That’s perhaps not the headline you wanted to read is it? However, this is the challenging reality. At some point your pastor/vicar/elders have thought “I could just walk out the building after the service finishes, in fact, I could do it right now. I could shut the Bible, walk out and never come back here.”… Continue reading Your pastor has considered giving up
Tag: anxiety
The pandemic – faith and emotional health
Earlier this week, I shared the results of a survey that I had done among my twitter followers picking up on the impact of the pandemic. The survey showed that whilst quite a few people are able to talk positively about the impact on their spiritual health in terms of relationship to church family and… Continue reading The pandemic – faith and emotional health
A magnifying glass on my sin
Back in 2019 I was becoming increasingly irritable and snappy. I found that my patience was in short supply and that I struggled to find joy and delight in things. Perhaps it was no surprise then when towards the end of the year I found myself diagnosed with Mixed Anxiety and Depressive Disorder. Things had… Continue reading A magnifying glass on my sin
Is fear a sin?
Sometimes we say that we should only fear God and that we shouldn’t fear other people. I have often talked about how the things we fear are the things that become our idols. Jesus tells us: “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy… Continue reading Is fear a sin?
COVID and Omicron – what’s the mood?
Yesterday I ran one of my little surveys via twitter. Remember, these are not intended to give is a scientific analysis of the exact proportions of people that hold specific positions. Rather, they operate like a kind of focus group or dip check. That’s not a high number of votes and I expect proportions would… Continue reading COVID and Omicron – what’s the mood?
When did you last hear a pastor talk about mental health issues?
In my recent survey about application and what pastors talked about, I asked respondents to indicate whether or not they’d heard pastors address particular issues within the last 5 years. One issue concerned mental health. This is such an important subject to address within our churches because as we preach and pastor we are so… Continue reading When did you last hear a pastor talk about mental health issues?
Pastoral care of the COVID-19 anxious
What should we be doing about those people who are still extremely anxious about COVID and it is having a significant affect on their ability to participate in the life of the church and indeed other aspects of family and community life? My view is that we are now moving into a season when a… Continue reading Pastoral care of the COVID-19 anxious
Three anxieties
Is it a sin to be anxious or is it simply a mental health condition that you don’t have control over? I’ve heard both extremes. In the church we often emphasis the former whilst it is increasingly the norm to hear people saying “I have anxiety” and using that as a reason not to be… Continue reading Three anxieties
Facing Depression – When healing does not seem to come
Is it all in the mind?
“The body keeps the score” is the title of a book by Bessel Van Der Kolk about mental health and the affects of trauma. We sometimes describe particular health conditions as “all in the mind.” At one level, what we might simply mean by that is that we cannot find a specific and direct organic… Continue reading Is it all in the mind?
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