Blessed Are the Shalom-Makers: The Role of the Health Practitioner in the Church
WCIU Journal: Health and Disease Topic
November 18, 2020
by Brian Lowther and Beth Snodderly
This article was originally published in Volume 3, Issue 4 of William Carey International Development Journal, pages 16-24.
Beth Snodderly is a past president of William Carey International University and currently serves as editor for the WCIU Journal and the Ralph D. Winter Research Center.
“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health/hugiainei [one of the Greek words used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew, shalom], and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well” (3 John 2).
Something is wrong in this world. “Nature, red in tooth and claw,” is a pattern acted out at all levels of life, from micro-predators (diseases caused by microbes) to macro-predators (social diseases caused by humans, such as war and human trafficking). Intelligent evil is at work, distorting God’s original good purposes. Creation itself is groaning, even at the microbial level, waiting to be delivered by the free choices of the body of Christ, through whom God has chosen to work in this world (Rom. 8:18, 19). Harmful microbiological life, such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites, may represent one of the best examples of a lack of shalom between humans and creation. If we could find a way to establish good relationships between humans and microbiological life, how many diseases would simply vanish? God’s intention at the end of history is to restore shalom relationships throughout creation. God’s creatures “will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain” (Isa. 11:9). God intends to “wipe away every tear” (Rev. 21:4) caused by imperfect relationships. As Bryant Myers said in the previous chapter, working toward shalom relationships is the mission of God and this is our mission as well. Until God ushers in that final perfect new heaven and new earth, Christ’s followers serve as God’s display window (Stetzer 2012, 189), showing what God’s kingdom is meant to look like.
Ralph D. Winter, founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission, found a lack of awareness in the Church of what God’s kingdom should look like. He was particularly concerned about the distortions of God’s will in the realm of disease. Winter asked, “What would Jesus have said about fighting germs in the name of Christ had the people of his time known about germs?” (Winter 2008f, 168).
Our universe is engulfed in a cosmic war. In this war, an adversary is battling against God’s will for God’s people and creation. The famous hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” shows Martin Luther’s awareness of this “ancient foe.” “Satan is his name, i.e. an adversary. … He is the prince and god of this world” (Luther 1999, 37:17). In a discussion of Luther’s understanding of Satan’s works, Walter Lundberg includes the adversary’s tactic of seeking to subdue the world to his will through “teaching us to acquiesce to his terrible divinity by attacking our health and well being” (Sundberg 2008, 29).
In his book, Walking with the Poor, Myers highlighted the role of this adversary:
I do not want to move past the issue of an adversary too quickly. Someone other than human beings created the temptation that resulted in the fall. Too often we dismiss the idea of a form of personal evil that actively works against God and God’s intentions for human beings and creation. Yet, without Satan’s role in the first part of the biblical story, there would be no need for the rest of the biblical story. We cannot read Satan out of the story and have it make any sense (Myers 1999, 28).
The enemy we face is God’s enemy and disease is one of the enemy’s tools. What is the role of health practitioners, then, to those in harm's way in this war-torn world? Suppose a local church was located near a street where an unseen sniper was shooting at people each night. What would be the responsibility of that local church to those in harm’s way? Primary prevention would mean telling people to stay away from that street at night. But some people would not get the message and inevitably each night some would be injured or killed. Caring health practitioners from the church might be willing to risk their lives to bind up the wounds and help the wounded get well. No doubt those health practitioners would take secondary prevention measures such as wearing helmets and flak vests to protect themselves from the sniper’s bullets. But would the local church settle for warnings and bandages and flak vests? Or would they take on the responsibility of getting to the root of the problem by finding and stopping the actions of the sniper—tertiary prevention?
People are being wounded physically, psychologically, and spiritually by activities instigated by the adversary, the devil, the sniper, that “ancient foe” that seeks “to work us woe.” In this cosmic battle with the prince of darkness, health care workers need affirmation and support from the body of Christ so they do not grow “weary in doing good” (Gal. 6:9). In this chapter we would like to challenge missions pastors and senior pastors to recognize the crucial role that health practitioners can have in the ministry of the local church. We are calling for the local church to encourage health practitioners to found and join shalom-minded groups focused on the frontiers of God's kingdom. As health workers go where people do not expect to see God at work, taking Jesus into the world (Stetzer 2012, 6), they are doing the work of the Church, giving the world a “foretaste of the restoration of creation to its true harmony … and of man to his true relation to the created world” (Newbigin 1954, 67).
The Role of the Church within God’s Kingdom: Signs of Shalom
“I am the vine, you are the branches. … without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
The Church: Followers of Jesus
The first characteristic of the Church is that its members are followers of Jesus. This was Jesus’ legacy—a community of followers (Newbigin 1989, 133). Throughout his ministry, Jesus prepared his followers to continue his work, and to do even greater things (John 14:12), through the Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised to leave to encourage and empower his followers (Acts 1:8). Neil Cole, author of “Organic Church” in the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement Reader, says he has come to view the Church as “the presence of Jesus among His people” who are called to join God’s mission in this world. The core reality of the Church, for Cole, is “Jesus Christ being followed, loved and obeyed” (Cole 2009, 644-45).
In the Book of Acts we can see numerous examples of how the early believers followed and loved and demonstrated the works of Jesus:
Acts 4:32-37: believers share their possessions so there are no needy people among them
Acts 5:12-16: the Apostles heal many sick and those tormented by evil spirits
Acts 6:1-6: seven brothers are chosen to care for the physical needs of the widows
Acts 8:4: the disciples are scattered and preach the word wherever they go
Acts 8:5-8: Philip does miraculous signs: evil spirits come out of many, cripples are healed
Acts 9:7-19: Ananias prays for Saul’s eyesight to be restored
Acts 9:36: Dorcas “was always doing good and helping the poor”
Acts 9:37-42: Dorcas is raised from the dead
Acts 10 and throughout the rest of the book: followers of Jesus preach the good news.
Rather than a continued emphasis on the physical miracles performed by the apostles, the Epistles show a frequent emphasis on general good works that are characteristic of all followers of Jesus. The author of 1 John gives a concrete example that is representative of the numerous uses of the term, “works” (of Jesus and his followers) in the various epistles of the New Testament: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions [works] and in truth” (1 John 3:18, emphasis added).
The Church: Jesus Incarnate, The Body of Christ
The important thing to note about the works done by Jesus and his followers is that these works are done through God, through the Holy Spirit, and that these are always directed toward what is true and good, and toward correcting, or overcoming, what is not true to God’s will (such as sickness, lack of food and clothing, or destructive behavior).
These descriptions of Jesus’ followers show that the Church really is Jesus incarnate, “an embodiment of the risen Jesus.” “No wonder,” Neil Cole exclaims, “the Bible refers to the church as the Body of Christ” [1 Cor. 12; Rom. 12] (Cole, 2009, 645). The Apostle Paul urged the Ephesians “to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (Eph. 4:1) because “Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Eph. 4:11, 12). In Romans 12 we see the importance of a variety of gifts of service within the body of Christ. Some of these gifts of service are within the sphere of health care workers, as Jesus demonstrated in Matthew 4:23 as he announced the coming of the kingdom and healed “every disease and sickness among the people.”
The Church: A Living Sign of the Reign of God
When the body of Christ follows Jesus in visible demonstrations of God’s Kingdom, the Church stands out, Christ’s life shines through it, and God receives glory (Matt. 5:16). Newbigin described mission as “an acted out doxology. That is its deepest secret. Its purpose is that God may be glorified” (Newbigin 1989, 127). The Church does not exist for itself, but instead is “a sign of the kingdom in the midst of a given culture” (Van Engen 1991, 116).
Health as a Sign of the Kingdom
One important sign of the Kingdom is good health, the right relationship of the human body within itself and with the environment, including the microbial world. Whenever these relationships are not as God intended, members of the body of Christ have work to do, to attempt to restore those relationships, to bring glory to God by showing a sign or preview of what God’s Kingdom will be like in the age to come.
Health is an integral aspect of God’s shalom. In the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, one of terms used to translate the Hebrew, shalom, is “hugiainei/good health.” When the patriarch Jacob was met by the servants of his uncle Laban, whom he had not seen for many years, Jacob asked, “Is he well/shalom/hugiainei?” (Gen. 29:6). Later in life Jacob sent his son Joseph to check on the welfare/shalom/hugiainei of the other brothers (Gen. 37:14, Net Bible). In 2 Samuel 20:9, Joab asks, “Are you in health/shalom/hugiainei, my brother?” (Brenton 1986).
In his ministry Jesus, the Prince of Shalom, demonstrated that health and wellness are an integral part of God’s will. The first glimpse we get of Jesus’ ministry in Matthew’s Gospel shows Jesus “healing every disease and sickness among the people” in demonstration of the good news of the kingdom (Matt. 4:23). When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the “one who is to come,” Jesus’ answer was all about the Kingdom signs of good health he was restoring to those around him: “Go tell John what you hear and see: The blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news proclaimed to them” (Matt. 11: 4, 5). In general Jesus amazed the people following him “when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel” (Matt. 15:31). When Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matt. 5:9), he was describing the role believers are to have as children of God, taking over the family business of bringing signs of shalom to this broken, diseased, war-torn world.
Health practitioners can feel encouraged and assured that their work brings praise and glory to God as they follow Jesus’ example in helping to restore people to a closer approximation of God’s will for people to enjoy good health.
Challenging the Powers of Darkness as a Sign of the Kingdom
But if it is God’s will for people to enjoy good health, the adversary opposes this. While we will not see all people healed, all diseases eradicated, this side of Christ’s second coming, God’s people have the responsibility to keep on demonstrating signs of God’s reign, pointing to Jesus’ work, to God’s true character. This is hard work and it draws the sniper fire of the adversary.
When the Church … goes the way the Master went, unmasking and challenging the powers of darkness and bearing in its own life the cost of their onslaught, then there are given to the Church signs of the kingdom, powers of healing and blessing which, to eyes of faith, are recognizable as true signs that Jesus reigns (Newbigin 1989, 108).
In the earlier illustration, the invisible sniper represents the adversary who seeks to “steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10: 10) the shalom and good health that God intends for humans and all creation. Perhaps we can think of the Church as God’s beachhead in a war-torn world. In wartime, a beachhead is very serious business. It is a small piece of ground taken as the first step toward taking all the ground that the enemy holds. In our illustration, the local church and its members serve this beachhead function by providing a safe haven, a taste of shalom, in the midst of danger. The hypothetical members of that local church risked their lives to attempt to overcome evil with good, challenging the powers of darkness as a sign of the Kingdom.
Why Did Jesus Heal?
If Jesus’ earthly ministry focused so much on healing and defeating the powers of darkness, what does that tell us about the role of the body of believers he left on earth to continue his work? A fictional story from the Roberta Winter Institute blog illustrates several views about Jesus’ healing ministry, many of which do not recognize the role of the adversary in what is wrong on this earth:
One day four prominent evangelicals met for breakfast with a secular journalist. The journalist was writing a story about faith and disease. She posed this question: “Why did Jesus heal? After all, healing people doesn’t get them into heaven. But Christ sure used up a lot of his time healing. Why?”
The first evangelical said, “Jesus healed because he was compassionate. Like at the end of Mark 1, where the man with leprosy says, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’ And Jesus is filled with compassion and heals him. Jesus loved the people and didn’t want to see them suffer. It’s as simple as that.”
The second evangelical said, “I’m not going to argue that Jesus didn’t care about people. But that wasn’t the ultimate reason. Jesus healed people as a means to attract a crowd, to get a following. After they got healed they would hang around and listen to his teaching and that’s how he built the church.”
The third evangelical said, “I can see your point. But I think the ultimate reason that Jesus healed was to bring glory to God. As in John 9:2 where the disciples ask Jesus, ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus replies, ‘Neither, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.’”
The fourth evangelical said, “Well, I suppose there is truth in all of these answers. But I’m uncomfortable saying that healing is merely a tool for the cause of evangelism. I personally think everything Jesus did was an act of war against Satan. As in 1 John 3:8, ‘The son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil.’ When he healed people of a sickness, he was doing battle with Satan. Throughout scripture, and throughout history, disease is one of the main ways Satan affects humanity. Yes, Jesus healed people because he was compassionate, and in a sense he healed to empower his evangelism, his ‘recruiting efforts,’ if you will. And, yes, he healed to glorify his Father. But it is also about the cosmic war against God’s adversary.
Nature and Reality of the Cosmic War
While the enemy’s works can be summarized as bringing death—both physical (disease and deformity, social and mental chaos) and spiritual (unbelief, hatred), the Son of God appeared to give life (1 John 4:9). The coming of the Son of God resulted in works and characteristics that are the opposite of those associated with the death-dealing works of the devil, thus nullifying or destroying them (1 John 3:8).
The adversary is hostile to life and to God’s will for humans and creation to flourish. A comparison of maps of high incidences of disease and child mortality with the areas of the world where the gospel has had the least influence (Myers 1996) shows that where the Bible has had the least influence, there is the most suffering, disease, war, and poverty. This is not a coincidence. An adversary is a work, instigating and taking advantage of unjust social structures, ignorance, greed, disease, and more. A medical missionary to India from 1939–1969 wrote in his journal, “this kingdom of disease, death, ignorance, prejudice, fear, malnutrition and abject poverty is most surely a kingdom which ought to be overthrown by the Kingdom of our God” (Rees 2003). “Overcome evil with good,” the apostle Paul urges the body of Christ in Romans 12:20.
The Church Joins God in the Battle
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy [nullify] the devil’s work” (1 John 3:8).
As Christ’s followers, we are to push back the darkness by demonstrating signs of God’s will for human flourishing. God’s mission is to rescue humans and all creation from the kingdom of darkness, including the social and physical results of intelligent evil, such as disease. “The one who wishes to love and serve the Lord will want to be where he is. And where he is is on that frontier which runs between the kingdom of God and the usurped power of the evil one” (Newbigin 1989, 127). What should be our response to being rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light (Col. 1:12, 13)?
A pastor and a missiologist have each responded by calling the body of Christ and the local congregation to join God in the battle for shalom, including fighting disease.
Gregory Boyd has said, “To follow Jesus is to do battle with the ever-present prince of darkness” (Boyd 1997, 280). In a recent sermon Boyd urged his congregation to:
Fight the evil effects of nature. We are doing spiritual warfare when we fight disease. This is more than just prayer. Anything we do to push back the harmful effects of nature is a step toward reclaiming nature, toward rebuking the curse. … When scientists … investigate new ways to sanitize water, they are doing spiritual warfare. When they discover ways to fight diseases and discover their origins, that is spiritual warfare. Anything we do to fight poverty and hunger is spiritual warfare. … Anything we do to reflect God’s ideal for creation is a form of spiritual warfare. By these and other means we are fighting back against the curse of death that is not God’s will (Boyd 2010, 292-93).
The late missiologist Ralph D. Winter urged,
As Abraham’s children, we have inherited the family responsibility of God’s concerns and purposes which are to become our concerns and purposes. It is not to seek high pay or perks, but the war that must be [fought]! Our lives and careers need to yield to that reality (Snodderly 2006, 35).
Some will rightly point out that humans do not win the war—that is what God will do. But Winter was challenging believers to recognize that they are participants in the cosmic battle. While Jesus struck the decisive blow on the cross, His followers are still “mopping up” in very real battles with the adversary. Late in his life Winter began to realize that the battle was not just for peoples’ souls and a home in heaven. Even if the message of the gospel were readily available to every people group on earth, people would still get sick. People would still get heart disease or malaria or cancer. He came to believe that one of the largest impediments to demonstrating the nature of God’s kingdom, God’s character, and God’s will for human flourishing, was the factor of rampant sickness and disease. For example, “If four out of five members of the family are sick,” he would say, “then the family is in poverty.” Winter saw that the incredible violence we must fight against in the name of Christ constitutes an all-out war. Neither laity nor clergy are well aware of that war. Thus, all true believers, not just “fulltime workers,” must be willing to organize against evil, to be creative, and to measure every vocation not by its pay scale, but by its contribution to that war. Winter wrote, “It seems very clear that we must recruit people for this war as well as for heaven. If we can’t do both we will ultimately fail at both” (Winter 2008e, 325).
Winter founded the Roberta Winter Institute in 2001, at the time of his first wife’s death from cancer, to raise the Church’s awareness of the need for a new theological sensitivity to destroying the works of the devil, including disease. While medical researchers often use terminology such as “the battle against cancer,” or they speak about the immune system as being “at war within” (Clark 1995), the evangelical Church needs to recognize those battles as something diabolically designed, that requires a response from Christ’s followers, in Jesus’ name. Theologically the Church needs to recognize that salvation is about more than just the next life. “When souls are saved they are not merely supposed to be survivors singing of their salvation, but soldiers deliberately choosing to enter into the dangerous, sacrificial, arduous task of restoring the glory of God for all to see” (Winter 2008, 168). “The least we can do,” he wrote, “is set something in motion that may rectify our understanding of a God who is not the author of the destructive violence in nature and who has long sought our help in bringing His kingdom and His will on earth. We are in a war against an intelligent enemy” (Winter with Snodderly 2009, 44, 48).
Result of the Battle
As a means of engaging in this war believers are to demonstrate God’s will and character, and as a result, God’s reputation will be better known among the peoples of the earth and many will be attracted to follow that kind of God. The enemy is defeated and some part of his work is nullified when believers intentionally join God in overcoming evil with good. They may do this through healing the sick in Jesus’ name. Or believers may restore shalom relationships by discovering the origins of an infectious disease and working toward its elimination. Inevitably there will be casualties in this war with the adversary. Psychologists, nurses, and other health workers can bring shalom to the dying, as they reflect God’s lovingkindness and mercy, pointing them at the end of their battle in this life to the perfect Kingdom. When Jesus’ followers demonstrate God’s character in these ways, and as broken relationships are healed, a measure of shalom is restored and God receives the credit and glory.
The Local Congregation: God’s Instrument to Demonstrate Shalom
As a sign of the breaking in of God’s Kingdom, overcoming darkness, fighting back against the death-dealing works of the devil, what is the role of the local congregation? How can pastors and missions pastors equip and encourage God’s people for works of service in the sphere of right relationships that result in good health (3 John 2)? How can pastors and fellow church members show that they value and deeply respect the importance of the contribution to the body of Christ of health care workers?
Corrective to Introverted Concerns
Lesslie Newbegin called for local congregations to “renounce an introverted concern for their own life, and recognize that they exist for the sake of those who are not members” (Newbigin 1989, 233). Charles Van Engen echoes this by saying, “local churches cannot be ends in themselves” (Van Engen 1991, 111). Ed Stetzer admonishes, “We are far too pleased with the comforts of the church rather than the work of God’s kingdom” (Stetzer 2012, 48). It is the age of country-club Christianity, where funds are used to please and entertain those who pay their dues (tithes) and to compete with the other religious country clubs for new members by offering nicer amenities such as attractive facilities and special programs. The question becomes, if your church were gone tomorrow, who outside of the members would be affected? If a country club disappeared, only its members would care. But the local congregation is to be an intentional outpost of God’s Kingdom, a witness and example in its location.
This witness is about more than talking to people about their spiritual needs. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught his followers to pray for physical needs (daily bread) to be met before spiritual needs could be recognized and met (forgive us as we forgive others). Ideally, in a holistic approach to meeting spiritual needs, “a church’s relationships and ministries offer participants and visitors a foretaste of the redemption and reconciliation that is God’s full salvation” (Branson and Martinez 2011, 39). Ed Stetzer urges the church to see itself as “the instrument God uses to lead others into his kingdom through our proclamation and demonstration of his saving, transforming gospel” (Stetzer 2012, 205). Health practitioners have a vital role in offering the local and global community a glimpse of what Jesus meant by his first request in the Lord’s Prayer: for God’s will to be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Transforming Societies
Nigerian-born pastor of a mega church in the Ukraine, Sunday Adelaja, is passionate about the role of the local church in transforming society:
The church fulfills its mandate when it changes society, not when it’s confined to its sanctuary and Sunday school classrooms… The Kingdom must overflow into streets and workplaces, governments and entertainment venues. That is its nature, to grow and take over. If you try to keep it to yourself, you lose it (Adelaja 2008, 7).
An example of local churches overflowing in demonstrations of God’s will for people to live in right relationship with God, enjoying good health and healthy relationships, is Saddleback church’s AIDS initiative in Rwanda. There, local pastors are empowering members of their congregations to receive training for giving information about prevention, primary care, and treatment for those suffering in the AIDS pandemic. Recently the Rwandan leader of this initiative was invited to speak to the international AIDS conference, for the first time giving that group of health care professionals a glimpse of how the body of Christ, at the local congregational level, is able to better deliver primary health care and prevention than the professionals in their clinics. Every village has a church of some kind, and a pastor the people can trust with their stories. People are far less likely to trust, or have access to, a doctor in a distant town, for receiving medication, vital information, and follow-up care.
In this case study, a large local western church is partnering with many local churches in another country to demonstrate signs of shalom, bringing signs of the Kingdom to a whole society that “lies under the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). Saddleback’s AIDS and Orphans coordinator, Elizabeth Skyffe, explained that 100% of children die by the age of five whose mothers and grandmothers have HIV/AIDS or have already died from AIDS themselves (communication to author). In such a situation, how can the church say, “be warmed and fed,” without also offering the health care services so desperately needed?
God’s Agents of Encouragement
From Ephesians 4 we know the role of pastors is to equip the body of Christ for works of service. In light of the challenge for the local congregation to be a transformational agent in society, how can pastors and missions pastors mobilize and equip health care workers for the glory of God? We have seen that demonstrations of God’s will include both prevention and healing of what is contrary to God’s will in the sphere of personal and societal health. Why then do health professionals often feel that their work is not valued by the local church?
Jeffrey Havenner, a retired microbiologist who worked at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the Department of Rickettsial Diseases, described the loneliness and need for encouragement experienced by researchers in the health industry, in an interview with the director of the Roberta Winter Institute. Dr. Havenner responded to a question about how health workers integrate their work with their faith:
Scientists are under intense pressure to compartmentalize faith in God, if they have it, and keep it out of scientific practice on pain of exile from the profession if they do not. The integration of our faith in God with our work so that God is honored by what we do and by how we interact with people we work with is of great importance. It is easy for people to feel defeated in their walk with God because they feel compromised in the way they are forced to separate work from faith to avoid trouble especially in government settings (interview with author).
Disease researchers are not alone in their need for encouragement and support in their attempts to glorify God in the health professions. The son of a psychologist working in a mental health institution reported the pressure and frustration his father faced to release patients early. Rather than treating patients as long as necessary to restore their ability to function in society, he was expected to sign off on the “miraculous recovery after 5 months and 28 days” of mental health patients, just before their 6 months of insurance coverage would expire (interview with authors).
In addition to pressures to conform to unjust structures, nurses and doctors must deal with death, dying, and disabilities on a daily basis. Caregivers facing an overload of feelings of helplessness and hopelessness may choose to abandon their caring profession, or they may build defense systems of callousness, or some may become depressed and broken themselves. Pastors and members of local congregations can help fill the need for encouragement and support among health professionals, but in addition, mutual encouragement and networking is needed.
Challenge to Organize Health-Focused Groups
If the mission of God is to restore right relationships, then health professionals—psychologists, nurses, doctors, public health workers, medical researchers—are vital to the Church which is God’s agent in this world. These workers are bridging the gap between the “already” and the “not yet” Kingdom. They are demonstrating God’s loving character to the wounded, sick, and dying, the victims of the adversary’s sniping attacks.
Accordingly, we urge the local church to encourage health practitioners to found and join shalom-minded groups focused on the frontiers of God's kingdom where shalom is notably absent.
Some of these groups may specialize in public health, nursing, research, or psychology. In one church we know of, several medical doctors in the congregation founded a “cosmic conflict lab,” in which a variety of health professionals meet weekly to hear lectures by invited guests. Other groups may focus on mutual encouragement, others on practical projects. For example, Ralph Winter dreamt of establishing an Institute for the Study of the Origins of Disease.
Essentially we’re asking pastors to encourage members of their congregations who have—or can obtain—expertise as medical practitioners, cultural anthropologists, managers, community organizers, educators, social scientists, linguists, fund raisers, government liaisons, chemists, microbiologists, epidemiologists and those in many other fields, to join and help sustain a vibrant, powerful movement of believers who will work together for the glory of God to establish shalom wherever it is absent.
When Jesus’ followers participate in the missio Dei, God can get the credit and the glory as people recognize God’s character through the actions of God’s people. As Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, said about believers joining God together to combat massive world problems like disease in his book, The Hole in Our Gospel,
[It] would be on the lips of every citizen in the world and in the pages of every newspaper—in a good way. The world would see the whole gospel—the good news of the kingdom of God— not just spoken but demonstrated, by people whose faith is not devoid of deeds but defined by love and backed up with action. His kingdom come, His will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. This was the whole gospel that Jesus proclaimed in Luke 4, and if we would embrace it, it would literally change everything (Stearns 2009, 219).
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Brian served as the Director of the Roberta Winter Institute for nine years.