Faith in the Trenches: “Seeking Peace and Health with the Prince of Peace and Health” H. Spees, Leadership Foundations

Mission: The mission of CCHF is to educate, encourage, and equip Christians to live out the Gospel through healthcare among the poor.

Vision: We envision a movement of God’s people who choose daily to promote healing in marginalized communities in the name of Jesus.

CCHF’s Core Principles:  Our efforts are to be Christ-directed  We are committed to have an incarnational presence  We approach people and their communities holistically  Our initiative will be community based and community focused  We will seek to be a prophetic witness  In all aspects of life and practice we will strive for justice  We value an authentic connection with the Church Biblical components of living out the gospel through healthcare among the poor.

Biblical Concepts: Let’s look at two biblical concepts: 1. Peace 2. Incarnational Mission

Biblical Concepts: What is the Goal? Peace is the Goal.

Biblical Concepts: Shalom means Peace and Health

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age. The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.” (Zechariah 8:4-5)

Walter Brueggeman in Living Toward a Vision describes this peace: “Shalom is the substance of the biblical vision of one community embracing all creation. It refers to all those resources and factors which make communal harmony joyous and effective.”

Nicholas Wolterstorff, Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School: There is in the Bible a vision of what it is that God wants for God’s human creatures—a vision of what constitutes human flourishing and of our appointed destiny. The vision is not that of disembodied individual contemplation of God… it is the vision of shalom.

Perry Yoder: Shalom, The Bible’s Word for Salvation, Justice, and Peace Shalom, biblical peace, is squarely against injustice and oppression. Indeed…shalom demands a transforming of unjust social and economic orders.

The Prince of Peace wants peace for people and places… Luke 19:41-42 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace.”

What is the Means to the Goal? Incarnational Mission is one of the Means to the Peace and Health.

What Does it Mean to Follow The Prince of Peace and Health?

Incarnational Mission

Dimension of Incarnational Mission Incarnational Mission Is… Dimension #1: …following Jesus as the pattern for mission. Dimension #2: …participating in Christ’s risen presence as the power for mission. Dimension #3: …joining God’s cosmic mission of enfleshment in which God’s self-embodying dynamic is evident from the beginning of creation. Group/Source The Anabaptist tradition (including both its sixteenth century origins and contemporary Mennonite expression), Radical Evangelicalism, Liberation theology, particularly in Latin America. Jurgen Moltmann’s Missiology (which acts as bridge between Groups 1 & 3) Roman Catholicism, Anglo-Catholicism, the ecumenical movement, Eastern Orthodoxy. Langmead’s Three Meanings for Incarnation Mission by Group or Source

Incarnational Mission on the Ground: “We are called to proclaim and demonstrate God’s good news to the last, the least, and the lost.”

Who are the Last, Least, and Lost? Children, the Poor, and the Spiritually Distant.

Matthew 18:1-5 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. Meeting Jesus Among the Last

Matthew 25:34-40 Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Meeting Jesus Among the Least

Meeting Jesus Among the Lost Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Sprit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Faith in the Trenches: “Seeking Peace and Health with the Prince of Peace and Health” H. Spees, Leadership Foundations