Sensing a need for better health in today’s churches and in our society, in general, Florida Hospital has launched the Healthy 100 Church movement, the goal of which is to help people live long and vibrant lives filled with God’s power, passion, and purpose. This movement equips congregations to develop and maintain a strong health ministry, with the goal of supporting better health and vitality among Christians, while providing a platform for community outreach focused on healthy living.
When you look out across your congregation at worship, do you see people who are fully alive and fully engaged with God, with each other, and with their world? Or do most of them seem exhausted, run down, stressed out, in a survival mode – somehow lacking that sense of vitality that is so obvious in someone who is truly living life fully?
How many sermons have you heard on healthy living? Energize your church mission mentally, physically, spiritually and socially.
A life lived to the full, which is what Jesus came to bring us, is built upon the foundation of wellness in body, mind, spirit, and relationships – in a word, wholeness. Many in our world today long for wellness, yet they seek it in fragments. They may focus on physical health (sometimes through Eastern religions) for personal or selfish reasons like to avoid illness, be more fit, live longer, look more attractive and so forth. By contrast, when people pursue optimal living through Biblical guidance and commitment to Christ, it is not a selfish endeavor or an end in itself, but a means of glorifying God by fulfilling His purpose for their lives, individually and collectively. It seems good and right that contemporary Christians should view healthy living as something that is important to the one they call Lord.
Yet, how many sermons have you heard on healthy living? “Not many,” is probably accurate for most of us. I’ll confess, I’m an ordained minister, but I never preached on this once during my time as a pastor. This is despite the simple yet elegant logic of Paul, that since we are not our own because we were bought with a price, therefore we should seek to glorify God with our bodies.
The Healthy 100 Church Network connects likeminded churches and church leaders who want to energize their church mission by helping their members become healthy mentally, physically, spiritually and socially. The network also provides an ongoing source of medically reliable, biblically sound resources including training for those wishing to launch a health ministry in their church. There are also audio and printed sermons and sermon outlines (with supporting congregational handouts) to help pastors communicate with members. The network facilitates social networking exclusively for Healthy 100 Churches, where leaders can learn what works from others and share their own creative ideas for developing health-centered ministries and health-oriented community outreach.
It supports health ministry efforts by providing access to “Lunch and Learns,” various tools and surveys and seminars like “The CREATION Health Seminar,” and the Called to Flourish conference all promoting health in a truly holistic sense.
Imagine your church as a beacon of health, healing, and hope. Imagine introducing people to Jesus Christ the true source of the wholeness they seek. “I have come that they might have life,” He said, “and that they might have it to the full.” Your mission is to introduce “them” to “Him.”
The commitment from the Healthy 100 Church Network is to help you do that through this unique movement. It isn’t a new program, rather it is a way to help churches and other faith-centered groups and individuals develop greater energy and enthusiasm for ministry through focusing on something that concerns us all – health.
