May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Dearest Mount Olivet Community, 

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. In May, we are launching a new sermon series on faith and mental health. Because this can be a tender and complex topic, we wanted to reach out and let you know more fully what to expect. 

Scripture calls us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind (Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Luke 10:27). Caring for our minds, therefore, is a spiritual practice. Yet many of us neglect mental health care as part of caring for our whole selves. 

While there is greater openness in our culture around mental health, many people are also carrying increased stress, anxiety, grief, trauma, and other mental health challenges. The layered burdens brought on by events outside our control can intensify existing conditions or create new struggles. 

Your pastors believe faith can help, because we have experienced faith sustaining each of us in our own journeys with mental health challenges and emotional wellbeing. Our faith gives us both tools and truths to help us care for our minds, so that we can use them to love God, our neighbors, and ourselves. 

Talking about mental health can bring up painful memories and experiences, so we are sharing the schedule ahead of the series. The second week, in particular, will touch on suicide. If that or any of these topics is not safe for you to sit with, please know there is no shame in opting out. If you are struggling with any of these topics, please reach out to one of us and take gentle care of yourself. 

Each week we will talk about a different way mental health challenges can present themselves: 

Sunday, May 3 | Clouds in the Sky: Living with Ongoing & Chronic Mental Health Challenges 

Many of us go about our daily lives carrying depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or other ongoing mental health conditions that mean our minds are not always working in our favor. How can faith help us calm, cope, and center ourselves in God’s truths about us? How can Christians support healthy practices in ourselves and our neighbors? 

Sunday, May 10 | When the Waves Roll In: Facing a Mental Health Crisis 

Sometimes mental health conditions intensify into a full crisis, making it difficult to function as we would want. What does our faith say to us in a crisis? How can Christians support others in those scary and crucial moments? 

Sunday, May 24 | The Immovable Mountain: When Mental Health Needs Are Severe 

Just like physical health conditions, some mental health conditions respond well to treatment and management, but not all. How do we pursue faith while living with severe and persistent mental health challenges? How can Christians welcome and include our neighbors, seeing beyond labels? 

Sunday, May 31 | The Unfamiliar Landscape: Seeking to Understand Others 

Most of us know and love someone living with mental health challenges we do not personally share. How can our faith support us in supporting them? How can we offer empathy from the outside, when we can never fully understand? 

So that you will know what you can expect, here are a few of the guidelines we will use when we preach: 

We promise to stay in our lane. We are not trained therapists or psychologists. We are pastors. We are not equipped to diagnose or treat clinical conditions, but we are equipped to walk alongside you, speak God’s truths, and remind you of God’s love. 

We promise to treat faith and science as compatible partners in health. God has given us extraordinary gifts in medication and evidence-based therapeutic practices. Faithful mental health care honors God by making use of those gifts, along with prayer, scripture, and religious community. 

We promise to use loving language for people experiencing mental health challenges. The church has a long and painful history of treating people dismissively or even cruelly, sometimes framing mental health struggles as sin or spiritual failure. Yet Jesus was drawn again and again to people who were suffering, to heal and restore them. All people, regardless of what is happening in their minds, will be treated as beloved children of God. 

This is only the opening of a much bigger conversation. Here are a few extra resources if you need them: 

  • The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has incredible resources, both nationally and locally - https://www.nami.org/  

This topic is near and dear to both of your pastors, and we are looking forward to proclaiming God’s hope for our minds during the month of May. It is our prayer that you will find the series meaningful, helpful, and hopeful as well. 

Peace be with you, 

Pastor Desirée and Pastor Michelle 

“Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” — Isaiah 41:10