A number of years ago, two missionaries met each other by accident in a market in the country where they had been assigned. They struck up a conversation and it took about 30 seconds for them to realize that they both were serving the Christian Reformed Church. One was working with World Missions (now Resonate) and the other was working for World Relief (now World Renew). While they were both working for the same denomination, neither knew the other was in the same part of the world. They were shocked that they had both been in the region for several years but had never found out about each other.
As I heard this story (and it is true), I was in the head office of the denomination in Grand Rapid, Michigan, and the one who was telling me the story pointed to two different parts of the building. That section, he said, is World Renew, and that section, he said pointing across the hall, is Resonate. He said that for a number of years those working in either section rarely crossed the hallway to talk to each other. Each agency of the denomination worked in a silo, doing its own work, and doing it well, but often not collaborating with those on the other side of the hall. This story about the two missionaries meeting in the field was one of the motivating factors for the heads o the two agencies to begin talking together, and they made some significant changes. Instead of working independently, they decided to collaborate as much as possible, sharing information and resources as it became available. Never again would two missionaries from two agencies not be aware of each other.
Even as I talk about this story, I am also thankful that our denomination does have these two different agencies, each tasked with a particular aspect of the church’s work in the world. The church has two tasks: to bring the gospel to the world, a work that is primarily done through evangelism, discipleship, and planting churches. The second task is to alleviate some of the physical effects of sin by distributing food and clothing in times of crisis and by helping people develop farms, start businesses so that they can become self-sustaining. We might call these two aspects of the church to be word and deed ministries. Our denomination was doing both, but it was doing them separately.
A few years ago, I took a course taught by Rene Padilla, an Ecuadorian missiologist well known around the world for his careful thinking about missions and the task of the church. The course was called, “Integral Missions.” I took the course in a Baptist seminary, and many of my classmates were from Baptist backgrounds, a Christian tradition that takes very seriously the evangelistic task of the church. They tend to de-emphasize helping those with physical needs as being part of the church’s calling. Dr. Padilla called for the church to integrate its faith and deed ministries, saying that unless we engage in integral missions, we do not present the whole gospel. He referred to word and deed ministries as being two wings of a plane, an apt metaphor.
He pointed to the ministry of Jesus. Jesus came to teach, and teaching was an essential part of his ministry. Matthew’s gospel, for examples, records several of Jesus’ discourses, the most well-known being the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). At the same time, Jesus also heals a large number of people, freeing them from the physical effects of sin. Often we see these miracles of Jesus as being a way to prove to the world that he is sent from God, and that is an appropriate understanding. But the miracles do more than just prove Jesus’ divinity and right to speak authoritatively. The miracles, like Jesus’ teaching, reveal the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ teachings give us a vision of the Kingdom of God, and his miracles give us a concrete experience of what that Kingdom is like. In other words, the miracles foreshadow what eternal life will be like, giving us a taste of what is to come.
Padilla encouraged us to think about the ministry of the church. The church is not only a place where the gospel is heard; it is also a place where the gospel is experienced. Padilla’s hypothesis was this: if the gospel cannot be experienced, it will not be heard, and if the gospel is not heard, it cannot be experienced. We cannot have a deed ministry without a word ministry, for without the word, there is no meaning to the help that we can give. On the other hand, a word ministry without a deed ministry makes the word seem false and lacking in compassion. We need both if the gospel is going to be authentic.
It would seem, then, that as followers of Jesus Christ carry out the task of telling the world about God’s grace in Jesus Christ that they also offer an experience of how that grace changes everything. This would mean that the church, the body of believers, becomes a place where people can experience a foretaste of heaven, where they are welcomed and love, where their needs are met, and where they can come to know who Jesus is and what he has done.
We think of the early church as it is found in the first chapters of the book of Acts. Even as the apostles proclaimed the gospel, the new believers pooled all they had so that all would have enough. What is described in Acts is not necessarily a prescription for the church, but it is an example of how the early church sought to experience a foretaste life in the Kingdom of God by ensuring that no one of its community should live in need. While we are not expected to pool all that we have, at the same time, it should be true that within the community of believers everyone experiences God’s blessings.
Today, World Renew and Resonate work closely together, bringing the gospel to the world both in word through evangelism and discipleship and in deed by assisting those with physical needs so that they can enjoy the fullness of God’s blessings. Integral missions, as Rene Padilla named it, is the fullness of the mission of the church.