Editor’s note: Readers who preordered Mental Health and the Church should be receiving their physical and electronic copies of the book today. Would you please join with our Key Ministry team that God would use these new resources to greatly increase the number of people who come to know Jesus, profess their faith in him, and contribute their gifts and talents in service of the mission of the local church?
Now that our model to assist churches in developing a mental health inclusion strategy is publicly available, I’d like to spread the word about some of the tools and resources our Key Ministry team has developed to assist readers serving on ministry teams seeking to implement the ideas presented in the book.
The first resource is our free Mental Health Ministry Planning Tool. It is intended to help ministry leaders implement the ideas presented in Mental Health and the Church. A key idea presented in the book is that individuals and families impacted by a broad range of mental health conditions encounter seven common barriers to church involvement – stigma, anxiety, executive functioning, sensory processing, social communication and social isolation. The tool is designed to help church leaders consider how each of the seven barriers manifest within the specific ministry areas or support functions for which they are responsible – children’s, student, family, adult or small group ministries, worship team, communication team or facilities management. The tool also contains lots of questions to illustrate how the seven broad inclusion strategies described in the book may be applied to help overcome existing barriers within their area of ministry.
Readers interested in downloading this free tool may click here. You’ll be asked a few questions to help us better understand the types of help you might need in implementing your mental health inclusion strategy. The link to the free download is contained in the e-mail response you’ll receive from our team after completing the registration.
The second resource is an invitation to join an online book study Key Ministry is launching on Facebook, scheduled to begin on Tuesday, February 20th. I’ll be directing an in-depth discussion of Mental Health and the Church and interacting with readers of the book. The book study will be conducted as a “closed” Facebook group to promote a higher quality of dialogue. Members of this group, along with members of the Mental Health Inclusion Ministry Leaders Group (described here) sponsored by Key Ministry will receive invitations to live meet-ups hosted via Zoom for real time discussions of the book.
Here’s a link to a common registration form for persons interested in taking part in the Mental Health and the Church book study and/or Key Ministry’s ongoing Mental Health Inclusion Ministry Leaders group.
Finally, if your church is reading the book as a team, seeking to implement a mental health inclusion ministry strategy and would like to set up a time to discuss issues specific to your process, I may have some limited availability to meet remotely with your ministry team. If you’d like to try to schedule a time for a videoconference with your church’s mental health inclusion team, please do so through the “Contact Us” page on Key Ministry’s website.
We hope that by making available all of these resources, every church will have the tools they need to implement a mental health inclusion strategy customized to meet the needs of the people in the communities they serve!
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In Mental Health and the Church: A Ministry Handbook for Including Children and Adults with ADHD, Anxiety, Mood Disorders, and Other Common Mental Health Conditions, Dr. Stephen Grcevich presents a simple and flexible model for mental health inclusion ministry for implementation by churches of all sizes, denominations, and organizational styles. The book is also designed to be a useful resource for parents, grandparents and spouses seeking to promote the spiritual growth of loved ones with mental illness. Available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ChristianBook and other fine retailers everywhere.
