Category: Kingdom of God
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“We all sat at the same table.”
When resources are scarce and medical professionals are few, one gets overwhelmed with the physical needs of patients needing care. Emotional, spiritual and community care seem like a luxury. Yet the challenge is how to make a long range impact in these communities. Here is an example from the Hopkins Medicine journal which shows…
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A new era in Roman healthcare
We take for granted that compassion is a natural response to the suffering of those who are ill. But compassion was not well-developed as a virtue in Roman culture. Rome had not developed a culture of compassion; “mercy was discouraged, as it only helped those too weak to contribute to society.” Family members may come…
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Not the way it’s supposed to be
“The veins of sin interlace with most of the rest of what’s wrong with our lives — through birth disorders, disease, accident and nuisance. Thousands of Third World children die daily from largely preventable diseases: out of laziness or complacency, certain grownups fail to prevent them. Thousands of First World children are born drug addicts:…
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"Every Good Endeavor"
Tim Keller tackles the dualism of sacred vs secular work head on, helping us integrate our faith and work. We are not immune to this dualism in healthcare missions. One of our medical missionaries said to me that she was told ‘to get a ministry’ outside of the 70 hours-per-week that she was working in…
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Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church
What would the resurrection have to do with the mission of the church? NT Wright makes a plea for us to connect the two. Our modern assumptions about life after death seem to disconnect the reality of life in this world and the next, but the Bible does just the opposite. “It has often been…
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How should we do justice?
I’ve mentioned Tim Keller’s “Generous Justice” before. Today I’d like to underline a practical and theological issue about “how.” Keller tells us about Abraham Kuyper, a Dutch theologian and statesman who ‘remade the churches into voluntary institutions’ in Holland over a century ago. According to Kuyper, the church was both and organism and an institution…
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The Cape Town Commitment of faith and call to action – – the mission of God
Here is a rich description of the mission which God calls us to as believers, expressed in the words of the Lausanne commitment at Cape Town, South Africa This is section 10 of that commitment word for word. It is an exciting and joyous mission. How are you involved? We love the mission of God…
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Christian Social Responsibility as described in the Lausanne Covenant
I think the Lausanne statement on Christian Social Responsibility is a helpful framework for our response to the brokenhearted of the world, and I commend it to you, along with the commentary by John Stott produced below. Medical missions is an expression of our beliefs about God and man. We must not just care for…