Mental Health and the Church

By Pastor Dale Rose

While pastoring First Assembly of God in Montclair, California, my wife Martha and I struggled in raising a son who was making wrong choices that affected his life and ours.   There came a point where we attended a Southern California Network Conference where Dr. Richard Dobbins was the speaker.   We went to the conference in a broken condition.  The week previous we had asked our son to leave our home because of his conduct.  We felt that our decision to ask Steve to leave was within the boundaries we had established in our home.

On the first night, at the end of the service, Dr. Dobbins asked for those who were having trouble in their homes to stand.   We knew we had to stand but were astonished to be among a large number of ministers who were also standing. 

Thank God there came a point where our son turned around.  Once again, he was a part of the church and doing well and felt a call to ministry.  It had been over three years since he graduated from high school and going to college didn’t seem like a possibility……but God.

One Sunday during our annual missions convention we were dining with the convention speaker, Dr. Doug Peterson, from Costa Rica.   He was also a professor at Southern California College (now Vanguard University).  Dr. Peterson encouraged our Steve to pursue the application process and told him being twenty two years old would not be a hindrance.

Steve applied and was accepted to attend Southern California College.  He did well academically and completed his degree in Religion.  We took him to Hawaii to celebrate his graduation.  While there we visited a friend who was the Pastor of a Calvary Chapel.   Our friend, Scott Gillis, invited Steve to stay and become their Youth Pastor.

Months later he came home during the holidays and a discussion about student loans came up.   Steve had to work at a secular job in Hawaii as the remuneration was minimal.   That job ended when  the construction project was done,  he couldn’t find another job.

It was decided that he would return home and find ministry and employment on the mainland.  As he entered the work force it seemed that there were problems everywhere.   He felt the people around him didn’t like him.  He worked several jobs, and it became evident to us that there seemed to be some paranoia involved.  Soon the paranoia was evident at work  and everywhere.   He thought that a neighborhood friend wanted to kill him.   When we left the house, he ducked down in the back seat so no one would see or hurt him.

Steve thought that one of his former professors, Dr. Sam Southerd,  might help him with some answers.   Dr. Southerd had some contacts at Fuller Seminary in the Psychology Department, and they took Steve into the program to do a study.   The results were not good, the diagnosis was schizophrenia.

As we searched for answers to mental health questions, we attended a conference called Mental Health and The Church at Saddleback Church, where Rick Warren was pastor.  It was a great event with speakers from all over the nation.   As I perused all the books before the conference began, I found one that got my attention.   Fresh Hope for Mental Health by Brad Hoefs.

Brad’s story is amazing!  His book presents seven tenets that are building blocks for recovery.  After the conference I sat down with Wendell Vinson and Steve Vinson, the Lead and Executive Pastors of our church.   I told them that there was a faith based mental health program called Fresh Hope and that Martha, Steve and I would like to facilitate it.  They were immediately onboard!

We took three months to plan and educate ourselves on the mechanics of being facilitators and published a start date.  Steve was excited, he was going to have ministry again! Three weeks from our start date we got a call from Steve’s roommate saying he had just come home and found Steve dead.  Devastated, we thought that he committed suicide.   Dealing with ideations of suicide was one of the things Steve dealt with.  It took us three months to receive the results of the autopsy;  Steve had died from a heart attack.   He had no diagnosis of a heart condition although he did have high blood pressure sometimes.

It has been ten years since we lost Steve.  It has been ten years since we started Fresh Hope For Mental Health.   We are now Ambassadors at a National level and do our best to tell people about a free faith based mental health program.  Fresh Hope is now in fifteen countries and the book has been translated into three languages.  Facilitator training is not difficult and is done entirely online.  Your church can have Fresh Hope!  Can we help you?

Pastor Dale Rose, Minister of Congregational Care  Canyon Hills AG Bakersfield, California