Living Faith: Health Care (part 1 of 2)

The RMS Office of the Bishop in partnership with leaders across the synod has created a community discussion guide to engage challenging topics as people of faith. Each week we will share a personal reflection on that week's featured social statement.

 Caring for Health: Our Shared Endeavor expresses ELCA teaching on health and the health care system. Its vision of health as a shared endeavor rests in a biblical view that wholeness is a blessing God intends for all people. In this vision, a ministry of healing is integral to the life and mission of the Church. This shared endeavor means each person bears some responsibility for his or her own health, but health and health care also depend upon other people and conditions in society and our communities.Guided by this vision, the statement addresses the health care system and its primary areas, from congregations to medical research.  It describes broad commitments to guide discernment and work toward change in a political, economic and cultural environment that often is more adversarial than cooperative. This social statement was adopted in by the 2003 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.

What is Health?
Sue Ann Glusenkamp, MS, RN

I would like to dedicate this to Dr. Norm Aarestad who sat on the original national task force for this social statement.  Dr. Aarestad was a respected member of and voice on Augustana’s Health Ministry Team (HMT).  He passed away in February, 2020. Dr. Aarestad is greatly missed on our HMT.

When this ELCA social statement on health was released in 2003, I studied it carefully along with my Health Cabinet.  At the time I was serving as the Parish Nurse (Faith Community Nurse, FCN) at Transfiguration Lutheran Church in Bloomington, Minnesota.  The Health Cabinet was a group of faithful volunteers who supported and implemented health ministry in their congregation. That was 17 years ago, before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law in 2010 and long before the current 2020 pandemic was even a fathomable reality. While I do not remember exact specifics of our study and lively discussions I do clearly remember a consensus that health, healing, and health care definitely require a shared endeavor. 

Whenever I lead a discussion on health ministry or faith community nursing practice I begin by posing the question, what is health? Asking participants to reflect and write their personal definition of health reveals a variety of thoughts and individual experiences around this inquiry. Typically, this question solicits words such as absence of disease; healing; wholeness; wellness; balance; recovery; healthy behaviors and cure.I embrace the ELCA Wholeness Wheel as a helpful model to inform and inspire health and health care.

This social statement grounds health and caring for health as people of faith in the principle of stewardship of our blessings from God the Creator, Christ our Redeemer and the Holy Spirit our Sustainer.  Indeed, we each have a personal responsibility to care for our body, mind, and spirit as well as a community, mutual obligation to care for one another. Perfect health will never be realized while on earth but together we can strive for abundant life as God intended. Jesus is our role model.  Healing of body, mind and spirit was an integral part of his ministry. Matthew 4:23-24 is one example in Scripture from Jesus’ ministry of healing and caring.

The implementing resolutions enacted by the 2003 Churchwide Assembly and printed in the back of this statement, challenge individuals, congregations, synods, and church-related institutions and organizations to embrace a ministry of healing as an integral part and shared endeavor of the life and mission of our church.  It will come as no surprise that I believe each congregation can prioritize and implement health ministry with a faith community nurse staff position led by a health ministry team.  Health and wellness can be integrated into all ministries of our church across all developmental ages.  Church is a trusted point of access for community resources, health education, advocacy, preventative care, support groups, ethical decisions, as well as local and global health issues, all through the lens of faith.

 Particularly in light of today’s perplexing pandemic situation, basic access to health care is required. I am grateful for the ACA which made affordable health insurance available to more people.