Roadblocks Preventing Health Education Programs from Being Welcomed By Local Churches

Christian Society for Kinesiology & Leisure Studies 2011 Conference Dr Wayne Wylie, Texas A&M University

Roadblocks Preventing Health Education Programs from Being Welcomed By

Local Churches

Wayne WylieHealth Educator

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY


What Is Spiritual Formation?• In Care of Mind, Care of Spirit, Gerald G. May

has written, “Spiritual formation is a rather general term referring to all attempts, means, instruction, and disciplines intended towards deepening of faith and furtherance of spiritual growth. It includes educational endeavors as well as the more intimate and in-depth process of spiritual direction.”[1]

– May, Gerald G. Care of Mind, Care of Spirit: A Psychiatrist Explores Spiritual Direction. 1st HarperCollins paperback ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992, p. 6.


What Is Spiritual Formation?• Spiritual formation is a universal experience. Dallas Willard writes

that “it is a process that happens to everyone…. Terrorists as well as saints are the outcome of spiritual formation. Their spirits or hearts have been formed.” [2] A study of various world religions such as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and others would enable one to understand specifically how each religion views spiritual formation or spiritual growth within its unique belief system.

• In Christian Spiritual Formation the focus is on Jesus. It is a life-long process as a believer desires to become a disciple of Jesus and become more like him. This would be possible because of the divine grace of the Gospel and the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. Dallas Willard writes that “spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ himself.”[3]

– Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ. (Colorado Springs: Navpress, 2002) p. 19 & p. 22


Health Education Can Be Helpful in Spiritual Formation

• Spiritual Formation is said to be holistic …– Mansions of the Heart: Exploring the Seven Stages of Spiritual

Growth written by Thomas Ashbrook and published by Josey-Bass, Oct 2009

• The spiritual dimension of wellness involves seeking meaning and purpose in human existence. It includes the development of a deep appreciation for the depth and expanse of life and natural forces that exist in the universe

• So, could not health education taught in religious settings by trained professionals be helpful in spiritual formation of those seeking to be like Christ?



• This hope and encouragement comes in the area of spiritual wellness which is missing in large part from many health education training programs in higher education institutions in the United States.

• Health educators and related, allied professional groups have done well in teaching to the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual, but fall short in addressing the spiritual domain.

• Religious leaders are comfortable within their defined spiritual domain but fail to see how it is vitally interconnected with the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual.



• Professional education fails to adequately connect the spiritual domain for both groups.

• Simultaneously the American public is facing a crisis in dealing with many health related matters (i.e. stress related to unemployment, lack of health care, victims of disasters, war time anxiety) and are looking to both the university setting and the church setting to give them wise counsel as how to have optimum health/wellness in their lives.

• But there are roadblocks.

Overview of Sabbatical – Fall 2010

• 9 States– CO, TX, AR, TN, NY, NH, VT, MA, ME

• 18 Schools/Colleges/Universities

• Numerous Local Church Groups


Overview of Sabbatical – Fall 2010• Arkansas (Harding University)• Colorado (Colorado State University, Colorado Christian College)• Maine (University of New England Biddleford), • Massachusetts (Harvard University School of Divinity, Gordon

College)• New Hampshire (Dartmouth, Plymouth State University, University

of New Hampshire at Manchester, Franklin Pierce University) • New York (Syracuse and Rochester Institute of Technology)• Tennessee (Freed Hardeman University) • Texas (Abilene Christian University, St. Mary’s University &

Concordia). • Consultations and field work were completed in various churches

and retreats in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Texas.


Roadblocks Preventing Health Education Programs from Being Welcomed By Local

Churches

• Ministers and Other Church Leaders Think They Are Knowledgeable About Health Content– Media– Personal experiences


Roadblocks Preventing Health Education Programs from Being

Welcomed By Local Churches

• Ministers and other Church Leaders Do Not Understand What Professional Health Educators Do– Championed “Health Education” especially “Community

Health Education” explaining to interdisciplinary groups as to what it is, how it fits with needs of a spiritual community and how it is needed as an essential part of professional preparation for church leadership (i.e. rabbis, ministers, clergy, elders, deacon, and other religious titles of leadership).


Health education also takes the holistic approach


Physical Health

Environmental Health

Mental Health

Social Health

Emotional Health

Spiritual Health



• Ministers and other Church Leaders Do Not See The Topic of Health As Multidimensional – Internalized meaning of “spiritual wellness”

and specified how it both fits in with the holistic approach to teaching health education and compliments the current religious work of spiritual formation.



Welcomed By Local Churches• Professional Preparation Programs of

Ministers and Other Church Leaders Do Not Include Even the Basic Entry Level Health & Wellness Course– As a Result Most Church Leaders Could Not

Understand Why or How State Universities/Colleges Could Offer Assistance About Spiritual Wellness



Welcomed By Local Churches• The challenge was great in educating the many potential

stakeholders to understand how non-traditional entities such as public universities could realistically lay claim to “spiritual health” or “spiritual wellness.”

• The Sabbatical allowed Dr. Wylie to initiate that discussion within private religious oriented colleges and universities by posing the question, “Why do not Christian colleges and universities do more to offer health education courses to their own student body, especially those who want a professional career in the ministry?




• The Definition Of Spiritual Wellness Is Not Universally Understood– Even among health & kinesiology profession

– What Is It?


Challenges

• Tell the “story of health education” – People need to know about the profession

• Make clear the holistic nature of health education

• Especially teach what “spiritual wellness” means


Final Positive Insight• The Faculty Development Leave also provided great opportunity to

understand how a need assessment could not be as easily designed and implemented within a religious setting as it has successfully been done in worksite populations. Specifically, the religious communities do better in responding to need assessments that strike the chords of how their spiritual life is impacted by personal health problems. Resulting strategies for the planners then become predictable as the approach to improving the health problem fell into one of two, at most, categories: that of increasing faith and that of ceasing personal behavior practices defined as sin. Only when those two categories were satisfactorily accomplished could the wellness program in the church setting morph into a program better reflecting traditional wellness programs found in worksite communities. This discovery can easily be interpreted as a strong point for the church wellness program bringing about more lifelong healthy lifestyles than the typical worksite program.


Documents

Roadblocks Preventing Health Education Programs from Being Welcomed By Local Churches