Journal Article

Comprehensive Health Ministry – Calling All Health Professionals!

Doctor, I chose to enlist as a patient in your practice because I have been told that you care for the whole person and pray with your patients.” From my early years as a medical student, my fascination with the wonders of complex physiology and divinely designed anatomical architecture has been eclipsed only by the joy and wonder of an individual coming to know Jesus and accept Him as their personal Savior. This is all the more exciting when such a conversion experience is catalyzed by a grace-filled encounter with a caring health professional. Many of you reading these words can identify with such encounters. Thank you to each of you for being dedicated workers in the blended ministry, extending the healing ministry of Jesus.

Many dedicated health professionals are responding to the call to engage in Comprehensive Health Ministry (CHM). What is it? This is a term used to reflect and embrace in modern terminology, the meaning of “medical missionary work,” a term used by Ellen G. White when urging the Church to engage in wholistic caring and healing. CHM includes not just health workers but also pastors, teachers, administrators, and every church member. When CHM is incorporated into the “Mission to the Cities” initiatives, the result could be “the setting in operation of a mighty movement such as we have not yet witnessed.” (Medical Ministry, p. 304) CHM’s goal, by God’s grace, is to promote physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. It strives to model the self-sacrificial ministry of Christ in a broken world.

“No line is to be drawn between the genuine medical missionary work and the gospel ministry. These two must blend. They are not to stand apart as separate lines of work. They are to be joined in an inseparable union, even as the hand is joined to the body … A solemn dignity is to characterize genuine medical missionaries. They are to be men who understand and know God and the power of His grace.” (Letter 102, 1900.) The writings of the Spirit of Prophecy are replete with such injunctions, encouragement and blueprints. Ellen White’s qualifiers are significant: we are to…“understand and know God and the power of His grace.” We would do well to take stock here. Instead of highlighting just programs and plans, we must also focus on our own relationship with Jesus; to know Him, to experience His love and grace, and then become the conduit of these characteristics.
Blended Ministry
I believe in the blended ministry; it is Goddesigned and God-ordained—and it works! But it requires buy-in, collaboration, the sacrifice of egos, the willingness to learn from each other, and most importantly— that we follow Christ’s method of mingling, caring, ministering to needs, winning confidence and then encouraging others (by precept and example) to follow Him. A primary objective is to keep Jesus as our “Pattern Man” and to follow Christ’s method, ministry, and mission alone.

Medical missionary work in its older and broadest sense has been done in our church for more than a century. However, we have been challenged to have a comprehensive, concerted Christcentered approach taking what has been “Good” to what can be “Great”! Could it be that the Church readying itself and the world, in which it finds itself, for the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ, has such a wonderful opportunity? The opportunity of implementing comprehensive health ministry done with intentionality and with energy not witnessed until now?
Comprehensive Health Ministry in Action
What does Comprehensive Health Ministry really look like? There are four basic markers of this special initiative.

1. When put into practice, it appears as if Jesus is amongst us! The sick are being cared for, the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, sympathy, love and inclusivity abound.
2. It is not merely a method – it is much more a ministry and a mission – extending the healing ministry of Jesus Christ “to make men whole.”
3. It is concerned with wellness and wholeness, not just the treatment of disease. Preventive lifestyle initiatives are vitally needed.
4. The continuum of care addresses the wholistic being in every aspect including physical, social, mental and spiritual.

Every Church a Community Health Center
As every church member embraces Comprehensive Health Ministry, every church becomes a Health Center for health promotion in every community where we find ourselves. We maintain relevance in our communities by practicing Christ’s method of mingling, sympathizing, meeting needs, winning confidence and then sharing timeless spiritual truths of salvation and eternal life.

There are many practical areas where this “commodity” of health, a common goal desired by all, can make the difference in our various ministries and endeavors – youth, children, adults of all ages, in our education systems, chaplaincy, and development and relief initiatives. CHM does not belong to the Health Ministry Department – it is a ministry and mission for every Church worker and every Church member. Our churches can become community health centers sharing instruction in balanced healthful living, cooking and nutrition, smoking cessation (Breathe-Free 2), recovery ministry, and run seminars that destigmatize mental health problems helping people to better cope with depression and anxiety. The Adventist Health Message when practiced with balance has as many mental and emotional benefits as it does physical. Another example of CHM being done by the Seventh-day Adventist church are the mega health events treating disease, and also providing dental and ophthalmic care. Successful events have been run in San Francisco, San Antonio (USA), and Harare (Zimbabwe) with the recipients viewing the gracious love of Jesus through the lens of His servants’ practice of selfless CHM.

Our Calling No single ministry in the church is sufficient to the task. But we are called to work together, regardless of our roles, to reach out to our broken planet. We have been blessed with a message, not just about eternal life sometime in the future, but having a more abundant life now. We must live this message, practice neighborliness and reach outside of the church and into the lives of other people. We, and those to whom we minister, can even enjoy wholeness in our brokenness! Jesus summarizes Comprehensive Health Ministry: “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full”, John 10:10 (NIV). We can be the ones God will use to help give people, even now, the more abundant life that Jesus has promised.

We have the opportunity to work together on this vital aspect of our calling. Through the grace of God, we can—and will—make a difference, now and for eternity.

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