Spiritual Hospitals
During my sixty plus years of pastoral ministry, I visited numerous hospitals. If I was there early enough at one hospital, I was sometimes invited to have coffee with the doctors. Good camaraderie was obvious among them as they enjoyed coffee and each other. Despite this pleasant time, I noticed they began one by one to disappear and go to face heart attacks, kidney stones, and colonoscopies.
Medicine has made many advances in my lifetime, but few of those advances were made in the comfort of the coffee shop. Good doctors need and want to be with the sick, not the healthy. Jesus put it this way, “Those who are well do not need a doctor, but those who are ill do.” (Matt. 9:12, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:31)
Churches could well learn from this pattern. Gatherings for fellowship and colleagueship are important; but the first task of the church is to minister to the spiritually ill. Make no mistake, those unchurched folk you know need the Great Physician.
Let me tell you a story about a church “healing.” In a metropolitan city, there was a large church commonly referred to as “that big, old, rich church downtown.” In the same town there was a group of young hippies. They were not a racial group, but they were of several ethnicities. They learned they could make a name for themselves by attending church services where they were not wanted. On Easter Sunday right at worship time, the entire group arrived at the “big, old, rich church downtown.” The ushers explained since it was Easter, very few seats were available; but they would find places for them one by one.
“No,” their leader said brazenly. “We want to sit together down front.” They marched down the aisle and sat on the floor right before the pulpit. Of course, this caused a stir. Then Bro. Benjamin, the oldest and wisest church member, rose from the back and started down the aisle. Everyone sighed with relief. Bro. Ben would take care of those young whippersnappers. Bro. Ben shook hands with every guy and girl in the group; and then, with great difficulty, sat down on the floor with them. When the service was over, members of the group helped the old man up. He introduced himself and tried to learn their names. Then he said, “Please come back whenever you can.” A few of them did.On that morning at that service, the “big, old, downtown, rich church” was a spiritual hospital in action. May their tribe increase.
