WERE a pen of inspiration to outline "a program for ministerial effectiveness during this new decade, what would be written? What great issues that challenge the ministry today would merit prophetic comment? Social problems of seemingly overwhelming complexity cry for solutions that show a fresh and innovative concern for total human needs. Yet counsel from the Spirit of Prophecy, written more than sixty years ago, offers the minister in the seventies a solution system that appears to have been designed by a contemporary specialist. With great clarity and insight the book The Ministry of Healing traces the very social, physical, mental, and moral ills that are demanding such widespread attention today. The minister with a concern for meeting the total human needs of church and community will find included in this book direction for achieving the following:
1. A personal program of health maintenance or renewal that will provide the endurance essential for meeting the stresses of contemporary society.
2. How to meet the major social issues of the seventies, including problems of the inner city, drug abuse, and moral decay.
3. A church program of community out reach with popular appeal and soul-winning potential.
4. An evangelistic ministry patterned after the ministry of Jesus Christ with His emphasis on total health restoration.
Titles on today's newsstands shout con temporary concern with health-related is sues. There is strong popular interest in such topics as diet, exercise, smoking, drug use, physical fitness, and weight control. These topics, which dominate the mass media, have been identified and discussed in detail. Social ills have been diagnosed and hopefully effective solutions and treatments prescribed. Yet the experts must still face the perplexing dilemma of a population that is demanding longer life and better health while pursuing a pattern of self-destruction. The basic and seemingly insoluble question for which the gospel alone offers solution is: Where can motivation for personal behavior change be found?
The informed Seventh-day Adventist minister should speak with authority on this question. He understands both theologically and physiologically the essential unity of body, mind, and spirit in human nature. He knows that the power of God alone through faith in Jesus Christ can provide the strength of will for permanent behavior change. Thus, through an under standing of healthful living and the relationship of the laws of physical life to spiritual and mental health, the minister is prepared to reach the needs of the seventies.
Perhaps an honest submission to the fol lowing self-test will assist us in determining if we are effectively prepared by education and experience to provide such a ministry as has been described.
1. Does health education form an effective component of my ministry and church program?
Every gospel worker should feel that the giving of instruction in the principles of healthful living is a part of his appointed work. Of this work there is great need, and the world is open for it. --The Ministry of Healing, p. 147.
2. Am I able to teach health principles? Gospel workers should be able also to give instruction in the principles of healthful living. --Ibid., p. 146.
3. Have I personally studied and faith fully followed God's laws of life?
It is the duty of every person, for his own sake, and for the sake of humanity, to inform himself in regard to the laws of life and conscientiously to obey them. --Ibid., p. 128.
4. Do I have a practical understanding of physiology which I effectively present in evangelism?
All need to become acquainted with that most wonderful of all organisms, the human body. They should understand the functions of the various organs and the dependence of one upon another for the healthy action of all. --Ibid.
5. Has the balance of Christ's health evangelism approach been followed in my ministry?
Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people. --Ibid., p. 143.
In the ministry of the word and in the medical missionary work the gospel is to be preached and practiced. Ibid., p. 144.
In the work of the gospel, teaching and healing are never to be separated. Ibid., p. 141.
6. Have I prepared myself to minister to the sick?
All gospel workers should know how to give the simple treatments that do so much to relieve pain and remove disease. Ibid., p. 146.
7. Am I able to effectively use natural science to lead minds to Bible truth?
Lead the people to study the manifestation of God's love and wisdom in the works of nature. Lead them to study that marvelous organism, the human system, and the laws by which it is governed. Ibid., p. 147. [Note that then they "will come to regard their duties and obligations from an altogether different point of view." Ibid.]
Most of us are faced with the need for supplementing the ministerial education of formal degree requirements if we are to work after the pattern of Christ. Today courses are available, materials may be obtained, and opportunities in training for health evangelism may be utilized.
In The Ministry of Healing, Medical Ministry, Counsels on Diet and Foods, Counsels on Health, and other Spirit of Prophecy writings, a comprehensive guide to health ministry is available. Articles in health journals, selected books on health, and formal classwork in nutrition, physiology, and health education are available to prepare the minister for the service that the seventies demand. With a personal commitment to balanced healthful living the minister is able to give a winning testimony for total health to his congregation and his community.
