Welcome to the Mariners Church Life Group Leader podcast. This weekly conversation is designed to equip and resource youth to build a healthy life group community that studies God's word, practices spiritual rhythms, and changes the world together. Welcome to the Life Group Leader podcast. We are excited about kicking off a brand new series this weekend as we have just closed out our fall series called You Are, Looking at Our True Identity in Jesus, this great identity that God gives us.
We're now gonna turn our attention towards a topic, a theme that feels really prevalent today. Living on the heels of a pandemic, there's been a lot of conversations, probably in social media, in news, and around many of our dinner tables, just around mental health, and how people are doing during everything that we've experienced over the last 18 months. And so this weekend, we're starting a brand new series called My Anxious Thoughts. So before we get too far into this episode, I'm gonna invite Eric to come and take a few minutes just to walk us through this series direction, the vision, the value, where he is intending to take us through God's word over the next several weeks together.
And then right after that, Jeremy and I are gonna get into week one as we always do. So without further ado, let's welcome Eric. Eric, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. Our leaders are so grateful to hear from you and your vision and direction for this series.
So why don't you walk us through My Anxious Thoughts and what you have coming up for us? Awesome, well leaders, thank you. Thank you for being a leader, shepherding people and caring for the people in your group. And I'm so thankful, so thankful that we get to serve God's people together here at Mariner.
So the series, My Anxious Thoughts, really is born out of where people in our church, people in our community, friends, family, where they are. And that is anxiety and depression are at, according to research and all time high. They already were trending upward, and then the pandemic brought a whole lot of things to the surface and anxiety and depression. Two of the things that have been brought to the surface in people's lives.
So the scripture deals with anxiety and depression. I love that the Bible doesn't shy away from difficult subjects and challenges that we have in our lifetime and in our world. And so we're gonna find that the scripture meets us where we are in our anxiety and our depression. And gosh, I mean, I'm assuming many of the leaders that I'm talking to right now, this has been an area of Russell for them, a recent study by the Census Bureau said that in December of 2020, I think 48% of all Americans were struggling with anxiety.
So we're talking about half of the people, right? So half of the leaders listening, half of the pastors, half of the congregations. I mean, if you're not directly one of your children, one of your coworkers, one of your employees, someone in your life is wrestling with this issue. And we're gonna see that the Bible speaks to us about it.
I love, you've said this in a couple of different places now. And I think it'd be helpful for life group leaders just to hear when you think about the annual calendar of your teaching series, you talk about it having a healthy diet. Can you just walk us through that a little bit? Yeah, so we just finished studying some books.
We studied the book of Esther. We studied the book of first Peter. And so there's times that we aren't really starting with a need, we're starting with the scripture itself, but yeah, bringing scripture to bear on people's lives. There's times that we might start with a theological concept.
So in January of 22, we're gonna spend time talking about the end, you know, or eschatology. We won't call this series eschatology, the study of the end or the last things, but that's what the series will be about. And then there's times that we start with where people are. We start with a life issue and then see what the scripture says about that life issue.
So sometimes we start with the text and we bring the text to life, sometimes we start with a life issue and see what the text says about that life issue. This is one of those series. So for five weeks, we're starting with right where people are and then applying the scripture to that. So we're not walking verse by verse through a specific book.
We're starting with a topic and seeing what the whole of scripture says about that topic. I can't imagine a more important topic for where we are right now, having gone through the last 18 months that we've gone through the amount of people in our life that are dealing with mental health and struggling through various aspects of anxiety, depression and kind of everything in between all of that spectrum. I think like your Peter, it's always important for us to remember that we're coming at this from a theological perspective, not from a clinical or a technical perspective, right? Anything that you would speak to?
No, that's good. So I'd say, I'll tell you how I'm approaching this and then hopefully this will be liberating for you as a leader. So there's a lot of doctors who can speak from the bodily or the mental side of mental health. I will quote some doctors in my sermon, but I'm not approaching the teaching from the lens of a doctor.
There's therapists and psychologists who can speak to the soul side or triggers and mental health things that someone can do that increase mental health. I'll quote from therapists. There's researchers who do research on this very important topic. I'm so grateful for them.
I'll quote some of their research, but I'm not a researcher, a doctor of medicine or a psychologist. I am a pastor. And so what I am gonna do is the weight of the message will be the scripture, not to discount those other things. Those others are very important.
I'm so grateful that we have doctors and therapists and researchers weighing in on the issue of anxiety and depression. And you're not hearing me say, I'm not them because those aren't valuable. Those are very valuable. That's just not my contribution to this issue that people are wrestling with.
My contribution is gonna be the scripture. And I would say unless you are a life people leader who is simultaneously a therapist or simultaneously a medical doctor, you don't need to feel the weight of trying to speak to all aspects of this very complicated issue. You're just providing encouragement and care for people. And we're gonna do that through the lens of scripture.
But you'll notice this in the very first week when God approaches Elijah in the middle of his depression. And so this is a godly man at the pinnacle of his ministry. And he's wrestling with depression that God speaks to Elijah about both the spiritual and the physical. He tells him to rest, to get something to eat, to get up and move around.
But then he also approaches Elijah with a whisper. And he applies truth to Elijah's mind. Elijah thinks he's the only one left. And God says there's 7,000 more just like you.
So depression, anxiety are very complicated because we are complicated. They're complex issues because we're complex. We are both body and soul. And we wanna be careful that we don't, I mean I can't be an expert on all things related to anxiety and depression.
So I'm not gonna try to petition myself as such. But I also am confident in what the scripture says. And I can't point people to what, not that the scripture is gonna be an end all for their issue, but the scripture is gonna provide some encouragement in the midst of the struggle. Right.
And I think for life leaders, right, this is an important reminder for us that we don't have to be more than what our role is within our life group. We're a life group leader, which means we're a volunteer with the church. We're equipped to a certain level, but we have to know when to defer. Yeah.
And it's fun to say, I don't know. It's fun to say that's so tough. I'll be praying. You don't have to, I don't want you to be, I don't wanna study anxiety to cause anxiety in you.
Cause you're concerned about navigating the conversation. Or not choose to do this. Not choose to walk through this content with us cause we're afraid to touch you. I think it'd be a mistake to not do it because even just, here's what's gonna be so liberating for people in your group.
And I did this with a staff this morning. I asked our staff to raise their hand if they have wrestled with this. And as hands went up, you could tell that people who put their hand up were encouraged to put their hand up. If there is something about anxiety and depression that people think they're the only one.
I'm the only one carrying this. And so people in your group to realize that they are not the only one is gonna be so liberating for them. You also don't have, there is nothing you're gonna say in your group time that is gonna be the magic thing that solves someone's anxiousness for the rest of their life. I mean, even when God confronts Elijah, Elijah stills wrestling after that beautiful passage of the still small voice, Elijah still wrestling.
Meaning yes, God can simultaneously take anxiety and depression from our life just as he can if he chooses simultaneously or instantly, I should say, take cancer away. But often he chooses not to instantly take cancer away. And sometimes he chooses to not instantly take anxiety and depression away. It will likely be for those in our lives who are wrestling with this will likely be an ongoing struggle.
And we just wanna give some tools and some thoughts from scripture that can be encouragement in the struggle. So is there anything else? There's a lot of great tips in there just for our lifer pleaters to remember who we are in this, remember kind of where our limitations are. Any other best practices or insights that you would share with our leaders as we approach week one of this discussion?
It is better for you to say, I don't know than to say something that you're unsure of being helpful. It's okay to say, I don't know and just be a person that is providing a listening ear. And here's what for sure the research says that I read on anxiety and depression. There's several things that contribute to better mental health, exercise, contributes.
And orphans that happen from exercise fight anxiety and depression, I'm not saying they eliminated, but they help fight it. Meaningful work, someone having a job they're proud of contributes to their mental health. Community contributes to someone's mental health. So you just helping the people in your group be in community is, according to the research, going to be more valuable than any one thing it is that you say.
So the fact that you're meeting as a group, the fact that you're shepherding, caring for your people, that in itself is therapy is helpful to those who are struggling with anxiety and depression. I mean, for me, for the times I struggle with anxiety, community has been a life giving, reassuring grace of God in my own life. So I need it and the people in your group need it and you need it. So I think like a therapist, a professional therapist, a counselor, they are going to provide something that we aren't providing, but what we're providing is community and that's huge.
So I think just the biggest tip would be, it's okay to say I don't know, because your biggest contribution isn't the words you're saying, the biggest contribution you're making, is that you're providing community for people. Yeah, community and activity or action, right? I mean, there is something you said even about Elijah's story of like, get up, move around a little bit. Let's do this together, get out of your bed, come to Life Group tonight.
Yes, come to Life Group tonight. And I love that inside of this series, just last weekend we kicked off Love O.C. Running parallel to this whole series, we have tons of serve opportunities. Lots of ways that groups can be involved in the action of the Kingdom of God.
Yeah, and I don't know if we're going to frame it this way, but I mean, this is what research would also say, the more we get our eyes off ourselves, the more likely our anxiety will dissipate or go down. And so helping your group serve together in Orange County, it sounds like we're doing it for a selfish reason, but the reality is as we serve people, it helps, it's good for us to. Usually beneficial, right? Anything else inside of this series that you're excited about, things that we can be considering, okay, we gotta get our Life Groups in that place, because of something happening here.
Man, I was just looking at the next four weeks this morning, I mean, we have such great things taking place. The series I believe God's gonna really use it. We have some things around the series, like a fall festival, after a Saturday night, I think we're calling it October Fest or something. Fall toberfest.
Fall toberfest. October Fest is the name of the next one. Oh, it's a bunch of beer. We haven't candy not beer.
So that will be a great opportunity for people to bring friends to church with them. We have a night of worship one time in the series, which will help take people's eyes off, again, off themselves and towards Jesus. What we have, I mean, the 1130 service on the second week of November. Yeah, November 14th is just gonna be amazing, because that's rooted celebration within the service.
I mean, I'm gonna have a lot of fun. This is gonna be a really fun, fun series. Yeah, it really is. And so we're looking forward to it.
I think that for our Life Groups that are walking through the connection between a weekend service and then when we get into our Life Groups, further discussing passages, supplemental passages, working through some questions. There's some amazing connections that are taking place between what I experience on the weekends to how I'm now seeing it outwork throughout the rest of my life. And so I'm grateful for our Life Groups that are choosing to do this together. Life Group is always proud of you.
Eric, thank you so much for taking time to share with us where you're heading and we look forward to doing this again before the Christmas series. Awesome. Thank you guys. It's always good to hear from Eric just from his own words.
What he's gonna be teaching with us. We believe that God has spoken to him and he's been preparing and getting ready to take us through this series. And so Jeremy, why don't we take a few minutes and just talk about week one. So from your perspective, what's the big picture?
Where are we heading this week? This first week in this series, we're really introducing people to the fact that they're not alone. This first week is called You Were Not Alone. And one of the most, I think prevalent thoughts that comes to anxiety or these overwhelming feelings that we have is that I'm the only one feeling this way.
And so we're gonna jump right into a text, a text that many of us may be familiar with with the Prophet Elijah. And we're gonna see that even he, after experiencing all these incredible works of God, just miraculous provision, miraculous signs, great victories that he's still just had this overwhelming, just kind of crushing a sense of despair and anxiety. And so right off of that, we wanna help people see this is a common human experience. And as you pointed out at the top of the episode, this is especially common these days.
I've seen all kinds of research lately saying that the vast majority of American adults experience significant levels of anxiety, depression. You can go on CDC, US Census, American Psychological Association. Like this is something that we all need to be aware of and know how to deal with biblically. It's a comforting and also saddening thing when we remember that there is no, there is no single thing that you are the only one going through.
Meaning like somebody else is going through it. And there is comfort to knowing that in this human experience, somebody else is experiencing it too. But it's also sad because it just reminds me of the brokenness of our world and how far away we've drifted from God's original design. Thankfully, as we'll find throughout this whole series, God is so close, God is near to us and the hope and the desire is that we can deepen our relationship with him.
And so Jeremy, how should we be preparing as leaders this week? So one of the first things we wanna do as we prepare for this first week is, as always, is think through our own lives, times where we've experienced what we're talking about. You know, in this case, talking about anxiety, pray for the peace of God, just to really overwhelm your group in a positive way, through these next four weeks, as we're gonna be digging into something that's heavy, but I alluded earlier to some research I had seen that eight out of 10 Americans felt like there were serious issues that they were really concerned about, but nine out of 10 are also hopeful that we can work towards better things. And so as we prepare, know that this is gonna be something that everybody in our group either is dealing with currently, has dealt with recently, or they have people who are very close to them and their families, workplace, whatever, we all are affected by these feelings of anxiety, despair, feeling overwhelmed.
So enter this time really prayerfully. This is one where I would imagine a lot of our leaders have been through this or are going through this already. And we wanna be reminded that it's important that we set the proper boundaries of what to share, how much to share, when to defer. This is just gonna be an important series that with the reality of everything that we're all going through, it may be the blind leading the blind in some way.
In my own pain and struggle, I may not know exactly how to help you move forward. And so it would be wise for us as leaders to be aware of the general tone, direction, depth of our own, I guess, willingness to know how to move forward, you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. And one of the things that we'll even do with this first discussion as we look at the text is, to be reminded, one of the questions in the guides is why does it matter that even biblical heroes, like Elijah, struggled sometimes with things like anxiety or depression and what thoughts or feelings does that stir up in us?
And so again, as leaders, we don't have all the answers. That's something also that I really wanna encourage leaders to be mindful of. When we're talking about anxiety and depression, actually there's a note each week in the leader guide to remind us that we're not speaking from a medical professional standpoint. We're not here to give advice on mental health in that sense when we use terms like anxiety, depression, et cetera.
We're not using them in the clinical sense. We're using them in the kind of common everyday sense of just the emotions that we feel. And so as leaders know that you're not expected to have all the answers, you're certainly not expected to be a certified counselor or any kind of medical professional, but that we wanna learn to carry one another's burdens to walk alongside one another and see that even the great so-called heroes of the face experience some real depths of despair, even in the face of times when they're like, man, you just came off incredible victories, yet there's just this crash emotionally that sometimes maybe even especially as leaders that we feel that we have to keep performing, keep performing, keep performing. And then we eventually just crash and burn out.
And we see that in a light just case. Right. Well, Jeremy, are there ways that we can ensure that this conversation, I wanna say it goes deeper, but also doesn't go too deep, right? So how do you help us get to the appropriate level of depth in our conversations?
And then with that too, are there pitfalls or things that we need to be careful of? Yeah, so again, avoid the temptation to kind of read into the text, what we think why necessarily Elijah was feeling this way. We know that he was scared of Jezebel. I would add a side note that don't get sidetracked on so often Jezebel is used in the sense of, oh, the spirit of Jezebel is always used as kind of the sexually provocative type thing.
Well, biblically, she was just, she was an angry woman, she was in power and she was after Elijah and he was scared. That's all we know. So we don't need to kind of create these modern scenarios around that. But I would encourage people to look at the text, look at what we see happening, and really in this first lesson, look at what does this reveal about the character of God, the way we see God interacting with Elijah?
Like what are we learning about the character of God in this text? And then kind of what is it revealing about human nature? And what do we see, kind of how do we see ourselves in this text without trying to force anything? Just look at what it says, look at the way God kind of pursues Elijah in this text, the way he invites him out of hiding in despair and calls him back into the work that he's called him.
And ultimately that he reminds him, you feel like you're the only one who's being faithful to me, but there are thousands who have remained faithful. And so again for us, ultimately the point is to connect with the fact that what we may be going through, what we may be feeling, not to downplay our feelings, but the truth is we are not the only ones. And the truth is God is inviting us out of places of hiding out of the darkness that we may be tempted to crawl into, to trust him and to listen for his voice and to be used by him. As with any good series, and any time we open up God's word, any time we gather together as a group, I love what you've said Jeremy.
The goal is not that we would diagnose and properly build an action plan of health, right? But instead it's point people to God and be a good Christian community that gathers together. Knowing when to defer, knowing when to look outside of our own resources and say, okay, we're gonna have to find some extra help here. Our team is here for that.
So if you need anything from us, would you please let us know? So Jeremy, anything else that we need to know kind of for this final opening discussion? No, as you wrap up this discussion, know that for the next couple of weeks, as Eric's kind of given the overview, we're gonna start looking at kind of the different ways people interact in some practical ways to kind of combat anxiety. But this week, comfort, encourage, let people know that they're not alone, that we have God who cares.
It's beautiful. Well, leaders were grateful for you as always. And we are praying, especially for you during this series, that as potentially some serious things come up, people maybe let down some of their walls and allow us into the areas of anxiety or pain, difficult situations, wounds that have gone and dealt with. Lord, we just ask that you would see God in those moments, that you would be a great shepherd of your group.
Know that we're praying with you. We are standing alongside you. And if you need anything, would you let us know? Take care, have a great opening week.