Rick Warren teams with Bishop Kevin Vann to launch mental health ministry

From HuffPo: 

Every day since his son Matthew died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound nearly a year ago, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church has found himself in tears.

He has spent his nights journaling, trying to discern God’s purpose in the pain that Matthew endured over his 27 years living with mental illness, and in the loss Warren and his wife, Kay, have felt since Matthew left their lives.

Warren has asked God why he took his youngest child, whom he remembers as a troubled but “kind, gentle, and compassionate man” with a “gift for sensing who was most in pain or most uncomfortable in a room.”

He has prayed that something good might come out of something so awful.

On Friday, just eight days before the anniversary of their son’s death, the Warrens launched a new chapter in their ministry, which has used its megaphone as one of the nation’s largest and most influential churches to address alcohol addiction, drug abuse, orphan care and HIV/AIDS. The Conference on the Church and Mental Health, a daylong event at the church’s main Lake Forest, Calif. campus that will be broadcast online, has amassed 3,000 registrations and features a lineup of pastors, academics and psychiatrists hosting panels and prayers to tackle the stigma of mental illness and suicide in the church.

“In God’s garden of grace, even a broken tree bears fruit,” Warren said in an interview with The Huffington Post, reflecting on a journal entry he wrote when Matthew was alive that’s taken on new meaning after his death. “We knew that even with the massive pain we were going through, we would have to use it to help others.”

Friday’s conference, for which Saddleback has teamed with Bishop Kevin Vann of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange and the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Orange County to host, is the first step in what will be a long-term campaign to launch discussions of mental health in pulpits and pews across the U.S. Friday’s workshops include “Christianity and Depression,” “How to Launch a Support Group and Counseling Ministry in your Church,” “Suicide Prevention: Saving Lives One Community at a Time” and “Food and The Body: Three Steps to Healing Eating Disorders through Community.”

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