Mission: Evangelism or Social Action?

Extracted from the writings of John Stott

I suggest the need for a three fold recognition about evangelism and social action:

1. Recognition that the two are partners in the Christian mission… ‘distinct yet equal’ partners. Neither in an excuse for the other, a cloak for the other, or a means to the other. Each exists in its own right as an expression of Christian love. Both should be included to some degree in every local churches programme
2. Recognition that both are also every individual Christian’s responsibility. Every Christian is a witness, and must take whatever opportunities he is given. Every Christian is also a servant, and must respond to challenges to service, without regarding them as merely occasions for evangelism. Yet the existential situation will often assign priority to one or other of the two responsibilities. For example, the Good Samaritan’s ministry to the brigand’s victim was not to stuff tracts into his pocket but to pour oil into his wounds. For this was what the situation demanded.
3. Recognition that, although both are part of the Church’s and the Christian’s duties, yet God calls different people to different ministries and endows them with appropriate gifts. This is a necessary deduction from the nature of the Church as Christ’s body. Although we should resist polarization between evangelism and social action, we should not resist specialization. Everybody cannot do everything. Some are called to be evangelists, others to be social workers, others to be political activist. Within each local church, which is the body of Christ in the locality committed to both evangelism and social action, there is a proper place for individual specialists and for specialist groups.

Yet the Kingdom of God is not Christianized society. It is the divine rule in the lives of those who acknowledge Jesus Christ. It has to be ‘received’, ‘entered’ or ‘inherited’ by humble and penitent faith in Jesus Christ. And without a new birth it is impossible to see it, let alone enter it. Those who do receive it like a child, however, find themselves members of the new community of the Messiah, which is called to exhibit the ideals of His rule in the world and so to present the world with an alternative social reality. This social challenge of the gospel of the kingdom is quite different from the ‘social gospel’ – which replaces the good news of salvation with a message of social amelioration. Evangelism is the major instrument of social change. The followers of Jesus Christ are optimists, but not Utopians. It is possible to improve society, but a perfect society awaits the return of Jesus Christ.