Kay Warren: Four Things My Son’s Suicide Taught Me About Mental Health & The Church

In recognizing the crucial role that church leaders play in eradicating the stigma around mental illness, Rick and Kay Warren have set out on a mission to educate others about mental illness.

It’s been six years now since Saddleback Church co-founders Rick and Kay Warren tragically lost their son Matthew to suicide. The 27-year-old had suffered from depression since the age of 7.

Being the founders of one of the country’s largest and most developed megachurches, Kay admits that she and Rick struggled at first with how to understand and accept their son’s diagnosis.

“There are signs that show a child is struggling,” she recalls. “Somehow, we missed it.”

The death of her son nearly broke Kay, but God is bigger than any earthly tragedy we will ever face. Kay’s deepest heartbreak led to her greatest calling.

Despite the astronomical rates of mental illness and suicide among teens and young adults, Kay says the faith community has traditionally treated these topics as taboo, something she calls a “tragic misunderstanding,” saying,

“Mental illness is an illness. When you start to understand that, you can start to fix the stigma. When someone is courageous enough to start talking about it, then it opens the doors for treatment and healing.”

In recognizing the crucial role that church leaders play in eradicating the stigma around mental illness, Rick and Kay Warren have set out on a mission to educate others about mental illness. Their goal is to equip churches and families so we can better minister to people living with a mental illness while shining a light on topics that are traditionally taboo in the church.

Here are four things I learned about mental illness and the church from Kay Warren:

1. “Mental illness is real, it’s common and it’s treatable.”

Kay Warren said this is the most important thing she has to say about this issue. ...

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The Christian Roots of the Fair Trade Movement

Beneath the buzzwords around sustainability, transparency, and ethical sourcing we find something far more important than consumerism: Christ-centered love for our neighbors.

Americans do the most shopping during the last two months on the calendar, fulfilling Christmas gift lists, taking advantage of online deals, and snagging up holiday favorites at local stores. But the spendiest season of the year also offers a broadening array of moral dilemmas regarding our consumerism and a yearning to make something better of it.

Beyond Black Friday and Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday—lest the holiday gift of charity be overlooked—the shopping season now brings sustainable gift guides, fair trade festivals, promotions from charity-minded startups, and shop local movements like Small Business Saturdays. The ethical options force us, as Christians and as consumers, to think more deeply about the items we buy year-round, the companies we support, and how we steward our money and resources.

Take any product we’ve purchased, and we could probably tell you how much it cost and the store it came from. A $55 duffel bag from REI. A $9,000 used Subaru Impreza. A $10 V-neck tee from Target. But beyond that, plenty of questions go unanswered: What materials were used? How much waste was created? Who made the components? Were the workers cared for at each step in the process? How far did these elements travel to get here?

“The modern market economy adds layers of complexity between production and consumption, which makes it hard to see the impact of each choice we make,” said Hunter Beaumont, pastor at Fellowship Denver and a board member with the Denver Institute for Faith and Work. “A lot of our Christian moral convictions were shaped in a simpler economy, and it can feel paralyzing to apply those convictions to our complex, modern economy.”

We want to become more conscious ...

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Two Sides of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, giving thanks, and/or being thankful is both expressive and confessional. 

In a capitalistic society there are a lot of goods and services exchanged every day. And if you’re like us, you tend to say “thanks” to the employee(s) providing the goods or services.

For instance, when the waitress brings our meal, we say “thanks.” When the hotel clerk hands us room keys, we say “thanks.” When the uber driver takes us to our final destination, we say “thanks.”

As we enter the Thanksgiving season, such exchanges got us thinking about this whole idea of thanks, thanksgiving, or giving thanks.

The “thanks” described above are cultural mannerism that we use to be polite. But are such words full of true thanksgiving? Are we really giving thanks for someone bringing us our food? Our hotel keys? Dropping us off at our final destination?

Weren’t we supposed to receive the food? The hotel keys? A lift?

Here’s a question that comes to our minds:

Are you truly giving thanks if you believe you are entitled to what you give thanks for?

In other words, if you believe you are entitled to something, have earned something, or have paid for something, can you truly be thankful for it?

It seems that we live in an entitlement culture.

People think they are entitled and owed certain things.Take kids for instance. Many believe they are entitled to play the gaming system as long as they want. Many believe they are owed a smart phone like all their friends. Many believe dinner at the house should be menu-style as opposed to what momma is cooking.

They want bedtimes to be optional. Thus, when parents allow them two hours for gaming, cook them a nice homecooked meal, or send them to a bedroom with a bed, mattress, covers, and pillows, they aren’t necessarily ...

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Giving Thanks for that We Do Not Deserve or Expect

Each Thanksgiving season, I'm struck by the fact that people give thanks for things that they perhaps did not expect.

This Thanksgiving, I am spending time with my family in Florida. I am grateful for the warmer weather and the time to rest a bit. This has also given me some time to think about what Thanksgiving is about and our attitudes and actions surrounding this American holiday.

Yesterday, Laurie had a good post on thanking God for the parts of our lives which may not be the first things that come to mind.

Each Thanksgiving season, I'm struck by the fact that people give thanks for things that they perhaps did not expect. I don't, for example, give thanks when the car starts. I don't, for example, give thanks when the light switch goes on. Those are pretty remarkable things and probably worthy of our thanksgiving.

But the things that we give thanks for are the things that are perhaps outside of our normal expectations. This makes sense because if we look to the 1621 Thanksgiving feast at Plymouth, it was actually prompted by the fact that they had a good harvest, which reminded them in many ways of what they were thankful for—namely, a good harvest.

The year before the harvest, however, was not good. And, due to the conditions and disease, about have of these new arrivals had died the year or so between arriving and the event ewe call The First Thanksgiving. Furthmore, the story was that the Native Americans actually provided them food in prior times when they had little, and so when they had much, they had a feast of thanksgiving.

This, of course, would later be declared a national holiday.

People who came over to what they considred the new world during those days often died of hunger when there was a bad crop or a bad harvest. They generally didn’t have much. It was a time of general scarcity, and when there was ...

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Remembering Larry Hurtado, Leading Researcher of Early Christian Worship

The Edinburgh New Testament professor modeled faithful scholarship with his work on historic devotion to Jesus.

I went to Larry Hurtado’s office at the University of Edinburgh immediately after I defended my doctoral dissertation. There he was—a scholarly giant, a celebrity in our world—chatting with my husband and nervously bouncing my baby boy on his knee. That’s how Larry was. Hospitable. Approachable. And committed to service, with both his life and his scholarship.

Larry died of cancer on Monday at the age of 75. He was a remarkable New Testament scholar, and he was my mentor, PhD supervisor, and friend.

Larry’s impact on biblical scholarship was far-reaching. He started his academic career at Regent College, in Vancouver, British Columbia, before moving to the University of Winnipeg. He was appointed Professor of New Testament Language, Literature, and Theology at the University of Edinburgh in 1996 and established the Centre for the Study of Christian Origins there, focusing on the first three centuries of Christianity.

Larry wrote landmark studies of the Gospel of Mark, and on how ancient Christians manuscripts matter for understanding the New Testament and the early church.

His most groundbreaking work was done on early Christian worship of Jesus. His focus was not only on what Christians believed about Jesus, but on what their actions indicated about their views of Jesus’ divine status. He looked at prayers to Jesus and the use of Jesus’ name to understand how the early church’s worship of Jesus was compatible with Jewish worship of one God.

As fellow colleagues have noted in tribute, Larry “showed the way for many of us as to how a good critical scholar could at the same time be committed to the orthodox Christian faith” and “was a rare breed of scholar who commanded ...

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Should Lebanon’s Christians Join Protests? Viral Sermons Argue Yes and No.

Confrontation at protest site forces evangelical faith from the pulpit to the public square.

Does a revolution need a leader?

As the rocks rained down near the tent of Ras Beirut Baptist Church’s effort to discuss the question, suddenly the faith of the Christians gathered there was put to the test.

For the past month, Lebanese evangelicals have debated Scripture, sharing sermons online. One viral effort urges believers to stay away from widespread demonstrations in submission to authority. Another licenses participation in the popular push for justice.

Trying to find a third way, RBBC has visited the protest site weekly at Beirut’s Martyrs Square to discuss issues related to the revolutionary movement.

“We are not supporting a political agenda, but listening to people about why they are coming down to the streets,” Joe Costa, RBBC youth leader, told CT. “You cannot evangelize people if they are hungry or hurt. You have to be with them where they are.”

And this time, the church’s tent was at the front line as dozens of Hezbollah flag-waiving partisans approached on their motorcycles.

Since October 17, citizens of Lebanon and its multi-confessional democracy have shed their religious identities in largely peaceful demonstrations against their political leaders. Some politicians have responded by justifying the violence of their followers, without authorizing it. Other politicians have expressed sympathy, asking for trust to make things better.

But long seen as the untouchable defenders of their communities’ interests, over the decades many political leaders have become wealthy.

“Corruption is like decay in our bones,” Hikmat Kashouh, pastor of Resurrection Church of Beirut (RCB), told CT. “No single person doubts it, including those in authority today.” ...

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How PEPFAR Galvanized Christians in the Fight to Eradicate AIDS

And why advocates say US commitment to the cause cannot let up now.

On the 32nd commemoration of World AIDS Day, Christian groups remember their role in leveraging political will to create a transformative global public-private partnership that has shaped the trajectory of AIDS pandemic.

Last month, global political leaders finalized commitments to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, extending funding through 2023. The Global Fund, founded in 2002, received a boost the following year when President George W. Bush established the President’s Executive Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a US initiative that evangelicals championed and played a critical role in drafting.

The 2019 documentary 27 Million Lives showcases how evangelical organizations and musicians like Michael W. Smith helped promote awareness for the cause, resulting in PEPFAR’s broad support from across the faith community and both parties. The film’s title references the estimated number of lives saved since 2004 because of the work of organizations receiving PEPFAR funds, beginning with a $15 billion commitment over five years.

PEPFAR and the Global Fund “are not any one president’s program, not any one party’s program,” said Michael Gerson, who served in the Bush White House, in the recent documentary. “They really are the American people coming together to do something amazing in the world.”

Several humanitarian groups who have been involved with the campaign—like World Vision, World Relief, and Food for the Hungry—have spoken up in recent years against proposed cuts to foreign aid under an “American First” budget and have defended the country’s continued role in the eradication of AIDS around the globe.

When President Donald ...

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