In 2015, when I accepted the call to be Lead Pastor of First Baptist Church of Coal City, I had already trained hundreds of Soldiers, Veterans, and First Responders in suicide prevention, and earned Master Trainer status in ASIST — one of the most respected suicide intervention models in the world. Then a church member asked me a question no training had prepared me for: was her brother in hell because he had taken his own life?

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That question collided my two worlds. I discovered that suicide prevention isn't taught in seminary, and the church, like the rest of the world, tends to avoid the subject because it's uncomfortable. But nearly 1 in 5 clergy have seriously considered suicide themselves — which means the people in our pews, and often our pulpits, are struggling more than we know.

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Around the same time, a friend told me about her daughter, who shared in a college small group that she'd struggled with thoughts of taking her own life. The next day, the ministry leaders emailed her and asked her not to come back — they weren't equipped to deal with her issues.

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That's not a failure of the church. It's a failure to equip the church. And it's why I wrote this book.

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I can't be in every congregation. But I can train the leaders who are. Because at the end of the day, this isn't a book, or a system. It's about people. Real people.