Fall 2024

More than two decades have passed since a small group of us—perhaps 40 physicians and dentists—met together for lunch at the August, 2003, Adventist-laymen’s Services and Industries (ASI) National Convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This gathering was initiated by Naren James, MD, who believed that medical and dental professionals would benefit . . . from meeting together for spiritual encouragement and furtherance of medical missionary work. He would eventually become AMEN’s first president.
Phil Mills, MD, would later serve as AMEN’s second president. He recalls, “A surprising number of physicians came to that informal gathering.” They expressed a strong interest in meeting together regularly. The next year at ASI, Drs. Mills and James met with a small group of physicians who shared this vision. After looking at the various options, they decided to move forward in forming a new organization.
“The following spring (2005) some of the same medical professionals that had been present in Albuquerque met at Cohutta Springs Conference Center in Georgia to discuss the possibility of formally establishing an organization focused on equipping physicians and dentists to be more effective ambassadors for Christ in their medical practices and broadening their outreach opportunities,” Dr. Mills says.
“None of this would have happened without Pastor Mark Finley,” he recalls. “Mark encouraged us every step of the way. He strongly advised immediate action. In faith we planned the first AMEN conference in the fall of 2005, held in San Diego, California. He thought we needed to quit talking about it and just do it!”
There were challenges along the way. That first year there were not enough registrants to fill the hotel. “Mark had a way of turning obstacles into solutions,” Phil explains. “Since we needed people to fill the rooms, Mark suggested we pay the way for students to attend for free; we committed to raising the money at the conference to cover their expenses. The students came and the rooms were filled!” That early commitment became a tradition as AMEN has continued to provide financial assistance to enable students to attend the annual conference.
Pastor Finley and Dr. Mills share a common link in their history through their personal connections with three seasoned gospel-medical evangelists—Elders W. D. Frazee and O. J. Mills, both of whom worked with Elder John H. N. Tindall.
Pastor Finley explains, “Elder Tindall heard Ellen White speak while pursuing his studies in dietetics at the College of Medical Evangelists in Loma Linda. Elder R.S. Owen, a Bible teacher at the College of Medical Evangelists, and John Burden, the medical superintendent, encouraged Elder Tindall to accept Ellen White’s challenge to the students and give his life to gospel-medical evangelism. They encouraged him to answer the call of Ellen White’s vision of February 27, 1910, initially sent as a letter to conference presidents urging them to form gospel-medical missionary teams to reach the great cities of America.” She writes:
“During the night of February 27, a representation was given me in which the unworked cities were presented before me as a living reality, and I was plainly instructed that there should be a decided change from past methods of working. For months the situation has been impressed on my mind, and I urged that companies be organized and diligently trained to labor in our important cities. These workers should labor two and two, and from time to time all should meet together to relate their experiences, to pray and to plan how to reach the people quickly, and thus, if possible, redeem the time.”—Manuscript 21, 1910.
After prayerful consideration and considerable soul searching, Elder Tindall accepted the invitation to model Christ’s methods of evangelism. Applying these principles in his work as a medical missionary evangelist, Tindall successfully won and baptized hundreds of people. His retention rate among converts (75-90% by some accounts) is noteworthy. He also trained future church leaders. Ellen White’s son W. C. White, then-secretary of the Ellen G. White Estate, served on the advisory board of the Field Training School in Gospel Medical Evangelism led by Elder Tindall in San Francisco in the early 1930s. This short-lived but highly successful training program equipped laity and professionals alike to apply the principles of medical missionary work based upon the counsel in the Spirit of Prophecy.
“Elder Tindall’s methods were shaped by the Christ-centered principles outlined in the gospels and the writings of Ellen White,” Pastor Finley explains. “These same principles guide AMEN today. They are AMEN’s guiding light. AMEN exists to model the principles of Christ in each of our medical offices, community outreach programs, AMEN medical clinics and overseas mission opportunities.”
At sixteen, a young Bill Frazee applied to the Medical Missionary Course at the College of Medical Evangelists in Loma Linda, California. Achieving high scores throughout the year, he was allowed to choose classes from the medical course.
Elder W. D. Frazee served as an apprentice to John Tindall for about five years; gaining all the wisdom and experience that he could. He taught chemistry, food, and evangelism at the San Francisco Field Training School and later founded Wildwood Medical Missionary Institute, where he taught many others the practice and benefits of medical missionary work.
Pastor Finley, who has served as advisor to AMEN’s Board since its inception in 2005, was encouraged by his senior pastor, Elder O.J. Mills (father of Phil Mills), to spend time under the mentorship of Elder Frazee. Pastor Finley subsequently applied the principles he learned in his very successful ministry with his wife Teenie; they both continue to promote health evangelism in their local community and worldwide through media outreach. Rebecca (Finley) Barnhurst has also played a key role in administering the annual conferences and overseeing the organization’s growth from the beginning.
“AMEN’s roots run deep. They are rooted in the call of Christ for every physician and dentist to be a medical evangelist. They are grounded in Christ’s methods of evangelism. In this context every medical office becomes a center of influence for Christ as physicians, and dentists pray with their patients and unite with Christ as medical missionaries,” Pastor Finley says.
As you read through this edition of the Medical Evangelist, we pray that you will be inspired to help us “redeem the time” that has been lost in reaching the world through effective medical missionary work, whether it be in prayer with your patients, participation in AMEN Free Clinics, or in broader service in foreign and domestic fields of labor.  CONTINUE READING EDITORIAL »