Suicide and the Church
As Christians seek to find out more information regarding mental illness and suicide prevention in their churches, Liberty University partnered with Lifeway Research and the American Association of Christian Counselors in the fall of 2017 to survey how local churches address suicide.
Lifeway Research surveyed pastors and laypeople to comprehensively report on this issue in local Protestant churches. Liberty’s Provost and Chief Academic Officer Ronald Hawkins helped develop the survey with other Christian leaders such as Tim Clinton, president of AACC, and Liberty and AACC funded the research.
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports that 44,965 Americans die by suicide each year — and for every suicide, 25 people attempt to kill themselves. Christians are not exempt from this issue, as one third of Protestant churchgoers reported having had a close family member or acquaintance commit suicide, according to the survey results.
Hawkins said the study showed that while most churches are proactive in caring for families who have lost someone to suicide, they often lack the resources to prevent suicides.
“For the most part, churches are not really geared up to deal well with people who are in fact going through depression, going through anxiety, and going through a process that could lead to suicide,” Hawkins said. “They also are not always aware of the complexities that are part of the journey that ends in suicide.”
Lifeway surveyed 1,000 Protestant pastors and 1,000 church attendees for the survey conducted in August and September of 2017. According to the results of one of Lifeway’s reports, “Pastor Views on Suicide,” 41 percent of pastors have received formal training in suicide prevention, and 56 percent of pastors of churches with attendance of 100-249 provide a list of “trained mental health professionals” to their congregants.
Scott McConnell, the executive director of Lifeway Research, said churches should be better equipped to provide these types of resources in suicide prevention. He also noted that more awareness and discussion about suicide and mental illness in churches can help individuals feel comfortable sharing their struggles.
“I think the hardest thing for churches is to create an environment where people are willing to say, ‘I’m struggling with mental illness, or I’m struggling with an episode in my life that occurred this last week,’” McConnell said.
In churches that focus solely on the victorious, joyful aspects of the Christian life, people who are suicidal may feel ostracized and out of place, Hawkins said.
“A lot of times when people get together in church, we sing victorious songs, we celebrate our relationship with Christ, and sometimes people who are hurting don’t quite know how to talk about it,” Hawkins said. “They feel abnormal. They feel like I’m not where these people are.”
Many Protestant churches — 86 percent of churches with 100-249 attendees — offer recovery groups that address suicide and other mental health issues. But Hawkins said he believes many individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts avoid these groups and need individual counseling.
“Oftentimes, people who are isolating themselves don’t even feel comfortable becoming part of a group,” Hawkins said. “They need counseling.”
Even though smaller churches cannot provide the on-staff counselors that larger churches have, Hawkins suggested that smaller churches unite to provide counseling services to their members. No matter the size of the congregation, Hawkins and McConnell said churches can do a better job confronting these issues.
“Churches can be hosting groups that are directly addressing things,” McConnell said. “They can be training their leaders — their small groups leaders, their Sunday school leaders — to be able to understand the warning signs so that people can be encouraged to get help.”
Christians’ views on suicide and professional counseling have evolved over the past few years, leading to greater acceptance of professional treatment and medication. However, Hawkins said the stigma of mental health and treatment still exists within churches.
“There are people who really think that you should be able to solve (suicidal thoughts between) you and Jesus and reading the Bible,” Hawkins said. “There are people who, in normal circumstances, that might work (for), but in abnormal circumstances … they need more.”
Hawkins said he hopes the results from the survey will lead to continued study into the church and suicide by Liberty students particularly. Before Lifeway conducted the study, Christians lacked comprehensive research into the church’s current approach to this issue, according to Hawkins.
“We have been developing Liberty research pods, and a couple of areas we’ve looked at and want to continue to look at are addiction and suicide,” Hawkins said. “Now, all the research that was done … is available to us. So faculty and students can access that data and crunch it and write dissertations on it.”
Although Christians are still working on better ways to prevent suicide and facilitate open discussions of this issue, local churches can provide the community and accountability that help decrease the risk of suicide. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported in 2016 that women who regularly attend religious services are less likely to commit suicide.
“Even secular people who are addressing the need for suicide prevention look to the church as a major source of help because of the community that exists inside of a church,” McConnell said.
Institutions like Liberty, Lifeway and AACC are continuing to research mental health issues from a Christian perspective. As churches become more open to discussing these topics and actively preventing suicide, Hawkins said he believes the church will attract people looking for hope in the midst of dark times.
“If you don’t have broken people in your church who can come and be ministered to, then in all likelihood, you have a broken church,” Hawkins said. “If your church is healthy, then people who are broken are going to be able to come and attach themselves (to it).”