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Blessed To Be a Blessing: How to Have an Intentional Healing Ministry in Your Church
Book by Wagner, James K.
143 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1983
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About the author
James K. Wagner
9 booksJames K.Wagner worked for several years at the Upper Room in Nashville, Tennessee, as the Director of Prayer and Healing Ministries. He is the author of several books on healing and wholeness ministry. In retirement, he is now Emeritus of the ecumenical spiritual movement Disciplined Order of Christ.
Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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December 6, 2019
Meh. Meh. If Christians are going to make regular prayers for healing part of their church services, here are some ways they can avoid some common pitfalls. Do Christians really need a whole book to remind them that really miraculous healings are miracles and will not be routinely on tap between 11:30 and 12 every Sunday? Going by what I've observed in some churches, some apparently do.
Less than miraculous healings, of course, do occur, somewhat predictably, as a result of prayer or meditation. People like Oral Roberts and Kathryn Kuhlman probably shouldn't have claimed as much credit for these phenomena as they did. There are people--a minority of all deaf people--whose verifiable hearing loss can be verifiably healed when meditation, movement, or massage relieve a spasm that is not consciously felt in a small involuntary muscle inside the ear. People who've not studied the mechanism that allows massage practitioners to facilitate this effect have done it for themselves, and facilitated it for others; that they were able to discover it falls within some people's definition of the word "miracle," and that people recover their hearing certainly qualifies as healing. Churches in whose "intentional healing" services people sway, chant, and pray do see this type of healing happen, not necessarily every Sunday, but often enough to impress their communities. I personally would be happier if people in these churches classified these "healings" as physical events we don't fully understand. Maybe that's just me.
(It's not part of the book review, but it's part of my credentials to write it as I just did: As a massage therapist I have observed, studied, and facilitated some healings, restored hearing and stimulated digestive activity and cleared up lots of residual pain from old injuries. Some of the physical processes involved have been scientifically studied; some have not. I say they're as miraculous as breathing is.)
Less than miraculous healings, of course, do occur, somewhat predictably, as a result of prayer or meditation. People like Oral Roberts and Kathryn Kuhlman probably shouldn't have claimed as much credit for these phenomena as they did. There are people--a minority of all deaf people--whose verifiable hearing loss can be verifiably healed when meditation, movement, or massage relieve a spasm that is not consciously felt in a small involuntary muscle inside the ear. People who've not studied the mechanism that allows massage practitioners to facilitate this effect have done it for themselves, and facilitated it for others; that they were able to discover it falls within some people's definition of the word "miracle," and that people recover their hearing certainly qualifies as healing. Churches in whose "intentional healing" services people sway, chant, and pray do see this type of healing happen, not necessarily every Sunday, but often enough to impress their communities. I personally would be happier if people in these churches classified these "healings" as physical events we don't fully understand. Maybe that's just me.
(It's not part of the book review, but it's part of my credentials to write it as I just did: As a massage therapist I have observed, studied, and facilitated some healings, restored hearing and stimulated digestive activity and cleared up lots of residual pain from old injuries. Some of the physical processes involved have been scientifically studied; some have not. I say they're as miraculous as breathing is.)
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