36. Why Christian Physicians Should Invest in Spiritual Growth

Feeling stuck as a Christian physician? Discover why investing in your spiritual growth isn’t optional—and how mentorship, training, and breaking the scarcity mindset will equip you for your kingdom calling in medicine.

Break free from the scarcity mindset holding you back and step into a deeper walk with God as a Christian physician.

💡 Are you a Christian physician who’s hungry for more of God but secretly wonders if investing in spiritual growth is “worth it”? Maybe you’ve thought: I don’t have the time… I shouldn’t spend money on myself… Friend, that scarcity mindset is keeping you stuck—and today we’re going to bust it wide open.

In this episode of the Heal the Healers Podcast, I’m sharing why spiritual growth isn’t optional for Christian physicians—it’s essential. You’ll discover:

• Why financial and time investments in your faith journey yield eternal fruit.
• How mentorship, conferences, and spiritual training can accelerate your growth.
• My own journey of overcoming the “Christian stuff should be free, right?” mindset.
• Biblical principles of sowing and reaping that apply directly to your walk with God and your calling in medicine.
• Practical steps to start investing in your spiritual life today.

✨ Whether you’re leading in the hospital, clinic, or classroom, your patients, colleagues, and even your family are impacted when you say yes to growing in Christ. Investing in your faith as a physician doesn’t just strengthen your own walk with God—it equips you to step boldly into your kingdom assignment in medicine.

👉 Ready to go deeper? Learn more about the Heal the Healers Mentorship at: https://www.ingahofmann.com/heal-the-healers-mentorship-program

Questions about 1:1 coaching or spiritual mentorship? Email inga@ingahofmann.com with subject “mentorship.”

Are you a Christian physician longing for a deeper walk with God and a supportive community that truly gets it?

The Heal the Healers Mentorship is a Spirit-led program equipping Christian physicians to walk in wholeness, power, and purpose. You’ll grow in intimacy with God, walk boldly in your identity, and learn to integrate faith and medicine—without burnout or compromise.

👉 Enroll here to join the mentorship program.

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Transcript

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We all spent money on streaming devices, Costcos, or our favorite coffee, without really giving it a second thought. But when it comes to investing into our spiritual growth, we hesitate. Today I'm gonna share with you why breaking the scarcity mindset can transform your work with God and why the right investments in your growth are worth every penny. Hey there. Welcome back to another episode of the Heal Healers podcast. I'm Dr. Inga Hoffman, and I'm here to help Christian physician deepen their walk with God, hear his voice more clearly, and live out your kingdom calling in medicine. I'm so excited to be here with you today. Let's dive right in. Today's conversation is all about why you should invest in your spiritual growth. And this part of the conversation is right from pillar number three, kingdom leadership. Because leading well in medicine, in ministry, in life. Means valuing the things that matter most and stewarding our time and resources for kingdom impact. So that's dive right in about what I mean why you should invest in spiritual growth. And I have the feeling this one is one that is a little bit out there, might ruffle some feathers, but I felt it was important to talk about the elephant in the room because honestly. I struggled with this topic before quite a bit and I wanted to share a little bit my journey, how I come around to think about investing in my own growth, not just in personal development and leadership and so forth, but also in my spiritual growth that's why I thought this episode is important. If you have not listened to the last episode number 35, where I talk about why every question physician needs a spiritual mentor. You should go listen to that because this is sort of a. Perhaps a little bit of a part too, because let's be honest, sometimes mentorship does cost money. Now, it doesn't cost money to hire a mentor or to have a mentor in your hospital because that's kind of the job we already get paid for, right? So if you are an attending physician and you mentor a trainee, you actually kind of get paid for that. That's, that's sort of part of your role. We are not used to thinking about paying sometimes people for consulting, mentorship, coaching, et cetera. Now I have been in the coaching space as a physician coach focused really on academic physicians for the last almost decade eight years or so and that was something I had to learn when I hired my first coach. I was like, wow, there's a big investment, but oh my goodness, how much value I got out of this and how much it propelled me forward. So this slowly changed my mindset of. Sometimes there is value in paying for support that you wouldn't otherwise get. And there's also value in investing in yourself, which is what this all comes down to. But as I mentioned, I had a little bit of a scarcity mindset around paying for. Christian stuff, for Christian mentorship or conferences? Because let's be honest, a lot of times we feel everything Christian should be free because the gospel is. And let me tell you, the gospel is free and that is the good news. Christ paid the full price. He hang on the cross. He died for us sin. He rose again on the third day so that you may live and that you may be redeemed if you accept Christ as your personal. Lord and Savior. And that is something that nobody should ever charge for. It cannot be paid for because Christ already paid that price. And there's a lot of other things, I think, in the Christian sphere that fall sort of into this gospel category. But we attach then this mindset just because it is Christian. Everything should be essentially free. And I had to overcome that mindset as well. I would say. I was very ready to invest in all sorts of things but going to a Christian conference was suddenly a new thing. So let me share a little bit what I learned in my personal journey and then give you a little bit of a framework how you can think about. Investing in yourself, investing in your spiritual growth and where it makes sense. And also it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg that I wanna make sure very clear as well. Now, really don't have any agenda here. Just hear me clearly. It's not like, oh, I'm gonna upsell you later into my program. Yes, I mentor people. I'm gonna be very honest. That mentorship program does cost money because it does cost money to run a business. Number one, cost, actually money and invest. Spent it is a huge amount of time on typically somebody who runs a program like this to to prepare, to pave the way, to not be only there for the lessons, but to walk the very difficult walk every day before and after the lesson. So there's a lot of time investment, but this is not what this is about. I just wanna open your eyes to the idea that there are things. That we should invest in and to kind of see that we have maybe some blind spots and a scarcity mindset around paying for Christian mentorship and conferences. So I feel like I said this in the intro, that a lot of times we feel very easy to buy a lot of stuff, right? When I go to Costco, I don't usually blink too much. I just buy what I need and. A lot of times extra because that's what Costco does right, too, you know? And we don't stress out about it too much. Especially as physicians, we are time strapped, so we are often willing to. Invest in something that saves us time. But when it comes to sort of spiritual things, we feel that's very optional and extra and we maybe might not wanna do this. But over time I learned that the work of a minister and mentorship and ministries actually have real cost. And they also have an eternal return. So having been involved in many ministries that I benefited from for example, when I took a number of courses, trainings hands, hands-on mentorship and, equipping and training as a Christian Healing prayer minister with Christian Healing Ministries. They cost money. Now you could say, how could they charge 400 bucks for one level course? And then there were four of them, so that's$1,600. Like there, I'm just gonna give you a very tangible example now in the medical field actually, it's nothing that's easily what I paid. To, to go to a conference, right? Registration fee, six to$800, and then you need an airplane ticket, another maybe up to a thousand bucks and not even talking about the hotel prices during major medical conferences, easily$4,000 later for a few days at a, not even for me, exotic destination. So so we don't have a problem doing that because we are like, we are getting reimbursed, but. Christian, conferences and Christian courses and those kind of things, they cost money to run as well. So I remember the first time when I purchased level one training for as a prayer minister. I was like, oh, this actually costs money. Yes it does, because guess what? People showed up for it. People put a lot of work in developing that material and needs to be hosted on a platform. They put in hours to provide live training and typically. Ministries like that, it is a full-time job to run those ministries. So those ministers don't always have another job on the line and that's why you purchase some of the things. And for me now, that's very normal to do. But it took me a little bit getting around, oh yes. This is something I sign up for now. I would say with courses I was already, so in the personal development leadership world for the last 10 years, I spent tens and thousands of dollars in training as a coach in leadership development courses and personal development in coaches and mentors. That was a small drop in the bucket, but there is this, oh, it's Christian, it should be free. So I just wanna point that out because I had experienced that too. Same with conferences. Attending a Christian conference. Now your local church might have conferences that are free or they charge you with like a nominal fee of whatever, 20, 40 bucks to run registration and maybe purchase some Costco food or something. But some other conferences that you actually have to. Rent a venue, get catering bringing speakers cost a substantial amount of money to organize and run those. And I have experienced that last year myself when I ran my first retreat. It was a huge investment. And while people might feel, oh, the ticket price is kind of. Not as little as I expected for a Christian conference. I was still much cheaper than most medical conferences, I would say. And you know, I fed people and gave them good food versus, you know, a Costco stale platter of bagels and cream cheese or something. But. It costs a substantial amount of money to rent venues to fly in speakers to provide food, those type of things. So providing a good experience will cost something, and that's just the reality of things. And we should also not be too worried about it because let's say, face it, it's. The Lord provides for those things and for the conference, for example, that I hosted, yes, that was a substantial investment on my part. It certainly didn't, it's not a money maker, those kind of things. I'm just illustrating so you understand. Most people that run conferences and events lose a lot of money, and I would agree with that. But it is something that I felt the Lord is asking me to do and therefore I'm doing it and I'm obedient, and I trust that he will eventually bring in the finance and I also trust, more importantly, in the eternal reward because that's what I'm sowing into. So just as a backstory, we often have number one, a real scarcity thinking about these Christian things. The common mindset of it's Christian, so it should be free, but scripture actually teaches us the worker is worthy of its wages, right? Luke 10, seven. So people in the Bible got paid. Ministry is conferences and coaches. Usually they have families to feed and real operating costs. So when. Ministries put something out there, it isn't free for them because there's some real operating costs. I would also say that for a lot of these ministries even myself included, yes, the gospel is free, but, the training they went through. So for example, training as a prayer ministry leadership coach with over a decade of experience in training with John Maxwell team. All those kind of things weren't free. So when you pay somebody in the secular world, you pay them for their service. And their cost and their experience. Right. So the same is true in the ministry world as well, and I think that is something we should remind ourselves. That just because it's Christian, it's not just Okay, it's chair a bit of walk now. There are some things that are completely free in the Christian world, like for example, the Bible app. Many of you use the Bible app to have your devotionals or your Bible reading plan in there. Technically, yes, it's free. Now is it a huge operating cost? Absolutely. By now it costs them a lot. It's actually a fascinating story how they started this, but. To make it free for everybody, somebody still has to pay, right? So it's in this case, donations. Now, when you have a large donor base, then you can do these kind of things. And again, the Lord provides for the things that he wants to see finished. But everything that we see around. Cost something. And that's just the nature of it. The other thing I want to point out, a second key point is that there's a cost of free. And when we have a mindset of demanding free, we unintentionally. Undervalue the gift itself, meaning the service, the time, et cetera, and the giver. And in the coaching world, I hear this all the time. If people don't willing to invest in themselves and have a. Skin in them game, they're likely not making progress. And I can tell you that from nearly a decade of experience in coaching physicians, I would say the people that looked for something free, they never really got very far. Now there are times and seasons where I've been very grateful to have something for free and because maybe I actually didn't have the financial means. So that's wonderful. But eventually if you want to go further, there is an investment that comes and money is one of those. Exchange systems I'm gonna invest this in myself because I'm betting on myself. I feel the importance of this in my life, and I'm making a personal sacrifice. Not just with my time, but also with my finances to demonstrate this is important and I'm actually having skiing in the game. And that is a really important concept. And I would say that once we invested in something, chances are that we actually gonna show up. And it's often when we got something for free. That we quickly forget the value of that and actually don't really show up and have done that many times before as well. I said this earlier already, but to remember there's a cost for free. And remember the distinction that the gospel is free the Bible, well, you purchase that potentially as well, but the gospel is free. The word of God is free, but discipleship, mentorship, training, costs, time, energy, and resources, and it is. A good thing, I believe, to honor the minister, the person that has walked ahead of you and say, I'm gonna bless you with a portion of what the Lord has blessed me so you can continue your work for the Kingdom of God. And so hopefully this helps to illustrate this a little bit. The last part I wanna say there is I think I touched upon this a little bit, is there's a bit of an exchange principle in when you invest in something. So when you invest. Financially, you invest your attention, your commitment, and your urgency, because you're basically saying, okay, I'm gonna invest in this and therefore I'm, I'm committing to this. So when I sign up for coaching, for example, with one of my mentors, my spirit mentors, I pay that person, that person invests substantial amount of time prayer. It has a substantial amount of experience that I can glean from. And that person has a ministry to run and a family to feed, and. All sorts of things. So when I invest, I'm committing to that and also I'm committing to myself to show up, to show up on time to be prepared to squeeze out most of what I can from what I can learn in an hour for coaching call, for example. And there's a. Biblical principle of sowing and reaping. You'll probably very familiar with this, but I'm gonna read you a scripture that is probably less familiar to you in this area, and I stumbled on this, so I'm gonna read it to you. Galatians six I think it's verse six to nine. It's quite interesting and it's a passage. Where Paul says, doing good to all is sort of the header in the NIV version. But he says here, nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor. Don't be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows, whoever sows to please their flesh from the flesh. We'll reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the spirit from the spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Now that scripture I know we can take in all sorts of different directions and apply it to different areas of life. So I'm not gonna do a deep dive into the scripture, but it caught my attention, number one of. The one who receives instruction. The board should share all good things with their instructor so that there is this reciprocity and relationship between instruction and instructor. That really caught my attention. And of course you where it says A man reaps what he cells. And that can be many things. Like how we act, how we act towards each other. When we act and fleshly soulish things it doesn't reap anything good. But there's also when whoever souls and pleases in the spirit, now we can, again, there's a sort of walking in the spirit, spirit of gifts, et cetera. But it came to me and occurred to me that, when I invest in myself with the goal of. Going deeper in my spiritual growth, there is an eternal reward for that. Now you might say, well, I can do that by myself. Yeah, absolutely you can. And you should. You should read the word of God. You should pray. You should know how to listen and hear the voice of God. But honestly, sometimes I. Struggled with that, and I needed somebody to walk ahead of me and mentor me through these things, and I was saying, okay, this is so important to me that I'm investing in my growth with a financial sacrifice because I want to grow more. Now, hear me when I say this, what I'm not saying is. That you need to pay somebody or that somebody should demand money. That's probably the better way to put it. To give you a prophetic word, word of knowledge. I do understand that there is a lot of manipulation things that have occurred in error, especially in the church and charismatic circles where people basically abuse that financial relationship. So you can never demand that from somebody to say, whoa, i'm only gonna pray for you if you give me a hundred dollars, or I'm gonna give you a solution for your problem and a word from God if you pay me a thousand bucks. Now, that's bad, that's not biblical, but when I say. I wanna grow in this area. I'm gonna invest time and money, and this is so important. I'm gonna make a sacrifice and I'm, yes, I'm gonna exchange the money to another person, but it's actually, I'm putting it on the altar of the Lord because I say, Lord. I wanna grow so badly. I want to stretch more. I'm doing everything I can do with you and me and my secret place and my quiet time. But there is another level that I wanna stretch to. I hope this makes sense to you, and you are hearing this by the spirit of the Lord and gaining a deeper revelation that there is a place to invest in yourself. I have to say, every time I travel to a conference. And I traveled a lot this year. It cost me real money. And now that I stepped away from my job a couple years ago, and I shared that testimony early on, I can share that again another time. But basically I had to step away from my job. I was really, in the end, the Lord's leading. That was some personal situation that I had to step away from my, you know, cushy paycheck, the health insurance, the whole nine yards. I had to step away from security in faith. That the Lord will provide. And let me tell you, that isn't easy. And when you are suddenly pulled out to leave the paycheck and the security behind and say, but the Lord is calling me to something else and I'm gonna trust him over here. So a lot of times I did not know where the provision will come from for sometimes even for very basic things. Let me be real here. But travel this year. A lot of times like God, you, I feel like led to go to all these places. I'm not going on vacation. I'm here by the leading of the spirit. I have no idea how I'm can pay for all of this. I don't know. I don't have the resources, but I trust God that he has, and every time I leap, there is a breakthrough moment and provision. Is coming in somehow. I mean, I still have food and I still have a roof over my head, and somehow those bills getting paid by the grace of the Lord. But I wanna tell you that that is a real sacrifice because those trips are not cheap. You have to find a hotel. You know, it's each time is an investment, but each time it resulted in something that I had to be there for. What I had to do and when I went to Boston on an intercession appointment, I wasn't going to a glitzy conference, staying at a glitzy hotel doing anything. The Lord called me to intercede on the medical school campus in Boston at Harvard. And so I prayed. It wasn't convenient, it wasn't in my books, but I felt that pull and the calling from the Lord, but that was an investment I had to invest and the Lord provided hallelujah. So same with hiring a mentor when I hired a person. I suddenly accelerated, I suddenly felt like, oh, I can take this with a lower to a whole nother level because I now have somebody who's grabbing me by the hand and journeying with me. Joining a program for prophetic training and some other things. Provided me with accountability with community so I don't have to do this alone. Now, all these things are investments, but they are seeds planted for an accelerated growth. And why? Because I personally feel. Strongly called to equip you as Christian physicians. So I'm not gonna leave any stone unturned not any opportunity for me to dig deeper because I know there is something to impart from what I'm learning. To impart to you. And I believe that the body of Christ, and especially Christian physician in this hour are urgently needed to be equipped. I'm getting so excited. You can probably tell by the sound of my voice and that is not a, I will just get it in a devotional on occasion, five minutes a day kind of thing. There's a price to pay for that and that is not honestly just financially. There is a, there is a price and spiritual growth that you pay. That is time, finances, relationships, spiritual warfare. A lot of, a lot of tears and hardships. But there's the glory of the Lord. So I hope you hear me by the spirit. That is why I believe it is important that you invest, because somebody else is relying on you to step it up so that they can find their destiny, so that they will be equipped through your learning lessons. And why wouldn't we want to accelerate that path and actually make that investment? And I believe strongly that the Lord honors those things that we are doing. And partnership with him. Now I wanna caution don't invest will nearly in all sorts of stuff. I've done that too and got the FOMO feel of missing out and invested in stuff, especially in personal development digital marketing and business, et cetera. As I started my coaching journey. That maybe weren't needed where I just needed to take some action and not another course. But all of those I did learn from. When you invest in something, you want to make sure you actually invest by. Praying it through with the Lord. But if you're feeling the, the nudge and the steering and you feel like, I feel like I should be part of this or that, go to this conference, get mentored by this person, then bring it to the Lord and follow through with it, and don't let money hinder you. In that aspect, if you feel that's what it takes, that's probably a good take home message. Hey, of course you can join my mentorship program, if that feels like a good fit. Pray over it and if you like. Mm-hmm. I like Inga, but I feel like I need something else. Bring it to the Lord. Then he has another mentor for you. Maybe you're like, okay, I'm not into group things. I need a coach. I need a physician coach. I need a spiritual mentor type of coach. Then go and find a person. I certainly provide that, but maybe I'm not the right person for you. Again, take it to the Lord and explore and. Your spirits will testify and you can explore that in prayer as well. And then conferences, retreats are things that I would seek out for if, especially if you're interested in growing in a particular area. So exposure to teaching that you would otherwise not hear. There is something to be said about being in a community of believers at a certain point in time. I believe in that. I've experienced that many times. There is something to. To be said, to invest, again, time and money to remove yourself from your home environment and go in a different environment or conference. I should probably do a whole podcast about retreats and conferences and the value of that. And then of course, basic stuff like read books, galore, go take courses, e-course again, digital courses, mentorship programs. All my lessons. For example, I recorded, there's a whole digital library on a number of topics. The Holy Spirit, how to find your assignment, your identity in Christ how to create and cultivate quiet time and make time for God as a busy physician. The Feast of Israel and their New Testament application. Like, and I could go and on on very excited, but invest in. And buying books, buying courses in your, things you can do on your own. So I hope this blessed you today. I went longer. I got so excited than I had planned, but again, remember the Gospel's free. But growing in your discipleship takes an intentional investment. On your time and money. So go out and use some of those tips to find either conferences, books, courses, a mentor, a mentorship program, a community, and sew into your spiritual life. That will be a eternal fruit and is equipping you for your particular assignment. That's actually really important, and if you are like, Inga, this sounds amazing. I wanna learn more about how you mentor people, then please reach out under inga hoffman.com/heal the Healer's mentorship. Program has a dash in between each word. I put it in the show notes as well, and that is specifically designed to help. Christian physicians grow, integrate faith boldly, live in their calling, discover their assignment, and bring accountability and guidance. And that's actually coaching included with that as well. But if you are like, I want to work with somebody one-on-one, feel free to send me an email. We can certainly look at customizing whatever you need. And you'll approach whether it's professional or spiritual, kind of mentorship coaching. Just email me at Inga. At ingle hoffman.com. Put that in the show notes as well. So with that, I say God bless you and have a wonderful rest of your day, and I talk to you soon about why your testimony matters, even the unseen part. So that will be the next episode, and that's sort of a little bit of a more. I had a prophetic encount, like a revelation at a conference that I paid for and didn't plan to go at first. It was an amazing experience, but it taught me a lot. I'm gonna share that lesson, what the Lord revealed to me in that moment, and what I believe, why it is relevant for you, so your testimony matters. That's the next episode. Watch out for that. God bless you and have a good day.