Locally Sourced Healing
Extending Healing and Wholeness to All
Reflection By Scott Stoner
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.
- Matthew 25:35-36
“Locally sourced food” is a health movement that focuses on eating food grown nearby, which is often pesticide-free and healthier for us. Expanding on this concept, let’s reflect today on what “locally sourced healing” might look like and examine how most congregations have a long history of providing this kind of healing.
Take a moment to reflect on the congregations in your community, including your own, if you are currently part of one. Now reread the passage from Matthew above. There is a good chance you can think of a ministry from either your own or another local congregation that is addressing many of the needs listed—providing food, welcoming strangers or those who have been marginalized, holding clothing drives and operating ministries that dispense needed supplies for those who can’t afford them, offering care for the sick, visiting people in prison. You can likely think of many additional ways in which congregations regularly provide healing and wholeness to both their members and those in the broader community.
These ministries are simply the church being the church, living out the teachings of Jesus to love our neighbor. No one congregation can do everything, but every congregation can do something.
Making It Personal: Are you currently involved in a ministry of healing and wholeness offered by a congregation? If not, is there one you might feel called to join? If you are a member of a congregation, might there be a new healing ministry that your local church is being called to start?