Congregational Health and Wellness Ministries

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Congregational Health and Wellness Ministries

• St. James Episcopal Church
• February 8, 2009
• Brita L. Gill-Austern, M.Div., Ph.D.
• Austin Philip Guiles Professor of Psychology and
  Pastoral Theology
• Andover Newton Theological School

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Health and Wellness Ministries

• I. Why should a church consider a health
  ministry?
• II. What is congregational health ministry and
  what forms does it take?
• III. Where does St. James feel called to
  extend its ministries of health and healing?

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I. Health and Healing in the Bible

• Hebrew understanding of soul
• nephesh
• Representative of whole person
• No duality between body and soul

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How shall we understand health?

• In Hebrew scriptures health is portrayed as one
  of Gods great gifts and responsibility is placed
  on people to live lives that cherish and protect
  this treasure.
• The most complete word for health in the Hebrew
  Scriptures is shalom which refers to the unity
  and harmony of all things in the commonwealth of
  Gods love where personal, social and cosmic
  wellbeing come together.
• To be healthy for the Hebrews meant that ones
  life was centered in the peace and wholeness of
  God.

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• Jesus healed souls (mind, body and spirit).

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Ministry of Jesus

• Teaching, preaching, healing
• 1/5 of gospel devoted to healing
• 41 distinct instances of healing

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How did Jesus heal?

• By touch
• By command, word
• By using physical elements
• By evoking the faith of the person

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Intent, not method primary

• Compassion
• Greek word splangnidzomai refers to
  being moved in ones intestines
• Way of the healer is to share in the pain of
  the other
• Less about method, more about relationship

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What was primary for Jesus in healing?

• Bringing people out of isolation and into
  community
• Treating them holistically mind, body, spirit
  (soul care)

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What did Jesus heal?

• Disease
• Illness

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Disease

• Disease is something an organ has
• Medically identifiable physical or mental
  disorder
• Usually accompanied by pain, psychological,
  physical and spiritual

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Cure

• A therapy or treatment to remove the disease
• Restores one to ones original condition

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Illness

• Illness is the experience of the person with the
  disease
• Suffering from an illness is not only physical,
  but also psychological, social and spiritual. It
  involves how we make meaning of what is happening
  and it impacts many dimensions of our lives.
• Illness impacts the whole family and network of
  ill person When the chief is sick, the whole
  village is ill

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Healing

• Is directed toward illness
• Toward the personal and social meaning one makes
  of the illness
• Aims at bringing a sense of peace and wholeness
  to ones life whatever the circumstances

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II. What is a health ministry?

• Congregational Health ministry is a holistic
  approach to health that builds on the strengths
  of both the congregation and the community it
  emphasizes wellness, health promotion, and
  disease prevention encompasses congregational
  and community resources and partnerships and
  focuses on body, mind and spirit for the health
  and healing of the community.
• Health Ministry Association

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Holistic Healing

• Restoring the unity of the whole person.
• Mind/body/spirit (soul)
• Does not replace allopathic medicine, but seeks
  to expand its vision
• Not all causes of disease are genetic or
  physical, so may have other ways to impact
  disease
• Recognizes that most diseases today are chronic
  and many ways to help other than allopathic
  medicine

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Psychoneuroimmunology

• Mind body medicine/ Behavioral medicine
• Examines the interaction of the neurological,
  endocrine and immune systems
• How emotions and mental states influence our
  health

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The limits of western medicine has brought

• Alternative Medicine/Therapies
• Complementary Therapies
• Integrative Therapies

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What Causes Disease? Disease is Multi-factorial

• Biological Factors
• Genetic Makeup
• Viruses
• Bacterial infections
• Environmental Factors
• Psychological Feeling States
• Spiritual components
• Stress

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Four Categories of Health Ministries

• Abigail Evans
• The Healing Church
• United Church Press, 1999.
• See especially pp. 70-123.

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1) Liturgical, Sacramental and Devotional

• Development and dissemination of resources for
  healing and anointing
• The offering of the sacraments
• The practice of prayer
• The ministry of deliverance,
• The holding of retreats
• The proclamation of the Word
• General worship life of the congregation

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Liturgical, Sacramental and Devotional

• Healing prayer at services
• Lay Eucharistic ministers
• Weekly worship with Eucharist
• Music ministry
• Prayer groups

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2) Direct Health Care

• Delivery of patient care that embraces prevention
  and wellness initiatives of public health,
  diagnostic, intervention, and/or treatment
  modalities to individuals or groups.
• Involves both the promotion of wellness and the
  prevention of sickness
• Mental and physical health are included within
  this definition, as are the concepts of holistic
  and integrated health care.

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Direct Care

• Parish Nurses
• Blood pressure/ hypertension checks
• Medication Compliance
• Health Education
• Health Counselor
• Referral advisor
• Developer of support groups

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Direct Care

• Caring Connection (food, transportation, home
  help)
• Reiki Laying on of Hands
• Care Quilts/Prayer Shawls
• Visitation Team
• Stephen Ministries (lay ministry, counseling)
• Support Groups Grief, weight loss, caregivers
  support, single parents, unemployment, job
  resources, young mothers

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Social Support

• Social support buffets our stress responses
• Three types of social support
• Emotional Support
• Material Support
• Resource and Information Support

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3) Educational

• Addresses the underlining questions of health and
  sickness
• The information and motivation of how to enhance
  health affirming patterns of life, including
  lifestyle changes
• Develops, organizes and administers programs or
  material designed to impart knowledge or skills
  to individuals
• Includes providing information on specific
  diseases or conditions.

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Educational

• Stress Management
• Health fairs
• Faces of Sadness Dealing with Depression
• Healthy Eating/Nutrition
• First Aid
• Managing Anxiety
• Stroke and Heart Attack Prevention
• Anger and Forgiveness
• Smoking cessation
• Facing Financial Constraints
• End of life support
• Addiction awareness

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4) Support and Advocacy

• Collects resources and raises awareness to
  promote the inclusion of marginalized groups
• Work in the public arena to influence social,
  economic, and/or political policy to ensure the
  fair allocation of health resources and adequate
  access and response of the health care system to
  their constituent group
• Focus on consciousness raising about the needs of
  particular groups, their compassion and their
  caring dimension, encapsulating the pastoral
  aspect of ministry.

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Support and Advocacy

• Helping others find access to care
• Raising awareness around legislative issues
  related to health
• Advocating for environmental health concerns
• 12 step programs, prison programs, supporting
  health care for the homeless
• AIDs Ministry (African American women)
• Disabilities Outreach
• Veterans Outreach

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III. Why St. James might want to expand
your Health Ministry

• Faithful to the ministry and call of Jesus
• Most medical problems are chronic
• Stress increases vulnerability to disease and
  makes every form of pain worse
• Isolation, helplessness and hopelessness are the
  deadly three that churches can address uniquely
• Community is central to healing and wellness

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• Research in behavioral medicine has studied
  extensively the harmful effects of chronic
  stress on the human body.

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Disease in the U.S.

• Our number one killers in the U.S. are heart
  disease, cancer and accidents.
• These diseases are inextricably linked to
  lifestyle, diet, environmental factors and
  stress.

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What is stress?

• Any situation which requires behavior change that
  exceeds our available resources will trigger
  stress.
• Not all stress is harmful, certain amounts may in
  fact contribute to efficiency and performance,
  but when it becomes too intense or chronic
  creates a disorder of arousal in the autonomic
  nervous system.

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Chronic Stress

• Lowers the immune system, makes it less efficient
• A factor that contributes to mental and physical
  disease
• Makes all forms of pain worse

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What happens to your body when it is stressed?

• The body is flooded with circulating stress
  hormones including cortisol and adrenaline which
  affect every organ. 
• Symptoms include 
• increased heart rate
• increased respiratory rate
• increased muscle tension
• increased blood pressure
• increased secretion of insulin
• increased blood flow to the brain, lungs, heart,
  and muscles
• decreased blood flow to the skin and digestive
  tract
• decreased immune response

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Chronic stress is revealed in many physical,
psychological and spiritual symptoms

• Behavioral - Disruptions in routines of sleep and
  activity, exercise and eating. Addictions to
  drugs, alcohol, food, sex, or work.
• Physical - Muscle tension, digestive disorders,
  susceptibility to infections, reduced
  immune-system function making one more vulnerable
  to disease.
• Emotional - Depression, anxiety, frustration,
  hopelessness and helplessness or emotional
  flatness due to denial and avoidance,
  irritability and anger.

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• Relational
• Tendencies either to isolate or to become overly
  dependent on others.
• Emotional states make relationships more
  difficult.
• Mental
• Loss of self-confidence and low self-esteem.
• Distorted view of self as incompetent.
• Overly pessimistic view of the possibilities for
  resolving problems that causes us to give up
  efforts to change the situation.
• Denial of the difficulties and problems and/or
  an unrealistic and inflated sense of one's power.
  

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• Spiritual - Loss of sense of meaning and purpose
  in life or loss of the larger vision that gives
  meaning to suffering.
• These many symptoms of stress can be addressed in
  a number of ways thus reducing the impact of
  stress.

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Some Spiritual Practices that Reduce Stress

• MEDITATION /Centering Prayer
• SINGING/MUSIC
• PRAYER
• PRAISE and THANKSGIVING
• GRATITUDE
• INTERCESSORY PRAYER
• PETITIONARY PRAYER
• RITUAL/ WORSHIP
• SERVICE

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Shifting Our Dominant Emotion from Fear to Love

• The Christian life invites us again and again to
  shift our dominant emotion from fear to love.
• Too disarm the heart, its fear, its rigidity, its
  inclination to hostility we need also to disarm
  the body and the mind.
• Where the body goes, the mind can follow, where
  the mind goes, the body can follow.

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Emotional and Spiritual Heart Disease

• The real epidemic in our culture is not only
• physical heart disease, but also what I call
  emotional and spiritual heart disease, that is,
  the profound feelings of loneliness, isolation,
  alienation and depression that are so prevalent
  in our culture with the breakdown of the social
  structures that used to provide a sense of
  connection and community. It is to me, a root of
  the illness, cynicism and violence in our
  society. Dean Ornish Love and Survival p. 12

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Love and Intimacy

• I am not aware of any other factor in medicine
  not diet, not smoking, not exercise, not
  stress, not genetics, not drugs, not surgery
  that has a greater impact on our quality of life,
  incidence of illness, and premature death from
  all causes. Dean Ornish Love and Survival

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Create Community

• Mother, behold your son
• Disciple behold your mother

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