Family: Is she dead?

Doctor: I’m not a medical examiner. She’s not dead, but she doesn’t look good.

Family: Are you telling us, she needs to be on hospice care? Keep her comfortable until she dies? Is that it, doc?

Doctor: I’m not a palliative care specialist either. I’m saying there’s a chance for her to survive but it won’t be quick or easy.  Radical surgeries and treatments will need to take place, and even then, there is no guarantee she will make it.

Family: What kind of surgeries are we talking about?

Doctor: Well for one there is a heart problem. It’s divided. It’s divided on so many levels. For her to get well, unity must happen. Someone Great once said, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

Family: Can’t you just fix it, Doc? Open heart surgery. Sew it up and make it better?

Doctor: It’s a big procedure. This heart condition didn’t happen overnight, and won’t be cured with a snap of the fingers. 

Family: What’s the remedy?  

Doctor: She needs to change her intake and training. A steady diet of the Fruit of the Spirit is the best medicine. The fruit of the Spirit each day keeps the carnality away. Instead of attacking her own, she needs to exercise patience, practice understanding and have a daily workout of prayer. 

Family: She’s lethargic, empty or maybe “stale” is the word.

Doctor: Not surprising. Does she talk about the “good old days”?

Family: All the time. She’s not the fireball she was in her youth. She tells when she would be showered with blessings. That doesn’t happen anymore. 

Doctor: A fresh anointing of the Spirit is the best medicine. But that takes confession of one’s failures and admitting short comings, that’s a remedy that is hard to swallow for many.

Family: That will cure what ails her?

Doctor: That’s a start. The daily infusion of the Holy Spirit and the cleansing power brought is the answer to many of these issues. She will also need a Ponce de Leon treatment administered as soon as possible

Family: Ponce de Leon? 

Doctor: Surely, you’ve noticed, she’s not getting younger. Like all things, there is a life cycle in churches and if a youth movement doesn’t happen soon she will die. It’s only a matter of time.

Family: We have noticed, how do we say this?  She’s not cool. At least not as cool as other places and that’s probably why her youth is fleeting.

Doctor: Pardon me for saying, but your attitude is part of the problem. Who needs cool? She doesn’t. Skinny jeans and smoke machines aren’t the answer. Instead of cool, she needs to get warm. Friendly. It takes empathizing with today’s youth, and recognizing the complexities of living in today’s world. It’s welcoming all saints and sinners. It’s being a family again. Not a perfect family, whose family is? But a satisfying, loving, serving, forgiving family. 

Family: Are you saying, she needs a makeover?

Doctor: There’s no question she needs to be made new. But I know a Specialist, we call Him “the Great Physician,” He specializes in revitalizing dry bones and springing life from barren ground. 

Family: Will she make it, doc?

Doctor: I guess that’s up to you. The Great Physician can make it happen. Will you allow the healing and help to begin?