Healing

When you read the Gospels, you find that Jesus' ministry was essentially made up of three main components: preaching, teaching, and healing. In most churches today, we tend to focus on the first two of those components. We put a great deal of emphasis on our Sunday morning worship, with the preaching of the sermon being a central focus of that weekly experience. Likewise, most churches offer a wide variety of teaching opportunities, ranging from Bible studies to Sunday school to various small group gatherings.

Yet many churches tend to downplay the role of healing. Healing, however, is as much needed today as it was in Jesus' time.

Especially during the past month I have personally experienced how important the gift of healing is. My stay in the hospital for my surgery, and my subsequent recoverytime, has taken considerably longer than my doctors had first estimated, primarily because the operation ended up being much more complicated than was originally anticipated. And it is hard for me to imagine how I would have made it through this period without the care, prayers, and visits that I have received from my family, from our church members, and from friends.

My hope is that as we move into this new year together, as a church we will make healing an even more important focus of our church's ministry. Of course, we can continue to pray for the sick and for those going through difficult times, as we already do. But my hope is that we will be able to offer even more tangible forms of assistance. For instance, there are older people in the area who sometimes have difficulty in getting to doctor's appointments. Perhaps our church could be more intentional in helping people in that way. Or others have questions about health problems, and what they should do about them. A goal that I have is that we will be able to offer people - in our church and in the surrounding community - with opportunities to consult with a nurse or other health professional to guide them in the right direction so that they can get the help they need. And as people deal with health issues, my hope is that our church will be even more intentional in caring for those people through home visits, telephone calls, cards, and other expressions of concern, so that those who are suffering can be assured that they are not going through those trying times alone.

I believe healing was central to Jesus' ministry, because when we are suffering in our bodies it becomes very difficult for us to focus on God and it becomes very difficult us for us to feel able to do the work that God wants us to do. Therefore, healing is the gift that comes from God that makes it possible for us to be re-connected to God, and to be re-empowered to fulfill the mission that God has for each of us.

Ed Bowen