disability

Healing is Different than Cure

Public domain.

Public domain.

In this teaching, Leah explores questions about healing, sharing a framework that defines healing as broader then cure. She asks questions around how this understanding might help the church do better when ministering to persons with illness or disability, and looks at the story of Jesus healing a person with leprosy. Also, our own Connie Barker shares her vulnerability story about the intersection of being queer, female, and living with a disability. (If you just want to hear Connie's story, listen beginning at minute 35.)

Listen to the teaching below or review Leah’s notes here.

We're All Vulnerable...And That's OK

PC: Bill Dickinson. Learn more here.

PC: Bill Dickinson. Learn more here.

On this Sunday before the official beginning of Lent, Leah introduces us to the theme. Haven will be inviting folks to consider throughout the Lenten season: the vulnerability of being human. What if the most true thing we can say about the human condition is that it’s vulnerable? What might that tell us about the significance of God’s choice to reveal God’s self by becoming a vulnerable human? How might reflecting on the vulnerability of Jesus shape our Lenten journey? Leah considers these questions and more as she looks at the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness.

Listen to the teaching below or read Leah’s notes here.

A Call to Heal

’m gonna start today by telling you two stories that took place in my previous church, the Iowa City Vineyard, where I served as a staff pastor for five years.  The first happened when a young woman in our congregation brought her father to church.  Her parents, who were both long-time church goers themselves, were visiting from out of town.  And they decided to accompany her to our church on Sunday morning.  Our pastor’s teaching that morning was about healing.  It was part of a series of teachings on practicing the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  The young woman's father was moved by the teaching.  He felt inspired to seek prayer after the service.  He had a painful growth in his face, which surgeons were preparing to operate on.  So people in our church laid hands on him and prayed for the Holy Spirit to come and bring healing.  As they did, he felt God's presence.  There was tingling in his face.  He began to cry.  He knew that God was removing the mass.  And sure enough, when he returned to the doctors for surgery that week, the physicians were mystified to find that the mass they intended to remove had already vanished.