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By Rev. David F. Carlson, M.Div.
This is an excerpt from a longer article, "Roots and Visions for Health Ministry," which you can download here (PDF, 310K).
Here are ten practical options a congregation can practice in order to understand and experience more of the fullness of healing ministries.
All of you are involved in educational programs, personal interventions to assist members to access appropriate medical services, and compassionate care-giving in many forms—these are the hallmarks of parish nurse ministries. These are all entry points—door openers—that start the healing relationships.
For health ministries to be supported, theologically and structurally integrated into a congregation, there has to be a critical focus on the transformative dynamics which will change the basic functions of a church, and bring balanced faith expressions of the whole ‘good news.’
1. Have everyone in the congregation fill out an advanced medical directive, along with their own funeral plans.
This is a very beautiful way by which people can articulate their particular faith-informed decisions on the basis of their beliefs, hopes and values. I‘ve met people in the hospital who have done this in their health ministry programs in their own congregation. They celebrate that the family, the pastor, and other significant people know their wishes and intentions. I remember one gentleman who exclaimed “I’m not worried about a thing. All I have to do is focus on my healing.”
2. Weekly celebrations of services of prayer and healing, anointing for the sick or services of blessing for wholeness.
Just as we have weekly worship services (and Eucharist), every congregation needs to have healing modalities in every worship experience. This is the natural, normal context for healing. This healing practice is not special, to be only on separate occasions “on the side” or “in addition to” regular gatherings of the believing community. It is to be woven in to the fiber of the life of the community of faith.
3. In prime time—Sundays—sermons, reflections, homilies on holistic health, as well presentations on complementary and spiritual-based health and healing practices for balanced lifestyles.
How about a sermon on healing touch and massage based on the theology of anointing and laying-on of hands! We do not need to go to any so-called ‘new age’ source for this. It is all within our faith tradition—we simply have not been educated in this. It is in our spiritual and theological roots.
4. Effective communication processes that enable religious leadership to know when there is need for specific health ministry or healing.
How do we know when people enter or leave a hospital, a nursing home; when they are selling their home to enter a retirement setting; going through a family crisis; facing a divorce or remarriage—so many life transitions that are occasions for healing ministry. We know that people leave a hospital to go home to heal. Maybe this is the way it should be—so there can be a ‘welcome to your healing’ ministry.
The church has the time and skills for this. We can no longer afford to pay for all the experts to do what the church is designed to be and do. Remember that when Jesus sent the disciples out to preach, teach and heal he said “stay in people's homes.” This is why parish nursing has become so powerful, effective and our learning model. It is in our ‘home’ that we make 99.99% of our health care decisions, declare and seek to meet needs, and want to be healed.
5. Specific instruction for adults and children on how forgiveness works.
The church quickly encourages a person to practice forgiveness. Who instructs us on how forgiveness actually works and does not work? The church is the ‘expert in forgiveness’ we believe. There is still too much unnecessary spiritual suffering and long-term pain because the church has failed to teach how forgiveness is experienced. As a chaplain, I have seen so many faithful church members agonize because after 40, 50, 60 or more years of attending church faithfully, they do not know the healing experience of forgiveness as a practical, living reality.
6. Sex education for parents and children K –12.
This is the place to talk about intimacy based on spiritual foundations in relationships. What better place to learn about human fullness as designed by God. All the scary issues of raising a child in the world of drugs, sexual boundaries, computerized relating, etc. need to be embraced as critical human issues to be addressed as part of the faith community belief in the sacredness of the divine/human encounter.
Far too many young people are ‘abandoned’ at the very times when they have to make important decisions in learning how to relate to each other. Where is the nurturing, hospitable, spiritually grounded environment where they can learn and practice what is life-giving? Many parents yearn for this and a vital health ministry provides it through Sunday school, confirmation, adult classes and special structured processes for K-12 and all parents.
7. Services of blessings at the time of organ donation.
When was the last time your pastor preached on this form of stewardship? We all know the need for more donors. And if you have had a member of your faith community be the recipient of an organ transplant, how was this celebrated as central to healing ministries? Can we include pledges of body organs as a part of the annual fundraising programs? The church is the expert in death and resurrection issues, so we have much to say spiritually and theologically on stewardship of the body.
8. Orientations, education and practices for spiritual assessments, spiritual discernments as a normal part of our religious experiences.
These aspects and disciplines are for everybody, not just people who have a ‘special call’ or title. This is a part of the rich heritage in all the faith traditions. Why is it not experienced by the regular participants in their faith community? Again, so much emphasis has been placed on ‘going to church’ that we neglect instructing people experientially in ‘being the church.’
Much of seminary education glosses over the minister’s own development of being spiritually authentic and spiritually competent. In my experiences of spreading the message about parish nursing and health ministry, far too many clergy resist looking at the needs for healing and spiritual nurture because this has been sadly neglected in their own life and education. A vital health ministry blesses both clergy and laity alike.
9. The congregation makes a pledge to each member that if they want to stay in their home until they die, the congregation will assist them in accomplishing this.
It takes so little to have this happen, but people need this ‘little so much.’ We know well the costs that people incur for end-of-life care. Hospice programs provide a great service, but congregations are uniquely equipped to sustain this healing ministry. Historically the church began the hospices and hospitable places for care of the ill and dying. It is our heritage and our faith tradition. A vital health ministry starts before birth and ends after death. This is the church’s home ‘turf’!
What a huge difference it would make in our country if even half of all the congregations lived out this pledge. It would transform our systems and re-vitalize our churches into healing places! And we can’t even begin to imagine the money and taxes that would be available for other needs.
Again, we are called by Jesus to go into people’s homes to meet the needs for care and healing there! The medical resources can come to the home for their specific functions, but healing, caring people out of their spiritual resources meet the majority of the needs of the elderly and dying. What a joyous end to one’s life to die in peace, at home!
10. The baptismal experience will have the expectations that the sponsors/godparents will serve and function for the whole lifetime as spiritual companions, mentors and guides, so that this baptized person will know the reality of deep spiritual nurture and healing, and finally come to a fearless, peaceful death.
As a chaplain I have been at too many deathbeds where faithful church attendees agonize in fear or doubt. After all those years, the church failed them. Their spiritual cup is rather empty! It does not have to be this way. Balance salvation with healing, and death becomes the final healing, not just a ‘door to eternity’. This is the final chapter in a vital health and healing ministry.
David Carlson is S.T.M. ew-University Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN: Clinical Pastoral Educator/Chaplain Fairvi Board of Directors, North Central Region Health Ministry Network (NCRHMN) Co-Founder and First Executive Director: National Health Ministry Association (HMA)
More articles
The Changing Face of Parish Nursing
Congregations and the Age Wave
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