Holistic Ministry

"There is no longer a need to qualify a mission as 'holistic,' nor to distinguish between a 'mission' and a 'holistic mission.' Mission is, by definition, 'holistic,' and therefore 'holistic mission' is, de facto, mission. Proclamation alone, apart from any social concern, may be perceived as a distortion, a truncated version of the true gospel, a parody and travesty of the good news, lacking relevance for the real problems of real people living in a real world. On the other end of the spectrum, exclusive focus on transformation and advocacy may just result in social and humanitarian activism, void of any spiritual dimension. Both approaches are unbiblical; they deny the wholeness of human nature of human beings created in the image of God. Since we are created 'whole,' and since the Fall affects our total humanity in all its dimensions, then redemption, restoration, and mission can, by definition, only be 'holistic'"(323).