Today, nearly three years after the world came to a screeching halt due to the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers are finally starting to get a clear picture of the mental and emotional fallout. On March 2, 2023, the Pew Research Center released an article entitled, Mental Health and the Pandemic: What U.S. Surveys Have Found. The findings paint a devastating picture of the mental state of Americans on the other side of the pandemic.

The study takes into account a Johns Hopkins study, which asked participants to evaluate their emotional state over the past week based on “questions about feelings of anxiety, depression, loneliness, hopelessness, physical reactions to stressors, and existing diagnoses of a mental disorder.” It also looked at a CDC survey of high school students from January to June of 2021, along with several parent surveys carried out by the Pew Center.

Here are the highlights

• Nearly half of all U.S. adults - 4 in 10 - experienced “high levels of psychological distress during the pandemic.”

• A whopping 58% of young adults (18-29) report having experienced “high levels of psychological distress.”

• A CDC survey reported more than a third of high school students have reported that their mental health was “not good most or all of the time during the pandemic.”

• Women, students, and young adults have experienced a disproportionate decline in their mental health.

• Mental Health - specifically anxiety and depression - is now the number one category parents worry about when in comes to their children; more than them being bullied, attacked, struggling with substance abuse, having a child out of wedlock, or getting into trouble with the police.

3 Ways Your Church Can Serve Guests in a Post-Covid World

Provide robust, biblical, gospel-centered counsel and care.

Churches can open the door to their guests by initiating the conversation around mental health.  The facts are in: our people are not okay. Consider providing biblical support groups that enable people to talk about their experiences in a gospel-centered environment. Leverage small groups, encouraging leaders to intentionally prioritize bearing one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2). Set aside a specified amount of time to offer pastoral counseling and invite those in need to meet for a season. Some churches may have the bandwidth to consider training lay counselors, helping them get certified through an organization like ACBC. In some cases, it may be best to provide a monetary allowance to members, outsourcing counseling to a qualified mental health professional. Regardless of how you choose to do it, the way your church approaches mental health will either create space for guests or close the door to them.

Create opportunities to develop and foster meaningful connection, specifically for students, young adults, and women.

Christians have always prized deep relationships with one another, but they are especially important in our post-Covid world.  One of the key implications of the Pew study has to do with the effects isolation has on our mental health. Women, students, and young adults were among who experienced a heightened decline in mental health during the pandemic. Nearly 60% of all young adults and roughly half of all teenage girls surveyed reported high levels of psychological distress.

Now, more than ever, churches have the opportunity reach and retain guests by solving the isolation equation. Churches who identify new pathways to provide care and connection to these groups will be most effective in ministering to this generation. Not sure where to start?

• Start with small, targeted groups. Don’t try a one-size-fits-all approach to connection. They rarely work. Think about holding a high school girls game night, a young adult gathering, or a women’s bible study that speaks into anxiety.

• Prioritize and facilitate connection over content. Helping believers develop relationships with one another meets a felt need while observing the command to live in biblical community.

• Whether you’re holding a small group gathering, night of worship, or inviting a group to go bowling, give them the gospel. Infuse God’s word and the hope of the gospel into your gatherings. The ultimate solution to the distress our people feel is in the gospel. Serve them well by bringing the truth of God’s word to bear on their lives.

• Remind them of Jesus as our Great High Priest, able to sympathize with us - and encourage them to the do the same for one another.

Settings like this help churches answer important questions that their post-Covid guests are asking: “Is there a place for someone like me here?” “Is there room for me to come as I am, even if I’m not who I once was?” “Is there a spiritual path forward for me here in the aftermath of Covid?” Offering the right types of connection enable you to answer questions like this with a resounding “yes.”

Focus on strengthening families at the individual, marital, and parent level.

Today, parents worry about the mental health of their children and teens while navigating their own mental health challenges.  Anecdotally, I can tell you that our own church has seen a steep increase counseling cases regarding marriage and parenting. It is not a stretch to say that families in our churches are struggling - and the same is true for our guests.

That’s why it’s so important that churches bolster their effort to strengthen families. Church leaders are uniquely positioned to infuse hope and healing into the families of their guests because they serve the God who created marriage and family. Here are a few ways you can start:

• Serving: Create spaces for spouses and families to serve together. Think places like greeting, coffee, parking, etc.

• Groups: Encourage small groups to go through a marriage and/or parenting book together.

• Teaching: Preach a series on God’s Design for the Family.

• Events: Consider offering a Parent’s Night Out, Date Night, or Family Night.

• Kids & Student Ministry: Partner with Family Ministries team to ensure that new kids are connecting well, making friends, and encourage parents to work in partnership with your church to help their kids grow spiritually at home.

Our guests may be in a more challenging mental state post-Covid, but the Church is uniquely positioned care for them by stepping into the brokenness with the hope of the gospel. I’m convinced that the ones who intentionally care for guests, loving them in the way of Jesus, will have the best shot at growing in breadth and depth - not because of a gimmick, but because God is at work through them.