Inclusion of All

Inclusion of All in Church Community: Mental Illness and Disability

Our Youth and Young Adults were keen to discuss this issue and how it affects us in practical ways. Including people with mental health issues or mental disability is almost a “motherhood statement” in the church. Who could possibly say ‘no’?!

But there is a world of difference between what we want to do and whether it is easy to do it. The main challenge to including people with mental health issues or mental disability is the discomfort of people around them.

The very nature of these conditions is that people can’t hold a normal conversation. There are silences which are perceived as awkward. There may be no mutuality about the conversation either because of the condition or because a person is taking such potent medication that they feel as ‘thick as a brick’ or ‘battling through a thick fog’ in the brain.

The challenge for those who enjoy good mental health (for the moment!) is to overcome your own feelings of discomfort and just sit alongside someone for company. The urge to have a ‘normal conversation’ that would make you feel comfortable must be overcome! That urge turns silences into awkward silences, and changes concerned enquiries into one-sided interrogations. The result is that people flee these awkwardnesses and desperately avoid those whom they should be loving.

The challenge then is “How do I master my discomfort?”

The passage Mark 5:1-20 is helpful here. The disciples hop in the boat with Jesus who tells them they must sail to the pagan side of Lake Galilee. How uncomfortable for them as they must obey the Jewish laws that minimise contact with the ‘unclean’ pagans. Not only that, when they land they land near a cemetery (also unclean), near a pig farm (also unclean) they are harassed by a demon possessed man-very uncomfortable moment!

How did they cope?

Simple. They kept looking to Jesus for their lead. They saw he had no fear and therefore assured themselves that they had nothing to fear as long as they were with him as did his stuff. Only then could they see the humanity of the demon possessed man and look beyond their own discomfort and desire to flee.

When you are outside your comfort zone but you know this is where Jesus is at work then reassure yourself as his follower; this is where Jesus wants you to be. Then you will see the humanity of the person with mental illness or disability and perhaps a little healing love will be exchanged.

Graeme H