Wholly Healthy: Church Good for Your Health

Edwin Leap

Edwin Leap

Edwin Leap is an emergency physician and writer from Walhalla. Read more at EdwinLeap.com

Our church hasn’t met for about two months now. Many of yours haven’t either. While this has been controversial, I applaud those who have stayed home out of concern for the safety of their brothers and sisters and respect for civil authorities. Pastors and church leaders have undoubtedly struggled with these decisions, but I appreciate their thoughtfulness.

Sadly, many public health professionals have casually ignored the importance of church gatherings to the health and well-being of worshippers. Church is seen as simply a social club, a choice, a hobby that can be deferred indefinitely. But this suggests a tragic lack of understanding.

Church meetings, aside from the biblical imperatives that we gather together, are sources of great comfort to the lonely. Social interaction is healthy. Many live alone, or have troubled home lives. For them, a church service is worship, learning and social time. It’s a place for them to love and be loved, and perhaps for a brother or sister to notice that they are struggling. This has enormous value, especially to the aged, who may be widowed or unable to get out much at all.

It could be that a church member deals with substance abuse, and that a weekly (or twice weekly) gathering serves as a powerful reminder of the love of Christ and the power of the Spirit. Possibly, that is what keeps him from relapsing, or comforts him when he does.

Another member may have terrible memories of trauma that haunt her. The hugs of church members, the music, the teaching might be the beacon helping that sister to navigate the dark halls of her mind.

Guilt is a great burden. Who doesn’t carry some around? We need regular reminders that our sins are either forgiven, or can be, so that the weight of the past doesn’t pull us down every single night and day. Forgiveness is powerful medicine.

The gathering of the faithful, in so much as it is good for our mental health, can also benefit our physical health. There are well-known connections between depression and anxiety and cardiac disease. Heart disease makes depression worse, but depression appears to make heart disease more likely (https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/16917-depression–heart-disease).

It may be a while before we meet together again. But Godspeed the day. Because our faith and our health, physically and emotionally, are inextricably connected.