September
17
2015

Rhode Island's Zion Korean UMC Integrates Health into Ministry

Rhode Island's Zion Korean UMC Integrates Health into Ministry

Zion's Health Ministry Programs:

(1) 5 T’s of Stewardship

"We will continue to practice the 5 T’s of Stewardship that we learned from the 2007 Intergenerational Retreat of the Zion KUMC as follows.

5 T’s of Stewardship

Stewardship is our faith response to God in all areas of life and all the time. The Five T’s of Stewardship is a helpful way to think about whole life stewardship:

  • T for Time: This encourages us to find balance in life between family, work, play and spiritual growth.
  • T for Tissue: This promotes wellness (of heart, mind, body and soul) and emphasizes caring for our physical health and relationships with others.
  • T for Talent: This invites us to consider our special gifts and skills and how to use them to give glory to God and to serve others.
  • T for Trees: This reminds us to be good stewards of the earth by recycling, reusing and reducing consumption of resources.
  • T for Treasure: The Bible teaches us to give gratefully, regularly, proportionately, joyfully and from our 'first fruits', not our leftovers. "God loves a cheerful giver" (1 Corinthians 9:7).

(Source: http://www.easter.org/xoops/modules/wiwimod/index.php?page=StewardshipEmphasis&back=TheFiveTs)

While growing in each area of the five T’s of stewardship, we recognize that it is very important to set apart time (especially for worship, prayer, and service) and money (especially for tithe and the other offerings) for God and God alone. The giving of time and money is a spiritual issue that fits the different stages of faith development."  (Pastor's Report / 2007 Church Conference)

"We believe that worship and stewardship cannot be separated from each other. The life of stewardship is to be more than a tithe of our money to the church. It is the gift of ourselves to God’s grace, as exhorted in Romans 12: 1. We will continue to practice the 5 T’s of Stewardship, that we learned at the 2007 Intergenerational Retreat of the Zion KUMC.... We need to find balance in life between family, work, play and spiritual growth. Sabbath-taking is not limited to personal wellbeing, but rather extended to the stewardship of self and community. 5 T’s of Stewardship (especially T for Tissue) reminds us that we are called to manage the gifts and resources from God wisely, to use them to glorify God, and to serve others." (Pastor's Report / 2008 Church Conference)

(2) PEA Prayer

"Our Saturday morning prayer (PEA prayer) helps us not only to deepen our relationship with God, but also to learn the link between prayer and the practice of Christian life. After one-hour of contemplative prayer (P=Prayer/Stewardship of soul and beyond), the participants exercise Chi Kung or Tai Chi together (E=Exercise/Stewardship of body and beyond), and continue to do voluntary work (A=Action/Stewardship of world and beyond).  Through the PEA training, we keep learning that Prayer, Exercise, and Action are intrinsically related with each other.  In this way, we invite the congregation to narrow the gap between their present life and the vision of God’s reign, journeying together as members of the body of Christ... " (Pastor's Report / 2009 Church Conference)

(3)  Tai Chi

“One field education supervisor, Hyuk Seonwoo, builds into his covenant with students that they each do one hour of self-care (especially exercise) per week.  The pastor does Tai Chi, from which he draws language to describe the natural rhythm of creation as “loosen-empty-push.”  Seonwoo writes: “When we try to float on our backs, we need to loosen and empty ourselves or else we would drown.  Backstrokes (“push”) require that we loosen and empty first.”  Quoted from Bryan P. Stone and Claire E. Wolfteich, Sabbath in the City: Sustaining Urban Pastoral Excellence (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 96.

"We keep learning the importance of maintaining balance between work and Sabbath-taking. In highly task-oriented and multi-tasking social and cultural environments, we try to learn the natural rhythm of creation, ‘the rhythm of loosen-empty-push,’ which is illustrated in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the meaning of baptism." (Pastor's Report / 2010 Church Conference)

(4) What We Do

  • Ongoing invitation to live out the 5 T’s of Stewardship
  • Tai Chi and other exercises during Zion's annual intergenerational summer retreat,
  • Exercise for the Older Adults as part of Bible Study and Fellowships
  •  Teaching Tai Chi (in the process of consulting with local volunteer coordinators from Elder Care or Free Clinic)
  •  Weekly Half Day Retreat: 

Posted 17th September 2015 by Jane

출처: United Methodist Health Volunteers: "Healthier Communities Through Empowerment" (http://umvim4health.blogspot.com/2015/09/rhode-islands-zion-korean-umc.html)

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