Transcript The role of the church in Community

The role of the church in
Community-based Health Care
Connie Gates
Bram Bailey
Nick Henwood
CCIH 2007
What do you think?
• Take 7 seeds.
• For each spectrum place one ‘vote’ at
the point along the line that reflects your
experience or opinion.
(1)
• Churches are like
other organizations they will participate
in healthcare when
resources are
offered but will stop
when external aid
stops.
• Needs will always
be greater than a
local church's
resources - but
churches can
discover ownership
and do what they
can in a sustained
way.
(2)
• Once church
leaders understand
an integrated view
of Jesus' ministry,
they can lead
outward looking
(and outward
serving) churches.
• Churches care for
their own members
well, but cannot be
expected to care for
those outside their
fellowships.
(3)
• Christian Health and
Development
organizations
cannot easily find
the skills or
theological basis to
work with church
leaders.
• Christian
organizations can
become effective
motivators of church
leaders.
(4)
• It is appropriate for
churches to fully
integrate their
responses to
spiritual, social and
physical aspects of
their communities.
• Churches should
focus on spiritual
matters and leave
healthcare to
government and
secular NGOs.
(5)
• For change and
development to be
effective, it has to be
imposed from the
outside of a
community.
• Change can and
should be
envisioned and
implemented by
community
members
themselves.
(6)
• Local churches can
be looked to, to take
overall responsibility
for a community's
health.
• Local Church
members may be
able to offer basic
care, but more
technical aspects of
healthcare can
never be taken on
by churches.
(7)
• Church leaders are
susceptible to
temptation and
corruption; so
working through
churches will not be
very different from
working through
more conventional
channels.
• Strong, humble and
Spirit filled church
leadership can be
fostered in
developing country
national churches.
Welcome!
…and call for participation.
ZOE - Zimbabwe Orphans
through Extended Hands
Tearfund
Case study
2005
ZOE - Aim and Impact
• Aim - to mobilize and strengthen local
churches to engage in whole-care for
AIDS orphans.
• Strategy - to do this via church pastors.
• Commenced 1992.
• In 2003, 191 active churches.
• In 2004, 350 churches reaching 60,000
orphans.
ZOE had minimal infrastructure.
Staff worked to envision and
facilitate church leaders.
• Interested pastors contacted ZOE.
• Pastors’ workshops unpacked the scriptural
basis for caring for orphans.
• Emphasis that orphans’ key need is for love,
care and support, not material resources.
Pastors mobilize members of
their own churches
• Sharing theological vision.
• Simple practical strategy:
• Church volunteers pledge to visit not more
than 5 families where there are orphans (at
least once each month)… Fewer if
households are led by orphans.
• Looking out for needs, sharing resources,
sharing something from the Bible.
Pastors ensure accountability
of volunteers
• Monthly reporting meetings.
• Other church members offer specific
help (eg repairing a roof) on an
occasional basis.
• Specialist training offered by ZOE (eg
dealing with abuse).
Strengths of ZOE
• Built on biblical
authority.
• Very simple structure.
• Owned by local
churches.
• Rapid replication in
which experienced
pastors trained new
pastors.
Mission in Community
•
•
•
•
•
A Salvation Army approach:
Care
Community
Change
Hope
Tenwek Community Health
and Development Program
• Bomet, West Kenya.
• Successful community health program
that has budded off from a
conventional Mission Hospital.
The program has much
experience of formal village
committee based health clinics
• Successful… but…
• Need for repeated
re-mobilization of
local politicians
and village leaders.
• Not self-sustaining.
Over the past 3 years:
Motivate church leaders to live
out ‘integral’ Jesus-like ministry
• Workshops for pastors.
• Sharing the vision.
• Churches become self-motivating to
sustain care for their neighbors.
• Ongoing program inputs - technical
rather than motivational.
Jesus
exclaimed
…that you may
know that the Son
of Man has
authority on earth
to forgive sins...
he said to the
paralytic, "Get up,
take your mat and
go home.”
• Matthew 9:6 (NIV)
Changing role of the Nepali church
• The church in
Nepal is
apprx. 50 yrs
old.
• It is largely
Nepali led.
• Mission agencies in Nepal (e.g. UMN and
INF) are also apprx. 50 yrs old.
• They are largely expatriate led.
• Entrenched roles - the church ‘does
evangelism’, the missions ‘do health and
education’.
Why change?
• Growing capacity of the
Nepali church. And a
vision for engagement in
social action.
• Changing trends in
international mission…
reduced capacity, and
decreasing involvement
of missions in
institutions.
The result
• Individual local
congregations are taking a
lead in launching local social
care initiatives (e.g.
orphanages, pre-schools).
• A Christian NGO is gaining
boldness and moving along
the pathway towards
receiving hand-over of
hospitals from the mission
agencies.
Participants’ examples
Resources
Jamkhed, India
• Why, and
• How should churches get involved in
community health…
Group discussion
• How can we involve local churches
more in our existing programs?
• From the local church’s perspective –
how can ‘we’ (the local church) get
more involved with healthcare?
• Alternative questions…