When Does Medicine Become Medical Missions?

True medical missions integrates both physical and spiritual care, and the following considerations can help in maintaining a proper focus.

We knew the odds were low when we began.

In the late 1980s, the expectation was that we might see possibly one Muslim convert in a lifetime of missionary ministry.

We were in our country of service with medical visas, running a new hospital, and focusing on church planting. We hoped that the death-defying treatments we offered for the simple killers like malnutrition and respiratory and diarrheal illnesses, as well as the cures for life-threatening diseases like cerebral malaria, would make an impact on hearts for the gospel.

What we found was nothing of the sort. Our population was a resistant Muslim people group with a practical outlook. Most patients had also visited numerous “healers” and witch doctors, had no idea who cured them, and didn’t really care. Even though their diseases were healed, it didn’t correlate with spiritual awakening.

We scratched our heads, wondered how to reach people, and prayed. Then the answer came through an unexpected new ministry. Our impoverished population couldn’t afford transport to the government hospital in the capital when we referred them for care beyond our scope. We started to take them ourselves and forgive their cost with us. Generosity gave us a listening audience. Compassion, rather than healing, was noticed and valued.

We began to witness God working in people’s hearts and lives. Within six years we started to see people trust Christ for salvation, and within 10 years, we had a core group to form a church.

Medical care, conducted in clinics and hospitals, is hard work that takes a lot of time. Healthcare professionals are used to long hours. Likewise, missions and church planting involve hard work that takes a lot of time. Church planters are also used to long hours. How can anyone do both simultaneously?

The Spectrum of Medical Missions

Faced with this challenge, mission hospitals operate on a spectrum from those offering medical care with a Christian name but no spiritual dimension to those fully integrating medical and spiritual care. Three common approaches include:

  • Providing medical care to underserved communities with no spiritual aspect: Many Christian and non-Christian humanitarian organizations do this around the world, and I learned early that it’s always good to do good. However, Jesus’ example was not only to do good but also to heal the sick and preach the gospel. Both aspects, not just one, are vitally important to medical missions.  
  • Providing care for both medical and spiritual needs as an alternative to other healthcare centers: The care for man’s soul is deeper and more important than treating physical ailments because it has eternal consequences. As one surgeon I oversaw stated, “I would don’t want to populate hell with successful surgeries.”
  • Providing medical and spiritual care in the neediest places: The most strategic locations for medical ministry are those that confront a combination of needs, including medically underserved populations and unreached people groups. Care in these places may be even harder to administer because of bureaucratic restrictions or dominant religions or cultures hostile to Christianity. It’s in this context that medical missions fulfills its highest calling—care for those who have limited or no access to the Bible, churches, or other Christians.

At minimum, to be called medical missions, a work must care for both physical and spiritual needs through a combination of healing and church planting ministries, rather than just meeting an underserved population’s medical needs. However, both types of ministry are hard and time consuming. How can both medical and spiritual care be accomplished? The answer lies in Jesus’ example, which has always amazed and mystified me.

Jesus’ Example

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Matthew 4:23). Jesus’ example was without tension and seamless, focused on both the physical and spiritual dimensions. Modern medical missions, in contrast, is often full of urgency, lack of balance between medical and spiritual time occupiers, and unhealthy medical teams.

The Dangers

Medicine has limits and cannot heal every disease. The spiritual dimension may be perceived as less urgent and overlooked. Our goal is to be like Jesus, to take the tool of medicine and employ it to change lives and plant churches. But instead of following Jesus’ example, we in medical missions often get caught in the physical realm, not seeing the spiritual needs of the dying surrounding us. The urgency of physical illness can endanger spiritual healing. Another danger lurks as well: healthcare practitioners may become overwhelmed with their own guilt or burnout from trying to manage the incessant urgency of physical and spiritual healing without fully understanding or relying on God’s role in the process.

What Can Medical Teams Do?

How can we see healthy teams and individuals model Jesus’ example, understanding that the spiritual dimension is more important than the medical work we do—especially noting this can be a challenge for highly trained, Western health professionals? Three areas are key.

  • Ensure that healthcare ministries maintain alignment with the goal of spiritual and physical healing. This takes constant reassessment, deep cultural and language understanding, and personal humility in each provider, characteristics which don’t always come naturally to many physicians and nurses.
  • Keep your eyes on the goal. Prayer and continued encouragement from leaders and supporters is a necessity for preserving a right focus.
  • Maintain a daily, vibrant, personal, living walk with Jesus. Without that, our flesh takes over and produces chaff. With it, our hearts and character are daily renewed to look like Jesus.

May we see healthy, vibrant medical professionals fulfilling the example of Jesus as they heal the sick and preach the gospel among those to whom they are called.

Harry G.

Harry G. served as an administrator over ABWE missionaries in Islamic South Asian countries.