:that we promise we will contact if we're having
Speaker:thoughts of despair and self harm.
Speaker:Wow. Safety plan. And there's a safety pledge in my
Speaker:survival guide for youth that's a companion to the book.
Speaker:It's blessed Youth Survival Guide. There's a part in that book that
Speaker:helps people think through okay, who are three
Speaker:people I trust that I can tell,
Speaker:text or call when I am low,
Speaker:low. Some people are probably thinking, I don't
Speaker:have three people. Right? Exactly. Somebody's saying, I can't think of
Speaker:three people. And that's why you need a safety plan. That's why
Speaker:we're thinking ahead of time. And if you
Speaker:have one person, you have one person. It really just takes one.
Speaker:We like to say three because sometimes people have their phone
Speaker:turned off. They're not able to get back to you in your text. So if
Speaker:you are surrounded by three people, so this survival
Speaker:guide is a chance to think ahead. Okay,
Speaker:who would my three people be and tell them ahead
Speaker:of time, say, hey, by the way, you're one of the three safeties
Speaker:in my life. This is what that means.
Speaker:And that feels good to know that there's this agreement
Speaker:that there are three people who you trust who will
Speaker:be there for you when you reach out to them.
Speaker:Sarah, how do we equip the people in our safety plan
Speaker:group, as it were? I know for young people, really,
Speaker:basically anybody, they're more likely to reach out to a friend, sometimes even
Speaker:a coworker or somebody like that, for help rather than a parent.
Speaker:For a youth or an authority figure or pastor or
Speaker:teacher or something like that, they're much more likely to reach
Speaker:out to a peer is the word I'm looking for. Peer. So how can we
Speaker:help equip them in the safety group here and to help people to get
Speaker:this set up? Well, the challenge with the
Speaker:peer connection is that it doesn't go far enough.
Speaker:There's a lot of pressure in peer groups to not get anyone
Speaker:in trimble or to make anyone mad. And when people are
Speaker:in crisis, there's lots of emotions and there's a sense
Speaker:of secrecy. Don't tell anyone, and losing a friendship.
Speaker:So part of the training with our youth is that we need to
Speaker:tell trusted adults this is not something they can handle by themselves,
Speaker:and God forbid someone would die because they kept
Speaker:it a secret or were worried about losing a friendship.
Speaker:And so we tell the youth that it's better to upset
Speaker:your friend than to have them die. And so
Speaker:that's why there's this idea of telling adults
Speaker:and for adults to be trained. And so that's another opportunity for
Speaker:our faith communities, is to be the place where we have those trainings.
Speaker:The gold standard is mental health first aid.
Speaker:That's a nonprofit partnering with faith communities.
Speaker:They come to your church, they do an eight hour certificate training.
Speaker:It tells you the warning signs for someone in distress and how
Speaker:to respond and get help. Nationally, we have 8988
Speaker:so instead of calling 911 to get the police,
Speaker:we encourage people to call nine, eight, eight.
Speaker:It's a mental health crisis hotline. And when
Speaker:I train folks, we actually call nine eight eight. And when I call them,
Speaker:I say I'm doing a training. We have a group of people here. Would you
Speaker:walk us through what you would do to help us if we were in a
Speaker:crisis?
Speaker:So you provide a
Speaker:gift for me as I was reading Blessed Youth, and I
Speaker:really would like you to expand on it a little bit,
Speaker:Sarah, because this is kind of a
Speaker:theological word as well. Bless it. I think about
Speaker:the Sermon on the Mount and different translations
Speaker:of the word, but the word blessed, you breathe for me. You breathe new
Speaker:life into that word on what it means to be holy as
Speaker:well as whole. W-H-O-L-E-N.
Speaker:Holy. H-O-L-Y So
Speaker:can you say more about what blessed? I said this
Speaker:a few days ago in a sermon, that our
Speaker:sacred worth is not subject to debate.
Speaker:So God has already blessed us to be loved,
Speaker:but there's so many other voices that come in. So what does
Speaker:the word bless it? How do you
Speaker:breathe that life into that as being holy
Speaker:and whole? Thank you so much.
Speaker:Mental health is what impacts our emotions,
Speaker:our feelings, our behaviors, our relationships.
Speaker:Mental health impacts everything. And so when we are having a mental
Speaker:health challenge, it impacts our moods, how we think
Speaker:and feel about ourselves. And so oftentimes,
Speaker:mental illnesses will cause a low self esteem,
Speaker:a feeling of worthlessness, a feeling of hopelessness,
Speaker:despair. The part of our brain that processes mental
Speaker:illness is also the similar part that processes
Speaker:spirituality. And so one of the side effects
Speaker:of it is feeling like God has abandoned
Speaker:us because our brains have sort of blocked
Speaker:that spiritual pathway. And so people can feel
Speaker:utterly abandoned and forsaken by God when they are really
Speaker:in what I call the valleys of the shadow of mental illness.
Speaker:And so 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 their
Speaker:loved ones. This reminds us that we are more than our illness.
Speaker:We are more than our diagnosis. We are more than our label.
Speaker:We are more than what's broken about us.
Speaker: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, we have generations
Speaker:of mental health challenges. We have bipolar disorder
Speaker:that is genetic. So I can see four generations
Speaker:of people in my family that have bipolar disorder.
Speaker:And so someone might say, wow, is that a family curse.
Speaker:This just keeps passed on from generation to generation
Speaker:who here sinned. And so that's
Speaker:just kind of always there for me, because that's so much how we
Speaker:talk in the Christian faith, right? Cursed and
Speaker:sin, it's all throughout the Bible. But really, would God
Speaker:do that? Would God take God's precious,
Speaker: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, you know
Speaker: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
Speaker:art, new ideas,
Speaker:talents. And a lot of our best thinking
Speaker:and original ideas come from people whose brains
Speaker:are different. And so that's also part of this idea of
Speaker:blessed and to really focus on the
Speaker:beauty and the giftedness that we all have.
Speaker:No matter what mental health diagnosis we have
Speaker:or medications we take.
Speaker:It'S so important to realize that everyone
Speaker:has a story and also the understanding of from
Speaker:birth on, we often think of people
Speaker:at a certain age things being noticed or diagnosed.
Speaker:But in your book, you talk about even early on as infants
Speaker:and prenatal, some of these things are happening.
Speaker:I think back now on some things as a parent. Looking back,
Speaker:I said maybe we were really missing some things
Speaker:that were going on. Or even I think of things,
Speaker:language that I confessed before God and all of our podcast
Speaker:listeners that I think back on words that I used
Speaker:or thoughts that I had that really were not healthy. You know,
Speaker:why? When we said, well, those are bad kids as opposed to good
Speaker:kids, bad behavior and all of these things
Speaker:that without thinking about it,
Speaker:stigmatize and label, when really our
Speaker:stories are maybe a lot more complex than we extend
Speaker:enough grace to understand.
Speaker:Does that make sense? I know I'm rambling a little bit. But maybe you it
Speaker:does make sense, yeah. And I think our churches can
Speaker:be places where that judgment comes out.
Speaker:So I think we all have stories of encounters at church with
Speaker:our kids where it's like, oh,
Speaker:is my kid being bad or is my kid acting in
Speaker:a way that's not wanted
Speaker:here? And so our church has a playground.
Speaker:We have a space for kids to be in the sanctuary
Speaker:where there's no pews, there's soft pillows and
Speaker:carpeting. And other pastors are starting to create spaces
Speaker:where children can be themselves if they have ADHD or
Speaker:autism, that whatever way they behave, they're not being
Speaker:bad. They're just trying to manage all
Speaker:of their sensory stimulation. And so
Speaker:to not label kids or punish them just
Speaker:because their brains have them acting and
Speaker:thinking a little different, too many families that are staying
Speaker:home. They're not coming to church because they're tired
Speaker:of being judged or having their kids labeled
Speaker:or feeling rejected. And so it's really a convicting
Speaker:moment that there's more we can do.
Speaker:There's more grace and love. We can show people.
Speaker:So to be proactive about that. So what would it look like
Speaker:for your faith community to have a mental health ministry
Speaker:where you create spaces and programming that are welcoming
Speaker:of youth, who are neurodivergent, who have autism,
Speaker:who have ADHD, who have social phobias
Speaker:and really don't feel comfortable 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 lay people came to me.
Speaker:I was a pastor and they educated me and they
Speaker:said, Pastor, we are just missing it. There are people in our church who
Speaker:are hurting. They're kind of quietly dealing with things. And then we linked with
Speaker:Nami and another support group and provided
Speaker:space for a support of ministry. We highlighted
Speaker:Mental Health Awareness Month and I made a public
Speaker:commitment to preach several times around this. But it
Speaker:was laypeople who actually came and parents and adults.
Speaker:We had one person who had been traumatized because she had been
Speaker:in a train wreck 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
Speaker:someone may listen to the podcast and wondering,
Speaker:how do you get started? This kind of leads to my next question how
Speaker:do you become mental health advocates in the faith community?
Speaker: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 reason to
Speaker:not come to church. We would eliminate those barriers.
Speaker:So what does it mean to become mental health advocates and
Speaker:how does one get started? Maybe there are people hearing
Speaker:this or others who work in
Speaker:this area,
Speaker:in their work life, but they don't bring that to their faith
Speaker:space. Thank you, Bishop, for your leadership
Speaker:and advocacy. Preaching about mental health makes a huge
Speaker:difference to break the silence from the pulpit
Speaker:because like I said at the top of this conversation, the stigma is
Speaker:really the barrier that prevents people from getting help and
Speaker:support. So preach about mental health. May is Mental Health Month. So preach
Speaker:about it. Pray about it out loud in your corporate prayer of
Speaker:the people. And then bring in Nami. The National Alliance on
Speaker:Mental Illness. They have trained volunteers who want to share
Speaker:their story and can share a mission moment in worship. Have an
Speaker:educational program after church. Our church has anami
Speaker:support group that meets here they have family to family support
Speaker:groups, the caregivers of people with
Speaker:mental health challenges. They need support. There's peer to peer
Speaker:support groups from Nami. Nami is always looking for good
Speaker:places to meet that are safe and welcoming and inviting.
Speaker:Mental health. First aid is another great training in the United Church
Speaker:of Christ. I help develop a whole resource called Wise.
Speaker:Welcoming, inclusive,
Speaker:supportive, engaged for mental health.
Speaker:Wise. And it's a whole ten step process.
Speaker:And a church then votes to become a wise church.
Speaker:And part of that is a covenant, a beautiful
Speaker:promise that this church makes to be welcoming,
Speaker:inclusive, supportive and engaged. And a key
Speaker:part of that journey to be wise is education.
Speaker:Learning about what is mental health, learning about what
Speaker:would you do if someone comes into your church in a mental health
Speaker:crisis? How can we love and support them?
Speaker:What does it mean to have a pastor who needs to go on medical
Speaker:leave for their mental health? What does it mean to be an advocate
Speaker:in Indiana as we try to pass Senate Bill One to
Speaker:fully fund mental health crisis support? How can people of
Speaker:faith leverage the teachings of Jesus to
Speaker:love our neighbor and call our senators so that they will fully
Speaker:fund mental health care? So it really is an exciting
Speaker:ministry opportunity and
Speaker:it's also a wonderful outreach opportunity to
Speaker: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
Speaker:conversation and you can read books to help
Speaker:get the conversation going. So Blessed Youth has a free
Speaker:study guide you can find on the Chalice Press website.
Speaker:Speaking of youth, when we talk about peer to peer,
Speaker:is there a way for peers? I can think back
Speaker:down. Our oldest son, many years
Speaker:ago was really trying to be a
Speaker:friend to a friend who was going through a traumatic time
Speaker:and came to me and asked for all
Speaker:I remember saying is, try to be the best friend you can be.
Speaker:I wish now, looking back, I was maybe better equipped
Speaker:to have to really been sensitive to what he was dealing with
Speaker:because it may have been a life crisis situation.
Speaker:Is there peer to peer training? Because a lot of times the person
Speaker:that someone in high school or junior high might speak to might
Speaker:be a friend before, as Brad was saying, they would necessarily
Speaker:contact their parents. Yes. So there is peer to
Speaker:peer training. Mental Health First Aid has a youth training
Speaker:and Nami, the National Lund on Mental Illness, is working
Speaker:with schools to create these peer support groups.
Speaker:And we have churches who their youth group is a mental
Speaker:health peer support group. They meet after school to
Speaker:do homework together, but they also have check ins and
Speaker:they check in with each other about how their mental health is doing
Speaker:and. So faith communities can have these mental
Speaker:health support groups and like I said at the beginning,
Speaker:the spiritual connection to a living God.
Speaker:We can have spiritual support groups for mental health and the
Speaker:United Church of Christ. We have a whole guideline for how to
Speaker:do that. My church has a spiritual support group, and what it
Speaker:is is a safe space to check in and to
Speaker:pray for each other as part of our holistic care for our
Speaker:mental health. Sarah I'm going to stay United Methodist,
Speaker:but I sure am liking some of what the United Church of Christ is
Speaker:doing, so I hope you're willing to come, maybe do
Speaker:some of that training for some of our folks as well.
Speaker:We can just work across ecumenical
Speaker:relationships and do that. We do have ecumenical
Speaker:partners. So if you look at the United Church of Christ mental
Speaker:Health Network, it has
Speaker:a synagogue that has used this resource and is a wise synagogue.
Speaker:We have Episcopal and Presbyterian churches, and now we have
Speaker:nonprofits that have found this wise model.
Speaker:You can adapt it to your culture and context.
Speaker:So it really is just a beautiful model to help journey
Speaker:alongside people. We can't do this
Speaker:on our own in Silos, anyway.
Speaker:This is an epidemic, is it not? Sara, we were 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 issues.
Speaker:I just noticed in a couple of recent episodes, they're almost a weekly
Speaker:deal, but there was obvious social media and phone calls
Speaker:reaching out, basically saying, I'm going to do this because
Speaker:I'm ending my life. Shoot some people.
Speaker:But my point is, you have to be in partnership with other churches,
Speaker:with social service agencies, with our schools, with our
Speaker: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 youth is
Speaker:all about, partnering families with faith communities, with schools,
Speaker:with mental health professionals. Well, I think my
Speaker:yes, 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
Speaker:mistrust. There is this assumption that faith people
Speaker:just want to pray it away, that we just want the Lord to save
Speaker:us. Thoughts and prayers don't always cut it all the way, do they?
Speaker:Right? So they need us to initiate, say, we realize in
Speaker:addition to prayer and Jesus, we need doctors and therapists
Speaker:and social workers. So we want to invite you to partner with us.
Speaker:Waiting for that thoughts and prayers is one part of it, but you got to
Speaker:take action. You got to be physically I love what you said earlier about being
Speaker:physically engaged. Sometimes it means intervention
Speaker:and other things as well, and having that going on,
Speaker:and that's awesome. And I'm certainly a believer in that. And it all
Speaker:goes back, if I'm understanding you, Sarah, to some of your personal
Speaker:stories about your own family, your niece and so on. Bishop about
Speaker:your mother in law. I've got stories in my family about
Speaker:borderline personality disorder that could go
Speaker:off a big tangent about but it's all very personal. But it
Speaker:is relevant to our whole societal health at large.
Speaker:And that's what I think. We can do something in the church as an initiative
Speaker:point, whatever church we're in. And however, the church can have a true
Speaker:impact in society through saying, okay, here we're making a
Speaker:stand. And to show that encouragement
Speaker:through caring for each other, slowing down
Speaker:and asking, how is it with your soul?
Speaker:Oh, yeah. That sounds
Speaker:a little bit of Wesley and doesn't it? Bishop yeah, that's a little Wesley in
Speaker:there. Hey, 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
Speaker:Dr. Lisa Miller at Columbia University
Speaker:wrote the new book The Awakened. Brad,
Speaker:the awakened brain. Okay. It's about neuroscience and spirituality,
Speaker:cutting edge research, and it's very much affirming of
Speaker:our churches. And our whole purpose is to support people's
Speaker:spirituality. Little did we know that is mental health
Speaker:ministry awesome. Well, friends, I would just
Speaker:say, even though you've heard reference to that first
Speaker:book, you should get is Blessed Youth. So if you get that,
Speaker:this should be a national bestseller. In fact, get the book if
Speaker:you read it. If it doesn't bless you, I'll buy it back from
Speaker:you. If you can find me. If you can find me in person.
Speaker:There you go. There you go. I did have one final question.
Speaker:Comment, Brad, before we bring our time together, and that was in
Speaker: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 and
Speaker:technology and the multiple digital platforms
Speaker:as well as I won't call it the curse, but the downside of
Speaker:that and how sure, we understood
Speaker:experience bullying, but maybe not at this kind of level with
Speaker:social media. Can you say you make reference to this in the book
Speaker:in terms of the role social media has played in
Speaker:exacerbating this pandemic,
Speaker:if you will, epidemic of mental stress?
Speaker:Yes. We need to watch very closely how our children
Speaker:engage online. My niece, who did die
Speaker: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. And so we always need to know, what are our children reading,
Speaker:listening to? Who are they connecting to?
Speaker:Because the Internet can help us as well.
Speaker:There was research about high school students. And it found that
Speaker:students with an authentic connection were less likely to have
Speaker:suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety. And it didn't matter
Speaker:if that was an in person or online.
Speaker:What mattered was an authentic, caring connection.
Speaker:So the Internet can give us that, but it also can harm us.
Speaker:And so for us as adults, we've got to monitor
Speaker:very closely what type of activities
Speaker:our kids are doing online. One of the greatest search
Speaker:phrases on Google last year, right at the top two or three,
Speaker:was the phrase, how can I heal? And I think
Speaker:that's informative to us. But in terms of our conversation
Speaker:here and bringing it around, Sara, one of the things we love to do,
Speaker:the theme of our whole podcast here is to be encouraged.
Speaker:So would you share with us just a thought, an encouraged word,
Speaker:encouraging thought that you have to kind of help
Speaker:us to wrap up our conversation here today? Well, I love
Speaker:Psalm 23. It's one that a lot of us hear throughout our
Speaker:lives. And the reason I love it is because of this promise
Speaker:that even though I walk through the valley of the
Speaker:shadows, 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,
Speaker:with God's promise, and with God's love.
Speaker:Thank you for sharing that, Bishop. I want you to close us under your own
Speaker:closing thoughts and prayer in a moment here. I just did want to say that
Speaker:our guest today here on To Be Encouraged is Sarah
Speaker:Griffith Lund and her latest book is Blessed Youth Breaking
Speaker:the Silence about mental illness with children and teens.
Speaker:And you can find her@blessedmind.org.
Speaker:And it's Sara Griffith.com,
Speaker:and we'll put links to everything she is about at our
Speaker:website, encouraged.com.
Speaker:Bishop, final word of encouragement and a prayer, please.
Speaker:Sometimes people are looking for a sign, and maybe this podcast
Speaker:might be just a sign you were looking for that you are loved.
Speaker:Often say I try to explain grace in this way, using my
Speaker:spiritual imagination, if you will, that God has a printing press
Speaker:in heaven and God is making name plates
Speaker:and name tags in heaven, everybody's name.
Speaker:And on the back of your name tag says, you are loved.
Speaker:So I want everyone to know that you are loved. It's not subject
Speaker:to debate. It doesn't have to go before the state legislature,
Speaker:the US. Congress or the Supreme Court.
Speaker:God loves you, and there's nothing you can
Speaker:do about it but receive that love. Psalm 71 says, in you,
Speaker:O Lord, I take refuge. Let me never be put to
Speaker:shame in your righteousness. Deliver us,
Speaker:deliver me, rescue me, incline your ear to me, save me,
Speaker:be to me a rock of refuge. A strong refuge to
Speaker:save me. We pray that God will be your rock and that this podcast
Speaker:may be the sign of encouragement that you need
Speaker:it. For today you are loved.
Speaker:And in the name of Jesus, I ask blessings upon all
Speaker:who here. And we thank you for listening
Speaker:today to the two B encouraged podcast
Speaker:with Bishop Julia C. Trimble. I'm your co host,
Speaker:Reverend Dr. Brad Miller. Until next time, friends. We encourage
Speaker:you to always do all the good that
