“Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body.”

— César Vichard de Saint-Réal: 17th-century French author

“A wise man should consider that health is the greatest
of human blessings, and learn how by his own
thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.”
Hippocrates

“For he who has health has hope; and
he who has hope, has everything.”
Owen Arthur

For he who has health has hope; and
he who has hope, has everything

Owen Arthur, Prime minister of Barbados

Read about one Christian father’s walk.

June is a very special month to celebrate fathers.  While we tend to make a very big deal about Mother’s day, sometimes Father’s day gets overlooked. So I have decided to dedicate the month of June to talk about fathering.

I am very blessed to have grown up in a two parent household with a very supportive and loving mother AND father. I can remember my dad coming to the school to give me medicine, driving me all over the city to programs and events, being there when people made me angry, giving me flowers every Valentine’s day, encouraging me to try out for sports (even though we both knew I wasn’t that good) and all the time loving me.

Unfortunately, there are many who don’t grow up with the same experiences and the absence of a father can cause problems beyond the individual scope. According the the Ad Council, “More than 79% of Americans feel “the most significant family or social problem facing America is the physical absence of the father from the home.”  Thus the absence of a father becomes a public health problem and has been shown to correlate with substance abuse, emotional problems, and crime rates.

As the rate of single parent homes is continuing to rise, skewed more to mother-only households, a call to action can be made in our faith communities:  

• Offer parenting classes. Teach men how to be fathers. Give them the support they need to learn what it means to be a dad. Click here for more ideas of resources.
• If there are children in your congregation without fathers in the home, provide mentors for them. Teach them and support them as you would your own child.
• Get fathers more involved in their children’s life. Watch the commercials from the Ad Council’s campaign on fathering.

” The purpose in life is a life of purpose.”

Robert Byrne

Continuing with the theme of mental health, here are two more sources I thought were interesting:

• A very interesting article about the background of the black church and mental health and the Emotional Fitness Centers of Tennessee posted by my friends at HopeandHealing.org . Click here to read.
• Souls in the Hands of a Tender God explores the connection between mental health and faith through Craig Rennebohm’s account of people living on the streets of Seattle that are afflicted with mental illness. Rennebohm offers a study guide to accompany his book as well as a powerpoint to be used as a part of a study group.

Coupled with the recent release of The Soloist featuring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr., these resources could open the door for a conversation about the work we can do within our faith communities to help those who are suffering.

After finishing a very long and hard semester, I had to take a “mental health” week to give myself a break,but I’m back!

 One of the projects I worked on this semester was a documentary film called “Road to Recovery: Living with Mental Illness” (soon to be on line) which focuses on highlighting members of the Birmingham community in an effort to reduce stigma.

Working on this film really opened my eyes to the major disadvantages that consumers of mental health are faced with everyday, very similar to some of the same things Jesus was faced with: being an outcast, not being understood by peers,  being overlooked for their greatness. As Christians, we are taught to love thy neighbor and just as we love our neighbors who may have diabetes or cancer, we should have that same love for those living with mental illness. Mental illness is a topic that we tend to overlook as an actual health issue, especially in our faith communities.

Because May is Mental Health Month, I wanted to share a couple of interesting organizations that are working to help faith communities learn how to deal with mental illness.

NAMI, National Alliance for Mentally Ill, created a network called NAMI Faithnet  to provide resources for NAMI members, friends, family and clergy in creating a faith community that is welcoming and supportive to those living with mental illness. On this site, you will find many interesting resources, in particular the role the faith community has played in stigma and way of ministering to those living with mental illness.

Another organization, Mental Health Ministries, was started by Rev. Susan Gregg-Schroeder to produce resources to help erase stigma within our faith communities. She has written books about the topic as well as produced videos for churches to learn more about how to work with the mentally ill. Watch a short video about her work.

Pathways to Promise offers many resources for clergy in their role of dealing with crisis situation and problems that may affect the families. They even give an award for model ministries working in mental health.

Explore some of these options or tell me about some you are familiar with!