Connections

Mental health disorders have increased following the COVID-19 pandemic, and those within the Church are not immune.

A 2022 Lifeway Research study found that 54% of the pastors said they “have known at least one church member who has been diagnosed with a severe mental illness such as clinical depression, bipolar or schizophrenia.” Further, 26% of pastors said they have personally struggled with some type of mental illness. 

Mary Katherine Backstrom is best known for her viral videos, candid writing and laughter. What most people often forget is that underneath all of that, MK struggles with multiple diagnoses of mental health, including anxiety and depression. 

In 2015, while researching another film, Jon Erwin stumbled upon a Time magazine with a psychedelic portrait of Jesus and the words Jesus Revolution. This inspired him to bring the true story to life. 

"I'm like, what is this? I read the article, and it was this buoyant, hopeful, optimistic take on sweeping spiritual awakening that was happening all across America, specifically with college students, high school students and hippies," Jon Erwin, director of Jesus Revolution, explained. 

When people look at highly sought-after pastor and speaker Chris Brown, they see a successful man that is well put together. What they don't know is his history.

In 2014, Chris was in a board meeting where they were dissecting one of his talks and figuring out ways that he could be a better communicator. At one point, someone commented and said that Chris came across as somebody who has always had a polished and easy life. 

In today's world, there is mental illness all around us. At the heart of that is often a caregiver offering their support to a loved one who is struggling.

K.T. Griffiths knows all too well. Her daughter has been struggling with her mental health for years. 

Alicia Dougherty and her husband, Josh, experienced nine years of infertility and losses.

They knew they wanted to be parents, so they started looking into foster care and adoption.

Growing up, Jinger Duggar Zuolo was surrounded by television cameras. For 17 years, Zuolo was part of TLC's reality television shows, 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On. 

"All those years people saw me grow up on TV, my life seemed to be totally fine," said Vuolo. "I did have a happy childhood in some sense. Relationally, I had a very happy childhood. My parents sacrificed so much for me."

Barna Group recently released a first-of-its-kind international research study to help church leaders understand teenagers around the world.

"It includes responses from nearly 25,000 teens ages 13 to 17 across 26 countries," said Daniel Copeland, associate vice president of research for Barna Group. " We sent this survey out to a cross-section of teams nationally representative in all 26 countries we went to, regardless of their faith background."

The pandemic left many parents relying on tablets and television to keep their children busy while working from home or in lockdown. 

Molly DeFrank is a mother of six and the author of Digital Detox: A Two-Week Tech Reset for Kids. She wanted more for her family, so she pulled the plug, declaring a digital detox for her kids. The transformation blew her away. 

More than 22-thousand people have died in Monday's earthquake in Syria and Turkey, but survivors are still being pulled from the rubble.

Rescuers pulled several people alive from the toppled remnants of buildings on Friday, some who survived more than 100 hours trapped under crushed concrete in the bitter cold.