Thousands participate in Church Mental Health Summit

On October 10, 11,000 registered participants from 129 countries tuned in to pre-recorded videos covering various topics relating to mental health and faith. The Church Mental Health Summit exceeded its 2022 record of 5,000 registrants, attracting a larger audience than ever this year. Held on World Mental Health Day, this free event offered registrants hours of valuable content to explore. Its goal was to help local churches do a better job supporting the mental health of their congregants and leaders. Sponsors of the event, now in its fourth year, included Hope Made Strong, Biola University Rosemead School of Psychology and Spiritual First Aid.

“While there are lots of resources and good information on mental health,” Laura Howe, founder of Hope Made Strong and the host of the Church Mental Health Summit told CC, “it can be very difficult to wade through all of it to find something that fits for the local church context. 

Resources tend to be academic, meant for clinical usage, and yet the local church is often the first place people turn to when they are struggling.”

“The Church Mental Health Summit has become a go-to resource for ministry leaders,” she said, for the “best practices, practical tools and relevant resources [to] support mental health in an appropriate way.”

More than one Shepherd

On the day of the Summit, everyone who had registered had free access to hours and hours of pre-recorded videos by over 50 individuals. There was no schedule to the event; instead, participants were encouraged to watch the summit videos at their own pace. This method eliminated barriers such as different time zones and conflicting schedules.

The videos were broken down into four categories: Culture & Missions, Church Health, Community Health, and Leadership Health. Some of the Summit topics included, Becoming Trauma-Informed: Trauma Basics for a Cross-Cultural Context; Indigenous Awareness; Jesus + Therapy = Healing: Learning How to Integrate Mental Health Services in the Black Church; How The Church Can Bring Healing; Why Should We Treat Trauma, and Spiritual First Aid.

“A lot of leaders are struggling with burnout or being stretched too thin,” Jamie Aten, co-founder of Spiritual First Aid said in an interview with CC. “So we want to equip pastors, but we also want to help equip the champions within the local church, so that it’s not only the pastor having to do all of the care to build.” He emphasized the importance of having everyone prepared to respond to mental health needs. The event, while free on October 10, can still be accessed via a digital ticket ($79) until next April. “There’s something for everyone,” Howe said, “from kids ministry to pastoral care and burnout prevention.”

Aten said that it’s encouraging that “there’s a new openness in the church to recognizing the need and issues of mental health.” There’s also more interest, he said, “to act and to respond and to address these issues head-on.” Bolstered by the response that the Summit has had, his team is already planning the next one for 2024.