Holston's crusade for health:
'We cannot sit back and do nothing'

By Annette Bender

Parish nurses, health fairs, and free clinics aren't just isolated ministries among a handful of progressive churches. According to speakers at a forum hosted by Holston Conference, these ministries are part of a growing movement to get the church involved in the health of its members as well as the community at large.

"What we're doing today is capturing a glimpse of the future church," said Gary Gunderson, director of the Interfaith Health Program at Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University.

Seminaries are beginning to offer faith and health certifications, Gunderson told pastors and public-health representatives attending the seminar. "Those things weren't in place when many of us were in seminary. This is all well underway. I want you to have the confidence to be part of the movement."

Held on April 6 during National Public Health Week, the "Holston Churches Building Healthy Communities" seminar logged 151 participants for a day-long gathering at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church in Johnson City, Tenn.

Bishop James Swanson served as moderator for the event, which was cosponsored by Holston Conference and the Healthy Upper East Souls Faith- Based Initiative.

The seminar is the latest in a series of conference activities spurred by Swanson's concern when TennCare announced the discontinuance of health insurance for thousands of subscribers last summer.

"There are more things we can do than just shake our fists at the government," Swanson told seminar participants. "We have to be a partner and we have to find ways to respond."

Holston members and others heard why the church is a natural partner for public-health organizations - as well as suggestions for health ministries - from Kenneth Robinson, Tennessee's commissioner of health. Robinson, a medical doctor and an ordained minister, also serves as pastor and chief executive of St. Andrew AME Church in Memphis.

"Why the church? Because we have a history of being a social service agency," he said. "We know how to hook people into services. We know how to help bodies be whole and mouths to get fed. We help people find jobs. We have always played the role of social service agency."

Clergy have an inside track into talking to people about their health, Robinson said. "We as God's theologians are the ones who seemingly bring reason into difficult circumstances," he said.

"We cannot sit around understanding that people are dying. We cannot sit back and do nothing," he said. "I, too, preach eulogies - lots of them. And many of them are folks who ought not to have died, either at the time they died or of the condition from which they died."

Practical ideas for health ministries included smoking-cessation and diabetes-management programs; encouraging school boards to allow public health organizations into the schools to educate students; and talking to young people about family planning and preventing sexually transmitted diseases.

In addition to health awareness provided by pastors and parish nurses, lay members who have already experienced health problems can speak up to say, "Don't do as I did," Robinson said.

The church should serve as a role model by serving healthful meals, Robinson said, referring to the salad, soup, and baked potato served at the seminar.

"I love this lunch today. But the reality is that you haven't served a meal like this at your church since kingdom come. The unhealthiest meal of the week is the meal that we offer our folks at the church."

Pastors can be models of exercise and weight control, he added.

"I'm looking around - and you can do better," he said to laughter.

Seminar participants also heard about a ministry that provides medication to the needy at St. Paul UMC in Wytheville District, led by Parish Nurse Karen Karnei. Several churches provided exhibits on their ministries, including Greenwood UMC (cardiovascular referral program), Sulphur Springs UMC (community center), First Rogersville UMC (prescription assistance), First Church Hill UMC (children's health fair), First Morristown UMC (community health fair), and the Maryville District (Hispanic health clinic).

Others groups among the 20 exhibitors included the Alzheimer's Association, American Red Cross, American Cancer Society, and Crossroads Medical Mission.

Seminar participants also learned that United Methodist Communications will soon be introducing a set of two DVDs to assist churches with developing health ministries.

The Rev. Malcom Wansley, pastor at Reynolds Memorial UMC in Abingdon District, said that he attended the conference out of his "concern for the mental, physical, and emotional health of individuals in the church, as well as in the community."

"I'm going to start talking to the congregation more about the total person," Wansley said. "I wish twice as many people were here to hear this message."

The Rev. Julie Collins, minister of children and programming at Powell UMC in Knoxville District, said that she planned to take what she learned back to the children in her care.

"We are designated in the church to be agents of life," Collins said. "I want to be a steward of life and teach children how to live and be healthful and faithful." Also attending was Susan Collins, who recently began a parish nurse ministry at Loudon UMC in Maryville District. "I'm excited about this concept of health ministry in the church," said the former school nurse.

"It was inspiring and empowering to find out what is already being done in our congregations - and to gain a fresh sense of what could be done," said Steve Hodges, chair of Holston's TennCare Task Force, which was formed by Bishop Swanson last summer and has led the conference's health-care campaign.

However, Hodges said he and others were "disappointed" that they did not have the opportunity to address Robinson about Gov. Phil Bredesen's "Cover Tennessee" health-care initative. Proposed by Bredesen in March, the plan reportedly could provide affordable health insurance to Tennessee's working poor.

"We've got to address the real implications of the governor's plan," Hodges said.

The April 6 seminar is only one step in a conference- wide campaign that included the selection of a health theme for this year's Ministers' Convocation and the appointment of the Rev. Joe-d DowlingSoka to the state's TennCare Saves Lives Coalition, Hodges said.

"The Bishop [Swanson] has once again urged us to follow up the seminar with other presentations that energize and empower congregations to do things," Hodges said. "Rather than, 'You have finished the job,' his message was, 'You have had a good beginning.'"
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