Pastor as Physician

Say you go to a doctor, a specialist, for diagnosis and treatment for something you can't understand that won't go away on its own.The doctor offers a diagnosis that is hard for you to hear, because it means you will have a lifestyle change. The doctor prescribes a course of meds and lifestyle changes that will increase your health. What do you do? Do you embrace the diagnosis and the treatment in order to get healthy or do you forget what the doctor said?

I sometimes feel like that. Like the diagnosis and treatment I prescribe is being rejected. Am I not convincing enough? Or are people unwilling to get healthy? Sometimes getting healthy means giving up something you love, like alcohol or cigarettes or basketball. Sometimes it means taking up some new habit like walking or drinking water or yoga. One thing it never means is stay where you are...unless terminal, most doctors I suspect will treat an illness by attempting to affect some change in the unhealthy system. By introducing a drug, a new body part, or a lifestyle change, the unhealthy system can sometimes be treated. The same is true of church life---the body of Christ---change in the system is sometimes needed for health and vitality. Maintenance is not an option when you are sick. A treatment that guarantees you will remain unhealthy is not treatment.

Now I am aware that when it comes to spirituality and faith people do not like to be judged or criticized. They like to be left alone, especially church people. They like to believe, "It is well with my soul." They don't like to realize the brokenness within and its fruit. Without a healthy connection to the root, the branch will bear no fruit. Unceasing Prayer, inspiring worship, active serving---these are the things that promote health.