If any among you suffering? Let them pray. Is any among you sick call the elders of the church... James 5:13-15Overview of my perspective:
Once upon a time, a long time ago, people turned to the church when they were sick. Of course, this was in a day and time when life was far more of an organic whole than the fractured, divided, and specialized life we now know in the 21st century. It is my contention that, without notice, the church is shrinking in both numbers and influence because it has been getting shoved into a smaller and smaller niche of relevance. The church is commonly defined as that quaint little place of yesteryear where superstitious (and often old, bigoted) people gather on Sunday to mumble prayers and sing some songs. Gone is the church that was an integral part of people's existence. Today the cultural norm is for lives to be splattered across a widening expanse of specialists and experts. So, people may go to church for their spirit fix (or not), to therapists for their mental health issues, to specialists for their physical bodies, to PhD's for their education. To whom or where do people go to have their lives put back and held together? People are fractured. If the church is to be relevant, it must be pulling all the pieces together and helping people get the larger picture of life.
The social location of scripture and the early church Fathers and Mothers understood a holistic integrated life. We can look to church history and scripture to provide us conceptual models for organic ministry today that will bring a powerful connecting relevancy to the church. These are some of the topics I can bring to the conversation with your congregration.
- The Pursuit of Health as a Means of Praising God
- Lessons from the Healing Stories of the Bible
- Prayer and Liturgy as a Healing Force
- Meditation to Drive Stress Away
- Longing for God
- Where Did God Get Lost?
- Hope's Eternity and When Hope Dries Up
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