Religion and Spirituality in Psychiatry

294 William P. Wilsonwill above its own, so one must make an appeal totheir will. It is not possible to forcibly evangelizesomeone! There is the criticism that Christiantherapists who do evangelism are taking advantageof vulnerable people. In most instances havenot found this to be true. Most patients realizethat their therapist has their best interests atheart and readily agree to be evangelized. Evenif a person submits unwillingly, they will notbenefit from the experience, and one still cannotuse Christian interventions and have them beeffective.The most effective form of evangelism ispersonal witness. One-third of all persons whobecome Christians come as a result of the personalwitness of another believer. Personal witnessof healing is especially desirable in thetreatment of alcoholics and drug addicts. If oneis dealing with a person who has a borderline disorderit is sine qua non. If the patient is willingto accept Christ as his Savior, then the therapistmust know the plan of salvation that should berevealed to the patient. The plan is that the personis a sinner, that Christ died to take his punishment,and that he can receive pardon if he askshim into his life. The patient and therapist praya prayer of surrender together. To illustrate thispoint, I cite the response of twenty-one Malagasyalcoholics. The lecturer was asked to preach tothem. He chose as the basis for his lecture thescripture 2 Corinthians 5:17. It says that if anyoneis in Christ he is a new person. These menwere in a Christian healing community, so it wasappropriate for him to deliver his message usingscripture. After he had explained the scripture,he asked how many of the men had become newpersons. No hands went up. He then asked howmany of them would like to become new persons.All hands went up. He next asked if they knew theplan of salvation. None of them did, even thoughtwo of the men were Roman Catholic priests. Hethen explained the plan of salvation to them andasked them to pray the prayer of salvation withhim if they desired to become a new person. Theyall did pray as he recited it. After the service wasover, the two priests came and asked the lecturerif they could use this plan with their catechists.He told them that they would be remiss if theydidn’t.Sometimes if the patients have been regeneratedbut have grieved the Spirit with their sin,they may need to rededicate their lives to theLord to regain their ability to be healed.On occasions God will act sovereignly in aperson’s life and will reveal himself to the person,who then has the opportunity to accept or refusethe offer. Lord Kenneth Clark,( 32) the producerof the BBC series Civilization, had suchan experience. He was standing in the church atSan Lorenzo in Italy when “ for a few minutes mywhole being was irradiated with a kind of heavenlyjoy, far more intense than anything I hadknown before. This state of mind lasted severalminutes, and wonderful though it was, it posedan awkward problem in terms of action. My lifewas far from blameless: I would have to reform.My family would think I was going mad, and perhapsafter all it was a delusion for I was in everyway unworthy of receiving such a flood of grace.Gradually the effect wore off and I made no effortto retain it. I think I was right; I was too deeplyembedded in the world to change course.” Mostaccept such an offer.5.2. DiscipleshipLike any newborn baby, the newborn Christianneeds to be taught how to live a Christian life.Just as a child needs to learn how to communicatewith his parents, the newborn Christianneeds to learn how to communicate with Godand to understand who God is and how herelates and communicates with him. The processof teaching the skills necessary to do this is calleddiscipleship.It has been shown that only 5 percent ofmembers of mainline denominational churcheshave any training at all. It is clear that if thetherapist is to be effective in transforming liveswith Christian psychotherapy, he must disciplehis patients or make sure they are discipled.What do they need to learn? This is described indetail in my book entitled The Nuts and Bolts ofDiscipleship. (33)