The Spiritual Well
Cocreating mental-spiritual health and integrated wellbeing within the Church and community.
The well has always been a place where the community gathers. It is a space we return to time and again as we seek meaning, need refreshment, and desire connection. To visit the well is to seek belonging and find it among others who gather with us.
Our spiritual health depends on our ability to visit spiritual wells without stigma or marginalization. Our communities depend on these spiritual waters to cocreate and sustain our lives together.
“The woman said to Jesus, ‘You have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?’... Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
Our shared experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic, anti-Black racism, anti-immigrant xenophobia, LGBTQ+ phobia and exclusion, sexism and misogyny, socio-economic disparity and instability, stigmatization of persons with disabilities and differing abilities, and threats to our democracy impact our mental well-being, reinforcing the necessity of ongoing mental health ministry.
The wider Church has an inclusive and healing mission modeled in the life of Jesus and the ministries and miracles of the Gospel. The Church also has a history and ongoing theologies and practices of exclusion and harm. These combined offer an opportunity and responsibility for the Church to reimagine itself as a community of healing.
The wider Church also has a mixed history when it comes to cocreating inclusive spaces. The Church created harmful theologies and exclusionary practices that stigmatize and marginalize. When we exclude people from the well, we limit their participation and access to a spiritual water essential for life. We can do better. The Church can be a place of healing. We can be a community that goes beyond just welcoming people to truly cocreating spaces where all belong in the life and leadership of the Church.
Contact the Spiritual Well Ministry Team
Rev. Dr. Jason Whitehead, Juniper Formation Staff, Jason@juniperformation.org
Minister Javon Bracy, Juniper Formation Leadership Team, Javon@juniperformation.org
Rev. Dr. Jenny Whitcher, Juniper Formation Staff, Jenny@juniprformation.org