
Product Details
- Cover Type:
- 192 Pages
- Publisher: The Good Book Co
- Publication Date: March 2023
- ISBN: FMIDGLST____MENTALHEALTHANDYOURC9781784987787
Mental Health and Your Church: A Handbook for Biblical Care
Many people are struggling with mental-health conditions, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and life in our image-conscious culture. Statistics tell us that, worldwide, one in six of us will have experienced a mental-health struggle in the past week, and serious depression is the second-leading cause of disability (Mental Health Foundation).
That means there are brothers and sisters in our church families battling with thoughts, feelings, impulses and even voices that distract, drag down and nudge them towards despair. But when it comes to helping, it can be tricky to know where to begin, especially if we have very little knowledge of mental illnesses and are afraid of making things worse by saying and doing the wrong things.
This wise, compassionate and practical book is written by Steve Midgley, who worked in psychiatry and then as a pastor and is now Executive Director of Biblical Counselling UK, and Helen Thorne, Director of Training and Resources at Biblical Counselling UK. It will help readers understand and respond with biblical wisdom to people who are struggling with their mental health.
While acknowledging the importance of liaising responsibly with medics and counsellors, this book focuses on equipping readers to play their part in making churches places where those who struggle with mental-health conditions are welcomed, understood, nurtured and supported: a foretaste of the new creation.
This is a useful book for anyone who cares for others pastorally: pastors, elders, small-group leaders and congregation members.
Steve Midgley is executive director of Biblical Counselling UK and a senior minister at Christ Church, Cambridge. Steve is a conference speaker, a board member for the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation, and a council member of the Biblical Counseling Coalition. He and his wife, Beth, have three adult children.
Helen Thorne is Director of Training and Resources at Biblical Counselling UK. She formerly worked with the London City Mission and has written Hope in an Anxious World, Purity is Possible, Walking with Domestic Abuse Sufferers and 5 Things to Pray for Your City. She attends Dundonald Church in Raynes Park, London.
Endorsements (${ productEndorsements.length })
“What can ordinary Christians do to help fellow church members who struggle with mental illness? A great deal, according to Thorne and Midgley. Without sidestepping the important roles of mental health care professionals and medications, they highlight, through worked examples, what the church can and should do to become a welcoming, wise, Christ-centered community for strugglers.”
Michael R. Emlet
Faculty Member, Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation; author, CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet and Descriptions and Prescriptions
“Steve and Helen have achieved the seemingly impossible task of taking a complex issue and framing it for a local church audience. This book brims with a helpful distillation of mental health—terms, definitions, explanations—while also presenting the beauty and depth of the gospel. Readers will be educated, encouraged, equipped, and edified for the privilege of caring for souls.”
Jonathan D. Holmes
Pastor of Counseling, Parkside Church, Chagrin Falls, Ohio; Author, Counsel for Couples
“I am so grateful for this outstanding and timely book. Every church will benefit from reading it in book groups, as individuals, and in pastoral teams. The writing is warm, soaked in grace and informed by years of caring, listening, and loving. The content is intensely and realistically practical: I look forward to reading it again and learning to put it into practice.”
Christopher Ash
Director, Cornhill Training Course
“Knowing enough to help is really helpful. The church has a key role in supporting and welcoming people with mental health difficulties. To do so alongside the NHS means the church needs to know "enough" – not too much for we are not competing; but not nothing for there are past errors of over-spiritualising we can learn from. This book delivers just the right amount and then wraps it in a Biblical model to integrate this with our faith and see real change. Helpful indeed!”
Rob Waller
Consultant Psychiatrist for the NHS, founding director of The Mind and Soul Foundation
“We are at last beginning to talk about mental health in our churches, so, I’m encouraged to see this new contribution to a crucial conversation. Helen Thorne and Steve Midgely bring both compassion and practical wisdom as they help us to think through the practicalities of mental health and mental illness for the church family, both for those suffering and those seeking to care for them. The book includes a helpful overview of mental health, diagnosis, treatment and care. It provides lots of practical suggestions for how we can care for others all of which are centred on a Gospel understanding of the person and their ultimate need for Christ. An important resource for every church to have in its library.”
David Williams
CMS Australia
“This book is vital and timely. All of us, whether active church members or in more formal leadership, need help to understand mental health and show love, care and compassion to those who struggle. I wish I had this help thirty years ago; I’m glad I have it now. It’s easy to read, insightful in content and thoughtful in application. It’s especially encouraging to read how a healthy local church community can be a help and blessing to those in need and that the approaches needed are within reach of every Spirit-filled believer. Helen and Steve’s book is now on my ‘essential reading’ list.”
Adrian Reynolds
Director of Ministry, The Proclamation Trust
“Instructive, compassionate, encouraging, and informative. This is a timely, significant, and much-needed book for church members and church leaders. Awareness of our own mental health is growing and some struggle more than others with the severity of mental illness. This book highlights we are in the struggle together. In church community we don’t need to awkwardly shy away as those who want to support others but aren’t sure how or feel isolated and alone when we suffer. Wisdom is provided to understand complexities of diagnosis, medications, and therapies. Sensitive worked case studies of supporting those with depression, anxiety, psychosis and caring for those who care for the sufferer are insightful. What makes this book unique is the biblical fuel alongside practical help to persevere in care for one another in our brokenness, knowing that through Christ, in heaven, there will be complete restoration and no more suffering.”
Elinor Magowan
FIEC Women’s Ministry Coordinator
“I have had mental health problems for a long time and have sat with countless others who do too. I found this a really helpful book and would strongly encourage pastors and those in pastorally supportive roles in churches to read it.”
Julian Hardyman
Senior Pastor, Eden Baptist Church, Cambridge
“What a brilliant resource! In Mental Health and Your Church, Thorne and Midgley bring compassion, intelligence, biblical wisdom and practical help to bear on this most difficult of topics. Combining exceptional clarity of thought with real-life case examples, their book empowers readers to offer genuine Christian hope and help to those struggling with mental health challenges.”
John Burns
Clinical Psychologist
“As one who has suffered with my own mental health in recent years I am utterly delighted that Helen and Steve have written this book, which is all that I hoped it would be and much more! Full of wisdom, warmth, compassion and masses of practical help-it left me full of hope and rejoicing at how the Lord delights to equip and use the whole of his church to walk together, in love, with those who are struggling with their mental health. I will be strongly encouraging every member of my church to get hold of a copy!”
Andrea Trevenna
Women’s worker at St Nicholas Sevenoaks, Kent; author of The Heart of Singleness.
“This is a much-needed book that is beautiful in its clarity and wisdom. It’s needed because every church is involved in ministry to those with mental health struggles and yet most churches feel daunted by the challenges this presents. It’s beautiful because it is biblical, full of the kindness of Jesus and clarifies what often seems complicated to the lay person. There is helpful explanation of mental health issues and treatments, practical wisdom for ministry to those who are impacted by poor mental health and some great case studies to help us begin to see how our churches can be places where hurting people are helped. Getting this book will inspire you to do more for those who have poor mental health and give you the tools and insights to set a great foundation for this aspect of church life.”
Neil MacMillan
Minister ,Cornerstone Church, Edinburgh, UK
Product Description
Many people are struggling with mental-health conditions, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and life in our image-conscious culture. Statistics tell us that, worldwide, one in six of us will have experienced a mental-health struggle in the past week, and serious depression is the second-leading cause of disability (Mental Health Foundation).
That means there are brothers and sisters in our church families battling with thoughts, feelings, impulses and even voices that distract, drag down and nudge them towards despair. But when it comes to helping, it can be tricky to know where to begin, especially if we have very little knowledge of mental illnesses and are afraid of making things worse by saying and doing the wrong things.
This wise, compassionate and practical book is written by Steve Midgley, who worked in psychiatry and then as a pastor and is now Executive Director of Biblical Counselling UK, and Helen Thorne, Director of Training and Resources at Biblical Counselling UK. It will help readers understand and respond with biblical wisdom to people who are struggling with their mental health.
While acknowledging the importance of liaising responsibly with medics and counsellors, this book focuses on equipping readers to play their part in making churches places where those who struggle with mental-health conditions are welcomed, understood, nurtured and supported: a foretaste of the new creation.
This is a useful book for anyone who cares for others pastorally: pastors, elders, small-group leaders and congregation members.
About The Author
Product Details
- Cover Type:
- 192 Pages
- Publisher: The Good Book Co
- Publication Date: March 2023
- ISBN: FMIDGLST____MENTALHEALTHANDYOURC9781784987787