Elvin E. Adams, M.D., is a physician in private practice in North Carolina, specializing in internal medicine.
The local church should be the focal point for health-evangelism activities in any community. Regardless of the insti tutional setting in which one's interest in health and spiritual matters is awak ened, it is finally the local congregation that provides the spiritual home in which our neighbors find fellowship. It is the quality of the experience and labor of church members that will sus tain or extinguish the process of total restoration, which for many begins in a program of health evangelism.

For optimum success, any program of health evangelism, whether based in a hospital, urban living center, or rural conditioning center, should be tied very closely to a local church and its members. Ideally, most health-evangel ism programs should be conducted for the most part by the trained member ship of the local church. I believe the following steps are essential in develop ing a successful soul-winning program of health evangelism in a church and that the sequence in which the steps are taken is critical.

1. Get close to God. Health-evan gelism programs can be cleverly de signed, widely advertised, well at tended, and favorably received by the community without being successful in God's estimation. Only working with God will bring the kind of success He promises (see The Desire of Ages, p.

362).

2. Get close to the members of the team. If the health professionals in the church and the pastor are not com pletely united in conducting health pro grams, division will arise in the church.

"I want to tell you that when the gospel ministers and medical missionary workers are not united, there is placed on our churches the worst evil that can be placed there." Medical Ministry, p.

241. Whenever discord and misappre hension arise there is loss of souls.

3. Get close to church members and train them. As leaders, learn the needs, fears, and the quality of the Christian experience of the church members. Study ways of reaching out to friends, relatives, and neighbors in the community. Pray together. Practice doing the simple things that are so often neglected. Share your successes and failures. Give your church members sufficient technical and scientific infor mation to help them understand thoroughly the health material that will be presented in the public program. This will motivate them to practice right principles themselves and prepare them to explain poorly understood points to participants in the program.

But remember that the value of a church member's assistance in a pro gram of health evangelism is best meas ured by the depth of friendship offered those attending, the genuine concern exhibited, and his availability in time of need. Church members are trained in this loving service by coming close to Christ, by carefully studying His methods, and by longing and praying for a measure of His Spirit. Only those members who practice this type of fel lowship will be effective health evangel ists.

4. Get close to the community.

Every health-evangelism program should be conducted in such a way as to bring close involvement between church members and those who are seeking help. Programs conducted from the front by professionals are limited to communicating information. Programs that are also designed to bring about involvement between church members and the community provide, along with the health information given, a model of healthful living to follow. Hopefully the church member will be available twenty-four hours a day with support and encouragement. Health education is most effective in changing behavior when a personal supportive relationship is developed with one who is a model of the sought-for behavior. Church members can be used as buddies, group leaders, and counselors. This fellowship is a foretaste of the fellowship a com munity member will enjoy when he joins our church fellowship. 5. Stay close to the community.

After the public portion of a program, arrangements can easily be made for personal visits in the homes of those who attended. Church members enjoy this type of visitation because they are calling on friends and they have a spe cific purpose in the visit to see what progress or difficulty has occurred since the end of the program. The pastor and health professional should take a church member and lead the way in this visitation. Later, members who are ex perienced may go two by two. Conver sations can be tactfully turned to spir itual matters if they don't start that way, and often Bible studies and further return visits can be arranged. It is in door-to-door follow-up that most spir itual interests are discovered or devel oped, and this phase of health evangel ism is most rewarding.


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Elvin E. Adams, M.D., is a physician in private practice in North Carolina, specializing in internal medicine.

February 1977

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