“I want to encourage believers; we should all save this number in our contacts as the 988 suicide prevention line. We should literally have it saved in our contacts of our phone,” Johnston said. “It’s so helpful to me because I’m out there, and I speak on the frontlines as an apologist, as a pastor and Christian thinker. And so many people don’t even know who to call for help. And so they get paralyzed with silence or a question.”
Johnston has called the number to familiarize himself with the service, and encourages others to do the same.
“These individuals on the other ends of the phones are saints,” he said, “and they would love to simply advise you” on the services available when someone needs to be referred.
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Rose encourages pastors not to hesitate in using the service for personal edification. The 63-year-old was 32 when he first sought help, he told Baptist Press, and has long advocated for mental healthcare.
“I mean, who does the pastor really want to talk to about his own depression? That’s one of the dilemmas we still face, is the taboos that go with it,” he said. “And I thought once I went through it, it would be over with. It’s been my constant off-and-on companion since then. It’s been the harshest thing I’ve been through, but sometimes God’s harshest teachers are His best teachers.”
This article originally appeared at Baptist Press.
