Editor - I was interested to read the article entitled Medicine and Mission in the latest issue of Saving Health as the questions posed by the anonymous doctor are similar to my own . I have no formal experience of overseas medical missionary work but have worked in rural South Africa for 4 years as an employee of the KwaZulu government. I also spent my elective at a mission hospital in India before I became a Christian. I've now been a GP for over years and am thinking of going overseas again, possibly with a mission organisation.
The central theme of his question is whether medical missionary work is really fulfilling the great commission. There must be many learned theologians who have developed the theology of mission and I'm sure a lot of dispute could be avoided if we could refer to this (and obey") but I offer my own thoughts as a response to the debate. From my experience the best medical missionary work values each individual no matter what state that individual is in and shows the great compassion of God for the poor and sick - a bit like Mother Theresa if you like, but with some treatment thrown in. As such it does not make disciples and I agree with your contributor "to heal the body does not enhance a human's standing before God on the day of judgement".
However as well as overseas medical mission one could put the same question to all doctors who work in this country - by working as a GP am I doing anything to fulfil the great commission? Your contributor seems to be suggesting the only worthwhile work is to be a full time evangelist. As most doctors know only too well it's hard enough doing one job - let alone two!
I have reasoned often that the spiritual needs of people here in England, where less than 5% of the population are evangelical Christians, are the same as those overseas and this was one of the reasons I used to justify my return to this country from South Africa in 1992. The reality though is that my medical work is almost completely separate from my commitment to the great commission, which is largely confined to when I'm involved with the Church Plant I belong to. I often ask myself two questions: Do my patients really need to see a GP at all and the second is, Why am I so unable to touch obviously needy people with the gospel through my work as a GP, even though we're known as a "Christian practice"?
As for the first question this obviously doesn't apply in most overseas medical missionary situations where the need for health care is obvious. A missionary friend of mine asks me: "Would God call you to serve where there are 2,000 people per GP or where there are 60,000 people per doctor?" I know a response to need alone is not necessarily of God but from my comfort zone in this country, it's impossible to criticise doctors who are prepared to provide medical care to the really needy.
As for the second question we can be as effective or ineffective at reaching the lost whether we work in traditional medical mission or not. If there is a choice between staying or going, as the spiritual needs are roughly the same, as far as the great commission is concerned we can do either. When it comes to the medical need there is no contest - it's just whether this work suits you and your situation allows you to go.
Turning to his comments about PHC I detect a tone of "health thinking correctness" here. What touches people is being valued and cared for - traditional hospitals can be wonderful places for this to happen provided the staff aren't too busy and they have the motivation, which in our case shouldn't be a problem if our faith is strong. I don't necessarily think community based PHC care is going to answer anything as far as fulfilling the great commission is concerned unless it helps create more relationships of lasting trust and respect between "us" and "them".
Yours sincerely,
Colan Robinson.
Editor - "To heal the body does not enhance a human's standing before God on the day of judgement," writes a mission doctor. Is this true? James tells us that faith without works is dead - and without doubt a dead faith is not what God wants in any of us. Jesus went about healing the sick as well as preaching the Good News. When challenging people to follow him he suggested that if they could not believe his words they should at least believe on the strength of his works, most of which were healing miracles.
So we have a two-fold picture of our Lord and our ourselves - faith and works; words and works - pictures reminiscent of the hand-held scales often used in the bazaars of the developing world. The scales have two pans, in one the weight, in the other potatoes or whatever. Without either weight or potatoes the scales are unbalanced. So too is our life - we need explanations (the word; preaching / teaching) and we need demonstrations (act; medicine, education, development, family life... ) of any belief before we are willing to accept it. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." How often do we think "hypocrite" of someone whose works do not live up to his words?
Preaching the word without a demonstration in our community of how God changes our life may be worse than hypocritical - it may even be worthless. Many will ignore such preaching as irrelevant. Likewise, the demonstration of the Gospel on a daily basis in the way we live and work without an explanation of why we so act is asking for this demonstration to be misunderstood and the Gospel in its fullness ignored. Hand in hand together, just as in the life of Jesus, demonstration and explanation make a powerful proclamation of the whole council of God.
I suspect that some of the problems in defining the role of medical missionary work arise from the premise that the first role of the church is evangelistic mission. This is not an adequate understanding of the purpose of the church, the bride of Christ. We are God's witnesses in this world, not just to his salvation, but more importantly to him as God, the triune creator, redeemer, rebuilder of lost hope, the almighty victorious and gloriously holy God. To limit our witness to bringing souls to salvation is to miss the glory and excitement of the incarnation of God himself in human form. It may even be to venture on the road to Gnosticism.
God's joy is in bringing many sons to glory, to fullness of life, to the riches of knowing him. This is salvation. It touches my body as well as my soul, my work as well as my mind, my strength and my relationship with my neighbour, who, after all, may be homeless, naked, hungry... What will I answer my God at the judgement if I do not help my neighbour in such distress?
Alex C Stewart.
Editor - To a fair extent I feel this article goes in for unnecessary heartsearching. As Christians we work on human need (not just medical) because it is the example and command that Jesus gave us - and that is all the justification that is necessary. And sure enough we gossip the gospel while we are at it, but I notice that what we are (hopefully Christ like) rubs off onto our colleagues far more than onto our patients.
Am I over big-headed if I claim to belong to the most interesting congregation in Great Britain - at Penrhys in South Wales? Penrhys' story is complicated and sad, but basically it is a "new town" that misfired. From the late 1980s onwards the local church worked on providing facilities that were lacking - a laundrette, homework clubs, a cafe, a nearly new clothes shop, a reasonably priced food shop, a credit union and others. The most interesting thing is that with the Church having rediscovered the community at large, the community then re-discovered the Church and found that it is not the irrelevant anachronism it had supposed. During the first five years that I knew Penrhys from 1992-97 the population fell by over 50% but the congregations held steady. There are extremely few British congregations who can report that sort of relative growth.
Martin Stagies
Hopital Central d'Enougal, BP91, Ebolowa, Cameroun.
January 1999.
The central theme of his question is whether medical missionary work is really fulfilling the great commission. There must be many learned theologians who have developed the theology of mission and I'm sure a lot of dispute could be avoided if we could refer to this (and obey") but I offer my own thoughts as a response to the debate. From my experience the best medical missionary work values each individual no matter what state that individual is in and shows the great compassion of God for the poor and sick - a bit like Mother Theresa if you like, but with some treatment thrown in. As such it does not make disciples and I agree with your contributor "to heal the body does not enhance a human's standing before God on the day of judgement".
However as well as overseas medical mission one could put the same question to all doctors who work in this country - by working as a GP am I doing anything to fulfil the great commission? Your contributor seems to be suggesting the only worthwhile work is to be a full time evangelist. As most doctors know only too well it's hard enough doing one job - let alone two!
I have reasoned often that the spiritual needs of people here in England, where less than 5% of the population are evangelical Christians, are the same as those overseas and this was one of the reasons I used to justify my return to this country from South Africa in 1992. The reality though is that my medical work is almost completely separate from my commitment to the great commission, which is largely confined to when I'm involved with the Church Plant I belong to. I often ask myself two questions: Do my patients really need to see a GP at all and the second is, Why am I so unable to touch obviously needy people with the gospel through my work as a GP, even though we're known as a "Christian practice"?
As for the first question this obviously doesn't apply in most overseas medical missionary situations where the need for health care is obvious. A missionary friend of mine asks me: "Would God call you to serve where there are 2,000 people per GP or where there are 60,000 people per doctor?" I know a response to need alone is not necessarily of God but from my comfort zone in this country, it's impossible to criticise doctors who are prepared to provide medical care to the really needy.
As for the second question we can be as effective or ineffective at reaching the lost whether we work in traditional medical mission or not. If there is a choice between staying or going, as the spiritual needs are roughly the same, as far as the great commission is concerned we can do either. When it comes to the medical need there is no contest - it's just whether this work suits you and your situation allows you to go.
Turning to his comments about PHC I detect a tone of "health thinking correctness" here. What touches people is being valued and cared for - traditional hospitals can be wonderful places for this to happen provided the staff aren't too busy and they have the motivation, which in our case shouldn't be a problem if our faith is strong. I don't necessarily think community based PHC care is going to answer anything as far as fulfilling the great commission is concerned unless it helps create more relationships of lasting trust and respect between "us" and "them".
Yours sincerely,
Colan Robinson.
Editor - "To heal the body does not enhance a human's standing before God on the day of judgement," writes a mission doctor. Is this true? James tells us that faith without works is dead - and without doubt a dead faith is not what God wants in any of us. Jesus went about healing the sick as well as preaching the Good News. When challenging people to follow him he suggested that if they could not believe his words they should at least believe on the strength of his works, most of which were healing miracles.
So we have a two-fold picture of our Lord and our ourselves - faith and works; words and works - pictures reminiscent of the hand-held scales often used in the bazaars of the developing world. The scales have two pans, in one the weight, in the other potatoes or whatever. Without either weight or potatoes the scales are unbalanced. So too is our life - we need explanations (the word; preaching / teaching) and we need demonstrations (act; medicine, education, development, family life... ) of any belief before we are willing to accept it. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." How often do we think "hypocrite" of someone whose works do not live up to his words?
Preaching the word without a demonstration in our community of how God changes our life may be worse than hypocritical - it may even be worthless. Many will ignore such preaching as irrelevant. Likewise, the demonstration of the Gospel on a daily basis in the way we live and work without an explanation of why we so act is asking for this demonstration to be misunderstood and the Gospel in its fullness ignored. Hand in hand together, just as in the life of Jesus, demonstration and explanation make a powerful proclamation of the whole council of God.
I suspect that some of the problems in defining the role of medical missionary work arise from the premise that the first role of the church is evangelistic mission. This is not an adequate understanding of the purpose of the church, the bride of Christ. We are God's witnesses in this world, not just to his salvation, but more importantly to him as God, the triune creator, redeemer, rebuilder of lost hope, the almighty victorious and gloriously holy God. To limit our witness to bringing souls to salvation is to miss the glory and excitement of the incarnation of God himself in human form. It may even be to venture on the road to Gnosticism.
God's joy is in bringing many sons to glory, to fullness of life, to the riches of knowing him. This is salvation. It touches my body as well as my soul, my work as well as my mind, my strength and my relationship with my neighbour, who, after all, may be homeless, naked, hungry... What will I answer my God at the judgement if I do not help my neighbour in such distress?
Alex C Stewart.
Editor - To a fair extent I feel this article goes in for unnecessary heartsearching. As Christians we work on human need (not just medical) because it is the example and command that Jesus gave us - and that is all the justification that is necessary. And sure enough we gossip the gospel while we are at it, but I notice that what we are (hopefully Christ like) rubs off onto our colleagues far more than onto our patients.
Am I over big-headed if I claim to belong to the most interesting congregation in Great Britain - at Penrhys in South Wales? Penrhys' story is complicated and sad, but basically it is a "new town" that misfired. From the late 1980s onwards the local church worked on providing facilities that were lacking - a laundrette, homework clubs, a cafe, a nearly new clothes shop, a reasonably priced food shop, a credit union and others. The most interesting thing is that with the Church having rediscovered the community at large, the community then re-discovered the Church and found that it is not the irrelevant anachronism it had supposed. During the first five years that I knew Penrhys from 1992-97 the population fell by over 50% but the congregations held steady. There are extremely few British congregations who can report that sort of relative growth.
Martin Stagies
Hopital Central d'Enougal, BP91, Ebolowa, Cameroun.
January 1999.
