Breaking the Cycle of Emotional Distress and Dysfunction

Chart of what works in care and counsel. Only 15% comes from the Helper's knowledge and interventions, including medicine. That leaves 85% of an effective ministry coming from relationships.


The Western nations have so medicalized and professionalized health care and healing that most non-professionals and churches are afraid to do what Jesus and the early church did every day. We have been brainwashed and manipulated into believing that every time we feel sad or blue or nervous we need to see a Doctor.

I recently hear of a friend who needs an implant that he must get a clearance from a Psychiatrist first. The rationale is that the patient might feel some electrical shock from the implant and freak out thinking it was the CIA or FBI. (They fear the patient might be paranoid.)

The new "bible" for Psychiatry is expanding the definitions of many diseases, including obesity. They are also expanding it to indicate that anyone suffering from grief for over a few weeks has a depressive mental illness.  All of these will soon require a medical intervention and paid for by insurance. Maybe that is why all these new emotional expressions are suddenly appearing as diseases.

Watch the video by Vikram Patel, a Psychiatrist from India to get a new perspective.Although he also uses the term "Mental Illness"to describe far too many common emotional stresses, he makes some startling conclusions about how to help people, especially those in developing nations.

I watched the video on TED again this morning and I am blessed because it promotes in medical language what I have been preaching and teaching since 1974.The key to healthy living and healthy caring lies not primarily in professionals but in families and friends and co-workers.

Any church that is not training their members to reach out with caring skills is missing a tremendous blessing for themselves and their community. Any ministry that fails to mobilize their laity to care and love distressed persons is missing the way Jesus taught us in Luke 10 to evangelize. If you do not want to grow in numbers and depth please do not equip your members to deal effectively with relational, emotional and behavioral stresses.

While at the AOG Convention I met the leaders of a group I have worked with for over 20 years but had lost track of what they were doing. Two decades ago Jimmy Lee from Chattanooga called me and asked about our training and materials. I sent him everything we had and today that ministry, Living Free, under Dan Strickland's leadership is thriving.

Call them if you are interested in developing a ministry to "Equip God's people to do His work".

You can also call Equipping Ministries International. I founded it in 1978 and it still trains hundreds of churches all over the planet.

The books and video tapes from Sweeten Life can also show you the ways to train the laity to minister hope and healing to hurting people.