Hope in the face of Mental Health Challenges
This week, let’s talk mental health.
Your mental health is a key component of your overall health and wellbeing and the reality is that being a Christian does not prevent you from suffering from anxiety or depression or any other mental health condition. Indeed, statistics show that about one in five Australians suffer a mental health disorder in any 12 months and more than 42% will suffer at some point in their life. Just turning those stats into something local, statistically it is likely that 300 people in our church will struggle with their mental health this year.
This is just one reason why I am so glad that we have a well developed and expertly led care ministry at our church. We work both proactively and reactively to provide Christian care to everyone who needs it. That is, to provide care that involves loving others by listening well and responding with empathy and in prayerful and practical ways, and by sensitively encouraging faith, growth and perseverance in Christ.
As we journey through the ups and downs of life, we can depend on God’s love for us in Jesus and he is the one in whom we are to place our trust. God also provides us with others we can reach out to for care and support, including family and friends, our congregation, Growth Group and the teams in which we serve.
Today I want to share with you some of the work we are doing proactively in care.
First of all, each year we run a series of Care Seminars that seek to help us understand ourselves better and care for those in need. The first one for 2025 is coming up and I am excited to announce that Mental Health Counsellor Miriam Chan will be with us on Friday 28 March at 10am speaking about anxiety, depression and the spiritual impact of mental ill health.
We will look at the part hope plays in dealing with life’s problems, why we can be certain of our hope, and how we can offer hope as we walk alongside others who are suffering. As always, there will be an opportunity to ask questions, and the talk will be recorded and uploaded to the website after the event. So if you can’t make it Friday 28, look out for the resource in early April.
That leads me to the second thing I wanted to share with you and it is that the care resource page on the website is constantly updated with the very best of information and recommendations to help you when you are in need.
This page is your one stop shop for our recommendations of Christian therapists, to enrol in our self-paced Care Course that anyone can do at any time to improve your care skills, for requesting care from our care teams and for finding our care resources. Over time we have accumulated a number of excellent resources that may be able to help you when you are suffering and will be able to help you help others.
Just picking three that I have loved, check out the resources on:
Addiction: Understanding and supporting people with addiction
Supporting people living with chronic illness
Mental Health First Aid Principles
There are plenty more excellent resources there and the whole page is well worth your exploration.
Friends, my prayer is that Christ Church would be a place where people are known, loved and cared for in all the stages and struggles of life. The Bible encourages us to be exactly that to one another and I do hope that these resources may be able to help you, or help you help others. So check out the webpage, join us Friday 28 March at 10am if you can and let’s continue to grow in our understanding and capacity of what it’s like to be a caring Christian community.
