We may call it ‘word/deed' or 'integral mission.’ We may stress the call of the Gospel and the inherent need for many many mission shapes in its introduction and expression in our world. We may witness to the need of all persons for a balance of the demands of the inner life of soul and spirit with those of the outer person. But the fact that we have to talk clearly about balancing humanity's social needs and spiritual needs arises out of the church's failure to think and act holistically integrally in all of life.
We have had to recover (or rediscover) the biblical mandate and many balances including paradoxes inherent in the gospel. The split that developed into the fundamentalism of both liberal and conservative make it into either/or rather than a biblical both/and, at least in its most recent historical manifestations began to take shape after the US Civil War towards the end of the 19th century. Prior to that, any separation between the social and the spiritual was not as much evidenced in the West.
A kind of eschatalogical escapism beginning to be popularized at that time held that it was more important to feed the soul than to feed the body for even if the person receiving such ministry died of starvation at least they get to heaven. One popular evangelist put it: 'I do not have time to polish the lamps in a sinking ship. God has give me a lifeboat and I will save all of the souls I can before the End comes. That same evangelist, wonderfully inconsistent, visited wounded soldiers in Civil War camps and hospitals caring for their whole persons as well as sharing the way of love and salvation of Christ.
We have indeed had to rediscover biblical balance, what John Stott called the two wings of the airplane - i.e the necessity of the social and the spiritual being shared in word and deed if the message of the gospel is to survive in each generation. I prefer terms that do not allow for either/or distinctions but that rather explore and enter into the ways in which each area of life take shape and be lived out under biblical guidance and gospel influence. This includes each and all of the 360° of the fully human existence and potential that surrounds us, all of which are vital aspects and spheres of creaturely life.
