WHO ARE YOU Resource Center
Step 1:
WHO ARE YOU?
What the Initiative Means to You
Step 3:
Your Health/Wellness
Step 4:
Additional Support Programs
Step 2: Clergy,
Clergy Families and Staff -
WHAT THE INITIATIVE MEANS TO YOU
PERSONAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS
The following seventh initiative was approved at Annual Conference 2006:
TO EMPHASIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-CARE FOR CLERGY, STAFF AND LAITY AND TO FACILITATE INTENTIONAL HEALTH MINISTRIES FOR BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT IN AND THROUGH OUR CHURCHES.
As a clergy, a clergy family member or a church/conference staff member, your health and wellness are of vital importance to this conference. The statistics to your right are frightening, and Holy Healthy UMC was initially visioned to provide solutions to these alarming trends for our clergy, their families and staff members.
Clergy of the Arkansas Conference are asked to support the Vision Initiatives adopted by the conference in their ministry efforts. This initiative, however, focuses initially on the clergy, familes and staff themselves. The conference wants you to be healthy!
The good news is that this resource gives you the tools to get there. As you explore this site, you will be given the opportunity to find programs you are eligible for, assess your own personal health, set goals, and achieve them.
SETTING THE EXAMPLE: ACCOUNTABILITY
We are called to minister to others. Like it or not, however, our influence on those around us is not limited only to our intentional actions. If we face health issues personally, our congregations look to us to set the example of accepting the "Call to Health".
"We are called to live our lives as a spiritual example, alive and free. Our appearance does make an impression, whether we like it or not. If we are overweight or physically unfit, our example is not of someone under the kingship of God, but of someone out of control. If we struggle with simple life experiences because we are too tired, irritable, lethargic, or worried, how do we help those in need? We want people to see the spirit of God – that we are different, new and free."
INSPIRATION CORNER
Did you know that, according to a 2003 Pulpit and Pew survey, over 76% of Protestant ministers are either overweight or obese (compared to 61% of the general population)? Or that 40% of pastors indicate that they are at times depressed, or worn out “some or most of the time?” The reasons for this trend are debatable. The results, however, are frighteningly clear.
Two major studies found that Protestant clergy had the highest overall work-related stress of religious professionals, and (even more frighteningly), the highest death rates from heart disease of any occupation.