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“Sustaining Identity, In A Faith-Based Organization”
February 25, 2009
Gordon Bietz
Personal Story of identity issues
I was a seminary student taking Clinical Pastoral Education at Loma Linda
when our group went to a workshop in San Diego to meet with other students who
were also taking CPE. In the process of getting acquainted I was asked where I did
my undergraduate work. I said, in a rather embarrassed way, eyes downcast
looking at my feet, “I attended a small parochial school, you have probably never
heard of it, in Riverside – La Sierra College.”
What the person said next I have remembered to this day. “Don’t be
embarrassed– you should be proud of your school.”
My identity was primarily informed by an inferiority complex. I had
received my education in a homogeneous subculture and had not had many
opportunities to interact with others. My identity was of a small, inadequate,
undergraduate school. In reality it was a good school that I could be proud of. Our
personal identity is derived from our upbringing and a life of experiences. We
develop a sense of identity, and how we differ from others.
Like people institutions develop identity – or we might say a corporate
culture. Institutions develop a sense of what sets them apart. The issue for us
today is how we maintain our institutional faith identity in a rapidly changing
world that not only does not share our values, but often scoffs at them.
University identity issues
The challenge of maintaining identity for an institution is not unique to
hospitals. A brief look at colleges and universities is instructive.
Harvard University was founded in 1636 with the intention of establishing a
school to train Christian ministers. From Harvard’s rules and precepts we read;
“… Let every Student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well,
the maine end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is
eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottome, as the only
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foundation of all sound knowledge and Learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth
wisedome, Let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seeke it of him
(Prov. 2:3).”i
My brief experience as a Merrill Fellow at Harvard demonstrated to me that
they had strayed a long way from that purpose.
The founding of Princeton, like that of Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth, was
one of the consequences of The Great Awakening, the series of religious revivals
that swept the English colonies in America in the eighteenth century.ii
These schools did not set out to abandon their identity, the mission and
values of their founding churches; they just went down the slippery slope slowly
conforming to cultural societal expectations and the result was eventual separation
from their founding organization. Their identity changed as society changed.
They are fine educational institutions, but bear no resemblance to their founding
mission or church. This institutional slippage from original mission to secular
institution is chronicled in the aptly titled book, “The Dying of the Light - the
disengagement of colleges & universities from their Christian churches.”
History of rational for establishing hospitals
To understand our Seventh-day Adventist hospital identity it is important to
understand why we established hospitals in the first place. What was the founding
identity/mission? Ellen White pushed, raised money, and cajoled “the brethren” to
build hospitals from Australia to Loma Linda, to Angwin. Why? – to fulfill the
Christians call to heal like Christ did. Ellen White said,
We take no pay for anything we do, but we must have a hospital,
which will cost as little as possible, where we can have some conveniences
and facilities for caring for the sick.
This is the work of Christ, and this must be our work. We want to
follow closely in the footsteps of the Master. … This is the very work to be
done in order to heal the maladies of the soul as well as of the body. Christ
is the mighty Healer of soul and body. {WM 334.5}
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It is as our heritage tells us, “Medical Missionary Work” in Jesus’ own
words in Luke (4:18-19) “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed
me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim
the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Christ came as a healer, He spent most of his life healing, not preaching and
so the church following His example is about healing. The founders of our church
experienced the ministry of healing as the right arm of their work. Christ’s
disciples when they were commissioned by Jesus to go and do his work were told
to heal.
Luke 9:2 “and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal
the sick.” That is why the Seventh-day Adventist website says, “Adventists also
believe that Christian life includes both spiritual and physical health, thus you will
find Seventh-day Adventists involved in promotion of health and wholeness.” iii
Changing Identity over time
My identity has changed over time. Over time people change and over time
institutions change. Is the identity of our hospitals to be different today than in the
time of Kellogg and White? Are hospitals, like the educational institutions of
Harvard, Dartmouth, and Duke destined to succumb to the tide of secular
scientism?
In ancient times, there was a ship, called the Theseus after its famous former
owner. As the years wore on, the Theseus started getting weak and creaky. The old
boards were removed, put into a warehouse, and replaced with new ones. Then, the
masts started tottering, and soon they, too, were warehoused and replaced. And in
this way, after fifty years, this ship now has all new boards, masts, and everything.
The question then arises: Is the ship in the harbor really the Theseus?
The sanitarium healing boat that set sail in the 19th century under the
leadership of Ellen White is not the same boat that we sail in today. As planks
have rotted and been replaced, as sails have been replaced by engines, as the
wooden keel has been replaced by steel can we say it is the same boat? If the boat
is new is the identity the same?
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We no longer operate hospitals in the 19th or 20th centuries and reaching our
mission in an era of depersonalized medicine, the scientific secularization of
medicine and in a managed care world is not easy, especially with a declining
resource of SDA and even Christian healthcare professionals. We must be open to
change and innovation for we have no guarantees that today’s success will be
tomorrow’s success – witness Battle Creek.
Balancing the mission of the past with the needs of today
We live in a secular society that is increasingly multi-religious how should
we maintain our faith based identity? Institutional religion is increasingly suspect
in our society and our involvement in the public square is too often seen like the
action of the 10 Baptist parishioners who sought to save Haiti children.
Misguided, ignorant adventurism that is blind to cultural societal realities.
As we seek to maintain our faith we don’t want, on the one hand, a sterile
rigid cultural identity that seeks, Shaker like, to hold to an 19th century sanitarium
picture of the hospital. On the other hand we don’t want a postmodern identity of
elasticity that simply reflects 21st century secular societal changes without holding
to the faith of the founders.
The Seventh-day Adventist church, owner and founder of our hospitals, is
rightly concerned about going down the slippery slope with its educational
institutions as well as its hospitals. Anxiety increased with the publication of
salary scales. The generally unexpressed concern was how could leadership be
committed to the mission when so well compensated?
At one point the church sought to clarify identity by a focus on institutional
names. There was a period of time when every institution was to insert Adventist
in their name. There were some long discussions at Walla Walla University as to
whether it should be Walla Walla Adventist University. There is a desire to
billboard the name feeling that would enhance the Adventist identity of the
institution.
Is a hospital Adventist just because it does fewer surgeries on Sabbath or
fewer abortions during the week? What makes for an Adventist as compared to a
Christian hospital?
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Adventist Label
I served for 9 years on the Memorial Hospital Board in Chattanooga
Tennessee. It is a hospital that is owned by Catholic Health Initiatives. This is the
same organization with which we have the alliance Centura in Colorado. Their
mission was expressed as, “The mission … is to nurture the healing ministry of the
Church by bringing it new life, energy and viability in the 21st century.”iv Their
mission is “to nurture the healing ministry of the Church.”
The Adventist Health System mission is to “Extend the healing ministry of
Christ.” That sounds nice but it is vague and it does not identify our mission with
the Seventh-day Adventist church. Neither did I find in the values a reference to
Adventist identity. However, in the Restated Articles of Incorporation it says, “the
corporation shall operate to further the health ministry of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church” Of course it takes more than a mission or purpose statement to
secure organizational identity
When we are talking about identity of our faith based hospitals we are
primarily thinking of Seventh-day Adventist identity. Does Adventist healthcare
need an Adventist label? Did the work of Mother Teresa need the Catholic label?
The question we may want to ask ourselves is the mission statement
comprehensive enough to include Adventist identity, or does it need to include
Adventist identity? Is it enough for the hospital identity to be Christian as
compared to Seventh-day Adventist Christian?
Identity for What
The title of this presentation is: “Sustaining Identity, In a Faith-Based
Organization” Have any of you had your identity stolen? I understand it is a very
traumatic experience to have someone going around pretending to be you, and
using your bank account. Do we wish to protect our identity because we are afraid
someone else will do our work and get credit for it?
I read an article in a published journal once that was taken word for word
from an article I had published with no attribution to me. I was a bit distressed
because I didn’t get credit – is that what concerns us about Adventist identity?
Getting Credit?
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Could you imagine Jesus meeting with his disciples as they worked on
securing their identity, getting credit for their good works? Jesus says:
 “John - when you heal someone be sure to leave your card with them so
they will know who did it.
 And Peter if you lose your temper one more time you won’t be allowed
to wear that sweatshirt with my logo on it.
 And all of you remember if any of you are approached by the Jerusalem
Broadcasting System and they ask for an interview be sure and refer them
to the P.R. department, they want to be sure they have control of the
messaging.”
That doesn’t sound like what Jesus said in response to John in Luke (9:4950) “Master,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we
tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.” “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for
whoever is not against you is for you.”
I think about Southern Adventist University – when some good deed is done,
when we have made a positive impact on our community I want that to be tied to
Southern. I would like recognition for the institution, I want to be identified. Why?
Is the motivation to increase pride of belonging? What is the importance of
sustaining identity? Is it just to get credit for good works?
Disinterested Benevolence
I was speaking with my brother the other day and he was reflecting on the
life of Paul Farmer, a Harvard Professor who moved with his family to Rwanda
where he recently became a citizen and a member of the Rwandan Medical
Society. What is the motivation of such sacrifice, a sacrifice that is vastly different
than the tourist drop in medical team that spends a few weeks working a Haiti
disaster and then returns to a comfortable home? What is our motivation for
identity? Identity for what?
You may have heard the term disinterested benevolence. In SDA circles it is
frequently associated with statements from Mrs. White like
“Instead of withering up with selfishness, their souls should be
expanding with benevolence. Every opportunity should be improved in doing
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good to one another, and thus cherishing the principles of heaven. Jesus was
presented to me as the perfect pattern. His life was without selfish interest,
but ever marked with disinterested benevolence.”v {CET 174.2}
This is identity – not for credit but for ministry … disinterested benevolence.
I believe Adventist healing brings added value that goes beyond Christian
healing and I have four suggestions toward sustaining and enhancing our unique
identity:
1.
Sustaining Identity by Building Communities of Wholeness
Communicating a comprehensive picture of health that includes prevention,
even if it is not as cost effective as treatment of acute illness, should be an integral
part of sustaining our identity.
Our hospitals were founded to serve humanity and now in the present
environment of market driven care we must maximize profits to survive and so we
say no margin no mission?!? But exclusive focus on “No Margin no Mission” can
leave the hospital looking no different than a for-profit institution. Can we say we
are serving the poor by just counting those who don’t pay - as the poor? Have we
fulfilled our mission by counting uncompensated care as fulfilling our mission?
As I listen to Television advertisements on how to help people quit smoking
it saddens me that our cutting edge work on this societal problem with the 5 day
plan and other smoking cessation programs languished only to be picked up by
others. At one time when people wanted to quit smoking they were referred to the
Seventh-day Adventist Church. That is no longer the case and we abdicated a
leading role in building healthy communities.
The recent “Blue Zone” attention has given our church another opportunity,
let’s not lose it. Florida Hospital’s Healthy One-Hundred Campaign and Creation
Health – these are in the right direction. We need to do much more than recruiting
Adventist doctors into a community to pay tithe. We need to connect the healing
ministry of the hospital to the local church.
At a time when the country is caught up in the controversy of how to fund
healthcare certainly Adventist Healthcare should have a message that seeks to
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uplift Ellen White’s original rational for our providing this ministry. Probably our
general political orientation and distaste of politics leads us to disengagement from
the discussion of healthcare reform but commitment to healthy communities
should lead us to raise our voice for healthcare reform. At a time when the country
is bulging with obesity problems we have a golden opportunity to use our healthy
living voice in the public square. At a time when lifestyle caused illness is
resulting in a healthcare meltdown we have an opening for true medical missionary
work.
A renewed focus on building communities of wholeness with emphasis on
integrated health care should be a cornerstone of our identity.
2.
Sustaining Identity by Building Moral Ethical Communities
Holding fast to the Christian perspective on the moral-ethical issues of life,
like end of life issues and abortion certainly should be a part of who we are. But
our approach to issues should be more than “we don’t smoke, we don’t do
abortions, we don’t serve meat, we don’t… we don’t … we don’t.”
Our view of life should not change as we confront a postmodern world that
is only utilitarian as it approaches life. During a time when life is seen only from
an evolutionary mechanistic perspective we should be very clear about life’s
meaning and how that impacts healthcare decisions.
The environment in which we provide care given the lack of SDA
professionals and the faith diversity of the employee pool will challenge us. But if
we have clarity of purpose in the ethics of our business practices and are honest in
our relationship with employees we can build a reputation of high moral ethical
standards that will sustain our faith based identity.
3.
Sustaining Identity by Building a Workforce That Owns the Mission
In this 21st century era
 where depersonalized health care has specialists treating body parts as
an auto mechanic might focus on the transmission,
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 where the secularization of medicine relegates the spiritual dimension
of healing to scientology fringe groups who are laughed out of the
public square, and
 Where market forces push decisions on care to the HMO instead of a
personal relationship with the doctor.
We need to have employees committed to quality and excellence who
internalize the mission, not just wear it on their sleeve as a PR exercise.
If you go to a good auto mechanic do you care if he is an Atheist or an
Adventist? Or is your biggest concern his expertise? Are you influenced by the
beliefs of the auto mechanic? Granted the relationship between the auto mechanic
customer and the hospital customer is vastly different but still would it be better for
a patient to be healed by a Muslim doctor or an Adventist Doctor? Would you
rather be treated in the hospital by an expert Muslim or mediocre Adventist?
Nothing about our identity is of value without a commitment to excellence.
Holding everyone accountable for their work must be a prime directive.
Another conversation with my brother – a retired cardio vascular surgeon –
who just had knee replacement surgery. He had inside knowledge and could have
chosen many different surgeons. He was deciding between two surgeons, one of
whom he had observed doing a knee replacement. He chose the other surgeon, not
the one he had actually observed and I was surprised because he told me how
impressed he had been with the technique of the surgeon he had observed. When I
asked why he choose the other one he said, “He has a better bedside manner. He
cares about me.” Of course both surgeons were competent, but it is interesting to
me that my surgeon brother would make his final decision on bedside manner.
The best hope we have for sustaining a clear SDA identity is to have
everyone at the hospital internalize the mission of “extending the healing ministry
of Christ” – no matter what their personal faith, because institutional identity is
found in the hearts of the employees. Like the old illustration of the brick layers
one who is laying bricks and the other building a cathedral. We need employees
who are building cathedrals. So how can we be assured that our employees share
the mission and the values of the institution? Maybe they should sign a faith
statement like some colleges do, maybe they should at least sign the Hippocratic
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oath or some form of it to validate their commitment to “extending the healing
ministry of Christ.” Certainly before being hired they need to commit in some way
to the mission and values of the hospital.
William Stempsey said, "If you want to find out about a group of people, do
not look at the group's mission statement, but rather at what the group actually
does."vi
At the end of the day it is the personal relationships established between
patient and the professional and staff that implement the mission of the institution.
4.
Sustaining Identity by Building Communities of Spiritual Care
We know what the core identity of an organization is when their decisions
are informed by financial exigency. In some faith based health care the chaplains
are the first to go when finances are squeezed. Our identity must always involve
care for the spiritual health of those who seek our services. We must be careful
that the healthcare we provide not become a commodity. It is a sacramental act we
perform and it can’t be commoditized. It is not something that can be prepackaged
and sold on the open market.
If we are to sustain our identity we must not neglect the spiritual aspect of
care.
For:
 If we seek to “extend the healing ministry of Christ,” certainly we
couldn’t neglect what Jesus said in Matthew (10:7-8), “The kingdom
of heaven is near. Heal the sick,” Why were they commissioned to
heal the sick – because the kingdom of heaven is near.
 If we are to build healthy communities it is much more than
discouraging smoking and encouraging health habits but must include
the spiritual dimension for Jesus healed, not simply to provide respite
from pain note Mark 2:10 Jesus healed "…that you may know that the
Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” (Mark 2:10,
NIV) He healed with a spiritual objective in mind.
 If we seek in the name of Christ to relieve the suffering of humanity in
this world would it not follow that we would point people to the place
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where "There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for
the old order of things has passed away.”" (Revelation 21:4, NIV)
Conclusion
The disciples of John, the Baptist, were discouraged. They saw Jesus eating
and drinking at parties and healing people and attracting a great following and their
leader, John, was languishing in prison. John himself began to wonder himself
what was going on, and so calling two of his disciples, “he sent them to the Lord to
ask, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”vii
John was saying, “I am concerned about your identity. You don’t seem to be doing
what I expected.”
So John’s disciples went to Jesus and asked, “Are you the one?” Jesus did
not answer their question. Jesus just continued His work. As they stood around
wondering at His silence, the sick and afflicted were coming to Him to be healed,
and at the end of the day Jesus said “Go back and report to John what you have
seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are
cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the
poor.viii
We may, like John, question the identity of Adventist hospitals today and so
we ask the same question, “Is this an Adventist Hospital?” Rather than talking
about the ownership, the artwork and the name of the hospital – we might just say,
“Just look around.”
1. We are building communities of health by educating the population
about prevention and healthy lifestyles of balance and wholeness.
2. We have established Biblically based ethical moral principles that
undergird medical and management decisions.
3. Our employees manifest love for God to the patients that they serve
with the highest levels of quality and excellence.
4. There are chaplains giving spiritual comfort, there is an atmosphere of
peace in the building along with rest on the Sabbath, nurses and
surgeons are praying with patients.
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Our hospital is Seventh-day Adventist not because of the name on the
building or its ownership, but because of the name of Christ in the hearts of those
who bring life to our healing. The healing ministry of Christ is being extended.
I have identical twin daughters and one day when I was looking for a sermon
illustration I went to one of them and said, “Who are you?” Now that did not
surprise her a great deal because I sometime got her confused with her sister and so
she replied, “I am Julie.” Acting like I didn’t believe her I asked again, “Who are
you?” She replied with a bit more exasperation, “I am Julie!” I kept pushing, “No,
really, who are you?” She again gave her name and once again I asked and finally
in total frustration she said, “I am your daughter!”
So her identity was not just a name it was about a relationship, it was about
her connection with me. She was my daughter, she had my DNA. So the identity
of our hospitals is not about just putting Adventist in the name or artwork in the
hall, it is about the relationship, the way we bring life – eternal life – to our
healing.
The Adventist Health System is the daughter of the church – the Seventhday Adventist church is in our DNA. We are not adopted children seeking to find
our biological parents – we represent the core mission of the church which is
healthcare as Ellen White said,
I saw that it was a sacred duty to attend to our health, and arouse
others to do their duty. . . . We have a duty to speak, to come out against
intemperance of every kind--intemperance in working, in eating, in drinking,
in drugging--and then point them to God's great medicine, . . . I saw that we
should not be silent upon the subject of health, but should wake up minds to
the subject.--MS 1, 1863. (Italics supplied.) {2BIO 73.2}
Our hospitals must not travel the slippery slope that some institutions have
traveled becoming disconnected from their founding church, for the identity of the
hospital is not the only thing at stake here – the identity of the church is at stake;
for if the church loses the hospitals to secular scientism then our church loses its
identity as well.
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We have a sacred duty – a sacramental work – to live and preach the unique
contribution of Adventist Healthcare,
 Bringing life to our healing,
 Healing to our communities and
 A renewed vision of the “ministry of healing” to our church.
i
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~gsascf/shield.html
http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/founding_princeton.html
iii
http://www.adventist.org/mission_and_service/index.html.en
iv
http://www.memorial.org/about_us_mission_and_values.html
v
Christian Experiences and Teachings of Ellen G. White p. 174
vi
Institutional Identity and Roman Catholic Hospitals William E, Stempsey, S.J. College of the Holy Cross,
Worcester, Massachusetts, USA Christian Bioethics 1380-3603/01/0701-003$16,00 2001, Vol, 7, No, 1, 3-14 ©
Swets & Zeitlinger
ii
vii
The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Lk 7:18-19). Grand Rapids:
Zondervan.
viii
The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Lk 7:22). Grand Rapids:
Zondervan.
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