TOO OFTEN we ministers are blinded by the concept that our physicians and dentists are the "right arm" that provides a right-hand wallet pocket to be reached into by the left hand. If this is our concept of the blended "medical-ministerial team" we'll have to admit that not much of a team spirit really exists. In fact, what really happens is that one arm uses the other for its own purposes.
In our marriage counseling we often are aware of this same dynamic. When one individual is used by another, frustration and hostility naturally result. In counseling, a great deal of time and energy is spent attempting to work through a flood of negative feeling. In the same way, this erroneous view of the medical-ministerial team often creates hostility and problems that are very difficult to work out.
When ministers turn to the medical arm for only a few "health" remarks on some rare evangelistic occasion, no team exists! If we ministers will evaluate this attitude carefully we'll realize that it amounts to using physicians in our plans rather than encouraging them to become full members of a working team with us.
When we use, we only confuse the relationship that should exist. Picture this scene—persons with extensive training in academic and practical disciplines place themselves atop some great free standing Corinthian columns and perch there in solitude. Then each surveys the landscape, noting that there is another column with another person up on a level with themselves. One of the two decides that there is really room for only one column and one person on top. He begins jousting, like a medieval knight. Both have a long way to fall—a lot to lose, with very little to gain.
That picture helps us understand that often we find ourselves in similar situations. Both arms of the team, having spent a great deal of time and study and preparation for their respective professions, develop a form of professionalism that actually separates and isolates them rather than drawing them together as working equals. In place of cooperation, competition saps vital spiritual energy. Witness diminishes. Even backsliding occurs.
Having discussed a few things that hinder the formation of a truly blended medical-ministerial team it is time to shift to a brief discussion of what the medical-ministerial team should be.
The true medical-ministerial team is formed of two or more redeemed sinners, united and serving together in word and deed, in look and thought, to bring the healing power of the gospel and the glory of the one God to lost sinners. No matter how you look at it, this is the only concept of the medical-ministerial team that will be functional in spreading the gospel and in teaching all men the truth so Jesus can return soon.
We are prone to believe that there is one way to do a thing—ours. A team, by its very definition, indicates that there are many ways of doings job. A team blends these ways together, bringing a variety of approaches to the problem.
The medical-ministerial team really does not center on money. It centers around the concept of personal testimony. One sentence from Ralph W. Sockman's sermon on the "Unfinished Reformation" has stuck with me. I often think about it as I associate with fellow professionals. "One ounce of personalized testimony," he said, "is worth a ton of professional propaganda financed by silent spectators." When looking at the medical-ministerial team, there must be the "personalized testimony" of our medical co-workers as well as the "professional propaganda" that the ministry is trained to deliver. This combination is unexcelled in bringing a re deeming ministry to all it contacts.
Motion, Rather Than Commotion
If we honestly examine the medical- ministerial team as it exists in most fields today it seems to be a nonteam. A team creates motion, not commotion. Yet, those who ought to be team members too often end up in an agitated state because both hold tenaciously to a position that really could be compromised from an autocratic absolute into a workable relationship. A team is formed not to find objections, but to reach objectives! A team is made up of cooperators, not competitors. We must practice the arts we are skilled in. These arts are complementary. The committed team is dedicated to fixing not fighting. The healing of broken bodies and bro ken spirits results from loving ministry rather than from intense intellectual or procedural arguments.
It is much more difficult to be a positive builder than one who can dismantle and take apart. A school district was having a great deal of trouble with the taxpayers. They were complaining about all the money that was being spent. The superintendent of the district was a personal friend. One day he said, "Have you seen this?" as he handed me a poem. I want to share it with you.
I watched them tearing a building down—
A gang of men in a busy town,
With a yo-heave-ho and a lusty yell,
They swung a beam and the side wall fell.
I asked the foreman, "Are these men skilled,
And men you'd hire if you had to build?"
He gave a laugh and said, "No, indeed!
Just common labor is all I need.
I can easily wreck in a day or two
What builders have taken a year to do."
I thought to myself as I went my way,
Which of these roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care,
Measuring life by the rule and square?
Am I shaping my deeds to a well-made plan,
Patiently doing the best I can?
Or am I a wrecker, who walks the town,
Content with the labor of tearing down?
—New York State School Board Magazine, May, 1961
If we are really going to minister together as a team we have to give our effort wholly to building for the Master.
The team must be dedicated to facilitating, not fracturing, if they are to reach goals. We have to become the lubricant to prevent friction, not the sources of the friction. The medical professionals I know tell me they do not want to stay in this world forever treating broken, sick, decaying, and disease- ridden human bodies. Neither do we in the ministry want to spend our time forever dealing with the problems of sin, corruption, and decay in the moral nature of man. Instead, we share the common goal of wanting to see the Lord Jesus come back to this earth and end the problem. What a tremendous incentive this is to join together in the team ministry of building for eternity.
The team consists of members who first and foremost must be genuine per sons. It is too easy to carry a facade, whether you be a medical or spiritual practitioner; a facade of ability, a facade of pseudo-intellectualism, and say, "I am a minister," "I am a doctor," "I am a nurse," "I am a dentist," when really what we need to be is genuine people.
These self-erected walls of professionalism tend to create what Sidney Jourrord terms "opacity" in his book en titled The Transparent Self. What we really need, if we are going to be genuine people, is "transparency." What is in us then may be evident to those around us so they will want to become like us. The Lord tells us, "Everything that Christians do should be as trans parent as the sunlight" (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 68).
Mental Alertness
In order to have this genuine quality I believe that we must be mentally alert. The team professional must continually be studying. When I go into my doctor's office and have to sit and wait for him, I no longer get all uptight and maybe aggravate the condition that I came to be treated for. I sit and read his medical journals! Someday I might stumble across some gem of wisdom so I won't have to come back and see him again! I am comforted to know that he has such a stack of journals. I want him to spend a great deal of time and effort going through them and upgrading his knowledge. It is for my good that he does this. I think that we as ministers ought to be engaged in the same kind of constant upgrading study.
If we are going to be genuine persons we must also be concerned about our physical condition. We must be converted in our life pattern by commitment to Jesus Christ. The medical professionals can clearly point out where we are physically weak and need to take better care of ourselves. Physicians also need to practice what they preach. I find it difficult to talk to a physician about obesity if he is sharing the same weight problem I have. Both sides of the professional fence need to look at themselves physically and find habits of living that need change.
A delightful book that you may want to read is The Confessions of a Workaholic, by Wayne Gates. A doctor in my church sat down one day and told me how busy he was. I tossed The Confessions of a Workaholic to him. He said, "You know, you're the first pastor that ever talked to me about working too hard." We need to minister to each other's needs if we are to help each other become genuine in every aspect of our living.
A Common Goal
The team members must clearly perceive the common goal that they have. That common goal is defined in the fourth chapter of the book Education. "The work of education and the work of redemption are one" (p. 30). The goal of both is to restore in man the image of his Maker. Is this one of the objectives that we also have on the medical-ministerial team?
The physician who deals with the body has as his primary goal the restoration of the body. Those of us who deal almost exclusively with the spirit have as our goal the restoration of the spirit. This ministry of restoration demands that we function as a team.
Restoration adds value in three ways: First, it adds to that which is restored. Take antiques, for example. A little cleaning and polishing adds value. Value is added to the person when we minister to him as a team in ways that we may never be able to grasp this side of the kingdom of God.
Restoration also adds value to the restorer. When the doctor discharges the patient or the minister baptizes the sinner there is a thrill and excitement that can never be experienced in any other line of effort or any other work.
Last, there is value added to the glory of our Redeemer who bought sinners for a price.
On a team, members share in leader ship and in the decision-making processes. We all need to sharpen our analytical perception, but we also need to learn tolerance for the deliberateness of our fellow workers on the team. Team members mutually contribute to a pool of ideas and a pool of talent. The team is totally committed to God and to maxi mum use of the talents of each member. When we share in prayer, power is ours.
I sometimes have felt a little uneasy when I visit the office of one of my medical associates and spend time talking with him during his busy schedule. I try to be brief. Time is valuable to him, but I always like to take a moment for prayer together. It used to be that I'd sit down and say, "Doctor, I'd like to pray with you before I go." Now I often say, "Doctor, would you like to pray for me before I go?" He ministers to me, and before he says Amen I minister to him. That's teamwork. When we pray together we have power together to achieve our team goals.
When we love and respect each other as coequals who have differing aspects of skill, knowledge, and training, the sum total of our combined skills divided by two is greater than that of either of us alone.
No doctor will ever be allowed to operate on me with only one arm if I can help it! I prefer at least two doctors with both arms when I'm under the anesthetic and they are wielding the scalpel. By that analogy I am trying to say that I want a coordinated right arm and left arm on one body. That is what our team ministry is under the guidance of God as the Head. The medical-ministerial team can with joint coordinated effort effectively restore people to the image of their Maker. We need both arms in our church.
Only the medical-ministerial team can deal with the joint entity we call body and soul. We need doctors in the church and pastors in the consulting office. That way we will save the patient both travel and travail. Being part of a true medical-ministerial team can be a thrill to its members.
Recently I was asked to prepare a study on fasting. While preparing for this I thought of my doctor-elder. I went to him and urged, "Doctor, you must preach this sermon with me."
The doctor looked at me in a strange way. I suppose he was wondering whether he heard me correctly. I went on to tell him of my plan for a joint sermon on fasting. A few Sabbaths later we stood together in the pulpit. We didn't give two separate talks. Instead we dialogued together. What a thrill to read the principles from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, and then have the doctor tell exactly what the medical journals have to say. We shared spiritual information and a practical application with our people. Not only did we receive an enthusiastic response but I myself am more than a little enthusiastic about this method of blending our pulpit ministry.
Instead of being blinded by the gold in the doctor's pocket, we should concentrate on the golden possibility of a truly blended medical-ministerial team, working together in following the foot steps of the Master Healer and Minister—Jesus.
