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Restoration Ministry

Mark Finley: Medical Evangelism

Mark Finley

Medical Evangelism, Part 1

Father, thank you for the opportunity of spending some time with our medical students today.

Thank you for the opportunity of talking about something that is dear to the heart of God, medical evangelism.

I pray thee that you would lift our spirits, encourage our hearts, and give us a vision of what you want to do.

Help us see a broader vision of what can be accomplished in our lives than merely helping people to live longer in this life and have a better quality of life.

Help us to see the integration of the physical, the mental, the spiritual dynamics of life and understand the high calling that you've given us.

In 1857, a man by the name of John Henry Dunnett was a very prosperous businessman in Europe.

He was so prosperous that he was a commodities trader and helped the European governments negotiate grain sales to Africa, northern Africa in particular, countries like Morocco and Algiers.

He was negotiating a particular sale worth hundreds of thousands of dollars that needed the signature of Napoleon III, not Napoleon Bonaparte, but Napoleon III.

Napoleon III was in the Alps fighting the King of Sardinia.

And without the signature of Napoleon III, it would be impossible for John Henry Dunnett's company to have a major sale of grain.

When he got there, Napoleon's army was in the middle of battle and the muskets were firing, the cannons were leaving their sulfuric smell in the air, the dead and the dying were lying on the battlefield.

The soldiers on both sides were bloody and bruised and crying out in agony.

John Henry Dunnett sat on the side of a mountain watching the battle.

He watched both armies approach and in those days, before the days of modern warfare, there was a lot of hand-to-hand combat.

There still is today, of course, but in those days there were often thousands that would be dead on 1 battlefield.

This rich, wealthy, affluent businessman looked down and he saw people lying on the battlefield.

He noticed many of them crying out in agony, bleeding to death.

And Dunnett, at the end of that battle, was so stunned he sat there just absolutely horrified.

And he went out to the battlefield and found some people alive and with other volunteers began to bandage their wounds, began to bathe their bloody brows and took them back to little makeshift hospitals that were in the battlefield.

He worked there for 3 or 4 days trying to restore health.

And the businessman was so taken by what he saw, so traumatized by what he saw, that he went back and never got Napoleon's signature on this business contract.

He went back and began something that we know today as the Red Cross.

His whole life was given to healing, to ministry, to service.

If I could summarize medical evangelism in 1 sentence, it would be this.

Medical evangelism is the loving ministry of Christ reaching out to meet the needs of needy humanity in Jesus' sake so that they can be healed physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically.

I want to share with you today the calling that God has given to you.

It's a calling that may be far higher, far broader, far more significant than has yet gripped you yet.

I want to look at 4 aspects of medical evangelism.

Motives have to do with why we do what we do.

Methods have to do with how we do what we do.

The mission of medieval evangelism, that must do with the object of what we do.

And the master of medical evangelism, that has to do with the 1 we do it for.

So motives have to do with the question of why we do what we do.

Methods have to do with the question of how we do what we do.

Mission has to do with the question of the object of what we do.

And The master has to do with the significant other the 1 that we do it for I'd like to look with you first at the motives of medical evangelism people do things for different motives What is your motive in being in medical school?

Now don't try to pull the wool over my eyes.

Some people go into medicine because their parents are in medicine.

Other people go into medicine or dentistry because it's rather prestigious.

I mean, it's pretty good to have an MD after your name.

They are motivated by the pride of accomplishment.

Some people do what they do because of pressure from their parents.

Some people do what they do because of a pride, a certain sense that I want to be somebody, a certain sense that I want to achieve, a certain success-driven syndrome.

Other people do what they do because of money.

They say, look, how else could I make a certain figure that will enable me to live a life that is fairly comfortable?

Some people do what they do because they want a home on the lake, in a boat and skis, etc.

So, various motives prompt different people.

What is the single motive that prompted Jesus in his medical evangelistic ministry?

Jesus was certainly not prompted to do something merely because of pressure by the Father to do it.

Jesus certainly wasn't prompted to come to earth because of the prestige that afforded him in doing it.

In fact, he had a lot more prestige in heaven than he ever did on earth.

He was worshipped by 10, 000 times 10, 000 angels, traveled to worlds afar, to planets that had never fallen by sin.

So Jesus came to this snake pit of the world, not prompted, not motivated by prestige.

After all, up there in heaven the streets were made of gold.

That wasn't the motive that prompted him.

The motive that prompts the medical Evangelist is far different than the motive that prompts most people in this world.

And I'd like to suggest to you that the motive that prompts the Medical Evangelist is far broader, far deeper, far higher than the motive that prompts the average physician.

And I qualify that and I put average in quotes.

That God has called Seventh-day Adventist physicians and dentists and medical personnel to something higher, something broader.

It begins with something in the fundamental core of your being.

It begins with something in the essence of your soul.

It's an undefinable essence that prompts you and motivates you and guides you in doing what you do.

And the Scripture says there, in Matthew 20, verse 28, For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life a ransom for many.

So Jesus was prompted by loving ministry.

And the motive of a true, genuine medical missionary is not money.

It is not recognition, the people who notice.

It is the loving ministry of Jesus Christ.

Lou Evans, great medical missionary, was visiting a friend out in Korea.

And this friend had left the United States.

He was in a small remote village in Korea.

And 1 day he had to perform a very difficult abdominal operation on a village woman.

Evans accompanied his surgeon friend to that small remote village and they had a makeshift operating room and Doc began to operate.

Medical Evangelism, Part 2

Some of you may not be aware of what Amen is all about.

Amen is called the Adventist Evangelism Medical Network.

It's a group of physicians who met, who began meeting about 2 years ago.

They met for 1 year, praying that God would help them to clearly understand how they could integrate spirituality at their practice.

Number 1, how can a busy physician or a busy dentist who's seeing patients on a daily basis, be a godly Christian physician in the 21st century?

With all the challenges of insurance and litigation and the challenges of having only 15 minutes to see a patient, What can you do as a physician in private practice or practice at 1 of the Adventist institutions to lead patients to Jesus?

And where is there some network that helps Adventist physicians to be able to share those experiences?

The second purpose of Amen was to provide short-term mission trips for physicians and to take all of the difficulties out of those mission trips where the physician has to book his plane online, look for the particular site in the hospital.

Many physicians are willing to go for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, but they don't have the logistical support.

Every year, Amen has a conference in which they discuss medical evangelism.

There is a newsletter that comes out from Amen and a variety of other information.

There are approximately 100 to 150 physicians involved in AMEN and it's growing rapidly.

Last year, AMEN provided scholarships for medical students and they had to be limited to either to medical or dental students to come to their conference.

They set aside in their budget about $15, 000 for students on this campus.

Did any of you attend the Amen Conference last year?

You did, and you went on a scholarship, I would assume.

I talked to their executive director this morning, and I have the privilege of announcing to you that they are providing 20 scholarships this year.

These scholarships will include your room, which is about $100 a night.

They'll include all your food and your entrance fees.

If you're a medical student or a dental student, and you would like to apply for a scholarship to go to their annual convention, that convention is in San Diego at the exact same site as it was last year.

If you applied last year, you are free to apply again this year.

They are not limiting it to students who didn't apply.

So if you applied last year, you can apply.

You have the information in your brochure.

And if that weekend is free for you and you want to interface with godly Christian physicians that are making a difference for Christ and the Kingdom of God, that will be a great blessing for you.

I wanted to mention about tonight's meeting as well.

Tonight I'm going to talk about how to be a busy Adventist professional and not lose your spirituality.

How can you be a busy Adventist professional, overwhelmed with the complexity of your practice and profession, and not lose your spirituality?

I will speak for about 30 minutes this evening and then take questions and answers for about 30 minutes.

You may have questions about our world work.

My topic this morning is called, Seeing Patients through Jesus' eyes or spiritual modalities of health and healing.

Spiritual modalities of health and healing.

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the opportunity to come and study your Word.

We thank you for the call to be physicians, to be dentists, to be involved in paramedical professions as med techs or physical therapists or occupational therapists or whatever you've called us to do.

We sense that this is a divine calling as much as ministry is a divine calling.

Help us to sense today again that you have called us to treat not simply the body, but the whole person, physically, mentally, spiritually, and teach us the spiritual modalities that we can apply.

In the late 1950s, the American Medical Association was facing a significant challenge.

There was a growing body of evidence that spirituality had a positive impact on health.

But yet the American Medical Association didn't know how far to go.

They were concerned because they certainly didn't want to bridge the gap ethically.

They didn't want to side with these so-called Bible thumpers, who believe that every disease could be treated by a Bible text.

And so if you read the literature in the late 1950s in the American Medical Association, there's quite A controversy going on.

How much do we really integrate spirituality and health?

How much do we integrate religion and health?

In 1961, the American Medical Association took a quantum leap.

For the first time, they established a Department of Medicine and Religion.

Before 1961, there was no Department of Medicine and Religion in the AMA at all.

Within 2 decades, that Department of Medicine and Religion had spread to 48 states and 622 county health departments.

The Department of Health and Religion was a growing thing in the AMA.

And I've been interested in rehearsing some of the literature coming out in the scientific community since 61, the last 45 years on health and religion.

If you go back to 1961, when the Department on medicine and religion was established by the AMA, they published an official statement that said this.

We feel that there needs to be a closer cooperation between the physician and the clergyman for the care of the whole person.

The committee, that's the AMA committee, feels that the spiritual component of every person is a very large factor in problems relating to his state of health.

So for 45 years, the AMA has been saying There is a relationship between spiritual modalities introduced by a godly physician and the state of a person's health.

Now, there is no question about that today in the prepondence of scientific literature.

Any medical practitioner that does not look at the person as a whole person, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, misses modalities in physical healing.

We're not discussing this morning the relationship that a Christian physician has in ministering to the soul.

But I'm looking at spiritual therapy as a modality for physical healing.

Spiritual therapy as a modality for physical healing.

1995, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center found that a major predictor of survival for heart surgery patients was religious faith.

And they said, if a person has religious faith, all of the evidence is that they are more likely to survive a major heart attack.

The degree of religious commitment predicted the degree of survival.

The National Institute on Aging study found that geriatric patients were physically healthier, less depressed when they attended religious services.

That indicates to me, as I look at the preponderance of studies, that if in our health approach, we are not overtly and openly spiritual, now I'm not saying overtly and openly religious, I'm not saying overtly and openly denomination.

But if we are not overtly and openly spiritual, we deny the patient the opportunity to be healed physically because spirituality is a physical, is a modality in physical healing.

The University of Minnesota has established a new center, and the center is a center for spirituality and healing.

And the director of that center is a woman by the name of Dr.

And she believes that spirituality and healing are indissolubly linked.

And she goes back to Florence Nightingale.

Now I was not aware until some of my recent studies.

Florence Nightingale of course, the patron saint, I shouldn't use her advent as patron saint, you know, she is the mother, the founder of nursing.

But she had a great belief that as she ministered to people spiritually and prayed with patients that the possibility of their getting well was far greater.

You may not be aware of the fact that Florence Nightingale wrote a major treatise on spirituality and health and the relationship between the 2.

Kreitzer at the University of Minnesota believes that there cannot be rapid physical healing in many cases unless there is spiritual healing.

Hyman, University of Illinois, adds his voice to the growing number of people in the medical community who see the need for a more integrated approach to medicine.

And Hyman, writing from the University of Illinois in a paper called The View of health and health education in the 21st century says this.

Medical Evangelism, Part 3

Thank you for the opportunity of being with you.

I enjoy singing the song Blessed Assurance Jesus is mine No doubt You are aware that when you look at an Adventist Church hymnal and you look at the song title Blessed Assurance Jesus is mine If you look at the right on the right you have the individual that wrote the music for the song.

And on the left, you have the person who wrote the words to the song.

Now, you'll notice that the song Blessed Assurance Jesus is mine, the music to that song was written by Mrs.

Knapp's husband was the president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

In the 1870s and 1880s, 1890s, latter part of the 19th century, it was the largest corporation in the United States.

They employed thousands and thousands of people.

Knapp had written the music for that song, she invited the blind hymn writer, Fanny Crosby, to her home.

Knapp sat down, she was a pianist, and she sat down and began to play the piano.

And she said to Fanny Crosby, what does this music suggest to you?

And Fanny Crosby's mind just worked so quickly so sharply God gave her that gift and she said mrs.

Knapp Your husband is the president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, but my heavenly father deals with assurance.

That song suggests to me, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.

And Fanny Crosby sat down at the table and wrote out the words to that song just in a few minutes, a gift that God gave to the church and we have been singing it ever since.

I thought you'd like to know as my friend Paul Harvey says the rest of the story on that hymn.

If you were with us this morning we talked about an acronym that helps take patients from illness to wellness.

It helps take them from brokenness to wholeness.

They are 4 spiritual modalities that are a channel that take human beings from the brokenness of their life to health.

We talked about how to implement prayer as a spiritual therapy.

We talked about there are 2 sets of emotions.

There's grief and anxiety and fear and how they break down the life's forces.

And then we looked at the other side of love and courage and faith and how they build them up.

Tonight I'm going to talk to you about the scriptures and how the Bible is God's agency that's therapeutic.

It's God's pharmacology, the principles in God's word.

Now I don't say that in any way disparagingly of pharmacology or drugs today.

At times they're necessary and I openly acknowledge that.

But the 1 does not predispose or predicate that the other is not necessary.

I want to look at the Bible and how the Bible is therapeutic, how it helps to heal our mind and heal our emotions and consequently how that helps to heal our bodies because the mind and the body are so intimately connected that if there is fear and grief and anxiety, if there is bitterness and resentment, That can elevate the blood pressure, it can create higher levels of cholesterol, it can create various stomach secretions that lead to stomach ulcers.

The mind and the body are so intimately connected that if as a medical practitioner or a paramedical practitioner, if as a physician or a doctor, a physician or a dentist or a physical therapist or an occupational therapist or a pharmacologist, If you understand how to apply the Bible in therapy to your patients, it can make a dramatic difference.

A number of years ago, a young lad by the name of Bobby, 10 years old, developed a brain tumor.

And The tumor became so large that it was malignant, could not be treated, and so it was necessary for the surgeon to operate on Bobby.

The surgery was fairly successful, but yet there was after treatment that needed to be administered.

And in the after treatment, Bobby developed a swelling in the brain, and there was necessary to take fluid off the brain because of that swelling.

The aftercare was incredibly painful and Dr.

Brown was treating Bobby and it was necessary to inject him and take fluid portions off the brain and Bobby was brought into dr.

Brown said to Bobby Bobby I want you to know that although the operation was painful and but this is gonna be pretty painful This aftercare treatment is gonna be painful and he was trying to reassure this little 10 year old boy And Bobby looked up at him.

I know that you're going to have to take the fluid off my brain and I know it's going to be quite painful, but doctor, do you mind if I say the 23rd Psalm when you are administering treatment to me?

And this little 10-year-old boy was brought up in a Christian home, and he began to repeat the 23rd Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Though I walk through the valley of shadow of death, thou art with me, thou fear no evil.

And as he began to say it, he said to the doctor, now doctor, can you help me with it?

Because I think I forgot some of it, doctor.

Brown referenced in his brain his Sunday school.

I mean, every Adventist physician has memorized hundreds of Psalms.

And so, he, I mean, you must have Bible memorization here at a prestigious university as part of therapy.

I mean, you are learning Bible promises as part of therapy.

I mean, you must have a class on memorizing Bible promises, that they are the leaves of the tree of life that you administer to your patients.

Series

Mark Finley: Medical Evangelism

Medical Evangelism, Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

AMEN 2010 Breakout Seminars

Why is the New England Journal of Medicine Publishing on Prayer?

1h

AMEN 2013: Plenary Sessions

Remote Area Medical: Volunteers Mobilizing Healthcare & Conference Summary

47m

Pastor/Physician Team

Spiritual Intervention in Medical Practice: Why, Who and How

1h 1m

Track 2 Seminars

Jesus Methods in the 21st Century, Part 9

1h

Plenary

Healing Patients for Eternity

1h 22m

Breakout Sessions C

Choosing a Specialty and Finding a Residency

57m

AMEN 2010 Plenary Sessions

From Fractured to Whole

50m

You Can’t Sell It, If You Don’t Stock It

29m

Plenary

The 6th Competency: Systems-Based (Spiritual) Practice

53m

Health Ministries Workshop

12 How to Transition from Health to Bible Studies

1h 6m

The Gospel Purpose of Medical Ministry

57m

AMEN 2010 Plenary Sessions

Holistic Medicine in the US - Passing Fad or Permanent Fixture?

51m

Sound Doctrine