Churches and Healing
/I’ve preached on a few healing stories over the last few weeks - the paralytic, the demoniac and the hemorrhaging woman - and they each approach this topic differently. In one, friends bring the person in need and remove part of a roof to put him at Jesus’ feet. In another, Jesus goes right to the person who has been shunned and is mentally ill without invitation. In the last case, the woman boldly reaches out to touch the fringe of Jesus’ cloak or prayer shawl, believing that this alone will heal her if He was the Messiah.
I shared that where I did a field placement years ago there was a monthly evening healing service. The expectation was that God would show up but not necessarily bring full healing. People would come forward for prayer or anointing with oil and it was a calm and meditative service of hope and compassion. This church took seriously the call to be vessels of healing and God’s grace, whether that healing was emotional, spiritual or physical.
As I reflect on this and our role in the church to be vessels of God’s healing power and love, I think we need to seriously reclaim this ministry. We are about teaching and offering community and worshiping God, but we are also to be about transformation and healing. We should be creating an environment where, by God’s grace, the blind can see, the shunned are reclaimed, and those in pain find comfort and solace and perhaps even healing.
Sometimes we are called to be like the friends of the paralytic; bringing someone to Jesus in our words or physically to church. Sometimes we are called to go to the disenfranchised or shut-in or otherwise unable or unwilling to come to us. Sometimes we are called to open the way for the divine to permeate and draw someone to trust in God’s healing power and care.
How do we model this and become conduits of healing in our worship and programs? How do we open the possibilities for transcendence and transformation? I’m not an expert, but here are some ways that churches I know do this:
In your corporate prayer times, acknowledge by name or generally those in need of healing. Create a way that people can submit prayer requests so that the community can rally around those seeking help and transformation. Encourage people to continue to pray at home for those needing healing. Have a prayer chain for those committed to intercessory prayer which can offer some anonymity if needed. Provide updates on previous prayer concerns, with permission, to encourage people to continue praying.
Place people and relationships ahead of programs, especially in mid-week and outreach activities. We can best be vessels for change by knowing the people who come and what their needs are. The program and learning objectives are great, but the depth of relationship and the sense of being known and valued as we are is far more important. Encourage small groups within larger ones to build intimacy and support. Train leaders in healthy boundaries and when to refer concerns to the minister or other staff.
Preach and talk about the belief that God is a god of healing and that in Christ we are a new creation. Tease out what that might mean for people and encourage self-reflection and discernment for where God is nudging them to go in their lives and what parts need attention and change and a healing touch. Have the expectation that God wants great new things for us and that we should be paying attention to what they might be.
Train those with a gift and passion for prayer and healing to visit people in need in the congregation. Don’t neglect children and youth in this. All ages need to know that someone cares and will pray for and with them. Don’t allow a visit to a family to be all about the parents.
Consider offering a healing service, possibly reflecting on a healing story from the gospels, and inviting people to be prayed for or anointed with oil. Celebrate the diverse ways that God has healed in the past and continues to heal, even if it is not exactly what we were hoping for at the time.
The church through its programs and ministry and worship has the potential to not just create disciples but to change lives in dynamic ways through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is not something that we should shy away from but should contemplate and embrace as an important part of our calling. May many lives be changed through our witness.