Sep 13, 2026 3-5pm ET

Sunday on The Robert Scott Bell Show:

It Takes a Village… But What Kind?

This week’s Sunday Conversation is a little different. I’m reaching into our Saturday Conversations on PTL and bringing one of those episodes over to The Robert Scott Bell Show because I believe the message deserves a wider audience. If you don’t regularly join me on PTL, this is an opportunity to hear the kind of conversation we have there, where health and healing intersect with faith, freedom, personal responsibility, family and our relationship with God. And this particular conversation starts with a familiar phrase: “It takes a village.”

I begin with a personal update following the acute health challenge I recently came through and an important distinction between acute and chronic illness. Chronic problems can linger like an anchor, sometimes for years. An acute challenge can arrive suddenly, knock you down hard and, when the body successfully moves through it, leave you feeling as though you’ve come through a tremendous workout and are rebuilding your strength. That experience once again reminds me that healing isn’t something we simply outsource. We can seek guidance, use tools and learn from people we trust, but ultimately our bodies have to do the healing.

That brings me to the larger question of the episode. What does it really mean when we say “it takes a village”? There’s a beautiful version of that idea. Think of a community voluntarily coming together to raise a barn, help a neighbor or support somebody who has fallen on difficult times. Nobody needs to threaten them into doing it. They show up because they care. But there’s another version of the village, one in which responsibility is transferred from individuals and families to institutions, government and systems that increasingly decide what we’re supposed to believe, how our children should be raised and even what constitutes acceptable health care.

As a father, I come back to Proverbs 22:6: “Train up a child in the way he should go.” That responsibility belongs first and foremost to us as parents. We can certainly invite grandparents, extended family, churches, teachers and trusted members of our community into our children’s lives, but there’s an important difference between choosing that community and surrendering our children to a collective that may not share our values. If our kids are exposed to ideas contrary to what we believe, then our job isn’t finished when they walk through the schoolhouse door. We need to remain engaged, talk with them, listen to them and help them understand why our family’s values matter.

From there, I explore the tension between individual responsibility and our responsibility toward one another. Galatians tells us that every person should prove his own work and bear his own burden, while 2 Corinthians reminds us that God loves a cheerful giver. I don’t see those ideas as contradictory at all. In fact, I think they fit together beautifully. Become capable. Carry responsibility for your own life. Then, from the abundance of your heart, voluntarily help somebody else. That’s charity. It isn’t something extracted from you under threat and redistributed by somebody claiming to be charitable on your behalf.

The same principle applies to healing. Years ago, when I thanked my homeopathic mentor for healing me, his response surprised me. He essentially told me, “I didn’t heal you. You healed yourself.” He had taught me, guided me and helped me understand what I needed to do, but I was the one who had to apply it. That lesson never left me. A true healer doesn’t create dependency. A true healer teaches, guides, listens and helps remove obstacles so that the person seeking help can participate fully in his or her own healing.

That’s also why I spend time examining what happens when health care becomes collectivized and the sacred relationship between doctor and patient gets crowded by government, insurance companies, regulators and other third parties. The word “doctor” originally carries the idea of teacher, and I believe we’ve lost much of that. Instead of teaching people how to become healthier and more self-reliant, our modern system too often manages disease after it appears. My own journey leads me toward homeopathy, nutrition and other natural approaches precisely because I want tools that help me take greater responsibility rather than surrendering it.

But none of this means every person is an island. Quite the opposite. We need one another. Sometimes we need a teacher, a doctor, a friend, a family member or simply somebody willing to listen. The question is whether those relationships arise voluntarily through love and service or whether somebody else decides whom we must support, what we’re allowed to choose and how we’re required to participate. I believe genuine community is strongest when responsible individuals freely choose to come together.

I also talk about the role of prayer in that process. People frequently ask me, “How do I find the right doctor?” My answer begins with prayer and listening. Ask for guidance. Remain open to where that guidance takes you. And imagine finding a healer who approaches you with that same humility, someone willing to ask God for wisdom before attempting to help another human being. To me, that’s much closer to the sacred doctor-patient relationship than anything a government agency could manufacture.

I even reflect on the movie Ordinary Angels and its portrayal of people voluntarily stepping forward during another family’s desperate circumstances. What makes that kind of charity powerful isn’t that everybody involved is perfect. They’re not. It’s that imperfect people choose to serve one another, sometimes at tremendous personal cost and without expecting anything in return. That’s the village I can believe in.

So yes, maybe it really does take a village. But I want a village made up of free individuals, strong families, cheerful givers, willing servants and people who understand that responsibility and compassion don’t have to be opposites. We can learn from one another, help one another, pray for one another and lift one another when necessary without surrendering the individual gifts and responsibilities God has given each of us.

That’s why I wanted to bring this PTL conversation to our Sunday Conversation audience. Whether we’re talking about raising our children, caring for our neighbors, finding the right healer or taking responsibility for our own health, the challenge is ultimately the same: listen for God’s guidance, become the strongest steward of your own life that you can be, and then use what you’ve been given to serve others.

God bless you, love you, and remember always: the power to heal is yours.

Remember Friends, The Power to Heal is Yours!