Elijah, The Tishbite – Let’s Talk About Mental Health is a project based on the mental health challenge of Prophet Elijah as documented in the Bible in 1 Kings 19: 1 – 21. The project will explore the strategies he went through to experience a recovery and continue with his profession and life. The project aims to provide equivalent strategies that are applicable in current times to address mental health conditions.

Our vision through this project is to foster a healthy engagement between the Christian faith and science using mental health as the basis for the interaction.

In this project, we plan to create a conducive forum to talk about and seek help for mental health conditions, by promoting the following:

  1. Create more awareness about mental health conditions.
  2. Address stigma issues surrounding mental health in Christianity and our communities.
  3. Encourage more people to seek help to address mental health conditions.

We plan to write and produce a workbook – Elijah, The Tishbite, based on the experience of Prophet Elijah as documented in the Bible in 1 Kings 19: 1 – 21, using the seven steps that assisted him in the recovery process – Diet, Sleep, Retreat, New Information, New Perspective, New Assignments and New Relationships. We will identify and include contemporary equivalents that are available to help in the recovery process from science, mental health, and Christian perspectives. We intend to produce a short film adaption of the workbook.

We will organize series of Let’s Talk About Mental Health events where both the workbook and short film will be used to educate and initiate discussion around the subject of mental health. A panel of experts drawn from the science, mental health, pastoral, and local mental health charities will be available to provide further insights into the subject.

The target audience is primarily Christians within our local communities and wider network of Churches. We plan to hold 2 events and we will explore further opportunities to use the resources to replicate the project in other congregations and communities.