“When you have an existing church that has been around for a century, developing a health ministry can be more difficult, as you work with the existing culture and structure,” Chase-Ziolek says in a recent interview on the website Hope and Healing.
“When starting from scratch, you can determine how to promote the health and well-being of the members and community,” Chase-Ziolek adds. “What would a church look like if health was not a program, but was woven into the fabric of the life of the church? I have not seen it yet, but I am expecting that we might see some interesting things in that area.”
Chase-Ziolek is the author of Health, Healing and Wholeness: Engaging Congregations in Ministries of Health. For a previous Covenant News Service interview, click here.
Chase-Ziolek has been instrumental in developing faith-and-health educational resources and programs in the Evangelical Covenant Church, as well as the university and seminary.
“Through the denomination, we have a full complement of classes (also available online) on a variety of topics with a range of faculty,” she notes. “Topics include ministries of health, spiritual issues and chronic illness, disabilities, ethics, theology of caring and health, and biblical perspectives on health and healing. We have done a mission trip class that studied a community in Africa. You can either do a certificate in faith and health or you can do a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry with a concentration in faith and health.”
Advocacy Training Session Sunday at Seattle Church
SEATTLE, WA – International Justice Mission (IJM), a partner in the Evangelical Covenant Church’s Break the Chains anti-trafficking initiative, will hold an advocacy training session at Quest Covenant Church from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. this coming Sunday.
IJM will subsequently organize meetings with Oregon and Washington representatives to discuss anti-trafficking legislation. Featured speakers include Holly Burkhalter, IJM vice president of government relations, and Eileen Campbell, IJM director of justice campaigns.
The church also will host a screening of the film “At the End of Slavery,” a documentary narrated by Danny Glover, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday.
