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The Youth & Family Institute is working to develop a partnership with Wheat Ridge Ministries to help Christian congregations become wellsprings serving the communities and the creation so that we have healthy families to pass on faith in Jesus Christ.
One of The Institute’s foundational principles of faith formation is that faith is formed by the Holy Spirit through personal, trusted relationships, often, but not always, in our own homes. People who are not well cannot praise God with their whole lives. Praising God with heart, soul, mind, and strength takes breath. People who are not well are people who are out of breath—the breath of God. A congregation-based wellness ministry is to bring a breath of fresh air—the Holy Breath of God in Christ Jesus—so that they can live wholly holy lives.
A congregation-based wellness ministry centers Christ in all six of the concentric circles of relationship: child and youth, family, congregation, community, culture, and creation.
In chapter six of the Book of Ephesians we are reminded that God wants quality life for people. Wellness is not just eating or not eating certain foods, being a particular weight, or having a proper level of cholesterol. “That it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth” involves relationships of parents with their children, how we treat other people, how we image God to all of creation and steward creation, how we deal with emotions, how we live our faith within our occupation, and how we pass on faith.
Wellness is not the lack of illness, but a Christ-centered balance in seven areas of healthy life: Emotional, Social, Spiritual, Intellectual, Vocational/Occupational, Environmental, and Physical. Illness ministries focus on cure. Wellness focuses on healing.
Biblical scholars have taught us that the healing ministries of Jesus fill one-third of the Gospels. Healing is the very essence of the gospel. The literal meaning of the New Testament Greek word for salvation is wholeness. Jesus came to restore all of creation to wholeness. All of Scripture can be described as the history of salvation, God acting to restore a broken creation to the wholeness, which God intended for it from the beginning.
To effectively pass on faith from generation to generation, Christian congregations need to be engaged in bringing the healing and restoration of wholeness of the gospel of Jesus Christ within all the concentric circles of relationships. We are called by God to live well in Christ. |
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