Training and Evangelism
More needy people come through the doors of our consulting rooms and outpatient clinics than will ever enter our churches, and they are not all patients either. Colleagues too are on a spiritual journey - either towards God or away from him. Not all may be actively searching for truth or meaning, but most will admit there is something not right with the world.
Without many clues as to the causes, our media reports daily a world of wars, rumours of wars and economic woe. Britain in the 21st century is not exempt from confusion and anxiety; it is hardly a nation at ease with itself. National unease is embodied in political confusion as well as societal and marital breakdown.
At an individual level it is manifest in near-epidemic levels of self-harm, eating disorders, depression, loneliness, substance abuse, performance anxiety and social phobias. With this in mind, Paul Verhaeghe, a Belgian thinker, recently described Britain as 'the loneliness capital of Europe'.
All these are reasons why a strong and confident Christian witness is needed in the health professions. CMF exists to unite and equip Christian doctors and nurses to live and speak for Jesus Christ. This year we launched our ACTIVE 2020 Vision, 'Connect & Grow, Speak & Serve'.
Two key components of this are the call to be 'witnesses for Christ' (Evangelism) and encouraging members 'to deepen their faith'(Training). These are already major aims of our graduates, students and nurses work.
CMF has always sought to put the Gospel first. It's vital that our members are confident about it, able to share it cogently and defend it with conviction. We want to help all our members 'to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have… with gentleness and respect' (1 Peter 3:15). We also have, among our members, some very gifted evangelists and apologists. We want to equip and mobilise them for more evangelistic events and initiatives in medical schools, hospitals, colleges, churches and homes.
We already have excellent resources for evangelism, apologetics and discipleship. We are refreshing Cure for Life, and have produced new editions of The Greatest Person and A Physician's Story (Luke & Acts). We also already have several impressive training programmes: Confident Christianity, Saline Solution, Ishmael my Brother, The Human Journey, Against the Tide and Answering other Faiths. We plan to refresh some of the older courses and make them available with attractive videos and workbooks. We are working on new courses too.
As part of 2020 ACTIVE we plan to equip a new generation of trainers to take these tools to the membership. In addition, we will be launching a new training platform carrying curated videos, audios, articles, study guides and briefings so that members, especially students, can easily access what they need.
CMF Finances
The July accounts show an encouraging result with overall income just below budget and expenditure further below budget giving an overall deficit of £38,000 which is £26,000 better than budget. Thank you to all who continue to support the ministry of CMF through donations and subscriptions.
Christmas Appeal
A reminder. CMF hopes to raise £80,000 to ensure our work can continue and to resource training and evangelism. Please prayerfully consider making a contribution. www.cmf.org.uk/appeal
Spotlight - a new publication for nurses & midwives
In September we launched Spotlight, our new publication for Christian nurses and midwives. The first issue included our ten top tips for new students, why nursing is a Christian ministry and an interview with a newly-qualified nurse. The next edition is due out in January with a focus on prayer and healing. We aim to publish Spotlight three times a year, each edition with an overall theme. We are keen to get feedback from members on how the format works and other ideas for content or themes for future editions. We'd especially love to hear from people who would like to write for the magazine.
