From the United Church of Christ to the Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America to the Church of the Brethren, pastors across denominations are encountering people in acute mental health crisis. No matter where clergy find ourselves serving God, we pastorally encounter those who are living with mental illness. Furthermore, mental illness doesn’t skip some denominations’ clergy and settle in others. Any pastor can live with or develop a mental health condition over the course of their ministry. And every pastor is likely to encounter someone in acute mental health crisis during their ministry. Despite the sustained stigma surrounding mental health in Christian circles, many people still turn to their local pastor before seeking out care from a mental health provider or physician. This undergirds the importance of clergy and church communities becoming better equipped to be welcoming and affirming spaces for those with mental health conditions.

Even when theological beliefs differ, pastoral leaders must strike a balanced, appropriate, and life-giving/saving perspective of the need for faithful prayer and reliance on God with the scientifically proven and life-saving interventions of therapy and medication. Dr. Matthew Stanford explores the concept of scientists often struggling with the idea of the Spirit, as it can be difficult to study or quantify in scientifically satisfactory ways.^[i] This resonated with me as a pastor in a progressive geographical location and as a part of a progressive mainline denomination, the United Church of Christ. Often I find that even the most faithful churchgoers in churches I have served find it challenging to engage their faith and God in their most trying times in life. As anxiety rises in the midst of health challenges (physical or mental), grief, relationship issues, financial hardship, or other life circumstances, many people in the contexts I serve lean on science, secular research, and other secular experts exclusively. I appreciate Dr. Stanford’s proposal of a balance between science and faith. Together science and faith work harmoniously in addressing the complexities of one’s whole self (mind, body, and spirit). One without the other neglects to address the whole holistic self. Both conservative evangelical churches and progressive liberal churches can improve in their understanding of the need for both science and faith and balance between the two.

Even in denominations very different from my own, more progressive liberal context, many clergy leaders arrive at very similar theological assertions of God’s relationship to people with mental health conditions. Many clergy agree that we are all people made in the image of God, and that the state of imago Dei does not change when someone is living with mental illness.^[ii] Another, often core, theological assertion among clergy across denominations is that we are all one in the body of Christ and that when one part of that body or one person in that body suffers, we all do.^[iii] 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 25-27 is the basis for an understanding of both unity and suffering in the body of Christ. Understanding that when one person or part of the body suffers, we all do is one part of the understanding of our psycho-social, spiritual, and physical connectedness. The other part to understand is that our flourishing is also connected to the flourishing of others. To lift up those from marginalized groups, including those with mental illness, benefits the body of Christ as a whole.

Two core understandings are imperative:

1. that we are made in the image of God (imago Dei) and
2. that we are all a part of God’s body,

These two core understandings create a foundation of dignity and unity among the people of the church, both clergy and laity, regarding how we think about people living with mental health conditions.