I’ve always said our greatest ministry comes out of our greatest pain. That’s why Kay and I have focused the last few years on helping churches better engage people with mental illness.
Many of you know that our younger son, Matthew, battled mental illness almost his entire life. His profound suffering impacted everyone in our family. He experienced many, many moments of despair over his short 27 years of life. Then, in 2013, in one impulsive moment of despair, Matthew took his life.
In the months after Matthew’s death, Kay and I decided we wouldn’t waste our pain. We wanted God to use the pain to help local churches around the world faithfully serve the mentally ill.
As we prayed about what God wanted us to do to help Saddleback and other churches minister in this area, God gave us five biblical truths to establish the foundation of everything we do:
1. Every person has dignity.
God made every single person in his image and for his purpose. Mental illness doesn’t change that truth one bit. If a person’s heart is beating right now, God has a purpose for his or her life, even if it isn’t easy to see.
Isaiah 46:3 says, “I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born” (NLT). God cares for us from the moment we are conceived to the moment we stop breathing. That means we don’t have dignity because a government says we do. We don’t have dignity because of our economic status. Our dignity doesn’t come from our appearance or from psychology.
Our Creator gives us our dignity.
Just read Psalm 139. The Bible says that God formed each of us in our mother’s womb. He saw us before we were born and scheduled every day of our lives.
That’s how much God thinks of us—and all other people on this planet, no matter how confused their minds may be.
2. All of us are broken.
As we deal with people struggling with mental illness, we must remember that we live in a fallen world. All of us have mental illnesses. We all have our own weaknesses and wounds. We have our own fears, obsessive thoughts, and compulsions.
We don’t minister to those with mental illness by lording our mental state over them. We’re not better than them. We are them.
That means we need each other. It’s why God allows disabilities. If you didn’t have any disabilities, you would be arrogant. You’d be self-centered. You wouldn’t need anyone’s help.
3. Even though we’re broken, we’re deeply loved and valued.
I love what God says in Jeremiah 31:3: “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (CSB). God’s love for you and for everyone living with mental illness is unconditional and unending. God’s love isn’t fickle. It’s consistent. Our brokenness doesn’t make God love us any less. What we do doesn’t add anything or subtract anything from our value.
If I wadded up a $50 bill, would you still want it? If I rubbed it in dirt, would you take it? Of course you would! No matter how much damage you do to a $50 bill, its value doesn’t change. It’s still worth $50.
The same is true for people who are struggling with mental illness. No matter how sick people are, God still loves them. God still values them. We should, too.
4. We get well within relationships.
No one has all of the solutions to mental illness. But we have each other. This is where the church really shines. We’re better together.
Galatians 6:2 tells us to reach out to those who are oppressed and fulfill Christ’s law of love. Mental illness tends to create isolation. It’s one of the most tragic ways mental illness impacts people’s lives. Nothing is worse for someone who is struggling with mental illness than to be isolated from others.
Our churches must become places where people can be honest about their mental illnesses. We need to become places of hope and refuge for broken people. Too often people with mental illnesses must wear masks everywhere they go. Let our churches become the places where people with mental illness can discover they will never be alone again.
5. What isn’t healed on earth will be healed in heaven.
That’s good news that’ll keep all of us pressing on when this kind of ministry gets difficult (and it will). We can’t give up. We can’t stop helping—because this world isn’t the end of the story.
But I’ve read the end of the book. We win. We win against illness. We win against brokenness. Revelation 21:4 reminds us that one day God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Pastor, the men and women struggling with mental illness need to know this. They need to know that mental illness will not win.
I believe we’re just at the beginning of what God wants to do through the church to minister to those with mental illness. With these five truths as the core of our mandate, God will use the church to heal the broken and battered of this world.
Know that we’re praying for you and pulling for you in this work!
Dear Pastor Warren, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this valuable post. It is so easy to become self-righteous in this world that promotes a life of fake beauty and success, of lies, fraud, fake, mask and pretense.
Your 5 foundation points give food for deep thought and stir up honesty. God bless you! We will keep you in our prayer. Johnny & Veronika
In fact, we could be the disabled ones if we can’t relate to one of God ‘s criatures and he does. The social disability may be in us and not in the so called disabled.
Thank you so much for writing this, Pastor Warren. My son, who is 34 years old and battles depression and mental illness. when you said that mental illness tends to create isolation I started to cry as my son is a truck driver and lives in a truck and doesn’t have a home to return to when he is off the road. Although he has brothers and sisters who live nearby he doesn’t have a lot of contact with them and I live too far away to see him very often.
Please pray for him and that the Lord will work in his life and bring him a mentor that can help him and also a family he can be with. He is saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. His father and myself did missionary work for many years in Latin America and he was saved at an early age and knows the Lord.
Thank you for all you are doing to help those with mental illness!
God bless and keep you always!
A loving and concerned Mother
Thank you for the above truths. I was searching for discussion points for a meeting coming up training new Deacon candidates about behavioral health. You are always a blessing.
It was great. I’m so happy to have my church family otherwise I couldn’t make it. It’s made me cry. I’m so thankful
Thank you Pastor Rick & Kay
For the word of God I receive every morning. So sorry for your Matthews feelings he had to try to work out. I pray for you both. Blessings comfort and the peace that only He can give.
Janet
We all have worth whether sane, sober, mental or physical problems God loves All of us. God came to earth especially for the least of his children. Paul Williams pastor Haven (a mental health & drug rehab)
This is an amazing start for people to read who are burdened with the struggle or pain of mental health severities within themselves, family or friends. The scripture supports God’s love for those afflicted with mental health challenges, that God loves all who are afflicted and will never leave nor forsake them. We need this country to read this to have a basic understanding of where we all fit into God’s Grace and Mercy to begin helping us embrace those with mental health challenges. Thank you for stepping out in faith in using your huge loss of Matthew as a way to reach others in honoring him. With God’s love, Anne M. Just
This article is succinct and effective and I am going to use it in our “hope for mental health” group for newcomers. “journey toward hope” is excellent, we have been using it since you first offered it at the Summit before it was pulled temporarily. I wish to express my deepest condolences concerning your son. Joy inexpressible awaits you when you are reunited again with him and Jesus. I have dealt with mental illness for 40 years, 10 years of hell, 30 years with the right meds. Schizophrenia, Major Depression, Bipolar, and Anxiety are my unwelcome companions. I have a blog about my relationship with Jesus, my relationship with mental illness, and the combination of both: https://i-m-4-u.com By the way, I am not a pastor, but I play one on TV. No, just kidding. I am a State of Michigan Certified Peer Support Specialist but I find value in subscribing. Thank you for what you do for us. I thank your wife too.
Powerful words so real so true, thank you so much Pastor Rick, God bless you and use you more for this generation
My heart goes out to you Rick and your family for your loss. I too have a son named Joshua who is schizophrenic. He’s a beautiful young man now 32 yrs old. As a mother nothing in this world could prepare you for such a devastating illness. I’ve never felt so helpless in all my life. With God’s amazing Grace, Josh is better and I’ve accepted that maybe God’s will is to not heal my son but his unconditional love has blessed me. Thank you for your ministry and for opening my heart and mind to the truth of God’s unending unrelenting perfect Love.
Amo la aiglesia, sus pastores a través de las predicas me han edificado enormemente, me han llevado a conocer de Dios y ha tener un firme propósito de ser mejor persona cada día. De ser sensible a las necesidades de los demás, soy especialista en Salud Mental y aprecio muchisimo estos tips.
Con amor, bendiciones por siempre
Thank you Ps. Rick Warren for sharing. May God help us find ourselves in these truths and use us in this world more.
Thank you pastor Rick Warren for sharing. So thankful for you.
Thank you, Pastor,
I have been lost in mental illness/ isolation since 1988…
Your article melted my heart.
I can begin to see the horizon, there is hope!
Thank you Pastor Rick for the loving reminder that we’re all broken! I’m almost an octogenarian and instead of being looked after by my wife, I am looking after her. She’s not been mentally well for nearly 3 years and I’ve walked with her all the way. It’s a real privilege to be able to do this. Thank you for all you have done for us through PASTORS.com. God Bless always. RJC
Really ecourange me even my English not good,but still felt touch by God’s word.how great if all the messages can translate to Chinese.
May God bless your ministry.
Thank you Pastor Warren! This is an on time word! On my way to work each morning, I see this homeless man on the corner begging for money. I know that he is hungry and I know that the man does drugs. It’s a community of them that lives on the corner. But this morning was different. I saw the man laying under a blanket, on the concrete sleep. I immediately started praying and my heart was breaking for him. As I was praying and crying, God put it on my heart that he is mentally ill. I prayed that God would give me wisdom on how to help and minister to him. I thank God for hearing my prayer.
i have been a pastor to the forgotten people in our church for more than 25 years that includes the mentally ill who find their way to us. Because of the lack of funding for treatment a lot of them end up on the streets or in our county jail. This adds to the stigma they already face
It is a constant matter of educating our other church attenders to the fact that God loves the mentally challenged as He loves all of us. Judgement can be a hard thing to overcome in our fallen world.
Thank you sharing.
Please recommend some resources to help people isolated by depression. I’m struggling knowing how to help them not be isolated. Thanks for sharing your experiences and supporting people trying to figure out how to help.
Hello Anne,
You can find resources on mental health at this link on our website: https://store.pastors.com/resources/church-health/mental-health.html
You can also check out Kay Warren’s website http://kaywarren.com/mentalhealth/ for additional resources.
We are thankful for your caring heart for the mental health initiative!
I am so encouraged by this message. The Church has long needed to lead the way on mental illness. I work with parolees, many who continue to be incarcerated by their own fears and addictions. Our organization is on the cutting edge of offering hope by providing proven group therapies and neurofeedback therapy. Although we are not a faith based organization, our mission is to offer unconditional positive regard to all our clients. In other words, show them Jesus by affirming their value.
I have been waiting for the purpose driven life what on earth am i here for i havent recieved it. I cant wait to read it.
Thank you for sharing your personal story of Matthew and using that to help save others and bring them into God’s Kingdom through the church. I suffered from a mental illness when I was divorced after a 32 year marriage. I had to be hospitalized for 3 years. Today I am free in Christ and I still take a mood balancer with an anti-psychotic in it each day in small doses. I have been symptom free since 2009 with Christ’s help and good doctors. I love the anointing that God has on your ministry and have gained much help through the Celebrate Recovery program at Lakepointe Church Town East Campus in Mesquite, Texas over the years. We minister to many with mental illness issues, as well as all other types of issues. God bless you.
Very timely. Our 40 year old son also Matthew battling at the moment