Published by Mark Morris on 28 Aug 2008
Preach & Heal: A Biblical Model for Missions
I just completed my reading of Charles Fielding’s new book, Preach and Heal, which advocates a unique bent on holistic cross-cultural ministry.
First of all – this book is NOT just for doctors, faith healers, and preachers. For that reason, I wish it had a different title so that more people would be drawn to the book.
Regardless of the title, if you want to gain a better understanding of the nuts and bolts of how 12 disciples became Jesus’ instruments in the advance of the Gospel – read this one. If you want to understand the most basic principles of cross-cultural ministry, read it. If you live in North America and you think you understand international missions, you need to read this book before you speak another word about missions, preach another sermon on missions, or plan another mission trip.
Bear in mind that Charles’ experience in implementing this biblical missional model has primarily been tested among unreached people groups in some of the most restricted access areas of the world. Don’t think that this is primarily North American.
Having lived and worked in some of the areas where Dr. Fielding tested his principles, I would especially encourage volunteers and Christian workers heading to those missional hard places, to read this one before you plan your local-church-based mission endeavors! By the way, don’t be turned off by the fact that it’s 256 pages. I’ll give you a hint about how to use this book.
Read Appendix E, then Parts One and Two. Then read chapters 9 & 10 of Part Three and scan through the remaining chapters of Part Three (chapters 11-22.) You will find those chapters that most interest you and you will come back to the other chapters when you need them. But definitely look carefully at the appendices, especially Appendix E. I think Appendix E should be brought to the front of the book because it is central to the author’s model of cross-cultural communication of the Gospel message. I’ve heard Dr. Fielding teach this in person and – I’m disappointed that it’s tucked away at the back of the book. Don’t miss Appendix E!
Mission volunteers should read and study this book, even though the title is Preach and Heal.
The title doesn’t say, “Mission Trip Training Guide” so you may not realize that it could serve that purpose. Why is this particular book special? For the same reason that Purpose Driven Life is a great book. In both cases (PDL and Preach & Heal) the author took truths as well as Truth and simplified them – bringing the cookies down to the bottom shelf for all to reach.
Charles took proven missional truths, practices, and principles and he boiled them down into simple statements, lists, and charts. He also took a simple chronological storying approach and “taught it” in Appendix E. The book is also worth buying just to flip through and find the charts (simple lists) which serve as the outline for each section.
Who really needs to read this book, perhaps more than others?
Anyone who primarily has a bent toward ONLY preaching the Gospel, as well as those who have a nearly exclusive preference toward humanitarian work: medical, social, community development, wells, and orphanages. Those are two different groups, so what do they have in common? Each can not seem to understand international missions from the other’s perspective. Both groups are right and both are wrong. Charles reasons with both, particularly in Part One where he deals with this very debate.
Breaking It Down
Part One (Chapters 1-4) builds a case for holistic gospel ministry that blends preaching, ministry to the entire person, and multiplicative church planting. If you find those three parts of what I call The Entire Gospel Ministry demarcated or truncated in your church’s overseas work, then you need to read this. Part one builds the case for Charles’ cross-cultural missional model.
Part Two (Chapters 5-8), in my opinion, is the unique part of this book. This is the part that should be extracted and reprinted in little booklets that are used in training folks going to restricted access countries. I say that not because this material is original, but because it is simplified and easily transferable. Some of the foundation comes from David Garrison’s Church Planting Movements. Other lessons come from the experiences of many missionaries in numerous countries around the world. The Truth of all this comes from Scripture.
For example, Dr. Fielding takes Garrison’s goodies and makes them more accessible. The ten elements found in church planting movements come straight from Garrison; but Charles breaks those ten points down into three parts: ingredients (what we add), methods (how we add it), and products (the results of ingredients and methods). He then builds the section around those three major headings.
The other great little list that Charles uses is what he calls Paul’s Church Planting Strategy.
1. Enter the community.
2. Make disciples.
3. Empower the Church.
I won’t give away any more of that.
He also puts forth his own A, B, C’s on the subject, a great simplification of some proven cross-cultural practices.
A word of caution – American church planters will struggle in trying to implement everything in this book in a US cultural setting. Charles’s approach is apostolic (read the book to understand this) and is totally a house church, church-planting-movement model. It’s the most basic and the most transferable, cross-cultural form of church planting. The model can work around the globe.
But if you are going to try to rigorously implement this type of church planting in Atlanta, you have got to totally unlearn much of what you’ve learned all of your life about what church looks and feels like. So, be forewarned.
Part Three is what I would call an abridged resource for all kinds of health and humanitarian strategies. Having seen and tested a number of strategies on the field, Charles demonstrates in this section that health ministries (and actually any kind of ministry) can be implemented in such a way as to ensure the maximum impact for multiplicative church planting. But beyond that he breaks it down into chapters on HIV/Aids, Hospice, Community Development, Clinical, Home Health Care, etc., etc. Whether you are a doctor or church missions leader, dog-ear Part Three and go there anytime you are considering involvement an any kind of ministry around the world. Short chapters on each type of ministry give simple hints on getting the maximum impact. Other books go deeper in each of those types of ministry, but this one gives you a bird’s eye view and some hints at getting the greatest possible result.
In my opinion this is a very helpful book. The forward is by Jerry Rankin, President of the International Mission Board. It comes recommended by Franklin Graham, Rick Warren, David Garrison and David Stevens, MD and CEO of Christian Medical and Dental Association.
So….I guess I don’t mind adding my obscure name to the list.
If you want to understand effective ministry that results in church planting movements around the world – read Preach and Heal!
