Title: Lutherans are Hearing Wellness Voices ELCA NEWS SERVICE
May 7, 2008
Lutherans are Hearing Wellness Voices 08-060-FI
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- For the past decade the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Board of Pensions has supported the pursuit of wellness and health promotion initiatives within the ELCA. The initiatives support the personal wellness journeys of those who serve the church, including a "wholeness wheel," a working relationship with the Mayo Clinic and an array of resources dealing with everything from financial to spiritual health. There are also voices -- wellness voices.
The ELCA Board of Pensions provides retirement, health and related benefits and services to 50,000 pastors and lay employees and their families. It serves nearly 11,000 congregations and other sponsoring ELCA organizations.
"One of our goals is to grow an ELCA-wide conversation about the value of living well," said Tammy L. Devine, wellness manager, ELCA Board of Pensions, Minneapolis. "We believe healthy leaders do enhance lives, that the effort each of us makes to be as fit as we can be in mind, body and spirit helps us to better serve, minister, parent, pray and love those around us," she said.
"Wellness voices are real live healthy leaders who share personal views on what it means to live well," said Devine, registered nurse and ELCA diaconal minister. "They don't tell their whole life stories, and they're not usually in perfect health. They offer up an idea or tip that works for them and hope it helps someone else. With their names, their faces and their words, they are helping to grow the ELCA's wellness conversation," she said.
The wellness voices are linked to the Web site of the ELCA Board of Pensions -- http://www.ELCAbop.org/ -- under "Live well." Some voices make their way into the Board's communications.
Walking the Pews
"This pastor/church stuff is often a very sedentary lifestyle, and some of my biggest steps throughout the day can be from my desk to the printer," confessed the Rev. Paul T. Mussachio, Preston Meadow Lutheran Church, Plano, Texas. "I decided to start walking the pews of our sanctuary a couple of times a day."
Mussachio exercises more than his legs. In the 10 minutes he takes 700 steps through the pews he prays -- for the "regulars" as he passes their pews, for the congregation and for his vocation as their pastor.
Mussachio said he wrote a wellness voice story "to influence others to think intentionally about the ways they walk throughout the day." He asked, "What prayers do we offer as we do the God-ordained business we're called to do?"
"I find myself these days walking more hospital hallways than pews," Mussachio said. "To get more steps in, I don't park in the reserved spots for clergy that are closer to the door at some hospitals," he said. "So I've widened my normal practices to include this aspect of walking and prayer."
The Miracle of a Wellness Center
"Our pastor suggested I write and tell you about our new wellness center here at Solheim Lutheran Home, which is a retirement community" in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, Helen Aaseng wrote. She was one of several residents who collected money to build the center.
"The center was finished about a year ago, and it's very popular. It offers a variety of exercise options, and is staffed by a therapist who makes suggestions and helps us with our exercising," Aaseng said. "The wellness center is also a great place to visit with others. If we have to wait for a machine, we sit in one of the chairs and chit-chat."
"I now call it the Miracle Center," Aaseng wrote in a wellness voice update. "Some residents who have regularly just spent the day sleeping are now doing exercise. One man who never fed himself and spent the afternoon sleeping, now feeds himself, spends the afternoon exercising, and will stand and try to walk."
"Resident exercise programs are not new, but we have added several components to ours," said Norma Heaton, executive director, Solheim Lutheran Home. "We enroll residents at all levels of functional ability: those who are physically independent, those who can perform some activities of daily living but are dependent on others due to mental status, and those who are physically dependent."
"The residents actively participate in designing their exercise programs with wellness center staff, which encourages critical and creative thought as they explore new areas of exercise. They identify their own goals," Heaton said. "Because of the relative frailty of our residents, the center is always supervised," she added.
Aging Services of California awarded Solheim Lutheran Home with its 2007 Quality First Award for continuous quality improvement, consumer participation, research findings and education, and consumer friendly information.
Laughter as Exercise
"A little over a year ago, I started a laughter club at my church," said the Rev. Laura E. Gentry, Our Savior Lutheran Church, Lansing, Iowa. "We gather together each week for a half an hour just to laugh," she wrote in her wellness voice story. "Because our laughter club is free and open to the public, it is a health ministry we are providing the whole community."
"Laughter yoga combines laughter with deep breathing techniques to maximize the benefits of the workout. The wonderful thing about it is that people of all ages can engage in this activity together, even those with physical limitations," Gentry said.
"Christianity is a joy-filled faith," the pastor said. "We believe laughter is a very appropriate ministry to offer. The joy of the Lord is becoming more real to us, and we're making a difference -- one laugh at a time."
"The more I laugh with people, the more I love them. And now that I've discovered this, I have come to view laughter yoga as a spiritual discipline that is very beneficial. As I engage in this discipline, I become more Christ-like, I see the fruits of the Spirit manifesting in my life," Gentry told the ELCA News Service. "Unconditional laughter leads to unconditional love," she said.
"Jesus Christ was a healer. He was ever about the business of restoring people to physical and emotional wellness. As followers of Christ, we can also promote such wellness through laughter," Gentry said. -- -- --
Information about Preston Meadow Lutheran Church is at http://www.pmlc.org/ and information about Solheim Lutheran Home is at http://www.solheimlh.org/ and information about the Lansing Laughter Club is at http://www.laughinglutherans.com/ on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog