Meet Dr. Sherry Molock, creator of HAVEN-Connect, an initiative to engage Black churches to help prevent suicide among Black youth. As a pastor and a psychologist, Dr. Molock understands both the challenges and potential of the church as a player in the mental health arena. She decided to help churches overcome stigma around mental health to become part of the solution to the crisis. Dr. Molock lives in the Washington, DC, area where she teaches at George Washington University, and her pilot initiative with Black churches is currently running with twelve churches in the state of New York.

Something quietly powerful is happening at the intersection of two forces that have long been kept in separate rooms: mental health care and faith. For decades, the relationship between clergy and clinicians was marked more by suspicion than collaboration — the pulpit on one side, the therapist's office on the other. But that wall is coming down.

It’s an incredibly dynamic time for the faith sector. From the pandemic abruptly shaking up existing models and strategies, to religious nationalism planting a flag on the political stage, to the Israel/Gaza war straining interfaith relationships globally, to a range of longer-term dynamics in the sector, including the continued growth of the religiously unaffiliated demographic in the U.S., the first half of the 2020s have seen the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in-between. 

Continue reading to explore a few faith sector trends we’re watching as we head into the second half of the decade. They give us great optimism for the future of faith.

A couple of weeks ago, I was having breakfast in a hotel lobby in Omaha, NE, when I noticed an older man hovering over a table where a dad and his two young children were seated. The older man, who had clearly just met this family, chatted with them while they ate their breakfast. After a while, it started to feel awkward, at least to me as an eavesdropper. It felt like the man had overstayed this encounter with strangers, that he hung around too long while the family was just trying to enjoy their morning. And then I remembered an event we co-hosted in September on Faith Communities Fighting Isolation and stopped to think: Maybe this man was lonely.

Earlier this year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy released a report about an epidemic of loneliness and isolation in the U.S. Since Robert Putnam published his highly-acclaimed and widely-read book Bowling Alone in 2000, we've all been aware of the fraying social fabric in our country and the decline of organizations like faith communities that build social capital. The situation has now reached crisis proportions. With so many people crying out for community and connection, why are faith communities, which have fostered community and connection for centuries and millennia, failing to meet the demand?