The Presbyterian Outlook

News and Articles from the The Presbyterian Outlook

Top Search/Contact Area

Mental health, small churches and hope — March 4, 2019

by Leave a Comment

Social isolation is growing. Studies reveal that fully half of Americans report being lonely. Rates of suicide in the United States are higher than they have been in half a century. Research also reveals that strong ties to community contribute to better health and even longevity. The church, therefore, can play a critical role in addressing the well-being of not only those in our pews, but those living all around us. This issue of the Outlook offers resources, stories and insights on how communities of faith can address issues of mental health and belonging. Click here to read the issue in the Uberflip reader. Continuing the dance of faith and service A small congregation in San Antonio and a nonprofit partner to keep step with their community.  Leslie Scanlon reports. Caring for veterans Communities of faith can play an important role in helping combat veterans achieve post-traumatic growth. Sharing stories to reduce stigma Resources and approaches for talking about … [Read more...]

Tagged With: mental health • small church

Being a balm in Gilead: Creating a Presbyterian mental illness ministry network

by Leave a Comment

LOUISVILLE – How can Presbyterians respond to the needs of people living with mental illness in their congregations, their communities and their families? A “Comfort My People” consultation – stemming from the 2018 General Assembly’s approval of an overture on mental illness initiated by Mission Presbytery in Texas  – is meeting in Louisville Feb. 11-13. The work of this summit includes, in part, creating a national mental illness ministry network in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), as well as a strategy for allocating $250,000 in grant money available for congregations, seminaries and mid councils to do work related to mental illness. Some possible examples of grant applications: a congregation hosts a community concert, with time for people to give testimonies about their experience with mental illness and the need for support and care. It offers a weekend training retreat on mental illness for congregational leaders – including those working with teenagers. Or a church … [Read more...]

Tagged With: mental health

Addiction and recovery: Presbyterian congregations respond to opioid epidemic

by Leave a Comment

Robert Hedges, a Presbyterian minister who leads the Resurrection Power recovery ministry in Washington, Pennsylvania, describes the work he does as “the greatest show on earth. We have the privilege of working with people who want to start to get well. They come in, and they’re angry at God, and their eyes are glazed over because they’re stuck in that lifestyle” of drug and alcohol addiction. The men and women living at Resurrection Power’s four recovery houses attend 12-step meetings. For those who stick with it, “they start to stay clean because they want to stay clean, not because their probation officer is going to drug test them every week,” Hedges said. “It’s really exciting to see God at work, to see their understandings of God evolve. We just say we’re hanging on to God’s coat tails. … We get to see the miracles.” More and more, Presbyterians are coming face to face with the opioid epidemic – in their own communities, churches and families. Talk to Presbyterian pastors … [Read more...]

Tagged With: mental health

Let’s say that we are more than our tragedies and our triumphs

by Leave a Comment

Unlike that brashness of the snowcapped peaks out West, the Blue Ridge Mountains are elder statemen, gently sloped and quietly easing across the horizon in suspended waves. Tucked away in those ancient ridges like your grandfather’s handkerchief in his shirt pocket are summer camps where you experience the difference between a sixth-grade boy and an eighth-grade girl like that between the Appalachian Mountains and the Rockies. When I was 11, I was small for my age. Adults at church said that I would grow into my feet, although I rarely gave any thought to the future. At summer camp, I spent most of the week in the woods behind the basketball courts, building rock forts with my new friend. Let’s call him Eli. Let’s picture him as even shorter than me with frizzy hair and freckles, sporting a calculator watch on his left wrist. Eli sat next to me in the cafeteria as we pushed food around on our plates. Both of us were homesick, a fact we recognized in each other and so had no need … [Read more...]

Tagged With: mental health

My mom and me: Theological comfort and the suicide crisis

by Leave a Comment

Guest commentary by Chip Hardwick The news earlier this summer came almost too quickly to digest. Upscale handbag designer Kate Spade, fresh off the 2017 list of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business,” reportedly took her life on Tuesday, June 5. Only three days later on June 8, celebrity chef and former bon vivant Anthony Bourdain was found dead in his hotel room in France after apparently choosing to end his life. As the news ricocheted around, similar reactions emerged. Spade’s handbags have a “lighthearted, all-American style,” which made it hard to imagine her taking her life. Tributes to Bourdain included statements such as, “If I could choose anyone’s life, I would be him.”  No one seemed capable of wrapping their mind around why these seemingly well-put-together public figures would die by suicide. My mind didn’t spend any time exploring these celebrities’ motivations; it was far too busy revisiting 1997.  That fall my stepmother, the only mom I had known … [Read more...]

Tagged With: mental health

CONTACT US: