What can your church do to address the growing suicide problem in the US?

A couple of years ago I was speaking with someone about the suicide problem we were facing. He told me that for the past several months we had been averaging one suicide per week. When you live in a county of less than 17,000 people that is a big number. Many of these were young people. In some cases, it could not be definitely proven that the death was caused by suicide so the actual number might have been even higher. Unfortunately, this is not a problem confined to one area but is a problem throughout our nation. Here we are, a nation considered by many to offer the greatest advantages of any country, with a serious suicide problem. How can our churches address this?

This is one of the issues I address in my latest book Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade?. I wrote this book because the issues churches face today are much different than the ones we dealt with when I began my ministry in 1981. In the 20 years I served as pastor our congregation never had one suicide. It wasn't until I went into denominational ministry that a member of our church had a spouse commit suicide. The pastor who followed me would not officiate at the funeral so the family called me, and I agreed to minister to them. Unfortunately, today not many pastors can avoid ministering to a family dealing with the trauma of a family member taking their life.

In the book I cover how to minister to one who is considering suicide. I learned, through dealing with a family member who struggled with this, that they will give some obvious hints they are considering ending their lives. People like telling you their stories, and if you listen you will hear the story behind the story.  A counselor, who was treating this family member, called to tell me she felt this person was again considering suicide. When we confronted this family member, and she admitted this was true, we were able to get her some additional help and prevented her from going through with her plans. Do you know what to look for in a person considering suicide? I share some of those things in this book.

The book also addresses how to minister to the family of one who commits suicide. This is a devastating time in a family's life, and it is critical that the minister comes alongside them with wisdom and grace. I'm not sure how many seminaries adequately prepare the minister for this type of ministry even though this ability is needed today more than ever.

Many of the persons who read this blog and my books serve in smaller churches. I included this chapter in the book because I believe this will be a growing issue that will confront more and more churches and their leaders regardless of the size of their churches. If you want some help for this topic, or the others found in the book, it is only available through Amazon as an eBook. I encourage you to check it out today.

Preaching to needs

Someone once said that if you preach as to hurting people you will never lack an audience. Yesterday I preached on "Dealing with Grief," and found those words to be true. Numerous people came after both services telling me about grief issues they were currently addressing. Last night at our Bible study we discussed the morning message, and several more shared their stories.

The message itself was intended to be very practical. After sharing how grief follows the loss of anything significant in our lives, I pointed out some events that people often do not associate with grief. I went through the five stages of grief and talked about some of the wrong ways people sometimes respond to grief. I also shared some of the steps we can take to properly address grief and emphasized the need we have to be gracious towards ourselves and to others who might be grieving.

One well-known pastor once spoke against preaching to people's felt needs, but I do not agree. As I read the account of Jesus' ministry I find Him responding to the needs of people throughout His ministry. He healed the blind, the leper, and the lame. At one point He asked one man what he wanted Him to do for him. He met people where they were.

Certainly, there were times when Jesus refused to merely address the felt needs of an individual. When the woman at the well asked about water Jesus offered her living water. When the crowds asked for bread He offered them living bread. In both cases He understood that their true need was much greater than their felt need, and He offered to meet that true need.

Pastors are called up to do both as well. While we present a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as the means to meet the deepest need in a person's life, we also must address the felt needs of people.

Studies continually point out that people desire preaching that addresses real issues. This doesn't mean that people want their ears tickled. They want to know that Christianity speaks to real life. So many have rejected the Christian faith and the church because they believe they are irrelevant to the real world. Part of our role as ministers is to demonstrate through our preaching and ministries that Christianity is relevant to 21st century needs.

Jesus said that He came to bring us life and life more abundantly. Not only does He bring us the opportunity to enjoy eternal life with Him, He also desires to minister to our current needs. Our preaching should reflect this.