Caring Communities Program Duke Divinity School

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Healing at the Crossroads Understanding
Caring Theologically and Functionally
Caring Communities Program Duke Divinity
School
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What compels us to care?

• When did we see you a stranger and invite you in
  or need clothes and clothe you. When did we see
  you sick or in prison and go to visit you? And
  the King will reply I tell you the truth,
  whatever you did for one of the least of these
  brothers of mine, you did for me.
• Matthew 25 38-40

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And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood
twelve years..

• Mar 526 And had suffered many things of
  many physicians, and had spent all that she had,
  and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
  Mar 527 When she had heard of Jesus, came in
  the press behind, and touched his garment.
  Mar 528 For she said, If I may touch but his
  clothes, I shall be whole. Mar 529 And
  straightway the fountain of her blood was dried
  up and she felt in her body that she was
  healed of that plague. Mar 530 And Jesus,
  immediately knowing in himself that the power had
  gone out of him, turned him about in the press,
  and said, Who touched my clothes? Mar 531
  And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the
  multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who
  touched me? Mar 532 And he looked round
  about to see her that had done this thing.
  Mar 533 But the woman fearing and trembling,
  knowing what was done in her, came (in the
  presence of all of the people) and fell down
  before him, and told him all the truth. Mar
  534 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith
  hath made thee whole go into peace, and be whole
  of thy plague.

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And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood
twelve years.. Perhaps..

• she knew that approaching Him would make Him
  unclean but ,covertly, a touch might not reveal
  her contamination.
• Jesus knew of her the instant she touched Him
  (or before) but called her out like God called
  out to Cain.
• Jesus revealed her to abate the chaos and
  distractions around them and get the attention of
  her community.
• Jesus restored her publicly to reconcile her
  identity as a member of community and to give
  permission for community to accept her back.
• He clarified that her faith made her whole
  reminding all that redemption and reconciliation
  is promised to all who believe.

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• Can you be Gods hem?

You may be as close to God as some get when they
understand themselves to be unclean.
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• creates a venue to lovingly reveal those who
  feel too contaminated to go directly to God.

Health Ministry
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What compels us to care?

• Our employment calls us to

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What compels us to care?

• Others in need make request of us

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What compels us to care?

• We have the expertise and the heart, so we feel
  that we must

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What compels us to care?

• We have such gratitude for our own journey that
  we feel we can do no other

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What compels us to care?

• Stimulates chemicals in our brain and feels good

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What do we care for?

• Disease
• Suffering
• Despair/Sorrow
• Unmet needs
• Violence
• Frailty

• Under served
• Caregivers
• Disability
• Poverty
• Addiction

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What is a common barrier for service programs and
caring ministries?

• Initiating solutions prematurely

we want to fix it
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Why might we initiate solutions prematurely?

• Urgent need
• Capable people wanting to help
• Personal discomfort to suffering
• Judgment
• Personal/work time limits
• Need for immediate success

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Need-based Programs of Caring

• Identified by the need

2. Dependant on the need
3. Invested in the need (vs. the individual)

4. Relationships dependent on need
5. Can not always recognize need
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Faithfulness.

• It is essential to our worship that we attempt
  to understand suffering and abide, for our care
  of one another makes us both safe and whole.

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A Hidden Wholeness

• Parker Palmer writes that when we live divided
  lives or lives that dont honor our real selves-
  we inadvertently incur costs for that.

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A Hidden Wholeness

• Palmer adds that when we,
• deny our inner darkness, we give it more power
  over us and project it onto others creating
  enemies where none exists.

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We cannot serve at a distance. We can
only serve that to which we are profoundly
connected, that which we are willing to touch.
Rachel Naomi Remen writes,
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Ten Leading Causes of Death
DIABETES
HIV/AIDS
ACCIDENTS
Nine Actual Causes of Death
Illicit Use of Drugs
Alcohol Substance Abuse
STROKE
Sexual Behavior
SUICIDE
Eight Root Causes of Death

STRESS
Microbial Agents
Low
Firearms
Power- lessness
Anger Frustration
INTERNAL EXTERNAL
Self Esteem
The Church Serves Here
Economic Despair
Hope- lessness
COPD
CANCER
Meaningless Existence
Lack of Information (education)
Motor Vehicles
Toxic Agents
Diet/Activity Patterns
Use of Tobacco
Heart Disease
Liver Disease Cirrhosis
Pneumonia Influenza
Community Health Needs Map Produced by Dr.
Randy Johnson, M.D. Marquette County Public
Health Department, 1996
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What is Healing
in all its fullness?
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A Hidden Wholeness

• Wholeness does not mean perfection it means
  embracing brokenness as an integral part of
  life.

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Health is not just the sense of completeness in
ourselves but also is the sense of belonging to
others and to our place it is an unconscious
awareness of community, of having in
common Wendell Berry 94
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Health Ministry is

• the intentional practice of caring for one
  another within the distinct context of a faith
  tradition.

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Health ministry is

• a philosophy of understanding rather than an
  application of intervention.

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Health Ministry is

• A Reconciliation Ministry

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Health Ministry is Reconciliation Ministry

• If, according to Chris Rice,
  reconciliation challenges the life of the church
  to bring friendship with God and neighbor in a
  way that transforms human cultures.

Then Health Ministry offers the means to
participate in that LIFE.
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Its expression exists

• primarily for the deepening of relationships
  which further develop through the attention to
  anothers
• wholeness and brokenness

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• Health ministry unites and mobilizes people
  across age, gender, racial, geopolitical,
  educational, socioeconomic and religious divides.

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• God calls us into a life
  inextricably
• linked to
• others.

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• Health ministry
• participates in life and
• gives us a means to respond.

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Because God is social, so are we called to be
social, to live our lives for God and for those
others for whom God has made room. Shuman and
Meador, 02
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For More Information....

• Anne Packett, BSN, MA
• Health Ministries Educator
• Caring Communities Program
• Duke Divinity School
• www.caringcommunities.divinity.duke.edu
• 919-383-0615