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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
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July/August 2006 |
Welcome:
What's on your plate?
"We cannot have a healthy church if we don't have healthy leadership."
-- Dr. Scott Morris
Like many other Christians, Hoosier United Methodists have followed a popular commercialized culture that does not get adequate sleep, eats high caloric foods on the go and spends little time in physical exercise. A second strike might be living in Indiana.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 72 percent of Hoosiers are now overweight or obese with the national average being 61 percent. More than 52 percent of Hoosier adults do not engage in adequate physical activity. The results: Indiana is the tenth fattest state in the country.
Focusing on United Methodist clergy, Dr. Scott Morris, a physician, United Methodist pastor and executive director of the Church Health Center in Memphis, Tenn., recently said clergy health has declined to a point where attention is needed. Fifty years ago, Methodist clergy were in the top five healthiest professions in America, and now they are in the bottom five least healthy. "We cannot have a healthy church if we don't have healthy leadership," Morris said.
Noting that America has an obesity crisis, Morris said if an adjustment is made for age and gender, United Methodist clergy are 20 percent heavier than the general population. "That cannot be something that we are proud of; it has to be something that we do something about."
Both The United Methodist Church and its related health care institutions in Indiana are beginning to work more and more, not only in treating illness and disease, but also preventing them especially among clergy. The approach, called wellness, has been with the denomination since founder John Wesley wrote and preached wellness both to his preachers as well as parishioners. He even wrote The Primitive Physic, a pioneering self-help medical guide, to assist Methodist families with their health care and wellness. Wesley was ahead of his time.
Now it's time for Hoosiers to catch up with Wesley when it comes to issues of health and wholeness, believing that, as Christians, our bodies are holy temples given to us by God. As stewards of this gift, we need to take care of ourselves not only spiritually, but also physically and emotionally as well. Body, mind and spirit are inseparable.
If clergy are going to do the hard work of ministry, they need to be healthy - emotionally, physically and spiritually.
One step both North and South Indiana United Methodist Conferences have taken toward such wellness among clergy has come in the offering of wellness screenings at no or nominal cost to all participants of conference health care insurance plans. The North Conference offered the screening during the recent annual conference session in West Lafayette. The South Conference will be offering a similar wellness screening across the South Conference in September and October (see page 10). Encourage your pastor to participate in wellness screenings.
Also many clergy statewide have begun to keep a Clergy Wholeness Diary as a daily reminder to practice: Sabbath time, follow medical recommendations, increase physical activity and improve nutritional practices - praying, sleeping, walking and drinking plenty of water.
Making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world is a lofty mission. But to realize that mission, our United Methodist leaders need to be healthy enough to run the race. As a community of faith, we can improve our collective health by encouraging each other to live lives of wholeness by what and how much we eat, by praying for one another, by resting and relaxing periodically, by increasing physical activity and by improving our nutritional practices.
So, what's on your plate?
Welcome,
Daniel R. Gangler
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008