A few months ago, Barna Group released a book titled Restoring Relationships that looks at their research on the challenges individuals and couples are experiencing with mental, emotional, and relational health and how the church could help. Barna looked at topics including marital issues, unwanted singleness, parenting issues, struggles with sexual intimacy, addiction, anxiety/depression, pornography, loneliness. Of course, COVID-19 made some drastic changes to the research results, and Barna shared some follow-up work in August to see if there were any changes.
Since putting the book together, Barna actually released updated data they for free; your church should look at the information for your mental health ministry, especially with regards to COVID-19 impacts. Prior to 2020, church leaders believed that the primary concern for the congregation was the spiritual well-being of congregants; in 2020, this concern increased by 10%. Church leaders rated emotional wellbeing as less important, by 6%. Many churches saw an increase in relational well-being, of 4%, which is understandable with quarantines and increased Zoom calls.
I love the key point that Barna notes in their research:
Barna research indicates that challenges to emotional, relational and mental health tend to aggravate one another—that is, if someone is struggling in one of these areas, it’s statistically more likely that they will be struggling in the other two areas as well.
Pastors' Mental Health Decreased
The research not only looked at how pastors see the concerns of their congregation, but of the pastor's own mental health. The following statistics are concerning, with the significant drop in pastors' answering the question "how are you feeling right now?"
Though alarming, there may be a few less concerning reasons for this:
Greater awareness means greater understanding of where they honestly are. If you do not think about mental health very often, people will casually state they are doing fine, but are simply unaware of their true feelings. Being aware of your emotions is the beginning of growth, and is a good thing.
Working on your mental health can cause distress. Just as starting a diet isn't fun, or working out when you feel exhausted, after a routine has been established and some success has been shown in working through emotional or mental health issues, many find people will soon find themselves thriving.
Isolation, decreased church attendance, decreased tithing, fear of the unknown, not having full answers for this season of change while working with congregation members, the divisive political climate, and possible job loss have all caused pastors distress and decreased emotional well-being.
Are We Staying Connected?
The final focus of the research was on the connection of relationships in general, but then the specifically on the question: do people still feel connected during the pandemic? Back in April, when the data was collected, Christians had a greater sense of community. In counseling, we call this prosocial activities, a way of having shared commonality through our faith. Others may experience prosocial activities by volunteering with others, joining art classes, or becoming part of a softball team. Barna does not have an answer for how people have maintained connection through the pandemic, but I am interested in what may come of this ongoing research.
An indirect correlation from the follow-up study found that 67% of churches are open to the public now, and 55% of pastors are rethinking their interactions, due to social distancing expectations. We shall see how this impacts relationships and mental health as time goes on.
What is your church doing about mental health during this time? Does your church reflect these trends? What has been working or not working for your church, regarding maintaining relationships and strengthening mental health? We'd love to hear in the comments below.
Jeremy Smith is a clinical mental health counselor in Ohio and founder of www.churchandmentalhealth.com.
