142: Mental Health Awareness Month & How A Small Church Can Make An Impact | with Laura Howe

With epidemic levels of loneliness, depression, and anxiety disorders today, small churches have a unique opportunity to step into their community like never before. 

Mental Health Awareness Month and World Mental Health Day are perfect opportunities to join a movement that’s changing lives. 

Listen in as Laura Howe, founder of Hope Made Strong and the Church Mental Health Summit, shares practical ways for small churches to walk alongside those who long to know they are not alone. 

We’re talking about:

• Why you don’t need a mental health degree to offer hope to those who are hurting
• The incredible power of walking alongside people and listening without fixing
• Popular Christian quips to avoid that inadvertently lead people farther from the church
• How to access a completely free resource with everything you need to host a Mental Health Sunday at your church

Connect with Laura Howe:
Free Registration to the Chruch Mental Health Summit 2024: https://www.churchmentalhealthsummit.com/a/2147852404/yFsGboSZ
Free Mental Health Sunday Toolkit: https://www.hopemadestrong.org/2024MentalHealthSunday
The Sanctuary Course: https://sanctuarymentalhealth.org/sanctuary-course/
The Care Ministry Podcast with Laura Howe: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-care-ministry-podcast/id1580616639

Join our free Facebook Community: www.facebook.com/groups/smallchurchministry


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Transcript

Laurie Acker: 0:01

Hey, this is Laurie Acker. Welcome to the small church ministry podcast. Hey, hey, welcome back to another Maggie Zink episode of the small church ministry podcast. One of my favorite things, as I've shared before, is just connecting with just super special people all over the world and and I really mean that, like in a small church, sometimes we feel a bit isolated, like we've got this little community here, and we see, you know, other churches or bigger places, or we feel like we're not really making the connections we want, and through small church ministry, can I just like give a shout out, like we've met amazing people, and you get to meet another one today. Laura Howe is with us. She has experience in smaller churches. She runs an amazing organization called Hope made strong. She has the best mental health summit for Christian churches everywhere and literally International. So you guys get to meet Laura Howe today, and I got to meet her in person not too long ago. But before we get into our topic for today. Hi, Laura. How are you? Hi, it

Laura Howe: 1:16

is so great to connect. Yeah, our breakfast together a couple months ago was the highlight of my trip, and so I'm so excited to keep connecting online. It's awesome.

Laurie Acker: 1:27

Yes. And where are you from? Because I'm way down in southwestern US, Tucson, Arizona, and you are coming in from

Laura Howe: 1:36

close to Toronto, Canada, so representing the North.

Laurie Acker: 1:41

Yay. Awesome. Well, today we're going to talk about mental health awareness month, which is coming up in October, and how small churches can make an impact. Because so many small churches we talk to want to make an impact in their community. We're having events. We're trying to reach out. There's so much frustration that we can't quite break into their community. And there's a huge need in all of our communities. I believe Laura correct me if I'm wrong, where we actually can reach out in this mental health awareness month and just in this field. So Laura, talk to us about that, what that looks like, what you do go wherever you'd like, awesome.

Laura Howe: 2:20

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Churches have a role to play when it comes to supporting individuals around mental health. People struggle. It's a it's a topic. It's an area where some people might feel uncomfortable or they don't have all the diplomas or degrees that you know clinicians or professionals might have, but that's okay. You're not meant to be a clinician or prevention professional. You're meant to be the church. And I truly believe that the church has a role to play, and that's what we do at Hope made strong. We come alongside churches and help them develop care ministries that are strategic and sustainable, so that you are able to connect with your community and care for them well without burning out your leaders. And we do that through content. We have community, we have coaching and cohorts. All the things that we can do to support churches and ministry leaders around caring for their community well and mental health certainly is a huge part. I think it's like threads that are woven throughout all the ministries that churches do. We just might not label it that way.

Laurie Acker: 3:30

Yeah, you know, in the past couple decades, I just think there's been so much more awareness of depression, loneliness, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, for adults, for children, like, like, we just, we're watching this awareness rise, and I feel like everybody realizes it's a huge crisis. But is that true? Do you think most churches are aware like, this is in their community? Because I know a lot of times when I talk to churches, they're like, Oh, we don't really have a need for a grief ministry. We don't really have a need, you know, to talk about depression. Nobody in our church is depressed like, so do you think this awareness is is as real as I think it is like, like? Do people really know?

Laura Howe: 4:13

Well, I hope they do what, what I think people might do, or what might be different is that people might label it in different ways. And so while I think everyone, most people, unless you're literally under a rock or super, super isolated, have a recognition that life is hard and that people struggle, and people struggle in different ways. And I think everyone can come on board, and that's common ground where that people struggle and life is hard. What people call that? If they use the terms depression or anxiety or mental health, I think that's where people might differ. For me, it doesn't really matter what you call it, but most definitely, I think we all can find that common ground that people. Will struggle. We have good days, we have bad days, and in that the church can have a role in it. And you most definitely, 100% have people in your congregation who struggle. And but what you call that, I think that is the issue that people might not use the same language.

Laurie Acker: 5:22

You know, I love that. And I also love that we don't have to use the same language, like, we don't need to be labeling things or calling them out. Like, really, what happens is the the awareness that people struggle like, I think that's pretty beautiful, you know, before we get into some practical things that you've seen smaller churches do, and some great ideas to to to really, like kind of lean into this as a ministry in our churches, no matter what scale, before we get into that, I just want to talk about a couple things. One, you already mentioned, you mentioned that people are often intimidated by this topic. Can we unpack that a little bit? Because I think when we're intimidated or fearful, we're so scared to take a risk that we're gonna do something wrong. So how can we move past that? And where have you seen that even hold small churches back?

Laura Howe: 6:10

Yeah, I think churches and leaders, particularly who are kind of the gas pedal for ministries and outreaches and programs, churches and leaders are just unsure of what mental health is all about. Is it biological? Is it because of trauma or past experiences? Is it demonic, like what are the components of mental health? And if I don't understand it, I don't feel comfortable stepping into that space. And to be honest with you, it can be all three things. People can experience enormous amounts of anxiety and depression and fear because of what they've experienced in life and and there's certainly, absolutely biological components that are in our DNA, that are genetically passed down through our family, that predispose us to certain diseases and struggles and ailments and and suffering. And then there, I truly believe that the spiritual world is alive and active. And you know, without that belief, we've not have the Holy Spirit, right? So I definitely think there is, you know, an element of the spiritual realm in there. So when all of those things are true, it's really hard to say, Okay, what is my role as a church and And traditionally, the churches have their role is bringing the Word of God, sharing the love of Jesus with people and making disciples. That is kind of that is clear cookie cutter, if that is not in you know, every single church's mission statement to make disciples, make Jesus known and make disciples. But what does that look like? What does discipling people look like? Is that focused on a Sunday morning, certainly coming together as a community and being together and learning from one another and learning about the Word of God is important, but building disciples and discipleship happens seven days a week, and so I think mental health impacts, and we hear about that and the struggles of people maybe Monday through Friday, or Monday through Saturday, a lot more than what we see on Sunday morning. And so if your marker of how our the well being of our congregation is Sunday morning and what you see that's like the Instagram Sunday morning is like the Instagram world of church, everyone puts on their best self, their fresh makeup and their tie, their tie, or their clean jeans or whatever.

Laurie Acker: 8:45

It's like highlight reel, absolutely.

Laura Howe: 8:48

But how are you discipling people throughout the week? And I think small churches have such an advantage over maybe the mega church or the large church or the segregated satellites, small churches have a huge advantage to this community aspect of well being and the discipleship coming alongside than many other churches. And so I don't know if that answered your question, but I kind of went down a rabbit trail there. Yep. No,

Laurie Acker: 9:20

so good. I think that just having the discussion and opening it up is so important in our churches, as well, as you know, with our friendships and like podcasts like this, to be able to even share this podcast with other people, just to bring up, hey, what can we do? What what are the possibilities? What are the struggles? Because each of us are coming in with completely different perspectives, completely different life stories, and often different teachings we've grown up with, which I'd love to talk about. This could be a little bit stepping on toes, possibly, but I have seen some teachings, some just church. Culture, things in our modern church culture that have taken us a little backwards when it comes to welcoming, helping, loving, those of us, which is almost all of us, at some point in our life, who are struggling like we've got the Jesus frosting thing, we've got the faith over fear. We've, you know what I mean, like, what have you seen? Like, the some of those things in our church cultures that we might not even be aware of, that are shutting down the conversation or even driving people away who are trying to dip their toe into Christianity or into our churches, and inadvertently, we are saying things or doing things that literally push them away. What have you seen in those areas? What are those things that maybe we could be aware of, that we're doing or saying? Yeah,

Laura Howe: 10:54

I think we grew up in the same community, Laurie, even though we're miles apart. So the church is that, you know, one of the things that I've heard from people that we're starting to rethink how that might come across and how that might create barriers for people, is the concept of, you know, you everything once you're in the family of Christ, once you're a believer, that everything is great. Now we hear that life is hard and life is struggle, but if we don't say, Oh, Jesus, how are you? Oh, I'm good. God is good all the time, all the time. God is good, well, sometimes I'm not doing good, right? And and having shame or or the expectation that you're always on, you're always doing good. There's always something to look forward to. And absolutely, God is faithful. 100% we can always rely on on our Jesus, but at times, the reality that we're facing is not reflective of the of of what we know as truth. And that is our that's life. And so, you know, creating opportunities and creating space for lament is tricky. It is hard, it is uncomfortable, but creating space and time for people to experience lament and suffering is and not to always push it away, always try to solve the problem, always okay, well, let's pray. Let's find a solution. Let's find a problem like let's, let's, you know, you know, let's celebrate God's faithfulness despite what we are facing. Okay, true. We know truth in our soul that God is faithful and we will come out of this, but in this moment, I need to, I need to someone to acknowledge that this is hard, that I don't feel great, that, you know, I wish I didn't wake up tomorrow, that I am overwhelmed, that leaving my Home is really, really difficult. I am experiencing fear and sadness and stress like I've never experienced before, and this is hard, and I just wish someone would tell me that I am not alone and that that they're with me despite the struggle, and not just to fix the struggle, but to come alongside. And I think that's, you know, as churches, we always try to find solution and solve the problem, but a lot of comfort, a lot of support, a lot of healing is just coming alongside for the journey is super healing, and and, and, and I think that is that that ministry of presence can be very, very, very helpful for people.

Laurie Acker: 13:51

You know, when we talk about volunteers and burnout, one of the things we've talked about in the past is that sometimes we like celebrate the wrong things. We're giving people a badge of honor for working too hard and for burning out, right? So as you're talking, I'm really wondering if that's part of our culture that is also not helping, is that when people always show up bubbly and happy, we celebrate that person has so much faith. They're such a great leader there. That's who we want to follow, right? And inadvertently, I think when we do that, we're throwing some shame on the authenticity of saying I'm struggling, like if we think about what we celebrate in each other, no one is shiny and happy and great all the time, not inside and out. And so maybe there's a little bit of acknowledgment there. You know, as you were talking, I know people who have been told that if they had enough faith, they would not be depressed, that depression is caused by lack of faith, that if we had enough faith, Jesus would heal us, that Jesus is the final answer on every. Everything that I had somebody recently say, you know, when, when encountering struggling marriages, I just wish people would believe in Jesus, because then your marriage would be fine. You know, like I think about marriage, we say polite, right? She is that things that we say blatantly, but also things that are just understood because of what we celebrate in our churches and who we hold up as people of faith when we look at Scripture job, David, I mean, how many examples do we have of people of faith crying out and not saying, Oh, if we pray, it's going to get better. So as you mentioned, prayer, can we talk about prayer just for a minute? Because we love

Laura Howe: 15:45

comment on that for a second. Oh, yeah, go to prayer because it talks that we want to celebrate with those who celebrate, but we also want to weep with those who weep, right? And so I don't think there's anything wrong with celebrating those who have overcome, who've experienced blessing. Absolutely, we want to celebrate with that, but not at the expense of weeping with those who weep right the when it's we are coming alongside shoulder to shoulder. We're not trying to pull those weeping people up to celebrate. We are weeping with them.

Laurie Acker: 16:20

Yeah, yeah, I love it, and it's a both and both and right, like, can we? Can we do both? Can't? Can we celebrate this and also make space for this? We talk a lot about a Blue Christmas service, having a Blue Christmas service, a place where people can take Christmas in their sorrow, but it doesn't negate our Christmas carols and our joy of Jesus coming right like we can do both and and I think this both and would be really beautiful to see so quick, quick word on prayer before we we get to some really practical, fun things. How do you approach prayer when it comes to or how do you suggest churches? You know, in this area, how do we approach prayer? Because prayer can be deflating and literally almost zap our faith. It literally can take us in the wrong direction. When we believe we're going to pray, it's going to get better. It doesn't get better. Where does that take us in our our belief in God, you know, and all these doubts that oftentimes we're scared to even bring up, right? But as we, as we get into this discussion on mental health, I feel like we haven't really gotten there yet, but we're like laying the lay in the background. We're laying the groundwork for it. I think this is an important thing to touch on as we look at Faith, prayer, depression, struggles.

Laura Howe: 18:22

You know, prayer is the cornerstone of care, ministry is the cornerstone of our faith, and I think it is absolutely appropriate that the first thing we go to that our go to is, let's go to God with this. This is bigger than you. It's bigger than me. Let's go to God with this. And he has the broad shoulders to be able to manage our doubts, our fears, the complications, and I am not a theologian, I'm not a pastor, I'm not a theologian, I'm a clinician and and so, having not been trained in prayer, but knowing the I might say this wrong, but the imago day like that, we can look to Him, and He sees us right. We see him. He sees us where we're at in this moment. And so while it's tempting to to encourage someone and find solution and problem solve and give steps and and how tos to people using scripture, seeing a person and standing side by side and pointing them to our faithful, loving God that sees us despite who we are and where we are, is so, so powerful and so rather than using scripture out of context, which is very easy to do. I've done it. Everyone has probably done that at a time or two, but just standing with someone and saying, I'm going to pray with you, that our faithful God is going to come alongside and that you know that you are, are, are cared for, you are his arms are wrapped around you despite of what you're experiencing. So we're validating the person's experience. We're connecting them, and we're seeing that God is faithful. God is true, and yes, Jesus is the answer to everything, absolutely. And Jesus gave us wisdom. Jesus and therapy go together. Those are okay things. You know, and so, so I think prayer absolutely is the cornerstone our faith, our cornerstone of discipleship, cornerstone for caring for people and but it's seeing that person and validating that person and saying, I'm going to be with you through this, and we're just going to seek God, and He is faithful, and we'll just have to stand with that. I think that would be my position on how churches can use prayer now, with hope made strong, we go into like systems and strategies and and all of that, less of the theology side and more of the systems and strategy side. So I do want to acknowledge that that is not my expertise. But I certainly think that prayer is the cornerstone. Yeah, you know,

Laurie Acker: 21:17

I honestly love everything we just talked about, even though it wasn't part of our plan right coming in here today, because you mentioned early on how intimidated we are, oftentimes, like stepping into this area of mental health, and yet, let's just go back to the cornerstone of the most important, most impactful thing we can do, honestly, is isn't even in the providing of the solutions, although we'll get to some strategy and things like that, right? But it's coming alongside and being with people we all can do that. Yes, it's foreign for most of us. Many of us have not experienced this, but it's within our capability and how God created us, we are able to do this now. We have to learn it, because, again, many of us have not experienced this, but to come alongside someone, we're all capable. It's within our power.

Laura Howe: 22:09

Yeah, it totally is. And when you know, if any clinicians are listening to this, we know we're taught in in school and in practice practice that the most therapeutic and healing part of our practice and work with someone is the relationship and the trust that we built with that person, not the strategies, not the systems, yes, they are helpful tools to get to move us along. But the healing part is the relationship that we have, the trust that we have, the vulnerability and the knowing that we can share anything in confidence, we can share anything, and someone will care for me. That is the most healing part of therapy, and so that is exactly where the local church can excel in. We have a course that we offer at homemade straw called the attune listener. Now I'm not trying to promote it. We only offer it twice a year, so and it's not available right now. But you know, the attune listener is a course that we help train people to be listeners, and it is unbelievable how the feedback from that course that people are like, I didn't realize that I wasn't listening. I am the care pastor. I did not realize that I was interrupting, that I was putting my own opinions. I was trying to soothe their pains because it was uncomfortable for me to listen to. I was invoking my own story into their situation. And it's amazing how much we inject ourselves into somebody else's experience because we are uncomfortable, but really honestly, just being with someone is so healing, and to bring this back to mental health, you know, when someone is experiencing mental health distress, be having someone and with them, and not feeling alone is absolutely healing in nature.

Laurie Acker: 24:20

Yeah, amen. And it's, it's one of the most powerful things, truly, just knowing that you're not alone. And I think that's Emmanuel, that's God with us. That's, that's what, that's what Christ modeled. You are not alone. I am walking with you. I am here. But we want to jump to solution and fix everything right? Because, indeed, is more comfortable, and we want to help people, right? You know?

Laura Howe: 24:43

Yeah, yeah. And I think there's going to be some, we're going to talk about some, like, some some ideas and some strategies on how to engage with your community around mental health and in World Mental Health Day. But that's not fixing an individual that's opening up and saying, Hey, this is a safe space that you can come as you are and you are welcome here, right? And so I think if we, if we set the groundwork and shift the culture to of our churches to being cultures of care, cultures of hope and healing. Then, then we create that invitation. I was gonna say intoxicating, but that's probably as a negative connotation that attractional ex. Experience, right? People are drawn to that when they're like, Oh, this is a place that I'm welcome despite all of the messiness of my life.

Laurie Acker: 25:42

Yeah, I love it. Okay, so let's get into it. Let's talk about the opportunity in October of Mental Health Awareness Month and the World Mental Health Day. And first off, I just want to say there's no obligation for any church to participate in, you know, mental health awareness month. You know, it's like, it's, it's not a orthodoxy. You don't have to do anything. But it's an opportunity, because it's going to be on social people are aware of it. It is, it is a trend. It's a beautiful trend. And so there's an opportunity here that we can jump into something that connects us with our community in a meaningful, wonderful way. So what kind of opportunities have you seen? How do you think we can jump into this? Laura,

Laura Howe: 26:26

so Mental Health Awareness Day is October 10. I think it falls like on a Thursday or a Wednesday this year. You would think I would know due to the event that we're hosting, but anyway, it's, it's midweek anyway, and so, so choosing the week before, the week after, really, any time in October, people are primed to be able to talk about mental health, because, like you said, it's going to be they're going to see a lot of posts. They're gonna see it on TV. This is a topic that people are ramping up, especially in schools and in workplaces, well being and mental health. And so people are already primed, and they're thinking about it. And despite many leaders not believing that anyone in their church experiences mental health, we all experience mental health. Health is mental health and so and so, talking about it and having some sort of invitational opportunity to your community is a great, great way to connect with your community on a level that maybe is unique. And they've never heard a church do that before,

Laurie Acker: 27:32

yeah, yeah. And so we've got, like, from the pulpit, absolutely, I've seen pastors do like sermon series, just inviting people into, you know, depression, loneliness, grief, mental health. How are we doing? One of my favorite things is when I've seen churches do like a workshop, and call it a community event, but it's happening at our church. Have you seen that? And if you have what kind of opportunities, or what kind of workshop would be inviting for people, how could something like that even work in a church?

Laura Howe: 28:01

Yeah, so there actually is a resource called Mental Health Sunday, and it is free to download. It's pay what you want. So some people choose to pay $20 some people grab it for free. There's no pressure. Honestly, it is a gift from from Hope made strong to your church. Mental Health, Sunday, mental sunday.com. I think, is where it is anyway. It is a resource that you can use if you're struggling to figure out, okay, how am I going to talk about mental health on a Sunday morning? Because Sunday morning services, it's centered around scripture. You want to connect with a lot of different people, and you want it some takeaway points. You know, how do you talk about mental health? And it not be like a workshop or one on one on a Sunday morning. So this is a tool that you can use as a jumping off point. We don't want people to copy and paste. We want it to you to create your own experience in your church, your own service outline. But here is a really great starting point. Take what you want from it, and all or nothing, whatever is helpful for you. So mental health Sunday is one thing. Okay, I didn't

Laurie Acker: 29:05

even know you had that resource. I had no idea you had that resource. And yes, so we're gonna make sure to drop that link in the show notes, for sure, because we love free, you know, like we love free. We love you look at things like that.

Laura Howe: 29:21

Yeah. It has all the social media. It has slides, it has a sermon outline. It has a downloadable five day devotional to give away afterwards or to email your people. It has all kinds of anything that it really is a plug and play opportunity to have a mental health Sunday, yeah, okay,

Laurie Acker: 29:42

I just pulled it up. Like, I'm like, looking at it, going, Oh my gosh. Like, there's there's promotion, there's graphics. You guys, like, definitely grab that. Like, even if you're just exploring this, and even if you wouldn't do it this year, I also want to throw that out. You know, we can talk about mental health all year long. And you know when Laura said, like, is this a welcome place? Is the church a welcome place? Am I welcome there? I think the more that we kind of decrease this stigma that if you have mental health issues, you know you have mental health issues. You know, we all do. And the stats I was looking up on depression, loneliness, grief, anxiety disorders, panic disorders, mood disorders, especially, I had no idea the percentage of people of all ages who are struggling with anxiety disorders. And I also would just like to throw out everybody can't a. Forward counseling, right? Like there's an edge of privilege with counseling that we think, Oh, get counseling. Go get help. You know we can offer that. Walk alongside, come alongside. You are not alone. Mental Health. Sunday, what a great idea. Okay, keep going. Laura, what other opportunities? How else can we make a difference in our communities through our churches.

Laura Howe: 30:53

Yeah, another free resource that you'll want to grab onto is called the mental health church mental health summit. Now it is. It is happening on World Mental Health Day. That's when it goes live. But we've done this for four years. This is our fifth one. So if you want to see old ones that we're able to purchase that. But there is a free event on World Mental Health Day, and it will give you, it's 5030 minute or 20 to 30 minute talks. Now I told speakers, give me 20 minute talk, but some people like to talk longer, so it is 15 to 25 minutes. And a lot of people I have heard take those sessions and then invite their congregation, invite their community, host that session, and then have a Q and A afterwards. So if you want to bring in, if you want to bring in Kurt Thompson to your church, but can't afford to bring him or whatever show his video. He's doing a talk this year at the summit. Or, yeah, there we have so many, Dr Anita Phillips, like, there's so many. There's hundreds and hundreds of talks that we have now in the library where you're able to host a Sunday afternoon or a Tuesday evening conversation around it. Now it is helpful to have a clinician there as well, to manage a pastor and a clinician. Make a great duo when you're hosting these to be able to answer questions for people. And I think the biggest outcome that I've heard from people who are doing this is talking to parents and talking about, how do I engage in conversations around with my children and my junior hires and and high schoolers and so parents are desperately looking for how they can help their students, young young people's mental health issues are skyrocketing, and parents are just scrambling for tools and resources to be able to the school system is flooded with needs, and so there's not a lot of services that are readily available in communities, especially rural or smaller communities where, like I, live. And so hosting a convert bringing in someone from your local hospital or counseling department or or, you know, if you have someone in your church who's a mental health nurse, there's lots of opportunities, or lots of different people that can come stand with a pastor, watch a video and then answer some Q A around mental health. Could be seniors. It could be youth, it could be marriages. There's all kinds of stuff that are available for that.

Laurie Acker: 33:40

Okay, I love it. And you know, most of our audience listening right now are not pastors. We really reach volunteers and people just serving in small churches everywhere. And I just want to throw out there if you're not the pastor, or your pastor has other plans for October, let's just talk about having like, a panel at your small group, like maybe you lead a small group where you're in the women's ministry and you're doing a lunch, or you have an event planned, why not bring in a Christian clinician who can talk about this? Have a panel of parents, have a panel of students you work in the youth in the children's ministry areas, talk to the kids like there's so many free resources out there just to normalize this, and you don't have to have all the answers. We just need to walk alongside and be able to point people like toward hope. And Laura, I love that your organization, your business, your is called Hope made strong. Why did you choose that name?

Laura Howe: 34:41

Well, as you would have suspect, I think there was a song back in the day, and there was a line in a song called like, you know weak, make strong like when I'm weak, you are strong and and, and I thought that is so true. So there's a nod to that, that despite our you know, failings and shortfalls, that he is stronger and but I think everyone has a a calling to strengthen hope in other people, that we don't have to have all the answers, that the hope we can offer people is, is what we what we can do. That's our rule, that's our lane, that's what that's what we're able to offer. Is the hope and yeah, so hope made strong had a good ring to it. It kind. Of echoed the mission and the value that I think the local church is able to offer our communities.

Laurie Acker: 35:39

Yeah, I love it all right, any other practical ideas for churches who want to start making space for these conversations, for bringing hope into a world that is struggling so often around us, especially in our communities. Like, do you have any insights, even for like, linking with different organizations or people in our community? Like, how do we do that? Any other good, practical little tips for us?

Laura Howe: 36:06

Yeah, I'm blanking on the podcast episode, but I definitely did a podcast, how to connect with your community. So on the care ministry podcast, we talk a lot about different or we have guests on much like this podcast, where you have some solo episodes offering practical tools, some guest episodes where you can highlight some incredible resources. We did a podcast on linking to the community, and I can't remember the name, I will get it to you so that you can put it in the show notes. And so I think that would be a really great start. And but I do want to highlight one other small group curriculum that I think is phenomenal. I've let it myself, and it is free. So we love free stuff. It's called sanctuary. I may have actually talked to you about it before, in in one of the conferences, but sanctuary Mental Health Ministries is a really great starting point. It's a eight week small group curriculum that actually is not it is. It's about opening the conversation and learning about what mental health is and where's the intersection of our faith and mental health bringing language and awareness. It's really an awareness invitation to bring awareness to mental health and how that engages with our faith. Our faith engages with our mental health. It is phenomenal. And when I ran that group, there was about eight people, maybe 10, if everyone showed up in the same week. And there were people who have diagnosis of different mental health struggles with in the same group as people who felt like mental health was just a lack of faith in the same group, and they were friends. They they were able to stay friends. We were able to have open dialog and conversation and and challenge different mindsets, not just of the mindsets of those who thought it was all just, you know, pull up your bootstraps kind of thing, but also challenge that people who saw that their diagnosis was their identity, it's just, you know, that's not true. So we were able to have those conversations. There was a 70 year old and a 17 year old all in the same group. So it is a very helpful tool to start the conversation around mental mental health and is very, very creates a very welcoming atmosphere for everyone who's exploring that topic.

Laurie Acker: 38:41

Well, you know, if you are listening to this episode, I just want to encourage you that you can make a difference just you, no matter what your position, no matter if you're paid a volunteer, no matter if you're 80, or if you're you know, 15, you can make a difference in your community, in the people that you connect with. And I just want to encourage you to do one thing. Just do one thing. Take a risk. Maybe just try something. Say, Hey, why don't why don't we just try this. Maybe you're going to start a discussion. Maybe you want to, you know, check out this curriculum. Maybe you do want to host an event at your church, or encourage your pastor, or, you know, point out a resource to them. But just do one thing. I think sometimes, especially in smaller churches, we have this vision, oh, we want to make this huge impact, and we want to do this. And then we we almost shame ourselves, because it doesn't quite get as big as we think it should get. But when I look at the life of Jesus, like he, like, talked to one person, he looked at one person, he healed one person, he always was doing like one thing, even when things kind of swelled around him and got big, like, his focus was so beautiful and so relational. And I just want to encourage you, know, you who are listening just what's one thing from this podcast episode that that kind of spoke to you or nudged you? Maybe it's getting connected with clinician, you know that you could bring in? Maybe it is hosting a panel. These are small things that could be done. Hey, let's, let's bring some parents and put them on a panel. Let's talk. You know, let's just talk. Because you can't make a difference. You don't have to be a clinician, you don't have to be the pastor, you don't have to be the council, board, you know, head or whatever. There are, are small things we can do that make a huge difference.

Laura Howe: 40:31

So. Often we look at the width of our impact, how many numbers, how many people? But I'm starting to really switch my focus to the depth of the impact. You know, we might be an inch deep and a while mile wide, but I'm like, Oh Lord, I think I want, you know, to switch it to the depth of the impact of the individual, of the church, of the community, rather than, you know, the church mental summit definitely has a global impact. We have people from 125 different countries come to this event, but switching our focus to say, okay, how can we go deeper rather than wider? I think is, I think it's a shift in our culture. We used to be all about these big, showy, hurrah, flashy events. I think we're switching. And I think our young people are leading that where they want more depth than they do the big things. And yeah, I digress.

Laurie Acker: 41:29

I so agree with that. I really agree with that, boy, we could talk about like 18 other topics, like related to that right now. You know October is coming, y'all, and we've have an opportunity to to jump into this mental health awareness month on any scale that you'd like. Laura mentioned several free resources. We will make sure to get them into the show notes from the Mental Health Sunday. Beautiful, beautiful resources in there, also free. She mentioned a couple different curriculums, just different ways we can jump in. And don't forget the church mental health summit happening on October 10. Amazing speakers coming in, amazing topics. I saw Dr Caroline leaf. You had like, I was just like, oh my gosh, where do you know you're connecting with people everywhere. I'm so happy to be connected to you. Right six degrees of separation or whatever, we're all connected. So let's jump in and just make the most of an opportunity that's coming up in October. So Laura, any last encouragements for anybody who's kind of maybe on the edge, feeling like I wish I could do something, but there's something holding me back. How would you encourage anyone listening right now?

Laura Howe: 42:43

Well, I think you sometimes I was going for a walk with a podcast listening. I often do that in the evenings to kind of decompress, and one of the things that I heard in the podcast, can't even remember which one it was, but was that when we're experiencing stress or anxiety or overwhelm, we often shrink ourselves to hide and pull away, or we have a tendency to over inflate and make ourselves bigger, to kind of cover up the insecurities. And on that podcast, the encouragement was to stay your size. Stay your size. Don't be afraid it is much harder to show up your size as you are, rather than to shrink and minimize who you are, over to over inflate and so if someone is struggling, okay, I'm not sure what I can do. I'm just I, I'm just this, you know, fill in the blank volunteer or whatever, or, you know, I would say, show up as your size. God created giftings and and connections and strengths and callings in your life. And it is not prideful. It is not boastful to show up in the size that God is, that you are right now in the Lord. And so if that is, you know, taking whatever action step it is, I'm, I'm not going to push that onto anyone, but whatever the Lord is saying to you right now, show up as your size. He'll be with you. He will walk with you. And, yeah, it'll be good. You're you're going to impact your community. You're going to impact someone with what, what the Lord is telling you right now,

Laurie Acker: 44:29

wow. And if you're listening right now, and you are struggling, and you're like, I wish somebody was making a difference for me, or I can't have an impact, because I am the one who needs right now. Gotta cry right now. Yeah, if you just want to say you are you are not alone. You are not alone either. Like we're not saying you're called to make a difference and you need to be the one to buck up. You are not alone. We are with you. And I think that is the beauty of being in a smaller church, creating places where we can be transparent ourselves. I love the term the wounded healer, because the people who really end up walking well with others. We are admitting our struggles. We are there with you, not because. We're so strong we can be with you. But because we've been there, we've embraced that part of our humanity. That's the whole thing of Jesus not being you know, he's not one that is unable right to understand, to walk with us, that he has experienced what we experienced. So if you're in that right now, we're with you.

Laura Howe: 46:02

Amen. Amen. One of the things that is most powerful is connecting with someone, and while we are virtual, connecting with you through, you know, headphones, finding one person to connect with, whether it's an auntie or a friend or a pastor or you know, counselor, anyone you're someone, And just being with that person and sharing some hard things life is hard for me right now that can create so much healing for you, and so if you are that one person, then please connect with someone and share with them what you're experiencing.

Laurie Acker: 46:52

Yeah, yeah. All right, we're out of time, so we're gonna go, but we'll be back again next week, and you can always connect with us in the our Facebook community. Creative solutions for small churches. Feel free to start a thread. Ask a question, reach out, ask for resources. Let's keep this conversation going and not just going, but let's keep building it as we commit to being a light in our communities, being a light for Jesus. We're all called to that. So alright, thanks for being with us, Laura, My pleasure. Until next week, everybody be alive.