Mental Health Ministry for Churches by Marcia A. Murphy

Mental Health Ministry for Churches:

A Handbook for Getting Started or to Supplement Current Programs

Marcia A. Murphy

IN Press: From Wipf & Stock Publishers, Resource Publications, imprint 2026

 

Religious communities are called to be salt and light to the surrounding civic communities which, itself, contributes talents and gifts accordingly. When we have both segments working together in tandem, this is a winning proposition. And when the subject matter is mental health churches have a vital role in coordinating new and improved ways to serve the ill, their families, and places of work.

As humans are body, mind, and spirit, to leave out one aspect of health is crippling. As a way to increase awareness of the ways to improve mental and emotional health, Saint Andrew Presbyterian church (USA) of Iowa City, Iowa, established programs to serve the purpose of improving the lives of those with mental afflictions and to assist their families.

This handbook has been based on the successful work of team leaders for mental health ministries at St. Andrew. This book describes the events and activities that will strengthen the mental health of not only the individual lives of congregants in a church setting, but also the surrounding community, as well as region, states, nation, and world.

 

 

 

Written by a person who is, herself, in recovery from mental illness, the author provides insights and ideas that come from someone who has, herself, experienced the devastation of psychiatric affliction and who can thereby identify what is most helpful.

This handbook is a valuable tool and resource to implement changes in spiritual and mental health that will affect hundreds, if not, thousands of lives, for the better. This resource can be used to start new programs, or it can be a guide to supplement what already exists as an organization’s current mental health ministry.*

 

*From the Introduction