You probably have picked up by now that there’s a book coming out in May that I’ve contributed to. It’s called “The pastor with a thorn in his side” and it’s edited by my good friend, Steve Kneale who is the pastor of Oldham Bethel So, why a book on this topic? Surely, it’s aContinue reading “Why have I contributed to a book about pastors with depression? … And why do I want you to read it?”
Category Archives: Depression
Help for those struggling with Depression
We have been through a challenging year with COVID-19. One concern many of us have is that the isolation of lockdowns will have had a huge impact on people emotionally. Some are warning of a tsunami of mental health issues. So, today, I wanted to highlight a few resources to help people struggling with depressionContinue reading “Help for those struggling with Depression”
When the wounds do not heal
In my review of “The Wounded Christian” I raised one small point where I felt the author hasn’t quite hit the nail on the head. I felt that the book whilst rightly talking about how healing happens may have given the impression that it always will or at least should happen in this life time. Continue reading “When the wounds do not heal”
Our attitude to mental health may indicate the extent to which we have dealt with the toxic problem of Prosperity Teaching
If I told you that you probably did not need to persist with the chemotherapy, or that you did not need to see a surgeon to get your broken bone reset, you just needed to pray and repent of your sin, how would you respond? Not only would you recognise this as ridiculously nuts butContinue reading “Our attitude to mental health may indicate the extent to which we have dealt with the toxic problem of Prosperity Teaching”
When your pastor gets depressed (3) Is it sin?
You may remember that a few weeks back I wrote about being offered Biblical Counselling when depressed and the implication behind that approach to counselling that the cause of depression is some buried sin from the past. There is a real danger when dealing with the problem of depression that we immediately assume that theContinue reading “When your pastor gets depressed (3) Is it sin?”
When your pastor gets depressed (part 2) -a look at some potential risk factors
In part 1 yesterday, I highlighted 3 causes of depression that pastors might be particularly prone to because they are high risk factors in church and ministry contexts: social isolation, conflict and abuse. However, these are not the only causes of depression. It’s worth observing at this point that depression and anxiety disorders can strikeContinue reading “When your pastor gets depressed (part 2) -a look at some potential risk factors”
When your pastor gets depressed -what might have caused it?
I recently wrote an article for the Grace in the Depths website outlining the common signs and common causes of depression. I did so because one of the challenges we face when talking about church leaders and depression is identifying that someone has depression. The second and related challenge is that often the subject remainsContinue reading “When your pastor gets depressed -what might have caused it?”
He is stronger than the Darkness
We’ve been learning this new song from Tommy and Eileen Walker over the past few weeks. Over the past few years, our Sunday Night Church congregation have grown fond of the worship songs provided by Tommy Walker. The words that particularly struck me in this song are “He’s stronger than the darkness.” Although this isn’tContinue reading “He is stronger than the Darkness”
If someone says they have depression, please take them seriously
I saw this tweet the other day and would like to respond to it. The background to the tweet is that the pastor concerned had a high celebrity profile due to Justin Bieber attending his church. Sadly, as with so many pastors over the years behind the public persona was something different and his marriageContinue reading “If someone says they have depression, please take them seriously”
Pastors get depression too
I want to share with you the results of a little survey I did via twitter. It is important to emphasise that these twitter polls don’t count as scientific surveys with appropriate proportions of people and adjustments. Therefore, the percentages are a little meaningless. So, what I’d encourage you to do is to look pastContinue reading “Pastors get depression too”
