If I were to return to pastoral ministry . . .

I am a pastor who teaches at a health science university. My interest in health is part of being raised in a Seventh-day Adventist family that valued the Adventist health message, having the conviction that physical health and spiritual health are interrelated. My grandmother led five-day smoking cessation programs, and my mother taught vegetarian cooking classes. My father, a graduate of Loma Linda University (LLU) School of Dentistry, emphasized the importance of health. Growing up near a Seventh-day Adventist hospital, I was surrounded by many Adventist health-care professionals, including family friends.

It was not until I joined the faculty of LLU’s School of Religion, however, after two decades in pastoral ministry, that I more fully appreciated the significance of the Adventist health message. The mission at Loma Linda University Health, to continue the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ, has shaped this institution into a global leader in whole-person health care. It is a mission that I deeply value now more than ever.

While I miss many aspects of pastoral work, my current role—mentoring and educating the next generation of health-care professionals—has been more rewarding than I ever imagined. Over the past several years, I have been privileged to teach hundreds of future health-care providers about the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus. The classroom is my parish. Students are my parishioners. However, when I reflect on my experiences at LLU, I often think about how I would approach pastoral ministry differently if I returned to it today. Here are three things I have learned:

1. Ministry and healing go together

I first heard the expression ministryhealing from Professor Emeritus Richard Rice, a distinguished scholar on our faculty. It is a theological term that expresses the idea that ministry and healing belong together. Healing is a form of ministry, and ministry is a form of healing. Rice believes that when ministry and healing come together, they form something new: whole-person care. Whole-person care deals with human existence in all its dimensions. Whenever someone is ill, this is a whole-person problem, impacting every dimension of life: the emotional, spiritual, and social, as well as the physical. Rice writes, “Ministryhealing seeks to be a ministry that heals and a healing that ministers.”¹

The foundation of the ministryhealing concept is the ministry of Jesus, who spent as much time healing as He did preaching. As Rice notes: “This is evident both in the care he gave and in the way he gave it. When Jesus ministered to people, he not only cared for the whole person, he cared with the whole person. Ministry was the central concern of his life; he poured his entire life into it. As the key text of the earliest gospel puts it, ‘The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many’ (Mk 10:45).”²

Rice’s observation about the for and with of Jesus’ ministry is profound because it helps us see more fully how Jesus embraces all dimensions of human existence. For example, He cared for people socially by restoring them to their communities and embracing those who were marginalized or excluded, welcoming sinners, women, and foreigners into the kingdom of God (Matt. 21:31).³ Jesus cared with people socially by living closely with them, sharing meals with all, from Pharisees to outcasts (Luke 7:36; 15:1, 2). He invested deeply in His disciples (Matt. 5:1) and identified with their suffering, as shown in the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matt. 25:37–40), embodying the prophecy of the suffering servant (Isaiah 53:3–5).⁴

In the classroom, many of the courses I teach begin with a theology of whole-person care, where I introduce students to the concept of ministryhealing as seen in Jesus’ ministry. I want them to see beyond their patients’ physical needs, to care for them and with them as whole persons. Yet, looking back over twenty years of pastoral ministry, how often did I take the time to see the whole person? Just as physicians tend to emphasize the physical, pastors tend to emphasize the spiritual. If I were to return to pastoral ministry, I would seek to spend more time not only caring for people but also caring with people, seeing them as whole people whom God loves in every dimension of their lives.

2. Taking the social determinants of health seriously

Living near San Bernardino, California, one of the United States's poorest cities, has made me aware of how social determinants of health impact every aspect of a person’s life. I am grateful that the LLU community engages with San Bernardino and similar communities through initiatives like the university’s San Manuel Gateway College, offering health-care certificate programs to students from underserved communities.

Before I joined LLU, the concept of social determinants of health was relatively new to me. The World Health Organization defines these determinants as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age.”⁵ They include factors like socioeconomic status, education, physical environment, employment, and social support networks. In the church, there can be a tendency to view poverty as a spiritual crisis, approaching the poor with spiritual interventions like prayer. While such support is essential, those in poverty are also exposed to broader systemic issues like housing instability, food insecurity, lack of quality education, and the absence of safe spaces for physical activity.

Consider a single mother in San Bernardino, struggling to care for her two children while dealing with health-related issues like hypertension or anxiety. She might feel isolated due to a lack of community support. A pastor could certainly offer prayer or Scripture for comfort, which is valuable, but it is also crucial to recognize how her social circumstances compromise her physical health. Without access to affordable health care, nutritious food, or safe environments for her children to play in, her situation becomes a whole-person problem that spiritual care alone cannot resolve.

I have seen how understanding and addressing social determinants of health can transform health care. LLU students and faculty across disciplines—from medicine and nursing to allied health and public health—are involved in initiatives to improve people’s health in underserved communities. By providing access to preventive care, healthy food options, and educational resources, these efforts go beyond treating symptoms—they aim to transform every dimension of people’s lives.

If I were to return to pastoral ministry, I would invest more time advocating for better living conditions, health-care access, and community support that address these social determinants of health—not just for my congregation but for the entire community. Partnering with local organizations, health-care providers, and com­munity leaders would help create a more wholistic ministry that acknowledges and addresses what it truly means to make people whole.

3. Your wholeness matters too

I also teach courses on human wholeness, where we focus on the student’s own wholeness. Encouraging busy medical and dental students to take time for introspection can be challenging, but I often remind them of psychologist Michael Balint’s words: “We are the medicine.”⁶ He meant that who we are as people matters as much as our knowledge or skills because the quality of our lives directly impacts our patients’ lives. While most pastors grasp this truth about their spiritual lives, we do not always recognize its importance in other areas, especially physical health.

I have been physically active for most of my life, including competing in Ironman Triathlons. Working at LLU, I am reminded that I am in one of the world’s Blue Zones, where people live longer, healthier lives.⁷ This has deepened my appreciation for the Adventist emphasis on health, particularly the eight natural remedies that Ellen White advocated: nutrition, exercise, water, sunlight, temperance, air, rest, and trust in divine power.⁸ Physical activity has become even more crucial to me, not just for its immediate benefits but for maintaining long-term health.

I have become more interested in my health span rather than just my lifespan. Health span is the period of life spent in good health, free from chronic diseases and disabilities. The work on longevity done by physician Peter Attia has been particularly insightful, emphasizing that extending one’s health span requires a lifestyle that promotes physical, mental, and emotional well-being—what Attia calls Medicine 3.0.⁹

I have also been inspired by neurologists Dean and Ayesha Sherzai, who lead the Brain Health and Alzheimer’s Prevention Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center.¹⁰ Their book, The Alzheimer’s Solution, highlights the critical role of lifestyle choices in preventing cognitive decline and maintaining brain health.

If I were to return to pastoral ministry, I would continue prioritizing my health, especially as I age, because my well-being is essential to my ability to serve others. Just as I encourage my students to care for themselves as whole persons, I recognize that my physical health—a crucial part of who I am—is deeply connected to my emotional and spiritual life. This commitment to health has already made me more whole in my teaching, and it would continue to do so in pastoral ministry.

Conclusion

Our calling, whether in ministry, health care, or education, is to practice care that embodies Jesus’ ministry of whole-person care. If I were to return to pastoral ministry, I would continue seeking to embody this mission in my life, and I invite you to do the same. Begin by seeing people through the lens of whole-person care. See how people’s physical health affects their spiritual well-being and how social conditions shape every aspect of their lives. Go beyond church walls—partner with local health-care providers, advocate for those affected by the social determinants of health, and work toward your community’s flourishing.11

And always remember—your wholeness matters too. Take care of yourself as you care for others. Embrace this vision for yourself, knowing that who you are is how you serve. Nurture your well-being as you invite others to experience a life of wholeness through Jesus Christ.