In the New Testament, salvation is all-encompassing. The Greek verb “sózó” – the root of the word we translate “salvation” — means more than just “to save” spiritually; it also means to heal, to make whole. In his time, John Wesley took the wholistic nature of salvation to heart – not only preaching to the soul but also enjoining his followers to care for their minds and bodies.
Today, the Rev. Vanessa M. Wilson and her congregation at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Willingboro, New Jersey, are continuing this important work. Their flagship health and spirituality ministry, “Look Up and Live” seeks to nurture body, mind, and soul by “provid[ing] information, resources and services for the congregation and community to guide people to wholistic wellness and healthcare services.” The ministry emerged and continues to grow in the sacred places where the congregation’s strengths, the community’s needs, and the Holy Spirit’s movement converge.
It’s Personal: Rev. Wilson’s Journey
Wilson describes her appointment to the Church of the Good Shepherd in 2020 as “a marriage made in heaven;” the congregation’s areas of strength and energy—health and education—aligned perfectly with her own.
Wilson’s interest in health began with childhood aspirations to become a doctor and eventually led her to work in the Public Entitlement Clinic and intern at the Urban Legal Clinic while in law school. She believed then, as she does now, that one’s environment—housing and employment—is critical to good health. Then in 2013, after a successful career in higher education, she received a call to serve as a supply pastor at Magnolia Road UMC.
There, Wilson learned how churches and hospitals could collaborate to serve people in need. Magnolia Road had an important ministry making bereavement garments for Virtua Health. But while pastoring there, she also observed something troubling—an unusually high incidence of cancer among the congregation’s membership.
During that time, Wilson enrolled in the Master of Divinity program at Drew Theological School, where she delved into research at the intersection of health and spirituality. She learned, then, that New Jersey in general and Burlington County in particular had much higher than average rates of cancer.
After graduating from her M.Div., everything changed when Wilson, who had always been very health-conscious, received her own diagnosis of breast cancer. “I thought my life was grand, right? I had this MDiv. My kids were grown. Everything was wonderful,” she recalls, “Then the call came, ‘Ms. Wilson, the test is positive. Breast cancer.’ … I was stunned.”
Reflecting on the journey that followed, Wilson shares, “Everything for me with cancer always took me back to the spiritual. What is God saying? What is God doing? I had to have some deep conversations with God…And I realized that God was helping me to live and helping me to help others. Because now it’s not about research. And I have tons of research, but it’s about a lived experience.”
That lived experience drove home, for Wilson, the inextricable link between health and spirituality. From a transformative experience of prayer just moments after receiving her diagnosis, to access to integrative care, and a new focus on what was important in life, Wilson experienced God’s provision in a myriad of ways through her cancer treatment.
Then, with God’s help, Wilson turned that lived experience into a gift for others. She completed her Master of Sacred Theology at Drew, which she had begun just three months before receiving her diagnosis. Her thesis was on integrative care. She presented a paper on religion and health at Harvard Medical School, which catalyzed Drew’s Religion and Global Health Forum. And in 2020, the same year Wilson was appointed to the Church of the Good Shepherd, she founded a nonprofit organization called Sikhona to address the needs of cancer survivors.
Look Up and Live: Wholistic Health at the Church of the Good Shepherd
Of course, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought health to the forefront of everyone’s minds. It was within that context that newly-appointed Wilson and the Church of the Good Shepherd undertook to turn their identified areas of focus – health and education – into a concrete ministry plan that would serve their community’s needs.
The church’s first major project—creating more than 1,500 art bags for the Willingboro School District—helped fill an educational gap after online learning forced families to prioritize technology and basic supplies over visual arts materials.
As the pandemic continued, new opportunities arose. The church leveraged their large parking lot to host pop-up vaccine clinics and drive-thru testing centers. They assisted older adults with making appointments online and with transporting them to appointments. “We saw this ministry start to organically grow,” Wilson reflects.
The church soon hosted its first health and education event. World-renowned expert in prostate cancer, Dr. Frank Chinegwundoh, was brought in virtually as the keynote speaker for a Men’s Health Awareness Breakfast. Knowing that in their community, men tend to resist going to the doctor alone, the church encouraged men to bring a partner or guest to help them digest the information and take any necessary next steps.
As the church continued to see and respond to their community’s needs in the areas of health and education, they eventually formed a ministry team called “Look Up and Live” (LUL). The name is a reference to Numbers 21:8, when the Lord tells Moses to make a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. Whenever one of the Israelites was bitten by a poisonous wilderness serpent, they were to look at the bronze serpent and they would live. The inspiration for the name came from Wilson’s experience of healing when she faced her own fears during her health journey. She explains, “God has told us, ‘Look, face your fear, then look up and look past it.’”
In addition to hosting health education events, LUL weaves health practices into the rhythm of the church’s life. For instance, a “health moment” is incorporated into worship every week. The topics range widely—from cancer prevention to black maternal health, for instance. Every fourth Sunday of the month, worship includes a fitness moment during which a member of LUL will lead the congregation in exercise, often to the soundtrack of a high energy song like Travis Greene’s “Praise Break.” Fitness is also the focus of LUL’s weekly walking club, where all are welcome to participate in exercises adapted to their physical needs, for example, using stretch bands from a seated position.
In October, Health Literacy Month offered the perfect opportunity for the Church of the Good Shepherd to bring its passions together with a Health Literacy and Community Empowerment Conference. The day featured health screening, wholistic health teaching, and a talk by Dr. John Daly who taught participants how to talk to their doctors about two common major health concerns – cancer and diabetes.
“What we’ve learned over the years,” says Wilson, “is that people really don’t know how to speak to doctors…Sometimes, we don’t even understand what the doctors are saying to us.” The health literacy conference built on work that LUL’s chairperson, Loretta Battis, has been doing for some time—the creation of a framework for patients to advocate for themselves. Battis’ framework mirrors the “teach-back” method many doctors use to ensure patient comprehension. She has been teaching this framework to congregation members and also hopes to publish it.
As LUL looks ahead to what is next, they continue to follow the Spirit’s movement in their community. For example, amid rising hunger concerns, another Willingboro church—Commissioned 2 Serve—saw its food distribution lines stretching three to four suburban blocks. Worried about road safety, the township and local police warned that the ministry would be shut down unless a solution was found. Because Church of the Good Shepherd already receives non-perishables from Commissioned 2 Serve for its own food-delivery ministry, they proposed using their parking lot as a staging area for cars. The arrangement has worked beautifully.
As is apparent, collaboration with community partners is central to LUL’s approach and success. Some of the organizations they have collaborated with in the past and present include the State of New Jersey Department of Health, Screen NJ, Penn Medicine/Virtua Health, Aetna Faith in Prevention Network, and Drew Theological School. “We’re not trying to create new resources,” says Wilson, “we’re just bringing them in so people can access them.” LUL’s events and screenings are made possible through collaborations and through grant funding, much of which is obtained through Wilson’s nonprofit, Sikhona. On the horizon for LUL is an expansion of their partnership with Cooper University Hospital.
As Look Up and Live continues their work of ministering to body, mind, and spirit, they are a witness to their community of God’s all-encompassing love and salvation. “Look Up and Live” is more than a name, it is an invitation to trust that God desires our full flourishing. Rev. Wilson and the Church of the Good Shepherd not only extend that invitation to their community, they help people find the strength and wisdom to receive it.