I was having a coffee recently with a good friend of mine, talk ing about our families and lives, especially since we both have been associated and are associated with faith communities leaving the mainstream church. Over the conversation, we started exploring some of the mental health issues that we have experienced over the past few years since leaving the mainstream church, and taking part in a missional faith community.
By mental health issues — we are talking about anxiety, panic or depression — over leaving the mainstream church and in the style of The Matrix, “taking the red pill” and exploring new (or old) forms of church — such as faith communities, organic church, simple church, house church, alt church etc. Other issue are beyond the scope of what this post and survey are talking about.
We felt that these issues are largely ignored by many people, and they are often the cause of fragmentation and even further mental health issues that may result in the need for professional treatment. While it is often recognized that Pastors etc are subject to anxiety and depression, more often that not leading to their leaving their positions and seeking secular employment, those leaving the church are not seen to be experiencing anything apart from elation or even nervousness at leaving their churches ( I hate the term lay pastors!)
The Survey has moved to it’s own page! Click here to go to it!
I will post the results of this survey here for discussion when completed. Let me stress, that by answering this you are anonymous and it is by no means a professional diagnosis or suggestion that you may have problems. If you feel that you have some of the symptoms discussed then I urge you to seek professional help.
If you have any comments or want to discuss this issue then i urge you to leave a comment or two
So, in the spirit of fostering discussion, I would invite you to take part in this brief survey! I will leave the survey open for 2 weeks to close 4th July.
Addendum: I have had to replace the Survey plugin — it was proving to be unstable. If you answered the old survey, please take a moment to enter the info into this new, slicker version!
{ 4 comments }
Wow, got the the question about denomination and already can't go on. If you had a few more options, I think many more could participate.
Peace,
Jamie
Fixed! Should now be able to add your own. Thanks for the input!
Thanks!
I would be interested in the results of this survey! All of my own mental health issues came before leaving the institutional church.
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