John Torquato, MD
Health Ministry Intensive Program
Our ministry experiment began with two medical students, two nurses, and two young adults with Bible work or colporteur experience. They had only seven weeks to complete their mission. It was based on the Tyndale model, tightly integrating personal service, medical practice, and spiritual ministry led by a physician-pastor team. Originally, they were promised travel reimbursements and a small stipend for their work. Just weeks before the program began, finances fell through and we decided to cancel the program. However, the team of young people prayerfully determined to serve despite the lack of reimbursement.
Because of the team’s commitment, the groundwork went forward. Wayne Kablanow served as the pastoral half of the pastor/physician leadership team, giving guidance as the head teacher/evangelist for the program. The layout for the initiative was simple. Each team member was assigned four patients from my family practice office. They were to work very closely and intensively with these individuals, meeting daily in person if possible. Helping in every way necessary to overcome lifestyle barriers and achieve their goals, they provided the spiritual influence needed for patients to find real power to make changes. The team taught a lifestyle class three days a week as well as preaching at the local church, inviting lifestyle class members to attend.
Initially the contacts with patients were short, but as the team members developed deep relationships with their patients, the patients desired more time than was available. The team was instructed not to focus on giving Bible studies, rather it was imperative to have their personal worship every morning. Their devotions were to fill their heart with a burning passion for the Lord. With this desire, they were to go into the patients’ homes and speak of spiritual principles, bringing these into conversation as they talked of everyday things. Eventually the patients would ask questions related to those spiritual principles, which would lead to deeper conversations and informal study of the Scriptures as the weeks passed.
The young people were not to go to the homes alone, but instead take church members with them at every visit, different members throughout the week. This was especially helpful when patients began coming to church, as they would recognize three or four people they had already met in their own home and considered friends. Besides the patients’ routine medical visits to my office, the church members provided continuity to develop ongoing relationships after the team left.
Twenty-four patients with chronic lifestyle problems such as diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and obesity were recruited from my office. Clients were offered a lifestyle change program that we called ‘Boot Camp’, an intensive lifestyle program unlike any they had ever seen. They knew it was a physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social program that would require daily contact with our team as well as multiple classes during the week. Some patients needed close medical monitoring as their disease parameters changed over the course of the seven-week class. My office provided the medical management free of charge.
Eighteen local church members and the health ministries department rallied, volunteering to assist in the class and home visitation. A local newspaper ad attracted 36 patients from the community, almost none of whom were Seventh-day Adventists, and many who were not even Christians. Yet, each committed to the program recognizing the effort would include a strong spiritual focus. We had three classroom sessions per week: a Bible-based study focusing on the spiritual component of character development, a lifestyle change program, and a cooking school.
Bible-based Program
The Bible-based program was essentially an evangelistic series that would address several key doctrines while helping the class members learn to rely on Jesus to change habits.
Lifestyle Change Program
The lifestyle change program focused on the spiritual aspects of altering behavior. The participants were given a daily devotional book, “The Lord’s Table” by Mike Cleveland, and encouraged to develop a deep level of commitment to Jesus as the only One who could help them change their character. The participants independently completed one lesson daily, then discussed the principles in a weekly breakout session.
The lifestyle program opened with a short prayer, followed by requests. Every person in the room was given the opportunity to mention a prayer request, to praise God for something, or to pass. Requests or praises were written on a whiteboard at the front of the class. Initially many in the class would pass, but by two or three weeks into the class virtually everyone was participating, sometimes taking up to 25 minutes! Three or four volunteers from the class would pray for the list of requests.
After prayer and praise, we took about 15 minutes to discuss and develop an altruistic, anonymous service project chosen by the class. The concept was to bless somebody in the neighborhood, and also by doing so provide healing for the class members. We wanted to provide an “overwhelming abundance” of blessing for an individual in our community.
Many options for service were presented by members of the class and others. An official from the local fire department shared a particularly needy case. A woman with a demented husband had to go to the hospital for cancer surgery. Their home was heated with wood, but their dilapidated fireplace did not meet fire safety code and was cited by the fire department. The couple could not afford to repair their fireplace – a serious matter in the cold climate of northern Idaho. The class decided to support this family anonymously.
After a weekly 15-minute discussion and planning time, an offering was taken and tracked on our whiteboard. Two class members were appointed treasurers and reported the weekly progress. Amazingly, this single effort became the glue that drew and held the class together.
Next in the program was a short scientific lecture. The instructors described a lifestyle principle of spiritual significance. It was a combo health and worship talk rolled up in one.
Finally came a 30-minute breakout session where we discussed in small groups the concepts of character change and spiritual strength that were gleaned from the devotional workbook. The health outreach team led the small groups of class and church members in discussion, much like an interactive small Sabbath school. The lifestyle change class always ended with prayer.
As I consider the elements of this lifestyle change class, I look at the steps taken to help people to know Jesus. People who were not Seventh-day Adventists, or even Christians, were willing to come to our church. They located our parking lot and found their way to the door of our fellowship hall. They sat and prayed with our church members at the beginning of each program. If you consider the steps people take towards an abiding relationship with Jesus and His people, the people in this class have already taken many of them!
Cooking School
At the end of one cooking class, a lady pulled me aside and wonderingly asked, “Why do you people love us like you do?” This particular individual came from a church that was antagonistic to Seventh-day Adventists and had done a four-week sermon series on why Seventh-day Adventists were going to burn in hell. By the end of our seven-week program, this woman was the most invested in our team of young people and came consistently to the evangelistic series. She went as far as to invite all her friends from her church and the health outreach team to a pool party at her home so she could introduce the two groups to each other!
The health results of the class were as expected. Many people lost weight over the seven weeks, decreased their blood pressure, lowered their dose of diabetic drugs, and some came off their medications entirely. One lady on renal dialysis could not have a kidney transplant due to her out-of-control diabetes. Her hemoglobin A1C dropped precipitously in the short time the classes were in session. A few months later, she had an essentially normal hemoglobin A1C.
The greatest effect, however, occurred in the close relationships developed with our church members. These people demonstrated their understanding that the source of their strength to change was Jesus. What a big step for people who did not even consider themselves Christian!
At the end of the seven weeks, we showed a video report of our “abundant blessing” anonymous service project. The powerful emotional response further bonded the class to each other, to the team, and to the church members supporting the program. There was a general outpouring of love and acceptance between class and church members and particularly towards the young people who had been working individually with them.
At the last class, a general movement came to my attention: the class refused to allow me to send the young volunteers away empty-handed. They understood the sacrifice the team had undertaken in coming without pay to help them make changes in their lives. They saw the devotion of the young people to them as friends. The participants decided to take up an offering to be given directly to the young staff members. That offering bypassed committees, accounting, church organizations, and labor laws that might have inhibited the same funds from being distributed through an organization. The funds went directly from members of the class to the young people themselves. Each team member who desired left with $1800 cash from the class. This outpouring of support and love was a result of the gratitude for the lavish gift of time and effort. That level of true sacrifice broke the hearts of those in the class and was a large part of what contributed to the strong success of the program.
At the end of seven weeks, six of the 24 patients from my practice had committed themselves to keeping the Sabbath and established a church home in one of the surrounding Adventist churches. In a mere seven weeks, six devoted young workers helped six people understand God’s last day message for this world to the point that those people committed themselves to the Lord. They sacrificially chose God and fellowship with Seventh-day Adventists. For the young people, each one won one. The dividends continued to grow even months after the team left as the church members continued their work and relationships with the class.
Six months after the young people left, I was sitting in church and noticed one of the class members. She kept in close touch with several church members who had come to her home during the lifestyle change program and attended church regularly. I saw her standing at the back of the sanctuary and waved for her to come join my family. Together we watched a baptism. She leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Dr. Torquato, I think I need to be baptized.”
I was incredulous! I asked her, “Why? Why would you want to be baptized? You don’t even know the doctrine.”
Her response was enlightening, “The way you people have loved me, I know it can’t be wrong. There will be a learning curve, but I am committed to it. I will learn about my new church, and then be baptized.” Today she sits as a baptized member of the Seventh-day Adventist church just across the aisle from me each Sabbath.
Each of the young people who had volunteered for the summer had significant background in evangelism, Bible work, or colporteuring. After the program was finished, I asked them how effective the last seven weeks were compared to what they had done previously. Each one stated unequivocally that this was the most effective method of evangelism in which they had ever participated.
Although it is beyond us to accomplish anything for God in our own strength, it is possible, even likely, that God will bless even the weakest of His followers who is obedient to His will. Our dream is to conduct a two-year project similar to the one outlined in this article. We are committed to studying and praying and experimenting. If God opens the doors to continue this work, we will move forward in whatever direction He chooses to lead us.
For more information on how to get involved in the upcoming project, please email
Dr. Torquato at: jtorquato1@gmail.com
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