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 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…