BECOMING AN EFFECTIVE CHURCH HEALTH LEADER: 3 THINGS TO KNOW
15 years ago, our first church curriculum called, “Rebuilding the Temple” was purchased and performed by over 1200 churches. Supporting chiropractors to lead, we eventually performed this and several other programs in approximately 5000 churches.
Leading a church towards wellness is critical, but also sensitive. Many years ago, leading business mind Peter Drucker said that hospitals and churches are the most vulnerable industries to disruption from a negative event. Pastors and church board members fear that one wrong move, welcoming in a poor program, or allowing someone with a hypocritical message to speak can kill the whole organization.
This challenge is a hurdle and not a wall. People are in need of and craving health leadership right now like no other time in history and our clients are experiencing a huge uprising of open doors to speak to pastoral leaders and church members. While much of these events and conversations are now virtual, they’ve been very impactful and effective in producing result.
3 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT LEADING CHURCHES
COMMIT: Accepting Christ as our Savior and passionately connecting with Him is the primary role of the church and the “main thing” in life. As pastors say, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Yet, clearly the church body also needs to be concerned with people’s bodies. A tremendous part of Christ’s ministry was health, healing, and wholeness. He care about the sick, told us He came here to heal them, and restored their bodies so they could go on an live their lives. The church is the present work of Christ in our communities and it is important that they fill this role as well. In working with pastors, we will not make progress until we reach an agreement that people are suffering more mentally and physically than any time in history and we need to commit to doing our part to help the people right in front of us in the church and surrounding community.
NO GUILT: We don’t want to take people on a wellness guilt trip. You don’t need to weigh a certain amount to get into heaven. There will be no heavenly weigh in. For this I’m grateful because if there’s a weight limit, there also might be a height limit—and I’m only around five feet six inches tall (with thick socks on!). No, there’s no particular weight, height, or fitness criteria that needs to be met in order to be loved by God. It is as a loving Father, He loves you so deeply, that He wants you well and capable of achieving your purposes.
YOU HAVE TO ACT TO CLAIM THE VICTORY: In Christ we have the victory, but many people are not experiencing mental, physical, or spiritual success in their lives. There’s no financial evaluation or win-loss record being kept on a giant heavenly scoreboard. God loves you just the way you are. Yet, many pastors have graciously pointed out, that “He also loves you too much to let you stay that way!” When ministry leaders say that, they don’t intend condemnation, but they do intend to give people the conviction to take action. You can be temporarily motivated to change, but to win, you will have to become everlastingly inspired. It’s because God cares, that health and the victories good health affords you are a major concern ad we have to get with a plan.
Call a Pastor!
Let’s change the world,
Dr. Ben