AMEN 2011: Center of Influence

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Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

AMEN 2011 Breakout Seminars

Allan Handysides

Relationships: the Secret Flavor in Freedom from Addictions

Don Bovell

The Power of Influence in the Emergency Room, Office & Beyond

Ernestine Finley

Mark Finley

Making Your Church a Health Evangelism Center, Part 1

Jeff McAuliffe

Reaching the Cities with Centers of Influence

Nicolae Dan

Sanitariums Thrive as Centers of Influence, Part 1

David Fernandez

Pain Management as an Opportunity for Lifestyle Change

Making Your Church a Health Evangelism Center, Part 2

Patrick Im

Changing Lives Through Neuromuscular Dentistry

Sanitariums Thrive as Centers of Influence, Part 2

George Guthrie

Spiritual Mission and Medical Institutions

Making Your Church a Health Evangelism Center, Part 3

Tricia Penniecook

Where is God When I Suffer? - The Role of Health Ministries in Disasters

Okay, we want to make this session practical for you and share with you why should you even take the time and the energy to set up a health ministry in your church.

I mean, I've done it a few times, and I know, and many times, since 1969 and in our ministry.

In fact, when we started our first church, we were told that the church was dying.

And they said, Pastor Finley, we need you and your wife to go there and put some energy into this church.

The second church, well, it's sort of almost dead, and it's meeting in a morgue in the graveyard.

And the third church, well, that's the good church.

So he thought, wow, I'm going to preach powerfully in this good church.

And then we'll raise up the saints, and we'll get the other dying churches going.

And so he went to the church that after practicing a sermon, he asked me to go down in the basement and listen to his sermon, and practiced the sermon on me, and then went to the church, and the deacon was there, just the deacon.

And he kept pacing the floor, and he kept walking back and forth.

And then he looked out the window, and he finally said, Pastor, I sure hope someone shows up today.

And that was the introduction to our first good church.

And so we thought we need to go out in the highways and the byways and get some people.

I didn't know how to do health programs, but the Lord kind of blessed in spite of all of our deficiencies.

And so we began doing this and we have seen that God has blessed.

In fact, we were just in Australia just a little while ago and even the pastors said, Evangelism doesn't work anymore.

It's the most desirable city in the world to live in.

If you take everything from sports, from culture, from education, from finances, from everything, It's the most desired place in the world to live.

And yet I'm here to tell you that we went there and we trained our people in health ministry, not just a health program, but how to have an entire church as a center.

And I have to tell you that Mark preached opening meeting 9 times.

We could not close it down because there were too many young people coming.

And we had a venue, 3 different venues, and people were just packing it out.

And I just got word from someone that's here at this summit right now that just told me they're carrying on the work and Johnny Wong's church in Australia is just booming and they're doing this as a health center that we're going to share with you.

So what are some key reasons for conducting an ongoing regular health ministry?

Number 1, health ministry provides a great opportunity for Seventh-day Adventists to impact a world who's open to the message.

When I started that first cooking school in that first district in Quinnipiac, Connecticut, when we did that, it seemed like a vegan, vegetarian, I just went that way because I thought it was the way to go.

Even the Adventist Church wasn't open to that.

And so, but the world is open today and the popularity and effectiveness of wellness programs continue to rise.

MetLife recently released their ninth annual study of employee benefit trends and this is what they found.

The survey found that health and wellness programs have become a mainstream, a mainstream staple for many organizations and 1 that is producing results.

So these companies want a health program.

What were some of the leading 3 ones that they wanted?

Weight management, tobacco cessation, and diabetes prevention.

2 of those directly are connected to what?

And yet, even smoking today, we used to be the head.

We had the privilege of actually interning under Pastor O.J.

And we just started with all of these kinds of health programs and stop smoking.

In those days, we would have 400 and 500 people coming out to our stop smoking plans.

But today, we need to revive that again because we're almost the tail instead of the head.

We just came back from China this week, Sunday night, we got back from China.

And we got a report from what's happening in China.

And although they can't openly promote evangelism, religion, spiritual things, you know what they're doing?

We met 1 woman pastor who has 6, 000 in her church.

It's our largest Seventh-day Adventist church in the world in Shenyang, China, up by the North Korean border.

Another woman pastor who has 20, 000 members in her church.

She has 400 churches, and they're promoting this concept and they're getting their ideas from heaven, from the Bible and Spirit of prophecy.

Wellness programs have steadily increased over the past few years, from 33% of companies offering them in 208 to 45% offering them in 210.

And then growth in larger companies, over 500 employees, has also been increasing from 57% offering programs in 2008 to 71% in 2010.

You all are well aware of the National Geographic featuring Adventists in the cover story on Secrets of living longer with over 22 million copies printed worldwide.

I mean, here we are in the National Geographic as 1 of the longest living civilizations, 1 of the longest living people in the world, Seventh-day Adventist.

And out of that study from Loma Linda, openness to health, New York Times bestseller, author Dan Buechner reveals the secrets of longevity and happiness.

This was backed by research working with National Geographic, National Institutes on Aging and AARP, and they found parts of the world where people were living the longest and the healthiest and happiest lives.

And they said, our three-step process helps you to learn their secrets.

I mean, this book, The Blue Zones, is very prominent.

And they're saying our three-step process helps you to learn their secrets, measure your own happiness or longevity, get the tools to help you change your lifestyle and environment to live the longest, best life you can.

The average American, they said in the blue zones, live an extra 12 years and are 40% happier by optimizing their lifestyle and environment.

You've probably seen it, but if you haven't, this is amazing.

Bill Clinton has just become a vegan vegetarian.

And we're seeing it all over the news, CNN.

And people are asking if Bill Clinton, former President Clinton who was eating, I mean, enormous amounts of meat.

They showed clips of him eating, you know, the McDonald's hamburgers and what's that?

I mean, they're showing him eating all this fast food, meat diet and now he's gone to a vegetarian diet.

The short answer is I went on essentially a plant-based diet.

I live on beans, legumes, vegetables, fruit.

I drink a protein supplement every morning.

I drank almond milk mixed in with fruit and a protein powder.

So I get the protein for the day when I start the day out.

Series

AMEN 2011 Breakout Seminars

Making Your Church a Health Evangelism Center, Part 2

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Track 2 Seminars

Jesus Methods in the 21st Century, Part 3

1h 20m

AMEN 2011 Breakout Seminars

Making Your Church a Health Evangelism Center, Part 3

1h

Plenary

Ellen White Finally Exposed

51m

ASI 2011 Seminar: Health

Energizing Your Witness: The Adventist Lifestyle Message Rightly Utilized

1h 19m

Breakout Session A

A Combined Work – Physicians & Ministers

54m

AMEN 2009 Breakout Seminars

Harnessing the Resources of the Church in Medical Evangelism

1h 36m

Power of the Hour

Deadly Wound of the Health Message

46m

Q&A with David DeRose

1h 25m

The Most Fulfilling Life

05 Fulfilling the Miracles of Prophecy

1h 3m

Health Evangelism

From Health to Him- Part 1

1h 49m

Seminars

8 Reasons God Gave the Seventh-day Adventist Church the Health Message

1h 17m

Sound Doctrine