Christian Worldview Concepts

Medical Practitioners

A Call to Minister

What does this mean for the Church? It is imperative that the practice of genuine Christian community become re-established within local churches throughout North America, a restoration of what it means to be a people of healing and reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17, 18). This is crucial if we are to wean ourselves from over-dependence upon the medical establishment and other "caregiving" segments of secular society.

This will be only be realized through effective discipleship, biblical instruction, specialized "compassion ministry" training and the implementation of specific compassion ministries by individual congregations. Through the establishment of these ministries, local congregations will come to be viewed by the local body and non-believers as essential problem-solvers within their communities. The types of ministries I envision include church-based "welfare" programs, preventative medical education, congregational nursing that includes home health care, biblical hospice and respite care, assisted living, biblical counseling, and life-skill development.

The philosophy of ministry which drives this approach is grounded in biblical teachings concerning the nature of God, the nature of humanity, the marks of an effective church and the role of the local church in the life of the believer and the community it serves. Since all that we call "ministry" is directed toward God's special creation, human beings, this model rests upon a biblical anthropology that entails the following assumptions:

• Human beings, in the totality of their being, are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26,27)
• The Fall of humanity, beginning with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3), relates to the totality of each human being, and God's provision of redemption also encompasses the total human person — body, soul and spirit (Romans 3-6; 1 Corinthians 15; 2 Corinthians 5). Sin not only manifests itself in alienation between God and humans, but alienation between humans and other humans. Human sinfulness even creates an alienation within an individual human being as well, between body and spirit (1 Corinthians 6:18; 11:29, 30), which is often manifested through some disease, illness, disability or other physical impediment. This alienation can also manifest itself in the disruption of vital human relationships: husband-wife, parent-child, employer-employee, citizen-state, resulting in poverty, abuse, sickness, unemployment, criminal prosecution, etc.
• The needs expressed by imagebearers are needs of the whole being, not just one "part" of the person; therefore anything that affects human beings is a spiritual issue. Jesus addressed physical, emotional and spiritual needs in a holistic manner, thereby indicating that human beings are to be ministered to in the totality of their being.
• The social, moral and spiritual turbulence created by human sinfulness cannot be resolved by any culture or government that views itself as autonomous and emancipated from the control of a sovereign God. In such a culture, government grows larger and more intrusive in order to direct the distribution of goods and services in an ever more equal fashion, all the while claiming that such efforts generate authentic community. When a culture refuses to acknowledge the real human predicament of alienation from God due to humanity's collective and total sinfulness, mere secular attempts to balance calls for equality and liberty are condemned to frustration. They will be frustrated because the stage upon which the battle for advantages will be waged is politics, which does not and cannot knit autonomous individuals into cooperative, caring community. Rather, politics rooted in secularism and committed to melding radical egalitarianism (equality) and radical individualism (with all of the conflicting rights claims) reduces society into fragments of isolated individuals and angry groups competing with one another. Social peace and cohesion decline in such a culture, with any sense of community disappearing, producing despair in the human heart. Life in such a culture can come close to seeming intolerable, yet at the same time Christians become so dependent upon the material benefits provided by the government that controls their lives that they will succumb to the erroneous notion that the solution to the disease of a politicized culture is more politics. More politics means more clashes between interest groups, more anger and division, and more assaults upon those who oppose them. Eventually, a collectivist solution will be adopted to control this social turbulence, with the result being an authoritarian government.