Tag: Church as hospital

To listen to the audio teaching of these notes, click on:
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/being-the-beloved-being-formed-in-community-by-practicing-healing-2-part-26/

Recap Forming (in) community: the Second Practice of Healing

We “do community” (forming and being formed in community) through the practice and discipine, firstly of healthy relationships, and secondly of healing. Last week I focussed on healthy relationships/community as the primary means of receiving healing and growth to wholeness and maturity. The discipline of healing has two sides: the practice of receiving healing, and that of ministering healing. Here I focus on how we minister healing to one another in Jesus’ name – though we practice both at the same time as ‘wounded healers’ as taught in last week’s notes and my qualifying comments!

First let me paint three pictures of God’s church. The local church is a hospital for sinners that practices healing for wholeness. It’s NOT a hotel for saints – some churches are hotels and cost you dearly depending on how many stars they have! Church is not only a hospital, it’s a family for God’s children, practicing loving relationships for growth to maturity. If there’s not a critical mass of wholeness and maturity as family to absorb and heal the broken as hospital, the family will be overwhelmed and become dysfunctional. Thirdly, the local church is also God’s army at war with evil in all its forms, advancing God’s rule and reign of love in society. So, we’re all wounded healers – both patients and healers – and we’re all spiritual siblings and parents. But this is all with a view to being trained soldiers fighting the good fight of faith in society (1Tim 1:18 cf. 2Tim 4:7). We’ll come to the last one when I teach on our third value: fishing the world for God. Continue reading Forming (in) Community: Practicing Healing (2)