Paradoxical Man

The Cause and Cure of Human Struggle

Mental Health and the Church

The Paradox of Losing Relevancy

Posted 2/13/2018

Revised 2/20/2020

Some have confronted those issues and have prevailed while others have not. In the previous century, the Silent generation faced fascism, Hitler’s attempt to annihilate the Jews and “shell-shocked” (PTSD) soldiers returning from war. The Baby Boomer generation faced the issues of divorce, women’s liberation and racism to name just a few of the social upheavals of their day. Some might say they let the family slip from their hands. As a consequence, Generation X has had to address abortion, poverty and a rising crime rate. Millennials and Gen-Zers are facing additional outcome issues like cohabitation, single-motherhood, homosexual marriage and transgenderism along with, relativism and many additional consequences of those things that are yet unseen but which are coming their way. The great reformer, Martin Luther (1483-1546) believed that the truths of God should remain relevant to addressing the cultural and social issues of every generation.

He once stated, “If you preach the gospel in all aspects with the exception of the issues which deal specifically with your time, [then] you are not preaching the gospel at all.”[2] Likewise, C. W. Stubbs back in 1873 wrote in the Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates’ Journal, “If Christianity still holds the key to all the unsolved problems, both of society and of the individual, it is for the Church of the present to grasp, if she can, and set forth, whether by word or deed, the bearing which Christianity has upon the social life of man.”[3] As recently as 2015, a poll of U.S. pastors found 60% agreement among them that the Church of today is not doing very well at this. Especially, as it comes to making disciples, and of the church aiming people in the direction of how best to live their lives.[4] Because science has gained so much credibility, yet can make no moral determinations about its findings, it forces relativism upon society and pushes the Church to fight immorality with statements like “Thus saith the Lord” or “That is sinful” which mean little to an unchurched group. In a Christianity Today interview, Matt Coker of the humor and healing site, The Back Row, which seeks to offer encouragement to people in recovery says, “It's not enough to just condemn pornography (or whatever else) from the pulpit. You need to help those ensnared by it, give people a better way.”[5] One of the major problems has to do with confidence in the Church’s enduring moral mandate to be salt and light to our dying world.

The Church has lost cultural confidence because it has largely been unable to repudiate contradictory messages that have pitted Christian teachings against humanistic philosophies. Homosexuality is but one of those. And what is worse, based on recent polls, it appears that humanism and relativism are beginning to win out. In a 2015 Scottish poll, the top reason why 42% of respondents declined church attendance was because they literally said that the “church is not relevant” to their life. An additional 23% stayed away in order to avoid a mental conflict. Their dissonance came from a presumption that church teachings were not in agreement with science.[6] In this one study alone 65% failed to see the relevance of the church’s message but found that confidence in other beliefs. As these numbers suggest, the church has failed somehow to make the timeless message of the Gospel relevantly alive for people of today. One of the major reasons for this has to do with answers to mental health problems.

Matthew S. Stanford, adjunct professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, and the Co-founder and Executive Director of a non-profit organization that trains churches in how to minister to those living with mental illness and their families writes that, “while the church has involved itself in social justice movements such as HIV/AIDS, homelessness, human trafficking, access to clean water, and hunger,…” he often wonders why there has never been a church movement focusing on mental illness.[7] Stanford’s comment is especially pertinent given the fact that many Christians know that mental health and spirituality are so closely tied together.

Christian author Amy Simpson, who has written extensively on the subject of mental health, and whose mother suffers from schizophrenia, identifies several myths that prevent people from seeking help from the Church. She writes “When there is little to no theological discussion regarding mental illness, and the Church avoids the conversation altogether, many believe the Christian faith has nothing to offer.”[8] Conversely, in one study of evangelical Christians, who were in need of psychiatric help, the study found that 83% believed that therapists did not understand their beliefs and values which resulted in a significant hesitation to initiate services.[9] Christian psychologists Mark A. Yarhouse along with his colleagues Richard E. Butman and Barret W. McRay, in their book Modern Psychopathologies: A Contemporary Christian Appraisal write that “There is great need for counselors to be better trained theologically and for pastors to be better trained in psychology.”[10]

Indeed very few psychological clinicians have received formal training to work effectively with spiritually attuned and motivated clients.[11] & [12] Most recently however, there has been a concerted effort to promote greater spiritual competency, across all disciplines and at all levels in the assessment and treatment of mental and emotional disorders.[13] This effort has included such professionals as social workers,[14] professional counselors,[15] psychologists,[16] as well as physicians.[17] In fact, the main accrediting body for most hospitals in the United States, JCAHO, (the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) now recommends that a spiritual assessment be completed with all patients.[18] While strides are being made to bridge competency across disciplines, one other way of gauging just how far behind the church is falling in mental health relevancy may be found in the decline of minister salaries.

The gap in pastoral salaries has been widening over the past 30 years, which seems to coincide with a growth in positive public sentiment toward the sciences. Consequently, pastors now earn only half as much as what other educated professionals do.[19] What this may be indicating is that would-be members are expressing their vote of no-confidence by abstention from joining churches and by withholding financial support from those they do attend. Something must be lacking that prevents congregations from investing well into their ministry staff. One possible answer may be that the Church, at-large, has been ill-prepared to prevent or remediate the flood of family fragmentation that began in the 1970s. And, the ensuing family fragmentation itself, has not only diminished financial support to the Church, but has also increased Church expenditures making it very difficult to pay pastors what they are truly worth. Recognizing the importance of remediating this problem and better equipping pastors in the area of mental health in order to solve family problems is Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.

Following the tragic death of his son Matthew, by a completed suicide on April 5, 2013 after a lifelong battle with mental illness, Pastor Rick Warren said that churches “must take the lead on mental illness.”[20] Stepping into the 21st century, by addressing these issues, Saddleback hosted an inaugural church summit called Gathering on Mental Health and the Church in 2014 with a second meeting having occurred in October of 2015 as well as 2016. Dr. Warren’s statement is especially urgent given the fact that the local church is often the first place most families reach out for help in their time of crisis and relational difficulties.[21] The problems associated with accessing mental healthcare is one of the reasons individuals in psychological distress are more likely to seek out a member of the clergy before any other professional group, and why Psychologists have long viewed the clergy as “mental health gatekeepers,” meaning that pastors serve as our first responders and the front door to the mental healthcare system.[22]

Once again, Matthew Stanford urges pastors to look at this phenomenon through the eyes of faith, and see that this is not an accident, but a heavenly orchestrated, divine opportunity for the Church.[23] He says that when presented with a congregant struggling with psychological issues, while pastors are often able to provide temporary comfort and spiritual guidance, they sometimes fail to recognize the more significant and complex underlying mental health issues. As a consequence, more effective treatments are often delayed thus perpetuating suffering and shame for both the individual and the family involved. Stanford envisions that mental health is the great mission field of the 21st century, and it is time for the Church to recognize its God-given role. The involvement of the Church in mental health is the missing piece necessary to transform our broken mental healthcare system, thus making it accessible to more people[24] while at the same time gaining an opportunity to be even more effective than secular interventions can be on their own. Stanford is correct in saying that the only hope offered by the secular mental healthcare system is symptom reduction and illness management. “The Church, however, understands that hope is more than a feeling; hope is a person, Jesus Christ”[25] and that true health can only be found in the truth and purposes of God’s design for mankind.

Pastor Ryan Heathcoe sums up well how the church got to this place by saying that, in an effort to resist apostasy, “the church has simply been sucked along by society.”[26] The late Christian apologist, Francis Schaeffer, expressed his frustration this way, “Tell me what the world is saying today, and I’ll tell you what the church will be saying in seven years.”[27] The church is rightly slow in adopting new ways of thinking which is why any so-called Christian psychology must be sound both theologically and psychologically. It will be no accident that a person or persons trained in both disciplines will spearhead this effort. Historically, resistance to scientific thought has long been a tradition of the church. The church’s hierarchy has often resisted scientific advancements[28] not to mention that the legal dogmatism of the Pharisees missed the revelation of grace by Christ Himself.

For example, the Pharisees in Jesus’ day were not able to let go of their law-based ontological view of the world in order to see the grace which stood before them. Accepting the new order of Grace over Law and judgment was the basic truth Jesus wanted the Pharisees to grasp as He told them the parable of the “Good Samaritan.” He wanted them to see that not every “bad” thing that happens to someone (or the ensuing mental anguish), is because they deserve it or was due to some personal sin. Having been a clinical counselor for a number of decades now, it has been my observation that most depression and psychological distress comes not from a person’s own sin but from sin at the hands of others who have perpetrated something egregious onto the person sitting in my office. Church dogmatism was not just a problem in transitioning people from the concepts of Law to Grace in Jesus’ times but also became an issue for the Church both before and during the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a time when many Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders used the Scriptures to deny emerging scientific revelations.[29]

In one such example, the debate over the heliocentric (sun-centered) model of the solar system offers two high-profile instances of the Church’s unfortunate misuse of Scripture causing them to land on the wrong side of truth. The first instance involved Copernicus who was among the first scientists to suggest that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around. Upon hearing this new idea, Martin Luther denounced his theory assertively. He stated, “This would be as if somebody were riding on a cart or in a ship and imagined that he was standing still while the Earth and the trees were moving.”[30]

In a second instance, it was Galileo who was persecuted for his insistence that, once again, it was the sun, not the earth, as the celestial body which occupied the center the universe. Galileo was twice hauled before the Roman Catholic Inquisition to explain his theory. Although he wasn’t executed or tortured by the Inquisition, he was ordered not to teach his heliocentric model of the solar system as fact; thus, his science was suppressed by the church if not outright denied by it.[31] Who knows how many individuals have been labeled heretics, imprisoned, tortured, killed or burned at the stake for being “correct” but in opposition to what church leaders wanted to believe?

Pastor Daniel J. Lepley in his book On Our Origins writes, “Ever since Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton, there has been an uneasy tension between the church and the scientific community.”[32] He goes on to observe that whenever we demonize either faith or science, we are held back from achieving a fuller understanding of either.[33] And, once one comprehends the difference between the revealed knowledge of God from the Scriptures and natural knowledge that is studied in the sciences, the conflict between faith and science is greatly diminished.[34] If the God of the Scriptures is the Creator of everything and the Word brought everything into existence, then to come to a correct understanding of existence, the Scriptures and science must complement each other. Both describe different aspects of a complex reality that human beings, as spiritual and physical beings occupy.[35] Pastor Lepley elaborates further, “If people lived their lives in contempt of everything they don’t already understand, we would live in a world with no cell phones, microwave ovens, or other modern contrivances. If we never ventured to seek new answers to difficult questions, all of science and exploration would quickly die out for fear of the unknown.”[36]

Quoting Matthew Stanford once again who recognizes the strained relationship between the Church and science, has become an advocate for people with mental health or relationship problems when he writes that we need a holistic approach to “treatment” that takes into account all aspects of a persons’ being whether physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually or relationally.[37] Why? Because when pathology of any kind arises, every aspect of personhood comes into play and carries influence on all of the other parts. For example physical pain affects thoughts and emotions while mental stresses highly affect body systems and immunity. Therefore treatments and interventions that are reductionist in nature, which only serve to compartmentalize the person by focusing solely on a single facet of personhood, can bring only limited relief at best.[38] The body is a system just like the way Paul described the various parts of the Church. All are essential and must all be taken into account for the Church or the person to function properly (cf. 1 Corinthians 12).

Polls of pastors reveal that reductionism and compartmentalization are still quite prevalent in the Church. When asked if they ever speak to their church bodies regarding any mental health issues, only a third of pastors said that they do any more often than once a year.[39] It is likely that pastors either do not feel comfortable speaking on such topics for some reason or may feel incompetent in some way. Dr. Ed Stetzer, who holds two doctorates; has pastored several churches and who is now Executive Director of Lifeway Research, writes that the vast majority of pastors today recognize that most pastoral counseling issues are “more complicated than simply praying away the mental illness.”[40] While God certainly can and sometimes still does intervene supernaturally to heal people physically, emotionally and relationally, He mostly prefers to partner with humans for the purpose of accomplishing His plan for personal growth. Just as that was true for Adam and Eve who were given the mandate to procreate and “fill the Earth,” so it is especially true when it comes to healing the injured and infirmed. If God miraculously healed everyone of their sicknesses, no one would look for ways to prevent illness which means we would never learn or grow from our mistakes.

When asked if they believed that local churches should offer more to assist families who are facing mental illness, at least 60% of respondents thought that the Church should step-up in this area. In addition to suggestions that the Church should offer support groups for suffering family members and help them find local resources for care, most respondents simply wanted an open conversation to be started so that the topic of psychological suffering could become “not so taboo” or “stigmatizing.”[41]

In this Lifeway Research study, it reveals to us what respondents believed that the Church could do to assist them:.

• 74% thought that helping families find local resources for support in dealing with the illness
• 63% said that issues should be talked about openly so that the topic is not so taboo
• 61% wanted to improve people’s understanding of what mental illness is and what to expect
• 58% believed that additional training should be provided for the Church to understand mental illness
• 57% thought that increasing awareness of how prevalent mental illness is today could help
• 70% of Protestants with a mental illness merely wanted fellow church members to get to know them as a friend
• 78% of consistent church attenders just want to be treated like a person irrespective of their problem[42]

Because of statistics like these, it becomes increasingly important that we develop a Christian Psychology that expands our understanding, not just of spiritual personhood but also of the mental, biological and relational aspects of people, so that both Scripture and psychology can become even more coherent, thus making the most sense to the most people possible. Doing so could immensely increase the Church’s positive influence, not only among its own members but for the general public as well. It could help the Church regain the ground that it has lost to secular humanism.

Therefore, instead of excluding science and eventually being drug along by how culture reacts to it, the church must find a credible way of interpreting scientific data using the light of Scripture. For example, science tells me that everyone alive today has descended from eight people.[43] It is the Bible that tells us exactly who those people were. According to it, the family of eight people we have succeeded are Noah; his sons Ham, Shem and Japheth as well as their four wives. The Bible illustrates God’s design for marriage as a “one flesh” union. Malachi 4:5-6 along with 2:15-16 tell us about the devastation of family fragmentation while science tells us in what percentages and to what extent. Bottom line, the Church must educate itself with what can be discovered without abandoning faith. This is what it means for the church to show itself as “approved workmen” (cf. 2 Tim 2:15), “always prepared to give an answer” (cf. 2 Peter 3:15) in explaining pathology and why people do what they do instead of simply spouting off some ethereal concept unknown to unbelievers, which feels more like condemnation rather than compassion. The scriptural worldview: based upon the revealed knowledge of God in Jesus Christ; coupled with scientific inquiry; based upon natural knowledge that can be observed physically,[44] is the avenue for advancement. By explaining the personhood of man, which could not have been discovered apart from the “Special Revelation” of the Bible, will be what propels both the person of faith and the unbeliever toward the Gospel message and to health.

In other words, the Church must find and espouse the supernatural message that could not have been discovered through mere socio/psychological measurement or “General Revelation.” A supernatural explanation shows that Christ’s message is divinely-inspired and radically relevant to the social problems of our times so that revival can break-out; where God’s timeless message of peace and salvation are brought to bear on man’s universal predicament. The only way of doing that is by developing a Christian Psychology and concept of personhood that surpasses humanist explanations and the limitations of science, so that man’s universal condition and spiritual problem can be exposed in logical terms, in order to be able to minister to humanity effectively within a Biblical framework that helps to restore society to its rightful state. The explanation of such a psychology is what follows next. It involves telling an old story in a more culturally relevant way that makes the Biblical narrative come alive and become more easily understood and accepted.

Resume reading the Forward....

Works Cited:

[1] You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving Church…. And Rethinking Faith, David Kinnaman, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2011. (pp. 19-21). In Tim Clinton (Ed.)

Raising Up the Next Generation, Christian Counseling Connection, Volume 18 Issue 4, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2012. (p. 2).

[2] A Vision for the Aging Church: Renewing Ministry for and by Seniors, James M. Houston & Michael Parker, Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2011, (p. 23). In, John Trent (Ed.) Creating A Culture of The “Blessing:” Where Seniors Thrive, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 19, No. 4, American Association of Christian Counselors, Forest Virginia, 2013. (p. 44).

[3] Sermon Bible Commentary, C. W. Stubbs, Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates' Journal, March 1st, 1883. Retrieved 02/18/2016 from: http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/jtc/view.cgi?bk=ge&ch=1.

[4] Year in Review: Barna’s Top 10 Findings in 2015, The Barna Group, Christian Counseling eNews, January, American Association of Christian Counselors, Forest Virginia, 2016. Retrieved 02/18/2016 from: https://www.barna.org/research/culture-media/article/year-in-review-2015#.Vsxy7nn2Ydl.

[5] How Celebrate Recovery Helped Evangelicals Open Up About Addiction: Over 25 years, the program has made churches a safer space for recovery, Kate Shellnutt, August 12, 2016, Christianity Today, Retrieved 01/20/2017 from: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/august-web-only/how-celebrate-recovery-helped-evangelicals-open-up-about-ad.html

[6] Year in Review: Barna’s Top 10 Findings in 2015, The Barna Group, Christian Counseling eNews, January, American Association of Christian Counselors, Forest Virginia, 2016. Retrieved 02/18/2016 from: https://www.barna.org/research/culture-media/article/year-in-review-2015#.Vsxy7nn2Ydl.

[7] Rethinking Mental Healthcare: How the Church can Transform a Broken System, Matthew S. Stanford, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 22-24).

[8] The Church and Mental Illness: We are Called to Care, Amy Simpson, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 66).

[9] Interaction of evangelical Christians and social workers in the rural environment, L. D. Furman; D. Perry & T. Goldale,. Human Services in The Rural Environment, 19, (pp. 5-8), 1996., In Tim Clinton and Eric Scalise, Eds., The Case for Faith: Celebrating Hope in Mental Health Care, 11/13/2016, American Association of Christian Counselors, Retrieved 01/12/2017 from: http://www.aacc.net/2016/11/03/the-case-for-faith/

[10] Modern Psychopathologies : A Contemporary Christian Appraisal, Mark A. Yarhouse, Richard E. Butman & Barret W. McRay, Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2005. (p. 36).

[11] Spirituality, religion, and CACREP curriculum standards, M. T. Burke; H. Hackney; P. Hudson; J. Miranti; G. A. Watts & Epp, Journal of Counseling & Development, 77, (pp. 252-257), 1999., In Tim Clinton and Eric Scalise, Eds., The Case for Faith: Celebrating Hope in Mental Health Care, 11/13/2016, American Association of Christian Counselors, Retrieved 01/12/2017 from: http://www.aacc.net/2016/11/03/the-case-for-faith/

[12] Religious and spiritual issues in counseling psychology training, D. L. Schulte; T. A. Skinner & C. D. Claiborn, The Counseling Psychologist, 30, (pp. 118-134), 2002., In Tim Clinton and Eric Scalise, Eds., The Case for Faith: Celebrating Hope in Mental Health Care, 11/13/2016, American Association of Christian Counselors, Retrieved 01/12/2017 from: http://www.aacc.net/2016/11/03/the-case-for-faith/

[13] Spirituality and people with mental illness: Developing spiritual competency in assessment and intervention, D. R. Hodge, Families in Society, 85(1), (pp. 36-45), 2004., In Tim Clinton and Eric Scalise, Eds., The Case for Faith: Celebrating Hope in Mental Health Care, 11/13/2016, American Association of Christian Counselors, Retrieved 01/12/2017 from: http://www.aacc.net/2016/11/03/the-case-for-faith/

[14] The role of religion and spirituality in social work practice: Views and experiences of social work students, P. Gilligan, & S. Furness, British Journal of Social Work, 36, (pp. 617-637), 2006., In Tim Clinton and Eric Scalise, Eds., The Case for Faith: Celebrating Hope in Mental Health Care, 11/13/2016, American Association of Christian Counselors, Retrieved 01/12/2017 from: http://www.aacc.net/2016/11/03/the-case-for-faith/

[15] Spirituality and counselor competence: A national survey of American Counseling Association members. J. S. Young; M. Wiggins-Frame, & C. S. Cashwell, Journal of Counseling and Development, 85(1), (pp. 47-53), 2007., In Tim Clinton and Eric Scalise, Eds., The Case for Faith: Celebrating Hope in Mental Health Care, 11/13/2016, American Association of Christian Counselors, Retrieved 01/12/2017 from: http://www.aacc.net/2016/11/03/the-case-for-faith/

[16] Multicultural training in spirituality: An interdisciplinary review, S. M. Hage; A. Hopson; M. Siegel; G. Payton, & E. Defanti, Counseling and Values, 50(3), (pp. 217-234), 2006., In Tim Clinton and Eric Scalise, Eds., The Case for Faith: Celebrating Hope in Mental Health Care, 11/13/2016, American Association of Christian Counselors, Retrieved 01/12/2017 from: http://www.aacc.net/2016/11/03/the-case-for-faith/

[17] Allowing spirituality into the healing process, S. Kliewer, The Journal of Family Practice, 53(8), (pp. 22-31), 2004., In Tim Clinton and Eric Scalise, Eds., The Case for Faith: Celebrating Hope in Mental Health Care, 11/13/2016, American Association of Christian Counselors, Retrieved 01/12/2017 from: http://www.aacc.net/2016/11/03/the-case-for-faith/

[18] Spiritual assessment, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, In Standards-Frequently asked questions. Retrieved April 5, 2010 from www.jacho.org/standard/ pharmfaq_mpfrm.html., In Tim Clinton and Eric Scalise, Eds., The Case for Faith: Celebrating Hope in Mental Health Care, 11/13/2016, American Association of Christian Counselors, Retrieved 01/12/2017 from: http://www.aacc.net/2016/11/03/the-case-for-faith/

[19] For The Record: The Foster Report, Christian Counseling Connection, Gary Foster, Volume 19 Issue. 2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2013. (p. 15).

[20] Church-based Counseling and Suicide Risk Prevention, John Sandy, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue 2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, Virginia, 2015. (p. 80).

[21] Rethinking Mental health care: How the Church Can Transform a Broken System, Matthew S. Stanford, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue 2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, Virginia, 2015. (p. 23).

[22] Rethinking Mental Healthcare: How the Church can Transform a Broken System, Matthew S. Stanford, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 23).

[23] Rethinking Mental Healthcare: How the Church can Transform a Broken System, Matthew S. Stanford, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 23).

[24] Rethinking Mental Healthcare: How the Church can Transform a Broken System, Matthew S. Stanford, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 24).

[25] Rethinking Mental Healthcare: How the Church can Transform a Broken System, Matthew S. Stanford, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 22-24).

[26] In a conversation about society’s influence on the church, Ryan Heathcoe, Ben Davis Christian Church, Indianapolis, 02/25/2016.

[27] 18 Powerful Francis A. Schaeffer Quotes, Pamela Rose Williams, What Christians Want to Know, Telling Ministries, LLC, Retrieved 02/26/2016 from: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/18-powerful-francis-a-schaeffer-quotes/#ixzz41HW3itPe.

[28] On Our Origins, Daniel J. Lepley, Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2013. (p. 6).

[29] On Our Origins, Daniel J. Lepley, Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2013.

[30] Luther’s works, Vol. 54, Martin Luther, J. J. Pelikan; H. C. Oswald and H. T. Lehmann (Eds.) Table Talk, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999, (p. 359), In Daniel J. Lepley (Ed.) On Our Origins,, Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2013. P. 6.).

[31] On Our Origins, Daniel J. Lepley, Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2013. (p. 6).

[32] On Our Origins, Daniel J. Lepley, Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2013. (p. 7).

[33] On Our Origins, Daniel J. Lepley, Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2013. (p. 10).

[34] On Our Origins, Daniel J. Lepley, Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2013. (p. 148).

[35] On Our Origins, Daniel J. Lepley, Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2013. (pp. 138-139).

[36] On Our Origins, Daniel J. Lepley, Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2013. (pp. 27-28).

[37] The Church and Mental Health: What Do the Numbers Tell Us?, Ed Stetzer, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 37).

[38] Rethinking Mental Healthcare: How the Church can Transform a Broken System, Matthew S. Stanford, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 24).

[39] The Church and Mental Health: What Do the Numbers Tell Us?, Ed Stetzer, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 37).

[40] The Church and Mental Health: What Do the Numbers Tell Us?, Ed Stetzer, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 36).

[41] The Church and Mental Health: What Do the Numbers Tell Us?, Ed Stetzer, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 37).

[42] The Church and Mental Health: What Do the Numbers Tell Us?, Ed Stetzer, Christian Counseling Today, Volume 21 Issue.2, Forest: American Association of Christian Counselors, 2015, (p. 38).

[43] Secrets of the Dead: Caveman Cold Case, PBS, Retrieved 05/11/2016 from: http://www.pbs.org/video/2365011691/

[44] On Our Origins, Daniel J. Lepley, Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2013. (p. 7).

Church Relevancy Page

Mikel Kelly, MA, LMHC

Introducing:

The Vortex Model 

“Whether we call them challenges, crises, or conflicts, the trek to adulthood is difficult because the path is strewn with obstacles.” And, “Each life takes on a myriad of twists and turns.”

 — Developmental Psychologists Robert 

Kail & John Cavanaugh[1]

Vortex Model of Development

MAP:

Vortex Model Home

Mental Health and the Church

Paradox Defined

Transformational Levels

Milestones of Development

Theo-PsychoNeurology

Values Formation

Mankind's Sin-Nature

The Root of Pathology:

The Root of Spiritual Pathology

The Root of Cosmological Pathology

The Root of Physiological Pathology

The Root of Relational Pathology

THE Universal Paradox

Wounded Spirit Syndrome

Solving Paradoxes

Redeeming Paradoxical Man

US-40

Heading Quote:

[1] Human Development: A Lifespan View, 2nd edition, Robert V. Kail & John C. Cavanaugh, 2000, United States, Wadsworth. (p. 18).