Kingdom Doctors: Lighting Up Healthcare

CALLED

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog — it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. (James 4:14)

I was just finishing my day's work at the hospital, charting and reviewing labs, when my husband called. We discussed evening plans before he asked, “When are you coming home?”

These were his last words to me – not so romantic, but laden with meaning that neither of us realized at the time. It wasn’t until years later while reading Jesus’s words, “I am going to prepare a place for you. When everything is ready, I will come and get you” (John 14:2), that I finally recognized their true significance. I believe the Holy Spirit was speaking through my husband, while simultaneously preparing a room for him in the Father’s house.

Although I was not yet a believer, God continued speaking to me and my children that dark night. The sun was still shining as I quickly finished my medical responsibilities and drove home. I was waiting for my husband and children’s arrival when I heard a knock at the door, and loud boots entered our home, uninvited.

“This is Constable Lord. There’s been an accident. Your children are fine, but your husband is in critical condition.”

I followed the officer as directed, driving behind his flashing lights. At the hospital, I ran straight into the trauma bay, confused at the silent environment.

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

I began a frantic search for my husband and kids. As my confusion mounted, panic rose inside me, and I started to yell, “Where is my husband?! Where is my husband?!”

Constable Lord planted himself in front of me and looked me straight in the eyes. “Your husband is dead.”

In my shock, I punched him, and then collapsed onto the floor. Seconds later I pushed myself back up to stare into his face, helplessly looking for answers. But all I could see was a brilliant white light, radiating from his eyes, face, and from behind his head. Jesus tells us, "You are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14)

From the corner of my eye, I saw red and white movement outside the entrance to the emergency room. The ambulance was unloading a stretcher outside the trauma doors. Simultaneously, I heard overhead, “Dr. Shepherd to the trauma bay. Dr. Shepherd to the trauma bay. STAT!”

My children had arrived. I rushed outside to meet them. Thankfully they were okay. My son, conscious, was strapped down to a spine board in a hard collar. My daughter was alert and being held in the arms of the paramedic.

FOUND

The Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted. (Isaiah 61:1)

They survived, but darkness and death were heavy on all of us as we stumbled our way through the searing pain in our lives.

Through a police constable and an emergency room doctor, I had been introduced to the Lord and the Shepherd the night my husband died. Yet, for another three years I continued to walk around in spiritual ignorance, deaf and blind. I had tucked the names Lord and Shepherd into my heart, and I had seen the brilliant light, but there was a gaping hole in my understanding. Who was the source of the light I’d seen? Who was the Lord; who was the Shepherd?

Then, one day, while documenting our family history for the purpose of healing through writing, I clearly heard in my heart, “The Lord is my shepherd.”

The words were highlighted and across my chest, right over my heart, clearly spoken and matter of fact. I knew intuitively that these words had not come from my own mind, so I repeated the phrase, put quotes around it and wrote it down.

Having never read a Bible, I had no idea where this phrase came from. I had been searching for God my whole life, but in all the wrong places.

A few months later, on Christmas Eve, I found myself delivering presents with my children to my husband’s friend, a nonbeliever. When I told him the story of who had come to our aid the night my husband died, he exclaimed with enthusiasm that this was from scripture. He ran back into his room and reappeared moments later with a Bible in his hand. He cracked it open and began to read, “The Lord is my shepherd . . .” (Psalm 23:1)

My eyes widened! I felt like I was being paged. I kept listening, but heard only a sound like being underwater while watching his mouth continue to move silently.

Then suddenly, I heard him clearly again. “Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)

The underwater roar came back again until he had finished reading to me and my children.

My eyes opened even wider, and I sucked in my breath. I knew beyond knowing that someone had been trying to get hold of me since that dark night.

That evening, I told my children that all I wanted for Christmas was to go to church. We stopped at the closest church that we could find on our way to our holiday ski destination. It was dark and raining as we got out of the car, and the parking lot was strangely empty, but still determined, I led my children into the small church. Inside we found two pastors donning their winter jackets, and pews as empty as the parking lot. As we stood there, the older pastor walked silently past us out the doors.

With both compassion and slight confusion in his eyes, the younger pastor informed us that the service had finished thirty minutes earlier, and that we must have seen last year's schedule online.

“Is communion important to you?” he asked.

I began to weep silently. He knew nothing of our situation, but he gently invited us for a brief communion, and so we cautiously followed him to the pews at the front of the church. He led us through a short Christmas Eve service, and both children read aloud from the Bible and then lit the candles.

That night I felt a gentle, warm blanket descend on me and my children and wrap us in Love. I had finally received the truth of who Jesus is – my Lord and my Shepherd, the Savior of the world!

COMMISSIONED

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. (Jeremiah 29:13)

For nearly 20 years in my practice as a Family Physician and Integrative Medicine Specialist, prior to my husband’s death, I had been walking in spiritual darkness.

When I was six years old, family friends we were visiting for Easter had brought my entire non-believing family to a church service. I wept with joy, overwhelmed by a deep peace and love that I had never experienced before. I was the only one moved that day and my parents continued to raise their young family in half spiritual truths in other traditions.

God, however, had touched me and had put a hunger in my heart that went on to fuel the next forty years of my life as I continued to search out this source of Love that had touched me at such a young age. I explored many world religions and multiple other ancient and new age spiritual traditions, many of which co-existed in the Complementary and Alternative Modalities that I had been studying as an Integrative Physician.

I never tasted anything that was truly pleasing to my soul during this quest, and any nourishment I did find was empty and short lived, both for me and my patients. I sampled a lot. When it came to spiritual truths, I was as Jesus says about the Pharisees, that the “blind guide leading the blind” (Matthew 15:14).

I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life. (John 8:12)

Since God revealed the Truth to me, that Jesus is the real healer, I have had a heart to see our community of Christian medical doctors understand the real authority that they carry to integrate spirituality, under the umbrella of Complementary and Alternative Modalities, into their mainstream medical practices, complementing what they are already doing as western-trained doctors. That led to me starting Calling Kingdom Doctors. God loves to speak to His children, His followers, those who put their trust in Him and walk with Him in reverential fear. He listens to His children’s prayers and speaks through His living Word, the Bible, directly into our hearts, through Jesus, and any other way that He chooses. God, in His infinite power and wisdom for His purposes and will, has commissioned each of us as followers of Jesus to “Go and make disciples of all nations.” (Matthew 28:19)

SENT

When Jesus was in His earthly ministry, teaching His disciples about the Kingdom of God, He “sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” (Luke 9:2)

Now, thousands of years later, Jesus has given us this same commission. He doesn’t leave us helpless and alone to do this task; He fills His disciples with His power and authority through the Holy Spirit.

It is important for Christian doctors to know that there is a medically appropriate and legally safe way to share the Good News in medicine, one which is officially endorsed by most Canadian provincial and territorial medical licensing bodies. For the Bible tells us, “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. As all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.” (Romans 13:1)

Calling Kingdom Doctors is the culmination of my medical experience as a Family Physician and Integrative Medicine Physician and my spiritual experience as a Christian. It stems from my heart’s desire, born out of a calling from the Lord, to equip and liberate other Christian doctors so that they can live their full calling by integrating the liberating power of God’s truths and Christian practices more deeply into their western medicine-based patient care.

Most of the physicians I have worked with through Calling Kingdom Doctors were called by God to Himself and His goodness first, before He called them to medicine. In my case, God called me to medicine first at a young age, long before I knew Jesus. During my medical training journey, it became clear that I had a calling to explore and teach healing of the whole person: body, soul, and spirit. This led me into training and practicing as an Integrative Physician. This meant not just fixing symptoms or underlying medical problems in the brain or body.

God doesn’t want our patients to be healed just from their physical or mental maladies; He wants their hearts to be near His as well, now and into eternity – in the very same way that He loves you, called you, and now delights in communing with you.

Calling Kingdom Doctors uses common medical systems combined with simple spiritual tools that integrate smoothly into a physician’s existing biomedical model of patient diagnosis and treatment. In this way, integrating Christ’s power and teachings becomes effortless, as doctors learn to move between medical and spiritual perspectives of their patients.

At Calling Kingdom Doctors, we incorporate simple daily spiritual tools and disciplines that translate into an ability to hear and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit for ourselves and our patients, as we continue to do our jobs as trained medical doctors first.

We incorporate Jesus into our practices in a way that does far more than just treat and fix disease, but instead allows our Lord and Saviour to move through us, effectively addressing the spiritual aspect of our patients. In doing this, we bring our patients before the Great Physician, asking for increased healing in all areas of who they are: body, soul, and spirit.

The Great Commission from Christ is not unique to healthcare professionals, as we are all meant to expand His Kingdom and make disciples of the nations, but what a privileged and opportune position we have as Christian medical doctors, witnessing God’s goodness and presence as we serve our suffering patients, allowing God to minister through us.

You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. (Matthew 5:14)

FOUNDATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

Regulatory Practice Standards

In the majority of our Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, Medical Councils, and Professional Licensing Services across Canada, there are Practice Standards on how to safely choose, use and recommend Complementary and Alternative Modalities for our patients.

My three-month experience with Calling Kingdom Doctors challenged, equipped and encouraged me to depend on and be the channel of the grace of our Lord, to accomplish His healing by incorporating the Truth of Christ regularly into everyday clinical interactions with patients. It brought joy and gratitude in a busy outpatient setting and was a wonderful reminder of why I was drawn to medicine in the first place – to advance His Kingdom by healing body, heart and soul in the footsteps of our dear Saviour, to His glory. Dr. Marta Potts, Family Physician, BC

Called, Commissioned, Sent, and Empowered

God calls us His ambassadors. He delights in giving us the Kingdom. He wants us to testify about Him. We have been called, commissioned, sent and empowered to share the Good News of Christ in our sphere of influence.

One unexpected thing coming out of this training, beyond the spiritual care for my patients, is my spiritual influence on others, such as my family, my adult children, and other doctors and trainees. It expanded a lot more than I expected. Dr. David Sauder, Orthopaedic Surgeon, SK

Scripture as a Spiritual Weapon

Spend time in the Living Word of God. It is our spiritual weapon that allows us to do battle on behalf of the patients to whom God has led us.

I saw a 16-year-old girl two weeks ago, with her mom, who was battling depression. I wrote her a prescription for Zoloft and at the same time encouraged her by reminding her how God saw her and how He feels about her being His child. I taught her that the negative thoughts were a spiritual attack and reaffirmed God’s truths to her. Two weeks later, she was doing really well. She was a whole new person. She said that immediately after our last visit she felt a ‘weight had been lifted off’ her. She decided not to take the Zoloft. She has started reading the Bible with her boyfriend and going to church. Dr. Ashley Pirisino, Family Physician, TX

FOR MORE INFORMATION

To connect with Calling Kingdom Doctors, email [email protected] or find us on Facebook under Melissa McConville. CMDA Canada will be hosting online workshop with Dr. McConville on February 6th, 2024. Dr. McConville will review simple ways to integrate your Christian faith more deeply into your medical practice, resulting in higher levels of freedom, expectant faith, and deep joy for both you and your patients.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them? (Romans 10:13-14)