In this episode of Key Ministry: The Podcast with cohost Catherine Boyle, we’ll explore the biblical concept of lament, and discuss why lament should be a necessary ingredient to help churches come alongside people with mental health needs.
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Transcript:
This is Catherine Boyle, and you are listening to Key Ministry: The Podcast. This is episode 3, “Lament: An Important Ingredient for Mental Health Ministry.” In this episode, we’ll explore the biblical concept of lament, and discuss why lament should be a necessary ingredient to help churches come alongside people with mental health needs.
This is our third podcast episode, and my first opportunity to talk with you as cohost. If you’re new here, I serve as Key Ministry’s mental health ministry director. I’ve been in this role with Key Ministry since 2018, and before that, served in ministry leadership in two other non-profits, both focused on mental health. But my experience with mental health is also personal, for myself and other friends and family. In my late teens and early twenties, I struggled with both anorexia and bulimia, and have experienced anxiety, depression and social anxiety my whole life. I’ve also been in church my whole life, and have served in many ministry and church volunteer capacities.
My focus in our podcasts will be on mental health, both from the perspective of providing practical strategies for churches to come alongside individuals and families with mental health needs, and also addressing the importance of supporting your own mental health in ways that align with Scripture. When Dr. Grcevich, Key Ministry’s president and founder, will talk with you about mental health, his approach will focus on his deep knowledge and experience with mental health conditions from a Christ-following psychiatrist’s viewpoint.
In January of this year, Dr. Grcevich, Beth Golik and I traveled to Orlando to attend the Children’s Pastor’s Conference, a large national conference hosted by INCM - the International Network of Children’s Ministry. Browsing through the first few pages of the conference program, I was surprised to see a focus on ‘lament.’ And just last week, I spoke at a different conference where one of the other speakers asked this question: “When was the last time your church held a public service of lament?”
Lament is one of those topics mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments that is hardly ever mentioned in churches today. When I’ve heard the word used, it’s often been in the context of regret for failing to act when an opportunity presented itself. But that’s not at all how biblical writers used the word. Lament, as it was expressed by King David and the prophet Jeremiah, was much deeper and communicated far more pain that mere regret.
The concept of lament or the actual word appears 75 times in the Old and New Testaments. That means that lament was both common to experience and common to express. In Scripture, both songs and spoken word expressed lament.
So why is it a foreign concept for modern Christ-followers?
Perhaps it has to do with the intensity of the emotion ‘lament’ expresses. Strong expression of emotion can make people very uncomfortable.
Perhaps it has to do with the modern church’s propensity to focus on short passages of scripture conveying a direct gospel message, rather than this concept that might seem like a tangent to the gospel, at best. But many of those seeming tangents in scripture include vital information for Christ-followers. In the case of lament, it is obvious from scripture that a formal expression of pain with other believers provides benefit to both the individual and the faith community. If this was true in biblical times, then a proper use of lament today may help restore both individuals and faith communities.
The need for lament has never stopped being a ‘thing.’ We see evidence of the need for lament everywhere, hidden in plain sight.
The need for lament is hidden underneath outbursts of rage; it’s revealed in the day after day after day tears that never stop falling in long seasons of depression. It’s hiding underneath plastered smiles and white lies stating that ‘everything is fine’ in marriages hanging on by a thread - and those same kinds of white lies we say and hear when greeting fellow church members on Sunday mornings.
One of the most well-known examples of lament in scripture is the book of Job, where Job, a godly man, experiences tragedy and unexpected suffering, and basically can’t wrap his mind around what has happened in his life.
Hopefully none of us experience the devastation that came upon Job, but one thing that is consistent, whether we’re talking about Job’s pain or mine, is that pain and grief want to be expressed. And I believe that God gave us examples of lament as a means of expressing feelings and emotions that could otherwise leave us emotionally and spiritually shipwrecked, and cause us to turn away from God, rather than turn to Him.
In addition to Job, other scriptural examples of the context of lament range from David singing a dirge over the deaths of King Saul and his son Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17 - 27), Jeremiah chanting a lament on behalf of the nation of Israel at the death of King Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:24-25), and the response of godly first-century Christians at the death of the martyr Stephen (Acts 8:2).
Lament has a pattern—a rhythm of sorts—where a person or church is honest about their pain with both God and other people. But then, rather than turning away from God, the individual or church instead presses into relationship with Him, affirming trust in Him, even within the pain and lack of understanding of ‘why.’ Lament gives a person who is suffering an opportunity to know that they are not alone, that their pain is legitimate, and see that the Church is with them in their pain. Rather than weakening relationships, expressing vulnerability with other believers at an appropriate time strengthens relationship.
The body of Christ grows stronger when expressing shared lament.
When we turn to Him, and follow this pattern, for whatever God-ordained reason, the presence of God with us in our suffering brings spiritual and emotional healing and peace. In the wrestling with God that takes place in ‘lament,’ modern believers can learn like Job did that grief and worship are not incompatible. Somehow, in ways we’ll never understand this side of eternity, this meeting of truth and God’s grace provides comfort and a deeper relationship with Him.
So what is the end result of lament? It’s hope.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 says that there is an appointed time for everything, for every event under Heaven, including, in verse 4:
“…a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance….”
Our world is filled with challenges, whether we live with mental health struggles or visible disabilities. Even if we have neither of those challenges, no one is immune to disappointments, heartbreak and reasons for sorrow. Isn’t it amazing that coming to God with other believers, even in the midst of the messy and hard is a comfort like no other?
As part of your mental health ministry, I encourage you to consider holding services or times for public lament. Read scripture, express pain, and follow the example of those who have gone before us to press deeply into relationship with Him. And let Him do the good work of multiplying hope.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Key Ministry: The Podcast where we talked about lament, an important ingredient in mental health ministry. You can find a transcript of this episode and other show notes at keyministry.org/podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and give it a 5-star rating! And be sure to share the podcast in your social media. That will help other people know it’s also the right podcast for them. Join us next week for another episode of Key Ministry: The Podcast!
