In perhaps their most widely-viewed message ever, Pastor Rick and wife Kay Warren return to the pulpit after a 16-week sabbatical mourning the death of their son Matthew. Pastor Rick opens his life journey through grief, introducing the series about the stages of loss. Viewers will also find hope hearing about Kay’s bout with hopelessness.

Here are links to the other messages in the sermon series:

Shock: When Your World Collapses – Rick Warren
Sorrow: Getting Through Life’s Losses – Rick Warren
Struggle: When Life Makes No Sense – Rick Warren
Surrender: The Path to Peace – Rick Warren and Kay Warren
Sanctification: Transformed by Trouble – Rick Warren
Sanctification: Finding Treasure in Darkness – Kay Warren
Service: Never Waste Your Pain – Rick Warren

Perry Noble served as the pastor of NewSpring Church, a wildly successful multi-site church based in South Carolina. Perry published a book, Overwhelmed, grounded in his personal struggles to cope with anxiety. He was subsequently dismissed from NewSpring because of excessive use of alcohol. This lengthy sermon is posted as an illustration of a pastor demonstrating extraordinarily raw self-disclosure regarding his personal experience with anxiety, depression and sexual trauma. 

Ryan serves as Lead Pastor of First Christian Church in Canton, Ohio – a church nationally recognized for its’ ministry with persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. In this sermon, he discusses the life story of Elijah as an illustration of someone in the Bible affected by depression. His message is intended to provide encouragement and hope to persons struggling with depression. He does an excellent job in pointing out common sources of stigma in the church regarding mental illness and explicitly discusses the role of medication for Christians with mental illness. 

Garnett previously served as Senior Pastor at Bay Presbyterian Church in Bay Village, Ohio. This message is not about mental illness. His Easter Sunday message from 2016 is shared as an example of how a pastor might use their platform if front of the largest possible audience to encourage the people of their church to be open and authentic in sharing their personal experiences of mental illness. He demonstrates empathy for attendees with mental illness by acknowledging the distress of attendees experiencing anxiety or depression in the pastoral prayer that precedes the body of his message.