History of AMEN
Adventist Medical Evangelism Network was formed by a group of physicians and dentists who have a burden to revive medical evangelism and make it an integral part of their profession. Dr. Naren James, AMEN President, was one of the founders. He describes his convictions leading up to the formation of AMEN…
Over the past five years I have gone through a transition as I restudied the gospels. I have been impressed by Jesus’ ministry and personally convicted to emulate it in my personal and professional life. One day during my personal devotion I was impressed that I needed to share my experience with other physicians and create a network to encourage each other to make medical ministry the focus of our profession. I firmly believe that physicians and dentists can make an incredible impact around the world if we truly begin to make medical evangelism the focus of our practices.
The founding physicians and dentists decided to host a luncheon at the 2004 ASI convention focusing on the topic of medical evangelism. The meeting proved to be such a success they decided to meet in February 2005 to discuss the formation of a non-profit organization to train & equip physicians and dentists to be effective medical evangelists. The meeting was to be held at Dr. John Chung’s house in Dalton, Georgia. Soon the number of attendees grew so large the venue had to be changed to Cohutta Springs Ranch. Approximately 50 people attended the meetings at Cohutta Springs where Pastor Mark Finley spoke about what true medical evangelism is. The group was inspired and challenged and unanimously decided to officially form what is now AMEN—Adventist Medical Evangelism Network.
The Lord has really blessed this organization! Since 2005, AMEN has hosted two annual conferences with approximately 220 attendees; coordinated medical clinics for a mission trip to India in collaboration with Maranatha and Amazing Facts; integrated health talks into a large scale evangelistic series in Detroit, Michigan; begun publication of a medical evangelism journal called “the Medical Evangelist” and begun work on health related television programs to air on a variety of television stations with the eventual goal of having its own television station that hosts health and evangelistic programming 24-hour a day, 7 days a week.
Despite its infancy and humble beginnings, we believe God is using AMEN to inspire physicians and dentists in the United States and around the world to focus once again on healing not only the body, but the soul as well.