WE ARE VICTIMS OF OUR OWN CULTURE. The twenty-first century has brought with it demands, pressures, and deadlines that have left us feeling as if our lives are often spinning out of control. We have all felt the tension of time with God, work, family, church, school, social occasions, house repairs, personal errands, and sleep, all of which need our daily attention. Unfortunately, we often come to the end of the day — and we’re exhausted, and we wonder where the time went. Our day becomes reminiscent of the hamster running in his wheel — busy, but going nowhere. It is this tension that leads to the neglect of certain essential responsibilities in the life of a Christian. One of those essential tasks is the visiting and care of the sick within our own churches.
My goal for this book is to instruct and motivate us to recapture this God-honoring practice, and to do so by reaching for a standard that, frankly, is foreign to us today. This means we must be taught by those who lived at a different time within a different culture. We must learn from those who modeled an astounding dedication to this call. We must learn from their accounts and convictions. We must be instructed by our heroes from church history.
Maybe the greatest historical example of visiting the afflicted was the seventeenth-century Puritan pastor Richard Baxter. Baxter had an amazing strategy to visit not just the sick but everyone in his congregation throughout the English town of Kidderminster regularly and faithfully. In the midst of his highly disciplined routine, Baxter developed a certain sensitivity to those in his congregation who were sick and homebound. He writes in The Reformed Pastor, “We must be diligent in visiting the sick, and helping them to prepare either for a fruitful life, or a happy death.”1
Many others in Baxter’s time and beyond were found to be diligent in this task; yet as America made its turn into the twentieth century, the local church and its priorities began to change. As the United States grew into an industrialized nation, this led to changes in the church, and sadly, pastoral care for the sick became more of an afterthought in many churches. Healthy models of pastors who are known for their care for the sick are few and far between today. To aid us in recapturing this lost and forgotten practice, we will look beyond the twentieth century at historical models that will help us to care for the sick in a way that glorifies God in our day.
There are, of course, several challenges in taking this approach. Our culture has changed, and our lives today are quite different from the lives of the Puritans whom Baxter pastored. Instead of simply copying his model, we will look at some of the key principles underlying his practice and try to paint a picture of what these principles look like when applied today. Pastors like Baxter and Spurgeon would have had no categories to relate to the hypersensitive, self-consumed privacy mind-set we find rampant in our twenty-first-century culture. So some adjustments need to be made with regard to the practicality of visiting hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and homes.
Before considering the practical details of visiting the sick, you may need to be convinced that this task is important for pastors, as well as for the members of a local church. We will begin by taking a moment to consider why care for the sick should be a priority in our lives.
First of all, it is biblical. James exhorts those who are sick to call for the elders of the church to pray over them (James 5:14). Even non-elders were encouraged to pray in a similar manner (James 5:16). And it was Jesus who taught and modeled this practice of caring for the sick. He indicated that it was a primary way to show love to him and our brother (Matthew 25:36, 40). Jesus led by example (Mark 1:31). The apostles also followed this pattern of caring for the sick (Acts 3:7; 28:8). Widows, especially, were to be cared for (1 Timothy 5:3 – 10). Caring for the sick was one aspect of caring for souls, something for which leaders will give an account (Hebrews 13:17). Though this is a quick listing of some passages, it is clear that Jesus and the apostles cared about the sick and afflicted, and they exhorted others to do so as well.
Visiting the sick is also a tremendous opportunity to minister to and to love our fellow Christians. Charles Spurgeon wisely states, “I venture to say that the greatest earthly blessing that God can give to any of us is health, with the exception of sickness. Sickness has frequently been of more use to the saints of God than health has.”2 A spiritual attentiveness that accompanies sickness often fizzles when we are in good health. As we care for one other, we must learn to seize the moments that God in his kindness provides for our spiritual growth and nurture — even moments of suffering in the midst of sickness.
We must also recognize that the ministry of the care and visitation of the sick is not limited to pastors and leaders in the church, but is the calling of all — singles and married, men and women. Even families can practice this ministry together. Similar to the early church’s dedication to provide for the needs of the church (Acts 2; 4), we must see this as the calling and responsibility of all members of a local church to one another. Visiting those who are sick and afflicted can have a powerful impact on the lives of those who practice this ministry. The nineteenth-century Scottish pastor David Dickson writes, “On the bed of sickness the Lord ripens his people for glory, and to the elder himself it is often a scene of instruction and revival.”3 God will not only sanctify the sick through sickness but also teach and encourage the healthy who offer care, prayer, and encouragement. My hope and prayer for you is that you will mature in your love for God and for others in the body of Christ as you answer God’s call to care for the sick.