AMEN 2024: By His Spirit

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Plenary Sessions

Mark Finley

Brian Schwartz

Guided By His Spirit: Celebrating 20 Years of AMEN’s Mission and Ministry

I had this feeling that medicine had just become a job.

I could go to work, I did a good job, I was successful, but it just felt like my job was my job and everything I did for the Lord was totally separate.

And it used to bother me that I spent most of my time just doing a job, which isn't what I started off to do.

The Adventist Medical Evangelism Network is composed of a group of physicians and dentists that are passionately committed to sharing Jesus Christ with their patients and those that they come in contact with on a daily basis.

Amen is currently 3 years old and it began because of a deep conviction on the part of committed Seventh-day Adventist physicians and dentists that there is a great need to revitalize what is known as the right arm of ministry within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which is the medical work.

Naren James, who you just saw on the video, approached me at an ASI meeting.

James had a dream, a vision, not a dream at night.

Sometimes the best dreams we have are not the ones we have at night, but the ones we have at the daytime.

And God impressed him about the establishment of an organization, a medical missionary organization that would consist of medical professionals that would share Christ with their patients, that would facilitate mission trips, and that would develop a medical missionary magazine, an organization that would expand medical missionary work.

After 20 years, That organization has come to fruition.

During the last 20 years, it's been amazing what's happened with the AMEN organization.

God has blessed it with annual conferences.

This year, there are over 700 people registered that will begin coming into this conference.

I remember the first conference we had at Cahutta Springs Ranch.

But at our first conference we had maybe 50 people at the most.

Not only have they grown, but international chapters have been developed all over the world now.

In addition to that, Amen members are sharing Christ.

Their offices have become mission centers, centers of loving care as these medical professionals have prayed with their patients.

And of course, the Medical Missionary Journal, the medical evangelist is making a great impact.

And so tonight, our panel is going to share a little bit about the history, the background of Amen, how each of them became involved.

Brian Schwartz and I will facilitate the discussion.

Schwartz, tell us a little bit about the biblical foundation.

You know, every organization must have a foundation.

Well, thank you, Pastor Mark, and good evening.

Just from the very beginning, you talked about Dr.

The vision was to really use Christ's method.

And we're all familiar with the quote from Ministry of Healing.

Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people.

The Savior mingled with men as 1 who desired their good.

He showed his sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence.

And then he made them follow me." And that's from the ministry of healing.

But looking back in the Bible, If you brought your Bibles you can turn to Matthew chapter 10 and also a text that's very familiar to us But when Jesus commissioned his disciples to go out into the world 2 by 2 in Matthew chapter 10 verse 9 Or actually verse 6 it says but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel And as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick Cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out demons freely you have received freely give Jesus did not see a distinction between doing medical ministry and doing gospel ministry.

In fact, Jesus spent more time healing than he did teaching and preaching.

And Jesus is our example, not as just a pastor, but a great example as a physician.

So that kind of just raises the question that I'll throw back to you before we introduce our whole panel, but in today's world which is actually a more effective evangelist, a gospel-centered physician or a pastor?

Well I can answer that question well because you know in this magazine, an excellent edition of the Medical Evangelist.

Schwartz, I was reading an article by Ellen White, December 1, 1892, and this is what she says, so I don't have to give you a preacher's answer, I can give you an answer from divine inspiration.

So Ellen White's asked this very same question you asked me.

I've been surprised at being asked by physicians if I did not think it would be more pleasing to God for them to give up their medical practice and enter into ministry.

If you are a Christian, now notice, if you're a Christian and a competent physician, you are qualified to do tenfold more good as a missionary for God than if you were to go forth merely as a preacher of the Word.

So you can be 10 times more effective than an old preacher like me can be, Brian.

That's quite a calling for this group right here.

It is and I think it's a challenge because physicians, dentists, medical personnel see many more people every day than a pastor would see.

So here we have a whole group of medical evangelist ministers.

We get access to people that would never let you in their gated communities or they fly on private jets but they come to our offices.

That's why you're 10 times more effective.

But notice it says a Christian competent physician.

If you're not a competent physician, you should become a pastor.

I'll take as many as you give me, we're running a shortage.

All right, let's go ahead and introduce our panel.

And I'm gonna ask each of them to tell you a little bit about themselves, where they're from, what their practice is.

I think our very first panelist doesn't need an introduction but Dr.

John, just tell us what your practice is like and how long you've been associated with AMEN.

So I currently work as a medical oncologist at Loma Linda University and I've been involved with AMEN since 2010, my first year of Medical School.

I'm a pediatric cardiac anesthesiologist.

I live in Mount Shasta, California and I've been connected with AMEN since the inception actually.

The dinner that Naren called us to at that meeting where he had that vision And I practice orthopedic surgery.

I'm an OBGYN in a private group practice.

And I was trying to think how long I've been with Amen.

I am an oral and maxillofacial surgery and or surgeon and I have a hodgepodge of responsibilities at Loma Linda University as a full-time faculty member.

So I teach students in the classroom, in the clinic, and in the OR.

And I have been involved with Amen since 2005 when I attended for the first time.

So yeah, that began my whole experience with Amen, So up until this day.

Can we just ask, how many of you were at the very first Amen conference?

Laren Tan

Leading with Compassion: Christian Principles in Healthcare Leadership

John Shinnett actually stated, my name is Larren Tan, and I have the privilege to be able to go through a couple of things about Christian leadership.

And it's wonderful to be able to see many friends amongst the crowd.

And what's gonna be unique today is that we're actually gonna have a breakout session.

So we're actually gonna be able to have every single 1 of you interact with group leaders, and I'd love to be able to hear your thoughts also about Christian leadership.

I have nothing to disclose, and I'm gonna go back, and this is my title.

The last time I spoke was in 2018 here at Amen and I'm showing you a picture of my children which were much younger during that time.

That's because that is a humble reminder to me to make sure that you don't fall asleep during my lecture.

But more importantly, I think there are a lot of things that we can walk away.

And I'm hoping that what I'll go through is gonna be applicable to be wherever you are on your leadership journey.

So you can see the last question, what can we learn from Jesus Christ as a leader and how can these traits apply now to the 21st century?

Things that we experience are all different.

In my role in various different, I'd say, experiences, I've come to reflect and actually doing a lot of research and studying the Bible.

There are key characteristics and principles that I feel that you could be just a good leader, but if you wanna be a great leader, listen in.

See what I'm about to actually present to you.

And what's great about it is that even though I'm talking from a medical perspective, this actually applies across the board.

No matter what field you're actually in, where you are in life, whether you're starting out in your career or more senior in your career, what I'm gonna be discussing, I think, is gonna be very applicable.

And I hope that you will walk away with something that will help you to be more of a Christ-like leader.

And so with that, let's quickly bow our heads and pray.

Gracious God, I thank you for this moment.

I pray that you will be honored, that you will be glorified.

It is about you, and I pray that that people will hear, that their hearts will be open, and that the Holy Spirit will speak to you again, and only you be the honor and the glory.

And we look forward to you coming once again in everything we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

So earlier, There was discussion about my various different roles.

So I'm going to emphasize a little bit more on my different roles.

Now, I've led small teams, continually small teams.

As what was stated, I'm assistant dean for continuing medical education.

And it's our team that's providing the continuing medical education here and also the continuing education credits.

And we're responsible for coordinating all these various different activities and making sure that we're compliant.

So this way, we can give you that continuing medical education.

And even with a team of 2, these are great things that even a small team can accomplish.

We serve approximately more than 1, 000 physicians inside and outside Loma Linda.

There are live activities, you know, and there are also recorded activities.

But what's key is that a team of 2 is able to be able to offer 16, 572 hours in 1 year of continuing medical education.

Because no matter what team you're actually in, whether it's at home or let's say it's just your spouse, a small team can still do great things.

And so there are principles that of which we can continue on this type of journey as a leader and how to actually do great things.

And I'll share a little bit more about that later, too.

Part of my role is to do a lot of the marketing communications for our faculty group at Loma Linda.

And that is the hiring entity for the physicians and also advanced practitioners.

And a lot of the communications that come in and out and marketing out to the community, being the face and the voice, that takes a lot of fortitude.

And that requires leading a team, depending on if you're 9 and 15.

This is 1 of the roles that I feel most humbled about is being able to serve 240 physicians in the Department of Medicine.

You can see the various different divisions, starting from allergy immunology all the way to rheumatology.

That's all the physicians in that group all report under the Department of Medicine, And I have that privilege to be able to serve them and lead them.

In addition to that, I know some of you that are here are actually in our internal medicine residency.

So I'm glad that you're here and we've given you the time off to do it.

So You're not working hard enough, that's what I'm seeing.

But we have 150 internal medicine residents and 70 fellows.

Now I go through 3 of these things not to tell you really what I'm doing.

Really the focus is it's not my work, it's his work.

And that's where we're going to continue to keep refocusing things.

As Psalms 8, verse 3-4 states, When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind?

That you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them.

My role in the small, medium, or even large, has never been about me.

I feel that at least the whole time it's always been, it's been God's work.

God is the forefront, this is your team, this is your people, this is your university, so how can I serve you?

And that is 1 thing that I want us to continue to keep reminding, and that's what I will also go through throughout my presentation.

Now, as we think about the world and leaders, what comes to mind?

I've listed a couple of things here, right?

Some of these people up on there you may recognize.

And in fact, I would say some in the room perhaps may even know a couple of these people, right?

Leaders in technology, leaders in discovery, some that are leaders in the business, entrepreneurs.

You can see Forbes, world's most powerful people and a lot of times the thing that the world associates leaders with is wealth, right?

Wealth, how much things you actually have, perhaps what accomplishments they've actually done, which I will say, it's great things.

I don't want to take that away from them.

And most recently, when we talk about leaders, there sometimes comes to a point where we hear about this.

And this is something that I've always wanted, and I haven't been able to actually do, and I'm gonna reenact this for you because this just most recently happened to me a couple of days ago when I was in another conference.

Did you know that so and so created this device and because of that, he's made millions of dollars?

And he owns all these various different companies.

The same person then says to me, and did you know this other person, he quoted this thing, he's just amazing.

I just never heard of it, I'm sorry, I'd like to know, Yeah, tell me more.

Stephen Waterbrook

Katie Waterbrook

To a Land I Will Show You

Dear Heavenly Father, we are so thankful for the way that you work in our lives, the way that you direct our lives in your service.

And Father, as we share the way that your Spirit has led in our lives, we invite you to be here, your angels.

Father, there are hearts in the audience tonight who need to hear this message to be inspired, to take their relationship and their practice further in service for you.

I'd like to share a verse with you, Luke 11, 11.

Well, the title of our presentation is, to a land I will show you.

And you will see how that biblical phrase is apropos to our story.

Luke 11 11 says, if a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?

Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a servant instead of a fish?

Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him?

And I ask a little bit rhetorically, how many fathers are there in the audience this evening.

Now, who among you would knowingly take your family to a place of discomfort, privation, and possible danger?

Tonight we want to share our story of how we decided to do just that.

But not because it was our choice, but because the Lord led us there.

I'd like to share a little bit about my call to medicine as it relates to how the Lord is patient with us and works throughout our life to bring us to a point where we can work effectively in his kingdom.

I was a student at the University of Michigan and I loved my humanities classes.

In fact, I graduated with a BA in religion from the University of Michigan and took every course I could in the humanities, world religions, Christian religions, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

But I was also taking pre-med courses and got to a point where I needed to decide whether or not I was going to take the MCAT and go to medical school, or if I was going to pursue a graduate degree and be a pastor, was kind of the thinking.

So this was when you took the MCAT on paper and you could only take it certain times of the year.

But I had called all of my mentors and everybody I could think of and would kind of point blank ask them, what should I do?

And they all said, well, we can't really tell you what to do.

So I was fasting, I was praying, I was on my knees, and I said, Lord, this is crunch time.

And so in my faith, I said, put out 3 fleeces.

I said, Lord, it's got to be these 3 things.

Fleece number 1 was I was going to call Andrews, and I was going to transfer and finish a theology degree and move on to graduate school from there.

The second thing I said, Lord, I'm going to get an A on my physics exam and if that happens, you know, you're going to lead me to medical school.

You know, and the last thing I said, you're going to bring someone into my life that I don't know that's going to tell me what to do.

So the next day comes, business day comes, and I call up Andrews.

And the person was nice on the phone, but they said, well, it looks like you're on semesters.

If you transfer, you're going to lose a lot of credits.

And it just doesn't look like it's going to work out very well.

And so I hung up, and I thought, well, OK.

It's maybe not a completely closed door, but it doesn't look good.

The second thing I talked about, the physics exam, I had a study partner, a super smart guy.

And I was kind of to the point in my studying for this physics exam where I was starting to take practice exams and I took the practice exam and it was just terrible I was just not getting this segment of physics.

I stood up, closed my binder, closed my book, My study partner looked at me like, what are you doing?

And he was just like, this guy's like completely lost it.

And I walked out and I was done studying for the exam.

In the meantime I was home kind of sulking and I had 6 other roommates in a house and there was 1 guy he lived in the basement and he played a lot of video games, and no 1 was a super big fan of this guy because he never cleaned up, etc.

So I'm sulking in my room and there's a knock at the door.

I look out, it was FedEx, and I knew it wasn't for me.

You didn't get Amazonnesia, where boxes show up at your door and you forgot.

I knew I hadn't ordered something, but I knew he had ordered something.

Or I was pretty sure, because he would order things from time to time.

So, you know, the door rings a couple of times and he's not, I know he's home, but he doesn't go to the door.

So I'm like, fine, you know, I'm going to be the bigger person here.

I go down and sure enough it's the FedEx guy open the door and I open the door and this is a guy who's got short hair in the front and long hair in the back.

Rock and roll, just blaring from his FedEx truck.

And he hands me, he's like, hey, you need to sign for this.

And as I'm signing, he says, so are you guys studying to be doctors and rock stars?

And I was like, yeah, well, I guess, you know, sometimes I think it'd be better to be a rock star.

And he looks at me, you know, straight in the eye with that like criss-cringle like twinkling of the eye thing, you know, and he's like, no, it would be better to be a doctor.

Why would this guy with rock and roll playing in his truck like super loud tell me to be a doctor?

I put it on the table and walked back up to my room.

Well, it was at that point where it was about time to go take the physics exam.

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Series

Plenary Sessions

Student Panel

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

Guided By His Spirit: Celebrating 20 Years of AMEN’s Mission and Ministry

1h 33m

Leading with Compassion: Christian Principles in Healthcare Leadership

50m

To a Land I Will Show You

1h 36m

Sabbath School: By His Spirit

1h 27m

Revived by the Spirit

1h 53m

Student Panel

59m

The 1% Difference

1h 45m

Sound Doctrine