Leadership in Wellness
In today’s society, we are always on the go and we often feel that God needs to give us more time in a day. We are consumed with deadlines for work and activities that our children are involved with and even ourselves, thus we lack the ability to prepare healthy meals and become very familiar with drive-thru services. Our inability to make proper use of the time God graces us with to care for ourselves, our family, and His people, begins to affect us physically and spiritually. In order for the church to grow, it has to be healthy and balanced, this means that all of God’s people must be physically fit.
In 2016, Philadelphia Holiness Full Gospel Baptist Church proposed to make our Annual Leadership Conference: “A Healthy Body: Physically Fit and Spiritually Sound” (1st Corinthians 6:19-20). It would offer education and information for all nationalities, especially the African American Community with an intended focus on maintaining a healthy heart. Advocate Sherman Hospital was truly a blessing to our conference. We received tools on the causes and risk factors of cardiovascular disease and how to help prevent it. The presentation was very thorough in explaining the types of cholesterol, metabolic syndromes, lipid abnormalities and diabetes that exist. They also emphasized the importance of caring for and maintaining a physically healthy body for adults and children. Advocate Sherman Hospital was also instrumental in providing a seamless connection of the importance of a physically healthy heart that will aide in our effectiveness in the care of a healthy functioning church; and our ability to activate an infectious approach in our personal care of the church.
It is important that we do not become complacent nor compromise the importance of our physical and spiritual health. We must understand that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and discipline" (2 Tim. 1:7). As we continue on this journey of life it is important that we educate ourselves, our loved ones, and those we encounter about an orderly house of prayer, the ministry of the Word, and an earnest desire to live healthy in body, soul, and spirit. The Lord is thirsty for a Healthy Church where men, women, boys and girls value His presence and as such seek to keep the portals of our heart open, that His presence may live in us and not only make visitations.