It's Holistic

The word "holistic" is becoming more commonly used in our culture today. It describes a physiological theory developed in the 1920's by Dr. J. C. Smuts that the human experience (or any organism) is more than the sum of its parts; that our mind, body, soul, spirit, thoughts, emotions and volition are all interconnected in profound ways, and that each aspect of our condition impacts and affects the other.

For example, traditional medicine diagnoses me with high blood pressure, and prescribes me an appropriate high blood pressure medication. A more holistic approach diagnoses high blood pressure, and makes modifications to diet, exercise, stress management, spiritual well-being, emotional stability and daily choices about life. It examines the root causes of my motivations for unhealthy behavior, and forces me to examine the self and the soul in relation to the current conditions and desired outcomes. And while taking a pill might be simpler and produce faster results, a sound holistic approach is likely to bring a greater condition of overall health in both body and soul. A holistic approach to our personal health has merit and the medical community is beginning to recognize the value of it.

We have all heard the familiar advice these days to eat healthy, get some exercise, and ensure that you are getting enough sleep. These are some of the core components of maintaining our physical health, and if we develop the habit of doing these few simple things, we can generally avoid some much more serious problems.

Likewise, the bible gives us some important habits to develop that continually nurture that health of the spirit and soul. Pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17), love your neighbors as yourself (Mark 12:31), worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), avoid selfishness and embrace generosity (Rom 13:12-14), keep your mind focused on what is good and right and pure (Php 4:8). Just like our physical habits, these spiritual disciplines are given to us to enable us to gain and maintain health and well being.

Churches are more organism than organization. We are composed not of bricks and mortar, traditions and habits, but a collection of people seeking to know and love God and one another. And people are constantly changing. As a church we are (or ought to be) a living, growing entity, continually becoming something new and different, deliberately changing for the better over the course of our life span. And a while we are not perfect or perfected, the church that we are currently a part of is generally in good health.

But, like most of us in terms of our personal health, as a church we have some issues that could be addressed to improve our overall condition. The solitary prescriptions of changing the preacher, the music, the decor, or the cover of the bulletins may have an impact in a small way, but when we take a holistic approach to our condition, we must recognize that one aspect of church affects all the others.

Certainly, the right leaders in the right places make an enormous difference and those key leaders impact and affect the well being of the congregation. Even more significantly, the collective power of our attitudes, and the combined and various condition of our personal spiritual health affect the health of our church. We must be willing to look deep inside ourselves to identify our own motivations, strengths and shortcomings. We must have an awareness of the combined strength of our desire for comfort in relation to our acceptance of challenge and risk. All of these have an impact on the health of the self and on the whole congregation. It is holistic. It is connected and intertwined. We are more than the sum of our parts, and the health of the community of faith is impacted by all of who we are and what we do.

In the same way that band-aids will not cure cancer, a new program or publication will not be the single factor that causes a church to grow and thrive. There is no magic fix or pill. A holistic approach to church recognizes the need for both the individual and collective desire to know God and the power of His abundant life, and the willingness to do whatever is required to experience it in our lives.