Ministering to the whole person

Ron Drye is an Assemblies of God missionary serving with HealthCare Ministries in Springfield, Mo. He recently talked with Scott Harrup, associate editor, about the connections between physical, emotional and spiritual health.

PE: How did you become involved with HealthCare Ministries?

DRYE: I pastored for 28 years, mostly in southern Arkansas. My wife is a registered nurse and I’m a nurse practitioner. Our churches were small, rural churches, so when our two boys were grown we went back to school thinking it would help us with retirement. After attending a HealthCare Ministries seminar in Florida in 1994, the Holy Spirit made it clear that He would take our years of pastoral experience and our medical knowledge and lead us into compassion ministry.

PE: What benefits have you seen in ministering to people’s spiritual as well as physical needs?

DRYE: You can hardly separate spiritual and physical needs. People who don’t know the Lord or who are bound by a false religion may express their spiritual bondage through their bodies in sickness, depression and anxiety. You cannot just minister to the physical need and believe that you have truly ministered.

When we minister to physical needs, that breaks down barriers and opens doors to approach spiritual needs. On ministry trips, I always tell a person what a great honor it is to be there and to give them eyeglasses or medication or vitamins, but then I tell them why I really came. I have found that people are open, even in many sensitive regions of the world. You can’t always share the gospel from the frame of reference you are used to, but you can always witness to them so that Jesus can take on a new dimension in their life.

PE: Is our culture too fixated on physical health?

DRYE: We often substitute the desire for physical health when really our greatest needs have to do with our spiritual health. Many Americans think that if they exercise enough, eat right, lose enough weight, only smoke or drink in moderation, avoid AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases and are healthy looking and healthy minded that they would be happy and successful.

PE: So how does our spiritual health contribute to our emotional and physical well-being?

DRYE: God’s Word teaches us that if we are balanced in our spirit — which means putting God first — the other areas of our lives will be healthy. When you are not healthy spiritually and you do not feel close to God, then your emotional stability can only come through external sources. But we live in a world that is frightening and has less and less security. It is impossible to be emotionally healthy if you are depending on external, worldly forces for emotional health. Physically, our bodies often reflect what is going on or has gone on for a period of time. If we have been spiritually destitute and emotionally unstable because of external forces, we cannot remain physically healthy.

PE: Any other thoughts?

DRYE: When you talk about physical and emotional health, you’re talking about things people assume will give them a better life. Even Christians can fall into this mistake. Acts 20:24 has really turned me around: “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace” (NIV). No matter how strong I become physically or emotionally, that really isn’t worth anything in itself. The true value of having health is so we can finish the race and complete the goal the Lord Jesus has for our life. And that is to be a living witness.

E-mail your comments to pe@ag.org.