Transcript Holism - TGC Resources

Holism
Can we preach the gospel and ignore
the social plight of men? How much
involvement in their lives is helpful and
how much is damaging to their own
development?
Why target the whole person?
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Majority of UPG’s are extremely poor
1/3rd of earth’s pop (2B) need survival
help
Holistic ministries seek a spiritual, social,
personal and physical transformation
Roman Catholics and Liberals tend to
focus in these areas
Holism in a Global Context of Missions
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Migration
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Pop. Growth from 1.4B to 6.2B by 2000.
Undeveloped countries are 66% (4.6B)
98% of pop. Growth in these regions
1 in 10 are migrants (in 2002 40M immigrants)
HIV/AIDS
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By 2005 disease killed 22M, with 42M infected
16,000 infected daily
13M children have lost 1 or both parents to
AIDS, which is 1/3 of all orphans in the world
Holism in a Global Context of Missions
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Children at Risk
Survivors who are most vulnerable are children
Disabling or bonded child labor
 Collateral damage of wars
 Disease, drug abuse or consequences
 Neglect or loss of family
 Extreme poverty
 Oppressive institutions
Reduction in infant mortality rates = half (50%) of most
countries is below 15 yrs of age
Ten million exploited in sex slave trade
In 2000 170,000 Christian primary schools, 50,000
secondary and 1500 institutes and colleges
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How is it Proclaimed?
Holism is one answer
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Conservative evangelicals gave priority to evangelizing the
world and discipling the nations – this is called “prioritism”
In the International Congress on World Evangelization in
Lausanne in 1974 holism began to be more important than
prioritism
Liberation Theology taught the church’s mission is to
promote justice in society and establish peace on earth.
Three views of Holism:
1. Radical Liberationism leading to revolution from any
oppressive regime to establish Marxist communities.
2. Two types of Holism: (Stott) seeks an equal priority of
social and gospel priorities
3. Conversionism or Prioritism which focuses on gospel
preaching and church planting, with little social ministry.
Two types of Holism
(according to Hesselgrave)
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Revisionist Holism
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Seeks an equal partnership between
evangelism and social action (loving God and
loving your neighbor)
Not as radical as Liberationism
Restrained Holism
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Follows example of Jesus who preached the
gospel to the poor
Attempts to prioritize evangelism while
meeting urgent needs (though not all needs)
Two Philosophies of Holism
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Incarnational Holism
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Models after Jesus’ ministry
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Representational Holism:
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Models after Paul’s ministry
Two Philosophies of
Holism
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Incarnationalist Holism
 Seek the extension of Christ’s kingdom over the
whole of life and society
 Do not think much of priorities – witness is
though of as “word, deeds and signs” of Jesus as
the Transformer of societies and cultures as well
as individuals
 Stott sees Jesus making His mission a model for
the church’s mission and ours.
 The church is to be salt and light: if a community
deteriorates socially or physically it is the failure
of the church!
 Sometimes this is called “Presence Evangelism”
Two Philosophies of
Incarnational Holism
A. Conversionist-incarnationalists Holism
 Priority is given to discipling the ethne, all
peoples, baptizing and instructing them while
incorporating them into local reproducing
churches
 This is called “Confrontational Evangelism”
 Both of these reject Liberationism
 Both are aware of the risks involved in attempting
to fashion contemporary missiology after the
model of Jesus rather than the principles of Paul
Incarnationalism Missions
Modeling modern missions
after Jesus
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Characterized by humble, self-sacrificial service
on behalf of all people
Willing to renounce his rights and privileges as
the Son of God to identify with those he came
to serve.
Became poor servant to meet the needs of
hurting people and powerless.
Did not hesitate to engage in a power
encounter with the demons to show His power
Immersed himself in the affairs of local culture
Incarnationalism Missions
Modeling modern missions
after Jesus
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Communicated, verbally and non-verbally in a
way that people could understand.
Spent most of his time training a few chosen
disciples who would carry on his ministry
Gave priority to prayer and fellowship with His
heavenly Father
Did not have a superiority complex, rather
assumed a humble attitude in working with
people
Willing to suffer and die for the people He
came to save.
Social Component
Mandate of
Incarnationalists
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Incarnationalists tend to apply evangelism while/after
meeting the social needs that the people feel
When the WCC was dominated by liberals missions
became mostly social (mid 20thcentury)
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Instead of the lostness of people it became the plight of people as
the major focus
Paradigm shift: 1974 Lausanne Covenant: “We affirm that
evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part
of our Christian duty”
“Both are necessary expressions of our doctrines of God
and man, our love for our neighbor and our obedience to
Jesus Christ.”
2. Representational Mission
Modeling modern missions
after Paul
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Characterized by humble, self-sacrificial service, giving
up his rights to identify with and meet the needs of his
target audience
Concentrated on centers of learning and commerce,
from which the gospel flowed
Labored with his own hands to provide for himself and
co-workers to give a model to his followers
Considered himself an ambassador of Christ and, on
Christ’s behalf, urged sinners to be reconciled to God
Concentrated on raising up indigenous churches that
would not be dependent on missionaries or other
churches
Representational Mission
Modeling modern missions
after Paul
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Did not spend a long time in each place, but chose to
pick and train a few local leaders who could carry on
his work
Maintained contact with churches he had established
with visits and letters exhorting them to walk worthy
of their calling
Encouraged believers in the churches to give
generously to care for others
Accommodated himself to new cultures, becoming “all
things to all men” to save some.
Maintained his authority as one commissioned by
Christ while humbly confessing his unworthiness as a
sinner and former persecutor.
Redefine or
Balance
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Some areas obligate a social platform to justify
presence (i.e. RAC/CAC)
Some opportunities can be integrated with
evangelism (i.e. schools, clinics, orphanages)
Temptation to avoid evangelism is tremendous
in order to be successful or accepted
Aid, medical, community development programs
often become an end to themselves
Avoid such programs that create dependency –
participate in temporary programs that result in
autonomy and self-sufficiency
Why is the danger so prevalent?
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What model of social-evangelistic ministry do you know
of in the US?
What business-evangelistic ministry?
What medical-evangelistic ministry?
What Aid-evangelistic ministry?
What engineering-evangelistic ministry?
What sociological, linguistic, anthropological ministry?
With very few, if any, models in our culture, that are
effective, this makes the foreign task difficult to establish
and maintain in priority
The overwhelming belief is in “Presence” Evangelism – a
silent witness
Some such agencies have economic benefits that
obligate a minimum of offense to clients (i.e.
evangelism)
Summary of Holism
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Charles Sheldon, In His Steps, helped develop a
practical ethic around the question, “What would
Jesus do?”
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His objective was the hope that “the application of
Christian principles to the ordering of society would
lead to the rectification of serious social evils and
pave the way for the establishment of the kingdom of
God on earth” -- Dominion Theology
The results of its popularity and practice was the loss
of the real gospel message, for the social gospel
Once again the Incarnationalist WWJD has
surfaced to become a priority in political, social
and Charismatic focuses, often to the lack of the
true gospel message.
David Hesselgrave
quote:
“There are strong indications that the 21st century
will be marked by major sociopolitical upheavals
and a succession of natural disasters. Unless this
new – among evangelicals – understanding of
mission is successfully challenged, the likelihood
of retaining the biblical priority of world
evangelization in the face of unprecedented
needs of every kind will become increasingly
difficult.”