Dwell Ministry training materials

Mental Health

Crash Course

for Church Leaders & Volunteers

Be informed. Foster healing. Provide care with confidence.

If we want our churches to be places of safety and healing for broken people living in a broken world, we have to know more, do better, and love bigger. That’s a big ask, so where do we start?

The Mental Health Crash Course, designed specifically with church leaders and volunteers in mind, can help to give you a base knowledge of common mental health concerns, appropriate language when it comes to clinical diagnoses and terms, warning signs of serious issues, and resources available to you.

Our hope is that our Biblically grounded, psychologically informed approach will equip you to do what you are already doing within your church better. 

Topics Covered: 

  • Our Philosophy of Care - A Holistic Approach by Design

  • Trauma-Informed Care and Communication

  • Learning to Recognize Signs, Offer Practical Care, and Provide Effective Resources

  • The Role of Spiritual Health

  • The Role of Physical Health

  • The Role of Emotional Health

  • The Role of Community Health 

  • An Overview of Relevant Resources

Course Outcomes: 

  • Understand common issues, diagnoses, and seasons of life that can affect people physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally

  • Recognize common mental health concerns 

  • Recognize warning signs of suicide, self-harm, and abuse

  • Utilize appropriate and sensitive language to communicate compassion instead of judgment

  • Provide effective resources for your community 

  • Collaborate with other professionals to foster whole-person growth and healing in others

church mental health trainers collaboration

  • The Mental Health Crash Course for church leaders is a fully virtual class, in a live webinar format, designed to provide education and awareness on common mental health struggles. Course content will include a brief overview of our trauma-informed, holistic approach, common mental health concerns, warning signs of mental illness, appropriate and accurate language, strategies to offer effective support, and relevant resources.

  • As of 2021, 49% of pastors said that they rarely or never talk to their congregation about mental health, and only 27% of churches have a plan to assist families who struggle with mental illness (Lifeway Research) . A UK study in 2020 found that only 35% of Christians felt support by their churches in regard to their mental health. This may be in part because 91% of church leaders received no training about mental health during their theological training. Something is wrong with these numbers, and this course is here to take us one small step in the right direction - toward understanding, toward greater compassion, toward healing for God’s people.

    “The journey of healing, whether for individuals or for whole church communities often starts with a reckoning; an honest assessment of the way things really are; not the way we wish they were.” Steve Austin

  • This “crash course” training intended for anyone in a leadership or volunteer position within a church. This could be anyone from pastors and elders to community group leaders and other ministry leaders. This will largely depend on the size and structure of the church, but a general guideline is this: if you are in charge of teaching, discipling, or shepherding a group of people and you don’t have 100% confidence in your ability to notice and/or address mental health concerns in the people around you, this course is for you.

  • The Mental Health Crash Course for church leaders is a 2.5 hour class, broken into 2 parts:

    Part 1: Philosophy of care, trauma-informed approach, and addressing different areas of life to foster healing: physical, emotional, spiritual, and relational.

    Part 2: The church’s role in increasing awareness, understanding the problems at hand, communicating with compassion, and utilizing appropriate resources and strategies to support those struggling.

  • You can email us directly to schedule your private zoom webinar: info@dwellministry.org. The fee includes all handouts, resources, and personalized Q&A to best meet your church needs.

    We also host a community-wide zoom webinar twice a year. This includes all handouts, resources, and generalized Q&A session. Email info@dwellministry.org to register or add your name to the interest list.

  • For a Private Zoom Webinar with your church leadership, this 2.5 hour course is $249 and can include as many links as you would like, within the same church. We want this to be accessible to as many of your church leaders and volunteers as you would like to attend. Each registrant will receive any handouts, resources, and materials.

    The Community Zoom Webinar offered twice a year is $59 per link. Each registrant will receive any handouts, resources, and materials.