Students are confused and out of routine. They are disconnected from their physical community and learning how to navigate a new normal. Redeemer College Ministry stepped into this by creating a “Mental Health Tool Kit” that helps shepherd students to health during this time of uncertainty.
So, we invited them to share what they have learned, how they are resourcing and provide tools for other churches to use to help navigate students during this time. This is part 1 of 4 of the College Mental Health Kit series.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four
It is incredible how the world has changed over the course of the past two months. Things we used to take for granted such as dine-in restaurants, church services in-person, and toilet paper on the shelves feel like novelty. More severely though, we have seen how fragile our economy, livelihoods, and health can become. College ministry in a time like this has changed a great deal.
Two months ago we were encouraging students to engage in social media detoxes. Now we encourage daily use for content intake and encourage the use of apps like FaceTime and Marco Polo. Two months ago we were beginning to plan fall recruiting and retreats. Now we are unsure if the Fall semester will happen in-person.
At Redeemer College, when we began to understand the severity of COVID-19, our staff started to dialogue about these changes, discussing how we would change our care systems for our students. We wanted to be sure that students continued to believe the gospel and pursue Jesus. However, one area of concern that continued to plague our team was how we care for the mental health of our students.
We started asking pointed questions
- How will we help them cope with the loss of in-person community?
- How can we help them see their physical, mental, and emotional health impacts one another?
- What will they turn to when they are disappointed? How will we help them turn back?
- How will we equip them for ministry and challenge them to pursue godliness when they are spread all over the United States?
And thus our Mental Health Kit was born.
We met students where they were at in a creative and innovative way
The Mental Health Kit is a social media series consisting of nine distinct posts and each of the nine posts contains two parts.
First are practical tools and resources for growth towards health.
Second are the definition and discussion of a specific Spiritual Discipline.
Each disciplines has a goal of encouraging students to grow in Christlikeness and steadfast love of Him. These posts are then broken into three sections, each section purposed to raise awareness and discussion on the different areas of mental health:
- Emotional health
- Physical health
- Spiritual health
At the end of each section we have an interactive story that allows students to evaluate their own health. It also allows them to share with their followers positive ways to engage with their emotional, physical, or spiritual habits.
You can check out what we’ve posted so far through our social media platforms:
Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
In this season of the coronavirus, innovation and creativity are necessary in order to provide quality content, as well as remain in growing relationship with one another and with Jesus. Our prayer is that this social media series will act as a way to equip students with ways that they can actively engage with their mental health, even on a heart-level, for the glory of God.
What are you seeing?
What are you seeing with students and their mental health?
How you you helping them in this area?
Scroll down and leave a comment so we can hear from you!
