New Frontiers in Medical Evangelism

SOME time ago I decided it was time to frankly ascertain whether or not my work for souls attained to the scope that Heaven designed it should, so I embarked on a closer examination of Christ's methods of labor while here on earth. Before long I experienced a def­inite fracturing of several concepts of min­isterial labor, leading into an intensive program of experimentation during this past year, which has opened new frontiers for service right before my eyes. While it would probably be somewhat theatrical even to compare happenings of this past year to Paul's experience on the Damascus road, certain aspects might well be com­pared to a bursting of light, a certain fall­ing to the knees, in addition to a much broader concept of ministerial labor.

As a basis for this discussion let's pause to review several vital quotations that have triggered a thrilling series of medical-min­isterial experiments here in the Atlantic Union Conference. Said the servant of the Lord, "I can see in the Lord's providence that the medical missionary work is to be a great entering wedge, whereby the diseased soul may be reached." — Counsels on Health, p. 535. Now let's thoughtfully read this striking sentence: "How slow men are to understand God's preparation for the day of His power! God works to-day to reach hearts in the same way that He worked when Christ was upon this earth. In reading the word of God, we see that Christ brought medical missionary work into His ministry. Cannot our eyes be opened to discern Christ's methods? Can-not we understand the commission He gave to His disciples and to us?"—Medical Min­istry, p. 246. Or again, "Ministers, do not confine your work to giving Bible instruc­tion. Do practical work. Seek to restore the sick to health. This is true ministry. Re­member that the restoration of the body prepares the way for the restoration of the soul."—Ibid., p. 240. Then please notice this striking sentence: "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."— Ibid., p. 250. Now let's examine yet one more statement that seems to illuminate the very heart of this vital subject: "The union of Christlike work for the body and Christ­like work for the soul is the true interpreta­tion of the gospel."—Welfare Ministry, p. 33. This brings us to the solemn counsel that "we are now to unify and by true medical missionary work prepare the way for our coming King."—Testimonies, vol. 8, p. 212.

Within these and numerous similar state­ments the embryo would-be medical mis­sionary discovers a seeming gulf all too often separating the theory of medical mis­sionary work from his ability actually to translate that theory into action. However, let's allow the following prophetic words to inspire us with both fresh courage and personal preparation for the day when "we shall see the medical missionary work broadening and deepening at every point of its progress, because of the inflowing of hundreds and thousands of streams, until the whole earth is covered as the waters cover the sea."—Medical Ministry, p. 317.

None will deny that our worldwide network of sanitariums and hospitals obviously fulfills a large portion of the aforemen­tioned prophecy. However, if we stop there we will ignore Heaven's far wider plans for every minister's and every member's participation in genuine medical mission­ary work as revealed in the following in­spired words: "We have come to a time when every member of the church should take hold of medical missionary work."— Testimonies, vol. 7, p. 62. Let us frankly acknowledge that such plain statements, in view of today's civilized populations living within telephone's reach of advanced med­ical care, plus stringent laws restricting lay medical efforts, that such statements at first reading seem nearly impossible to put into actual operation. On the other hand, be­fore these articles are concluded we may discover a practical breakthrough by means of a modern medical missionary plan Dr. J. Wayne McFarland and I have been quietly testing by means of pilot programs in the Atlantic Union for more than a year now.

But first, there's little use in discussing medical missionary principles from a min­isterial viewpoint unless we realize afresh that in Eden man originally fell through Satan's three-pronged assault against his physical, mental, and spiritual natures. Having launched a successful attack against man's physical nature, Satan proceeded successfully to disrupt the spiritual connec­tion with man's Creator. Because man fell on all three levels, is it not immediately apparent that genuine ministerial attempts to save the whole man must therefore be equally expended upon his physical, men­tal, and spiritual natures if God is to be pleased with our efforts?

That bleak and satanic pagan philos­ophy, "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die," with all its baleful historic con­sequences, has to a larger-than-suspected degree permeated even today's religious thinking. After a recent health lecture pre­sented by Dr. McFarland to a city minis­terial association, a prominent clergyman declared, "As ministers we have too long believed that mind and soul were the most important elements of man, religiously speaking, hence we have paid all too scant attention to his physical nature." It was to protect from this erroneous concept that Jesus, the great Medical Missionary, usually ministered first to the body before en­deavoring to reach the human heart. Jesus certainly knew what He was doing when He stooped down to the dust and shaped a physical body as a house for the brain, thus enabling Adam to worship his Creator. Hence we were created on the tripod design consisting of physical, mental, and spiritual legs. In order, then, to attain balanced min­isterial labor for the whole man, we dare not specialize mainly upon his spiritual and mental restoration, laboring only half­heartedly for his physical restoration. If we neglect the physical, our work will be com­pared by Heaven to a somewhat deformed tripod with one leg far shorter than the other two, and lopsided, if able to stand at all. Then let's read well these inspired words: "Christ stands before us as the pat­tern Man, the great Medical Missionary, —an example for all who should come after."—Medical Ministry, p. 20. Then fol­lows an almost plaintive, pleading ques­tion: "Will men and women ever do a work that bears the features and character of the great Medical Missionary?"—Ibid. Because the grace of God is always reformatory and truly effective, ministerial teaching of Heaven's gospel of grace will at once involve an intelligent three-pronged program of education on behalf of man's physical, men­tal, and spiritual aspects, and will usually be best prosecuted in that order.

As Adventists we have developed con­siderable skills in preaching the binding nature of the Ten Commandments, with particular skills reserved for the fourth command. Yet I wonder whether we have yet realized that within the sixth command, "Thou shalt not kill," lies the actual heart principle of true medical missionary work. Morally, then, it becomes our sacred duty to declare that whatever physical practice lays the groundwork for future disease and possible premature death constitutes a solemn violation of God's direct command "Thou shalt not kill."

Watching the ebb and flow of humanity from a New York street corner one day, I found myself thinking, "How can I use our health message as the entering wedge to these hearts?" After considerable thought upon the fact that God has conferred upon us a superior plan of living designed to reform the living practices of the world, I thought it only seemed natural to delve into The Ministry of Healing and adapt its timeless principles to a modern setting. Then, during a meeting to plan advertis­ing for a series of meetings on general health, the bold idea popped up, "Why not charge program admission, thus removing the necessity for an offering?" Conse­quently, our advertisement in the New York Times stated that reserved seats would cost $1.25 each. To my amazement the phone rang steadily for several days, culminating in our auditorium's being packed with 800 of the most attentive hearers imaginable, each determined to get his money's worth. Thus encouraged, we continued the idea by selling tickets for twenty additional pro­grams on health, resulting in an attendance far larger than for other free meetings dealing with religion alone. Obviously, although such a method can be used only under certain conditions and only with ex­treme caution, after that initial success I needed no additional proof that good health principles can effectively become a powerful entering wedge. But I realized that I had only barely scratched the surface in God's plan for reaching hearts. To fel­low ministers wishing to develop more fully their own philosophy of medical mission­ary evangelism I can highly recommend a prayerful study of a 47-page Spirit of Prophecy compilation entitled A Call to Medical Evangelism and Health Education, with its challenging foreword by the Gen­eral Conference Medical Department, and printed by the Southern Publishing As­sociation. On page eight we read, "The gospel of health is to be firmly linked with the ministry of the word" (quoted from Medical Ministry, p. 259). Then came the inevitable question "Is my ministry in­separably joined with medical missionary work?"

For more than a year now it has been my privilege here in the Atlantic Union to carry forward, in association with Dr. McFarland, a series of controlled medical missionary experiments. As a background I had observed Dr. and Mrs. H. W. Vollmer, in their schools of nutrition conducted throughout our union, training our min­isters' wives in the art of demonstration cooking. It was a thrill to observe a young wife, thus trained, step to the platform for thirty minutes preceding her husband's evangelistic sermon, and deftly prepare a healthful food. Her husband modestly de­clared, "They come to see her cook and stay to hear me preach." He's partially right, of course. These two young workers are only demonstrating the very genius of health evangelism. Plainly we are told that schools of nutrition should accompany every evan­gelistic campaign, thus using Heaven's plan for saving the whole man.

During this past year I watched ministers open evangelistic meetings, invite local physicians to their platforms, and side by side proceed through a series of prearranged questions, which to me was often more ef­fective than a physician's fifteen-minute health talk alone. Audiences are impressed by the fact that minister and doctor are visibly associated in close cooperation. Other pastors, lacking a dedicated local physician, injected the medical aspect into their evening meetings by presenting Dr. Clifford Anderson's Radio Doctor filmstrip series with accompanying tape narration. Some nights a local nurse would demon­strate simple home treatments before a fascinated audience. And what was happen­ing? These ministers were simply utilizing the first basic principles of medical mis­sionary work, gaining foundation experi­ence for much greater exploits in the fu­ture.

Then one day a singular statement struck me with compelling force: "A new element needs to be brought into the work. God's people must receive the warning, and work for souls right where they are; for people do not realize their great need and peril." —Ibid., p. 319.

Over and over revolved the question, "What is this 'new element' that should be brought into my work?" Such a question must not be lightly passed over. For a long time I had felt a basic dissatisfaction in merely preaching to and visiting with peo­ple from the intellectual or spiritual plane alone, realizing all too well that their minds were often so beclouded by wrong habits of living that they were unable fully to grasp great themes of duty and destiny. Also, in the previous quotation we are urged as a people to "work for souls right where they are." Obviously, this suggests an attempt to elevate humanity, beginning with a plan that helps to free them from en­slaving habits by which they have long been bound to Satan's car.

Naturally there must be a point of be­ginning such a work, and that point must also be one of common interest with those we wish to help. Obviously, the average per­son feels no compelling need to change his views on the millennium or state of the dead, but multitudes of thinking people are worried about smoking and general health. Could it be that here is a key to a new frontier for medical missionary work? As a people, we have for many decades been both proclaiming the dangers in tobacco and assisting people to quit its use. Then from a historic and health viewpoint are we not the logical people to show the world precisely how to break this defiling habit?

The thought came, "But those we help are usually spiritually motivated in their struggle with tobacco, and the average man on the street is not." Somehow a recurring conviction urged that if we were to employ many techniques already successfully used for years by ministers and doctors in this denomination, a plan could be devised ca­pable of breaking the tobacco habit in large groups of people, even though they were not motivated from religious conviction.

At this early stage of the experiment it was encouraging to have Elder W. J. Hackett, our Atlantic Union president, express strong confidence in the basic idea and urge Dr. McFarland and myself to embark upon a full-scale program of experimenta­tion. After nearly a year of experimenta­tion we find ourselves connected with a thrilling program of tremendous possibilities in which this approach does more than merely open doors before us. When rightly done, this plan figuratively knocks those doors right off their hinges. Called the Five Day Plan to Stop Smoking, this pro­gram will be more fully described in another article.