Dr. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, recently received a thought-provoking question on his podcast, The Briefing. A listener wrote in and said, "I’m a Christian who has been bed-bound for the last four years because of ALS. What do I do now that I can’t attend church physically? I feel myself drifting apart from the Word and my hunger for it. I know that I’m doing wrong, but I can’t bring myself to read it consistently. Besides praying and asking for the Lord to return my love for His Word again, what can I do?”
I greatly appreciated Dr. Mohler’s answer. He gave kind and gentle encouragement to the man who was homebound with ALS. There was no criticism in his response. He didn’t tell the man to simply read Scripture more and pray more. Instead, he rightly explained that the local church has the responsibility to serve and help this man in his spiritual walk with the Lord. Dr. Mohler gave a charge to churches to stand up and graciously, lovingly, and boldly come alongside homebound saints.
As a person who is primarily homebound, it was equal parts shocking and wonderful to hear someone make such a bold statement! Until I listened to this podcast episode, I do not believe I had ever heard a healthy person publicly state that the church has a responsibility to minister to its homebound members. It was a relief and an encouragement to hear Dr. Mohler’s charge to the church to come alongside those who are homebound. I hope and pray that God will use Dr. Mohler’s words in his podcast to spur churches on to change in this area.
Sadly, the homebound are often a neglected part of the body of Christ. Over the past twenty years, I have privately heard stories of deep pain and neglect from fellow chronically ill and homebound believers across the world. I also have my own stories of hurt that only those closest to me know. Based on my experience, and the stories I have heard, this seems to be a widespread problem in churches. It grieves me to say that spiritual and physical needs of homebound members are often neglected.
I do not believe the neglect is intentional. I think often it is a case of “out of sight, out of mind.” A local church congregation does not see its homebound members regularly, if at all, so they do not think about them. The church is happy to speak with homebound members if they are able to make it to a service on a rare occasion, but they do not think to befriend someone who cannot typically leave home. Perhaps churches think a homebound person needs rest, so they do not want to call or ask about visiting and “bother” them. Instead, their names are added to a prayer sheet, and the care stops at prayer.
I do not write this post for myself. I write this on behalf of those who cannot speak up themselves. I write this for those who are spiritually languishing in their homes, praying, hoping, and waiting for their church to understand the need. I write this for those who have reached out to their church, asking for encouragement and help, and have received little to no response. I write this for those who need someone to reach out to them with friendship and spiritual encouragement because they are too lonely and discouraged to try again.
Believers are not meant to live the Christian life alone, but homebound saints often do. The homebound and chronically ill are there in your church and in your neighborhood. They may be in their home, in an assisted living center, or in a nursing home. They may live alone, with a spouse, with a roommate, or with their family. Wherever they are, they need you! They need practical service, and they need spiritual encouragement. Please do not assume that someone else is already visiting them and encouraging them in the Lord. That may not be the case, and the homebound saints need the body of Christ.
Being homebound is lonely and hard. If you know someone who is homebound, will you please step into their lives? Will you befriend them in their homes? Will you minister to their physical and spiritual needs? Will you encourage them when their spirits grow weak?
I know that there are many churches who do minister to their homebound brothers and sisters in Christ. And I praise the Lord for churches such as these! There are also individual Christians who reach out with care and friendship to the homebound, and these friends are a treasure to those who are blessed to have them. Every homebound believer needs a church and Christian friends such as these.
Dear church, please do not neglect the homebound saints in your congregation. They may not be able to physically attend services, but they are part of your local body, and they need you. Not only that—you need them! You will suffer if just one part of the body is neglected. The church needs its chronically ill, disabled, and homebound members. They are indispensable. Embrace them, love them, and serve them. And in the process, you may find that you are blessed in return.
“But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.” 1 Corinthians 12:18-22
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
