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United Methodists learn health ministry leadership skills

A UMNS photo by Deborah White "We can be systematic about what causes life as well as what causes death," the Rev. Gary Gunderson says.

“Congregations are the generative engine of this epidemic of health,” said the Rev. Gary Gunderson, director of the Interfaith Health Program at Emory University in Atlanta and senior vice president for health and welfare ministries at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, Tenn.

“We can be systematic about what causes life as well as what causes death,” he said.

Gunderson was the keynote speaker for the Healthy Conference Leadership Training Event held July 12-15 at Mt. Sequoyah Conference and Retreat Center in Fayetteville. A United Methodist deacon, Gunderson is the author of two books about faith and health and is completing a third book that focuses on the “causes of life.”

The event was designed to help United Methodist leaders develop comprehensive health ministries for clergy, staff and church members in the denomination’s South Central Jurisdiction, one of five large geographic regions in the United States. It was a cooperative effort of the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits, the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund of Kansas, and the University of  Kansas School of Medicine.

About 80 conference and church leaders attended the conference, led by Judy Johnston and Suzanne Hawley from the University of Kansas School of Medicine. Participants heard about the importance of health ministries, made covenants to improve their own health one step at a time, learned how to teach self-care covenant workshops and started making action plans.

A UMNS photo by Deborah White Suzanne Hawley explains the "Wheel of Life" to attendees of the Healthy Conference Leadership Training.

Blazing a trail

Executives from the denomination’s Inter-agency Health Task Force met at Mt. Sequoyah July 12 and attended part of the leadership event. United Methodist Bishop Charles Crutchfield of Arkansas addressed the group with spiritual reflections on God’s call to healing.

Barbara Boigegrain, top staff executive of the pension and health benefits agency, put the event into the context of the denomination’s health initiative.

“This is an exciting next step in our focus on Health as Wholeness in Mission to broaden the understanding of the importance of spiritual, physical and emotional health for vital ministry,” she said.

“You are blazing a trail over the next few days that will affect the health of clergy, congregations and the denomination,” she told participants.

A pilot event

A UMNS photo by Deborah White Attendees blow bubbles, which helps reduce stress and control breathing.

Successful health ministries in the Kansas East and Kansas West conferences inspired the event — the first of its type in the United Methodist Church. In Kansas, self-care covenant workshops developed for the Health Ministry Fund have helped many clergy and church members improve their health.

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, established with proceeds from the sale of a hospital, makes health grants in Kansas totaling about $3 million a year. An initiative of the fund called Healthy Congregations in Action involves health ministry projects in more than 30 Kansas churches.

“This is a pilot event,” said Renee Smith-Edmondson, manager of administration for the pension and health benefits agency. “We’re just trying to share the good news of Kansas.” She added that the leadership event could be expanded to the denomination’s other jurisdictions.

A major emphasis during the event was that health is more than the absence of disease. Good health requires a balance of emotional, spiritual, social and physical health.

The goal is “healthier congregations, healthier clergy and healthier communities,” said Kim Moore, president of the Health Ministry Fund.

Conference leaders loaded their suitcases with numerous resources, including manuals for participants and trainers of servant leadership self-care covenant workshops. Inside the trainers’ manuals were CDs packed with information and a brochure that can be customized for future self-care covenant workshops.

A UMNS photo by Debbie White The goal is "healthier congregations, healthier clergy and healthier communities," says Kim Moore, president of the Health Ministry Fund

Forming a network

Johnston and Hawley urged conference leaders to create action plans by fall and offered to begin quarterly follow-up conference calls in October. Johnston suggested participants keep their own self-care covenants for a few months before they teach self-care workshop in their conferences. “We want you to start with clergy, but it can be given to anybody,” she said.

Moore ended the event with inspiring thoughts. “We have learned we can get off the treadmill and help others get off the treadmill.

“The United Methodist Church cares deeply,” he said. “We have to move from caring to believing.” He said believing requires focus, a worthy aim, strategy, confidence, humility and hope, emphasizing his point with a colorful display of these words.

“We have now become a network (of health ministry). I believe we have some things that can become effective,” Moore said. Quoting Bishop Crutchfield’s devotional, he said, “God’s in charge. God has already proclaimed the victory.”

*White is associate editor of Interpreter magazine, published by United Methodist Communications.

News media contact: Debbie White or Tim Tanton, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.