Author:
Publication: Christian Medical
Fellowship
Date: October 1996
URL: http://www.cmf.org.uk/index.htm?nucleus/nucoct96/evangel.htm
Some years ago a seminar was held
at a conference for Christian doctors, and about 30 were each asked their
opinion on whether doctors should evangelise their patients. 25 of them
thought that we should not. Reasons given included:
a. There is no time
b. It doesn't help the dignity
of our position
c. Patients won't trust you again
d. It is not what we are paid for
e. It is not right to get at people
when they are down and susceptible
When you hear how some Christian
doctors behave you can understand this view. A young lady went to her GP
with frequent headaches. It did not take him more than a few seconds to
reach a diagnosis: she obviously felt guilty and needed the gospel. The
rest of the consultation was spent telling her that she needed to become
a Christian. He did not take a reasonable history, did not examine her,
did not measure her blood pressure. That girl rightly left the surgery
rather angry.
We are not talking about evangelism
as a substitute for medicine, but as a part of good medicine. There are
compelling reasons why these skills should be developed by all caring Christian
doctors:
The Gospel is Therapeutic
People go to their doctors with
a wide variety of symptoms, many grossly amplified by psychological problems,
which may themselves come from mental distress and often from a spiritual
void.
An Irish student nurse, who had
recently become a Christian in a Bible study group my wife and I led when
I was a surgical registrar, was feeling increasingly tired and anxious.
She couldn't concentrate on her revision for her final exams. She had already
failed twice and this was to be her last chance. She plucked up courage
to go and discuss this with her GP. After listening to her problem and
discussing the possible explanations, the doctor quietly asked her 'Do
you have any faith to help you tackle this problem?'
The nurse then hesitatingly explained
how she had recently become a Christian. The GP smiled encouragingly at
her. 'I'm a Christian too,' he exclaimed, pulled out of his top drawer
a Bible and turned to Philippians 4: 6-7:
'Do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything by prayer and petition, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.'
The two of them discussed what this
meant and then prayed together. That nurse left the surgery walking on
air. She felt she had not only met someone who obviously cared about her,
but had also received much more help than a quick prescription for Valium
would have given her. She passed her Finals too!
A first year student came to see
me when I was a university medical officer, and immediately started weeping.
He was feeling very low indeed. He had recently got over an attack of 'flu,
wasn't sleeping, was well behind in his work and stressed because of this,
and was very lonely. When asked 'Do you have a faith to help you in all
this?' he replied 'No, I have no real direction or purpose'.
I explained how problems of either
the body, the mind or the spirit can press a person down a spiral of depression.
Indeed the word 'depression' comes from the Latin de-pressum which means
'pressed down'. We then discussed how to resolve each of the three groups
of problems. He was given a two week supply of sleeping pills to help overcome
the sleepless fatigue. I contacted his supervisor and arranged for him
just to do one essay instead of the five outstanding, and then took him
to an open tea held every Sunday by some nurses and students at The London
Hospital.
They befriended him, and soon he
was joining them at the evening evangelistic services at St Helen's Church
in Bishopsgate. He came on their houseparties and after a few months this
young man was not only coping with his studies, but he also became a Christian.
He is still going on well with his Lord.
To be really effective doctors we
must treat the whole person - body, mind and spirit. This tripartite aspect
of man is recognised in the Bible (see 1 Thes 5:23). God is concerned with
all three aspects and therefore we should be also. There are some problems
in which there is largely a physical dimension, but there are also spiritual
problems.
In Sophocles' tragedy Ajax, the
hero rightly says 'It is not for a wise physician to wail charms over a
wound that needs the knife'! Neither is it for a wise doctor to wave tranquillisers
before a patient when the major problem is spiritual. Unfortunately this
diagnosis is seldom made.
Towards the end of his lifetime,
the psychiatrist Jung wrote: 'During the past thirty years, men from every
civilised country in the world have come to me for consultation. Among
all my mature patients there was not one whose problem did not spring from
a lack of religious world outlook. I can assure you that each of them had
become ill because they had not that which only a living religion can give
to a man, and not one of them will recover fully unless he regains the
religious view of life.'
Tom was a man of about 50 who was
dying of an inoperable recurrent pelvic tumour. He was beginning to have
persistent pain and was started on regular morphine. I discussed all the
implications of this with him and his wife. One day, when we were chatting,
I asked 'Tom, do you have a faith that helps you go through all this?'
'I wish I did' Tom replied. I took
the Gideon Bible from the locker and read Psalm 23 to them both. We then
prayed together, and later Tom was given David Watson's booklet 'Start
a New Life'. We had several further discussions over the following weeks.
He died peacefully at home. A little later his wife wrote 'Thank you for
all you did to help Tom, but thank you especially for the way you helped
him spiritually. He had such peace before he died.' Later still she came
to an evangelistic supper party, joined an enquirers' Bible study group
and then put her trust in the Lord Jesus.
People do need to know the true
explanation and answer to life in order to have a full, satisfying existence.
Jesus is that answer.
People need conversion - it is God's
wish
Jesus himself said 'Whoever believes
in him [God's Son] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands
condemned already' (Jn 3:18). It is therefore vital that everyone should
put their trust in Jesus and commit themselves to follow him. How can they
do this if they have not been told the true story? To say it is unkind
to keep this from people can only be called an understatement!
For the sake of our own spiritual
lives we need to talk about Jesus
Nobody, and certainly no doctor,
is exempt from the injunction openly to acknowledge Jesus:
'Whoever acknowledges me before
men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever
disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.' (Mt
10:32-33)
The person who tells others about
the Lord experiences the full joy and excitement of the Christian life.
This is why Paul writes to Philemon 'I pray that you may be active in sharing
your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing
we have in Christ' (Phm v6). If we are not evangelising we are fossilising!
However, these 'compelling reasons'
must be considered alongside the following queries:
Is it right to get at people when
they are susceptible?
One of the few ways we ever learn
seems to be by having problems! A child who has everything his own way
will become an insufferable spoilt brat. Similarly adults will only stop
and think when life is not going as they want. C S Lewis wrote in the The
Problem of Pain:
'God whispers to us in our pleasures,
speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. They are his megaphone
to rouse a deaf world.'
Jesus was willing to use tragedy
to help people think about eternal issues. There had recently been a disaster
in Jerusalem when the tower of Siloam had collapsed and 18 people were
killed. There would undoubtedly have been considerable mourning. Yet Jesus
asked 'Do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in
Jerusalem? I tell you no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.'
(Lk 13:4-5)
We are meant to learn from suffering.
Jesus experienced the same tension that Christian doctors face. There was
a seemingly unending stream of people wanting physical healing, yet Jesus
knew their greater need was to be taught the lessons of God. Read Mark
1:32-39 to see how he resolved the dilemma!
Jesus also used his healing ministry
to draw people back to God. On one of his journeys down to Jerusalem he
met ten leprosy sufferers. They called out to him for help, which he willingly
gave. They were told to go and show themselves to the priests. It was only
as they went they realised they were 'cleansed'. The reason this story
is passed on to us is because of the response of just one of them, who
was a Samaritan. He returned, praising God, and threw himself at Jesus'
feet. Jesus responded (Lk 17: 18-19): '"Was no-one found to return and
give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and
go; your faith has made you well."' Jesus was not just interested in seeing
people cleansed physically, he wanted them healed spiritually as well.
Can we not leave this work to others
in the church?
This is a most disturbing way to
think. In this country 80% of the churches are becoming smaller and older.
We are making little impact, yet some want to leave the struggle to others!
The great commission was originally given to the 11 disciples to 'go and
make disciples of all nations' (Mt 28:19). These new Christians are then
to be taught 'to obey everything I have commanded you'. So the great commission
does belong to us all, even the doctors! It is the seeming apathy in this
area that has led to the present weakness in the church.
Pierre Berton was a renowned journalist,
author and commentator in Canada. Although an agnostic, he wrote a book
called The Comfortable Pew, in which he gives his testimony. 'I did not
reject the church. God remained a real if somewhat less effective figure.
I attended church and Sunday School regularly, though as I grew older I
found myself fidgeting through a service grown monotonous with familiarity.
The church was also for a youth rapidly moving into puberty, a colossal
bore. Thus began a slow drift away from the church unmarked by any real
violent anti-religious convictions. Mine was a rebellion born of apathy.'
Most adults in this country are
like this - the church structures are failing. It is up to all of us, and
particularly to those of us 'to whom much has been given', to work to remedy
the situation. There can be few groups of people who have as many opportunities
as the medical profession - opportunities of being in the front line, of
meeting the unconverted public face on, and of being trusted still.
What is the church primarily for?
Is it so we can attend meetings and sing hymns? No! We are here that others
may be saved and then built up as disciples of Jesus Christ. Every Christian
needs to seize the opportunities given to achieve these ends.
I strongly suspect that people do
not get involved in sharing the gospel because they find it very difficult
and embarrassing, and consequently they rationalise why they should not
be involved. At that seminar of Christian doctors, only five out of 30
felt it was right to use their position as doctors to evangelise. I asked
this same group later how many of them had ever led someone else to faith
in Christ, and you can guess the result. Only five, the same five, had
done this! The obvious assumption is that the others had always found sharing
the gospel difficult, even when students, and had consequently found reasons
to justify their position.
The enemy now holds the ground.
Even a hundred years ago Christian teaching and ethics were orthodox, but
no longer. In Tom Stoppard's play Jumpers one of the characters says 'The
tide is running the atheists' way and it is a tide which has turned only
once in human history. There is presumably a calendar date, a moment when
the onus of proof passed from the atheist to the believer, when, quite
suddenly, secretly the noes had it.' It is now us, the Christians, who
are back on our heels and on the defensive. We all too often feel embarrassed
to acknowledge to others that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour, and that the
Bible is the Word of God which must be taken seriously.
How did all this happen? It was
by the hard dedicated work of a group of atheists, who undermined a poorly
taught, uncommitted church. One such man was Charles Bradlaugh, who was
one of the leading 19th century rationalists and secularists. He was a
boisterous man with boundless energy. In 1866 he founded 'The National
Secular Society' and in one year alone addressed over 276 meetings, in
days when travel was much more difficult. He attacked and shocked the religious
establishment. One of his meetings was advertised as:
'The Bible, What is it?
Being an examination thereof from
Genesis to Revelation, intended to relieve the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge from the labour of retranslating the Bible, by proving that it
is not worth the trouble and expense.'
The damage is now done and a radical
response is required. Every Christian must join battle. We do need more
good preachers, but even more we need every Christian to sign up and be
an active personal worker for Christ. Why don't we? The cost may be the
occasional loss of prestige or respect, or of gaining a reputation for
being 'keen', or even a 'crank'. It was Schumacher who wrote in his book
Small is Beautiful: 'I don't object to being called a crank, it is small,
but it causes revolutions!' We certainly need a revolution! We staid professionals
must learn to share the gospel sensitively.
When studying for the final FRCS,
I attended a course in orthopaedics at Rowley Bristow Hospital. Mr Graham
Apley, the famous orthopaedic teacher who ran the course, demonstrated
patients to the whole group. One patient was a retired soldier, General
Sir Arthur Smith, who had a stable pseudoarthrosis of his left tibia which
intermittently discharged. When Mr Apley had finished discussing his case,
the General, then aged 92, asked if he could say something to the large
group of doctors on the course.
In his public school, military voice
he said: 'I sustained this injury when I was hit by a piece of shrapnel
at Ypres, during the Battle of the Somme. My foot was just dangling about.
I was taken to a field hospital, a Nissen hut, and was put in the last
bed at the end. Everyone was very worried about my foot, they thought I
would have to lose it, but I asked them to patch it up as best they could.
I didn't know what would happen. The next morning I read my Daily Light,
which for those of you who don't know consists of portions of the Bible,
God's Word to us, by which I live my life. I read for that day the words
'The Lord is thy confidence, He shall stop thy foot from being moved'.
(Gripped by this story, the whole group of us burst out laughing at this
point.)
'At the base hospital' the General
continued, 'a doctor said that it would have to come off. "Not so" I exclaimed,
and to this day I have my foot to remind me of God's faithfulness. I do
hope that all of you young men here will come to find that God is faithful,
and that you can trust him.'
The group of us spontaneously erupted
into a combination of applause and enthusiastic laughter. On the way back
in the train we all talked about the testimony of that courageous old soldier.
I shall never forget him, such an eminent man, to whom Jesus mattered more
than anything else.
It is vital that all we Christian
doctors get over our embarrassment and learn to talk to others about Jesus.
When first attached to a gynaecology firm as a medical student I found
it extremely embarrassing to take a history from the ladies. How often
I blushed and was tongue-tied! Yet because I had to learn the art, I slowly
overcame the problems, so that now I am no longer coy, and consequently
I don't think my patients are so awkward either.
It is just the same in talking about
spiritual matters, where it is even more important we learn to overcome
being embarrassed. To be embarrassed is one thing, to be ashamed of Jesus
and of the Bible is another. It has eternal consequences for us. Don't
forget what Jesus said: 'Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him
will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory.' (Lk 9:26)
But, you may ask, how can doctors
talk about spiritual things?
Take a spiritual history
We are used to taking a full medical
history which includes a history of the present condition, a drug history,
a past history and a social history. Why not learn to take a brief spiritual
history? The question 'Do you have a faith to help you at a time like this?'
is very useful indeed.
When I was first a house physician,
I started to do this. One of my early patients was a dear old Cockney lady
who presented with anorexia and weight loss and then started vomiting.
When taking the history I asked her if she had any faith that helped her
at a time like this. She replied 'Oh yes dear, I believe in God'. I was
a bit perplexed as to what to say next, so I blurted out 'Do you read your
Bible?' 'Oh no dear.' That seemed to be the end of that so we moved on
to discuss some other subject, such as her bowels!
Later that week I was wandering
around my patients during visiting time. When I approached this lady's
bed it appeared as if a considerable proportion of the East End were visiting
her. She introduced me to them as her doctor and then added 'This is the
man who told me I ought to read my Bible!' I blushed and wished a hole
would appear in the floor. To save face I smiled at the visitors and weakly
asked if they read their Bibles. Then I moved on to the next bed!
A few days later her daughter brought
in a new Bible. The mother was proud of it and I would suggest passages
she could look at. There just happened to be a Christian staff nurse doing
night duty on that ward and every night they would go over the passages
together. The lady was diagnosed as having cancer of the stomach. She died
in a few weeks without going home. She did however tell her daughter that
she had become a Christian.
Brian was a patient of mine who
had just been diagnosed as having secondary cancer in his liver, causing
him to become jaundiced. He and his wife realised that the outlook was
not good. After talking about possible treatment options, I asked Brian
'Do you have a faith that helps you at a time like this?' He turned to
his wife and asked 'Do we, dear?' As there didn't appear to be much concern
about spiritual things I simply said 'For me, knowing that there is a God
who loves us and cares for us is the only thing that makes sense of problems
like this', and changed the subject.
The following week, however, I met
Brian as he sat in the waiting room for a blood test. He said 'You know
what you said last week, it is strange but my next door neighbour, who
is a Christian, asked us if we would like to go to church. What do you
think?'
'I think that is lovely, but honestly
Brian I wonder if sitting through some hymns, prayers and a sermon is what
you most need at the moment? I would guess what you most need to know is
'How can I get right with God?' There was a two second pause before Brian
looked up and asked 'How do I get right with God?' We arranged to meet
up the following morning at his home and there we went over the basics
of the Christian faith. After a few days, first Brian and then his wife
became Christians. Amazingly, Brian remained alive for eight months during
which he and his wife joined our 'Christian Basics' course and became grounded
in the faith.
Such experiences have made me certain
that there is a growing number of people who, although disillusioned with
churches, have many questions they would like resolved. Bernard Levin has
written in The Times 'There are probably more people today seeking some
larger meaning or purpose in their lives and in life in general than there
have been, certainly in the west, since the day of unquestioned faith'.
Follow up any openings
I have been treating a young lady
with cancer. When chatting together alone after the operation she admitted
that she had seriously contemplated suicide. 'Are you ready to meet God
then?' I gently asked. 'What do you mean?'
'Well, it seems to me a crazy thing
to do, to commit suicide, and bring yourself face to face with God if you
are not certain that you can face him with confidence. It may even be that
this happening to you will help you sort these things out.' We then discussed
other matters, but I did return to see her the next day and left her, as
a present, a copy of Start a New Life, the evangelistic booklet by David
Watson. I don't know how this will work out, but I do know that she has
at least thought about the gospel and the forgiveness the Lord wants her
to have, and she has met at least one Christian who is convinced it is
true.
Open evenings
In a busy life and in busy clinics,
you can't open spiritual conversations with many patients. We therefore
hold twice yearly supper evenings in our home, and invite selected patients,
usually those who seem to appreciate me. We also invite medical colleagues
and friends. After a good buffet supper, everyone is seated and a guest
speaker is introduced. We are very careful whom we invite to speak, knowing
that most of our guests have little interest and are usually doubtful about
churches.
Some guests are invited by mouth,
or by phone, but most are invited by a letter. This explains clearly that
'these evenings are put on to give people an enjoyable evening out, but
also to give us all a chance to think again about the Christian life in
a way that is interesting, without any cringe factor'. As my wife and her
friends can only cope with just over a hundred guests at a time, we have
had to have two or even three consecutive evenings to cater for those who
want to come. Recently we have hired a local school hall, but have limited
the food to gateaux and coffee!
After the first two evenings many
said 'That was lovely' or 'It makes you think, doesn't it?' But we saw
only one or two make commitments to Christ. What was missing? There was
nothing arranged to help those who were interested to inquire further without
compromising or embarrassing themselves. We then learnt to use these evenings
as just 'a taster', and that those interested in going further needed to
join in a 'Christian Basics' course. We now run five or so such five week
courses a year, in conjunction with our local vicar and his wife. It is
at these groups that people really understand the gospel and are converted.
Sometimes in the clinic, I will
ask patients 'Have you ever been invited to one of our open evenings?'
The usual reply is 'No, what are they?' 'They are occasional get-togethers
in our home with a good buffet supper, but their aim is to help people
to think again about Christian things. Since we have been living in this
area we have met so many people who are disillusioned by the churches for
many reasons, often finding them rather boring and irrelevant, but who
deep down know there is a God who is important. These evenings are there
to fill that gap, so everyone can have the chance to look at the essentials
of the Christian faith without any embarrassment.' It is interesting not
only how many come but also how many return.
It is also remarkable how many people
want to talk about spiritual matters and how opening the door to them in
this way often leads to helpful conversations.
Conclusion
There are obviously many ways to
introduce people to Jesus. The real problem is commitment to the task.
Billy Graham wrote 'We are guilty of spiritual lethargy. Sometimes we sit
about like overstuffed toads and we croak and grunt at the right place
with a sleepy "Amen" and a weak "Alleluia".'
We Christians hold the answer to
life, yet are loathe to pass it on. It may be because it makes us seem
arrogant. G K Chesterton once said 'What we suffer from today is humility
in the wrong place. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction, where
it was never meant to be. A man is meant to be doubtful about himself,
but undoubting about the truth. This has been reversed.'
What do we most need to be more
effective in winning others for Christ? Is it:
1. More knowledge, to convince ourselves
and them?
2. More winsomeness, so that we
appeal more to them?
3. More prayer, so that God will
work in spite of us?
4. More courage, so that we will
speak up for Christ?
I have no doubt we need to pray
for more courage. When we long to speak to others, we will have to pray
for openings and ideas, we will want to be more winsome, and we will then
want to know more so that we are more convincing. It is no coincidence
that the Holy Spirit was first given to the early church in the form of
'Tongues of Fire'. This was to demonstrate that his prime role is to help
us speak up for Christ. Spiritual problems are all around us, and God's
solution needs to be told.
Some of the last words of Jesus
were 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the ends of the earth' (Acts 1:8).
The great Christian surgeon, Sir
James Simpson, who introduced chloroform, was once interviewed by a newspaper
reporter who asked 'What was your most important discovery?'
'I discovered that I was a sinner
and that Christ was my Saviour' he immediately replied. This is the Spirit
and unction we need to find again. The question is not, 'Should doctors
evangelise their patients?' but, 'How should doctors evanglise their patients?'
Bernard Palmer MA MB Camb MChir
FRCS MRCP
Conultant General Surgeon
Lister Hospital, Stevenage
(Reprinted here by kind permission
from the CMF Journal.)
