Healing or Curing: Holism, Agency, and Expection in Ministry

Description

There is a difference between healing and curing, though modern readers often conflate the terms when studying the gospels. Healing is holistic, referring to the restoration of a person socially, physically, relationally, economically, and spiritually. Curing refers to the removal of a particular ailment (leprosy, for example). Jesus was a healer, though he often also cured disease. This distinction is important because modern Christians tend to focus on curing as the more significant grace, when in fact healing is more appropriately the province of Christians (despite miraculous exceptions that nevertheless prove the rule).

This curriculum will help you analyze the difference(s) between healing and curing, and the related assumptions that accompany them in contemporary ministry; analyze our ministries, looking for potential areas of healing and wholeness where we may model ourselves after Christ; reframe our identity as healers, agents of healing and reconciliation; and strategize changes to our approach, both individually and corporately, in order to maximize our impact.