ABSTRACT
A rebuilding of the relationship between human services and the church at both the local and the system level could lead to improved outcomes—psychosocial and spiritual. Health and healing are the results of a mind, body, and spiritual connectedness that promotes harmony through peaceful and effective life functioning. Disconnection at personal, interpersonal, and communal levels leads to imbalance and stress, and may sometimes lead to disease. To combat disease, it is vitally important that we understand that all of life has a rhythm and interconnectedness. Persons engaged in hospital ministry are usually quite used to focusing on connections and disconnections in a person’s health or lack of health. The importance of a discernment of call to hospital ministry is crucial for the individual and for the persons served. It is this discernment of call, and meaning, that leads chaplains and spiritual care providers to grow in skill, development of professional identities, and in the provision of quality services.
