

Dr. E. Anthony Allen
PHILOSOPHY

Why have a Whole Person Healing Ministry?
Why is it that Christians and the Church cannot afford to ignore the world’s health problems?
What needs to be done? Click below
Articles
–Why a Health Ministry (United Church of Christ)
Videos
– A Conversation about Health Ministry with Dr. Scott Morris and Jill Westberg

What is a Healing Ministry?
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These resources can help you and your congregation to understand more about what is involved in a Whole Person Healing Ministry. These can be used by leaders, members, study groups and planning committees.
Overview
– Whole Person Healing: Overview
– The Congregation as a Whole Person Healing Community
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Articles
– What is the Church’s Healing Ministry?
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Books
Below is a PDF copy of my book “Caring for the Whole Person” as well as a link to the Amazon Kindle edition. This book points out the practical possibilities for the Christian healer to become involved in whole-person services that use local congregations as healing communities. Caring for the Whole Person should also be a valuable read for anyone wrestling with the dichotomies between science and religion or personal faith and vocation.
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– Caring for the Whole Person by Dr. E. Anthony Allen * Get your Amazon Kindle Edition here
Videos
– What is a Health Ministry – link to Church Health Center, Memphis Tennessee, USA

Should Evangelism and Missions work for others’ Whole Person Wellness?
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Our world faces a crisis of unnecessary suffering. For example, in Jamaica our top five killers are cancer, circulatory diseases (including stroke, heart attacks and hypertension) diabetes, homicide and HIV. These are mostly preventable and they relate to unhealthy lifestyles. It is pretty much the same worldwide. Over a third of persons suffer from mental illnesses.
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When we invite persons to accept Christ as “personal Saviour and Lord”, are we inviting them to a changed morality or are we not also inviting them to His restoration of their wellbeing as whole persons? To use Christ’s words, through Him we can “have life, and have it more abundantly”.
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Should the Church’s evangelism and missions therefore include ministries both of healing and the promotion of healthy lifestyles? What about Christ’s challenge to:
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“preach the Kingdom of God and heal the sick” (Luke 9:2 NIV) ?
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Was this not His example? In fact the healings of Christ and His disciples, and our ministries today are both demonstrations and “signs” of the Gospel.
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Agreeably, Christian living would involve: prayer, meditating on the Scriptures, participating in God’s fellowship of believers and loving our neighbours through service. Wouldn’t it also involve taking care of other aspects of our whole selves: bodies, minds, our relationships, and environment? Are we not transformed into living lifestyles for the well-being, or “life abundant “, of the whole person?
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To what extent have we made room for this integrated message of Christ’s salvation, or Total Gospel, in our preaching? What about having wholeness education, counselling, preventive health and prayer ministry programmes? Do we not need to encourage and facilitate healthy foods, exercise, rest, recreation, social support, smoking and drug avoidance, conflict management and responsible sexuality? What about prayer for these lifestyle changes and for the sick?
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Lifestyle change is difficult. Yet can the power of God’s Holy Spirit not heal our addictions, traumas of parental and domestic abuse and strengthen our motivation? Is the “Good News” of evangelism not the fact that the Christ, who died and rose again, has the power to help us become new persons? Does this not really occur as we give this living and loving Saviour control of our lives?
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Does a relationship with Christ, and having faith, not make whole-person change and healing possible?
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As we take evangelism and missions to the suffering margins of our world, societies and communities can it be the “integrated evangelism and missions” of the TOTAL GOSPEL ?
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What do you think? We welcome any of your stories of” as well as testimonies of transformed lives.