Church & Community Health: Faith in Action for Body, Soul, & Neighborhood

In recent weeks I’ve been reflecting on how our congregations can be both spiritual homes and healthy communities, places where illness, climate stress, housing insecurity, pregnancy-struggles and everyday struggle meet the hands and heart of the gospel.

As followers of Jesus we are called to serve both the “inner” life and the “outer” life of our neighbors, and that means our churches can engage holistically in health, justice, and hope.

Here are some ways our faith and our denominational tradition invite us into this work, and some invitations for you and your congregation.

1. Caring for creation = caring for the vulnerable
The CRCNA’s work with creation care reminds us that climate change isn’t an abstract issue. It impacts housing, illness, food-security and well-being. For example, World Renew, the CRCNA's global poverty alleviation agency, works to support local farmers throughout the globe. This helps local communities be able to meet their nutritional and economic needs. It shows us that global health, creation care, and local ministry travel together.
Invitation: Could your church host a “creation-care Sunday” or neighborhood energy-audit, or partner with a local weather-vulnerable community group?

2. Stable housing, stable health
When our denomination highlighted that Calvin Theological Seminary opened a new housing center, it struck me how concrete the gospel becomes when church institutions say: “we will house people, we will build stability.” Safe homes promote health; unstable housing often precedes illness, anxiety, fractures of community.
Invitation: Could your ministry team start a “housing neighbor” check-in list, or partner with a local agency to help pregnant moms, single-parents, renters facing eviction?

3. Meeting illness and vulnerability in our midst
Health isn’t just absence of disease; it’s wholeness of body, mind, and community. The CRC Network recently shared how parents and caregivers are navigating faith formation in the home; a reminder that many of our health ministries begin not in the hospital but in the living room, kitchen, messy reality of everyday life. Visiting the ill, providing meals for families facing chronic illness, supporting pregnant moms or caregivers; these are concrete ways the body of Christ becomes medicine.
Invitation: Could your congregation set up a “hospital visit & meal chain” ministry? Or a “pregnant-moms support circle” with practical food, transport, prayer? Sharing your own struggles can also be powerful: Modeling vulnerability invites others in and builds trust.

4. Theological heart & biblical roots
The Bible reminds us that our work in the world has a sacred dimension. Think of passages like:

• “Whatever you did for one of the least of these … you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)
• “The LORD sustains the vulnerable…” (Psalm 146:9)
• “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it…” (Psalm 24:1)
  We are stewards of creation, neighbours to the suffering, bearers of hope to the afflicted. Ministry to health and community is not an “extra,” but part of our core Gospel identity.
  Invitation: Could you weave one of those scriptures into a sermon series on health-justice? Could your church’s hymnody or liturgy include prayers for housing, climate, and bodily healing?
• 5. My own story & how you can join
  I’ll share briefly. in my own journey I’ve wrestled with the tension of wanting to do everything and being stretched too thin. I remember a season when I visited a neighbor in hospital and realized our faith often shows up in these humble act: the meal dropped off, the hand held, the prayer spoken.
  Today, I’d love to partner with other churches, ministry teams and individuals who are ready to move from “we should” to “we are doing.”
• If you lead or serve a ministry to moms/pregnancy, let’s connect.
• If your church is thinking about a housing- or climate-justice project, I’d love to talk.
• If you’ve experienced a health or housing struggle and are willing to share your story (anonymously or not), please reach out. Stories build community.
• If you’re reading this and thinking: “Yes — our congregation is ready,” drop a comment or send a private message. Let’s explore: what is one small step your church can take this month toward health justice for body, home, and earth?