A Place for Healing

The old baseball movie left us with the "build it, they'll come" image.  It is a saying that has since those days been changed a bit to point us toward a lot of possibilities.  One thing about which I have become convinced over the years is that if the church offers a service centered on the healing ministry, people will come.  I saw this first hand in those early days at the Vidalia Church when we announced "A Service of Prayers for Healing" on Sunday evenings.  Those who came were certainly not the Sunday morning crowd, neither were they the usual Sunday night crowd, but always there were those who came from the unexpected arenas of the community bringing their need with them.    

Jesus never put up a sign announcing this dimension of His ministry, but word got around and people showed up.  Mark writes about Jesus healing Simon Peter's mother-in-law of a fever and by the time of evening "the whole city was gathered around the door."  (Mark 1:33).  As Mark tells the story this was only the first of many who were to be touched by the healing hand of Jesus. There was even one paralyzed man who was brought to Jesus by his friends whose tore off roofing to get their needy friend to Jesus.  Mark does not make the healing ministry of Jesus a side show issue, but one central to the reason Jesus came to dwell among us.  

The church has always identified itself as the Body of Christ meaning that it is stand in the world as Christ would stand in the world were He still present in the flesh.  If such is true, if the church truly does see itself as the Body of Christ in the world, then there is no excuse for delegating this ministry to the backroom.  Instead, there is every reason for the church to create  moments for the prayers for healing to take place so that the suffering ones can be touched and anointed in the name of the Christ.