Journal of Mental Health and Ministry

If you work in ministry people come to you with difficult problems. We know you could use some help. The Journal is a collection point for articles from expert ministry and mental health professionals and well as links to helpful resources and research. We hope you will be encouraged and equipped to multiply care in the church and community.

Some People Don’t Want To Go To Point B

5 Reasons People Resist Change At Five Stone Media/LifeSupport our mission is about changing lives.  We tell stories of real people to help others find hope and healing that can help transform their lives.  Through interactions with people seeking life transformation we get a front row seat to the struggles people have with change. One simple definition of leadership is ...

Eternal Impact

Eternal Impact – The Work Of Transformation Please celebrate with us the new eternal life of a Lifeblood participant who accepted Christ this week during our Lifeblood women’s group inside the Shakopee women’s prison! We are grateful for our amazing volunteer group facilitator Tabatha Perry. Tabatha is a consistent positive influence for these women who are putting in the time ...

Life Transformation

Life Transformation – Always Personal – Always Shared Some people have a pretty accurate picture of who they are and have never felt the need to drastically change their life.  But for some of us, life transformation is vital to the ability to move forward in life. There are many men and women in our world who reach a point ...

Caring For People You Don’t Really Care For

What NASA Taught Me About Caring For Others Almost 30 years ago I had the privilege of looking behind the scenes at the NASA space shuttle program.  I learned a lesson that day in the importance of caring for others even when they are people we don’t really like. Everywhere we went in the facility we could see the care ...

Who Is Carrying The Weight?

Six Strategies To Manage the Weight Of Ministry The popular TV show Survivor features tribes of people competing to survive under challenging circumstances.  Each episode includes some kind of challenge where tribes face off in a physical contest. One such contest provides an analogy for the pressures and toll that affects clergy and churches today. The Challenge In this game, ...

Your Hood Is Ajar

DING! – Your Hood Is Ajar. This is the message our car has been giving us for the past few months.  The first couple times this happened we pulled over and walked around front to find that the hood was perfectly fine. We’ve had the car into the shop twice and no one had been able to fix the problem. ...

Bringing Your Mess To Church Is A Good Thing

Helping People Talk About Mental Health There are lots of reasons people don’t like to talk about mental health struggles.  We don’t want to make others uncomfortable We don’t like to be seen as weak We’re afraid of professional repercussions We think we’ll be treated differently If we talk about our problems we’ll have to actually do something about them.  ...

How Can I Be Part of God’s Plan

How do you fit in God’s plan? This question can be a struggle, even a stumbling block for Christians. Sometimes it seems like you have your hands full just getting through life and taking care of yourself. It can feel overwhelming and intimidating to figure out how God could possibly use us as part of some intricate and interdependent plan. ...

5 Ways Mental Illness Affects Spiritual Growth

If you work in ministry you’ve seen the spiritual growth of individuals stall out from time to time.  Someone can be engaged on a strong growth track when suddenly they lose interest.  More often the spiritual drift is gradual and it can be easy to miss the indicators that someone in your community has become disengaged or lost their thirst ...

Pain Doesn’t Ask Permission

Pain doesn’t ask Permission: But we can lift each other up through it Counselor Julie Hull is a mental health professional who serves as an advisor and contributor for LifeSupport. At the beginning of the covid pandemic in the Spring of 2020, Julie wrote this article that will always be helpful for those who are struggling with life or wrestling ...