People attend praise and worship service at Rehoboth Baptist Church in Austin on March 24, 2024. The church has expanded their services to include mental health counselors as a resource for the congregation.The Rev. Michael Marsh stood before his congregation at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Uvalde, knowing his grieving community needed more from him than prayer.
Some, like The Potter’s House in Dallas, the megachurch run by well-known pastor T.D. Jakes, has a counseling center staffed with licensed mental health professionals who incorporate faith-based teachings into improving members’ overall ability to cope during stressful life events. Saint John’s United Methodist Church in Austin has had a mental health ministry team dedicated to removing the stigma of mental illness for the past four years.
Mental health providers in Texas believe if adequately resourced, pastors and other religious leaders can offer a valuable contribution to taking on the mental health crisis in Texas. It’s a role more churches are taking on. People pause in prayer before the ceremonial release of 21 butterflies, in remembrance of the victims of the Robb Elementary school shooting a year ago, at the St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Uvalde on May 24, 2023.This alliance between secular mental health providers and churches is one that has slowly grown over the last few decades.
Historically, there’s been a stigma around mental illness in many Christian denominations. But since World War II, there’s been a growing conversation within faith communities about mental illness and treatment. In 1993, Pope John Paul II spoke before the international delegation of psychiatrists to express the church’s esteem of psychiatric medicine.
“Initially, the center was established to provide medical and social services to immigrants and refugees arriving from Bosnia, Iraq, Somalia, and other Middle Eastern and South Asian countries,” said Ahmed. “Since 2004, the center has been providing these services to all indigent residents residing in the DFW area, irrespective of country of origin, ethnicity, and religious beliefs.
Wellness director Angela Bigham outside Rehoboth Baptist Church in Austin on March 24, 2024. Bigham has helped bring in mental health counselors as an available resource for the congregation. “It turns out they were sending like some young girl … wearing thigh-high shorts and flip-flops, into these churches to tell them how many free resources they have,” Bigham recalled. “These elders don’t care if there are free Cadillacs in the parking lot; they are trying to figure out why you are disrespecting their church in your thigh-high shorts and flip-flops.”.
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