What should be the main focus of mission in the Christian faith? Social Justice or Evangelism? Well, it depends on who you talk to.   These are two pieces of God’s mission that seem to have been split apart in our history. 

We have seen conservative wings of Christianity stick primarily to evangelism and liberal wings stick primarily to social justice and serving.  If you only hand out tracks and go door to door sharing the gospel message, you are considered a conservative bible thumper.  If you only help build houses with habitat or serve the homeless in a soup kitchen, you are considered to merely be a social worker, who happens to believe in Jesus.  Scott Moreau, in his co-authored book, Introducing World Missions, explains this saying, “Opinions have varied, from those who remain suspicious that social action will replace the value set on gospel proclamation, to those who have called for even more involvement in society.”  I believe that this disconnect between social justice and evangelism should never have taken place.  

In fact, I would say the question I asked at the beginning of this article is not even the right question.  Maybe we should be asking what God’s focus is when it comes to mission, after all it his mission.  Instead of consulting the personal agendas and passions of man, maybe we should look at Scripture to see what God’s mission on the earth really is.  And the more I look at Scripture, I can’t help but see social justice and evangelism meshing together perfectly.  I see places such as Luke 4:18-19, when Jesus quotes Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
to preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
 To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” In this passage alone you see examples of evangelism: “preaching the gospel” and social justice: “to  set at liberty those who are opressed”.  God doesn’t seem to separate social justice and evangelism when it comes to mission so why should we?

Our mission for God is a holistic one, incorporating physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.  If someone is hungry or without adequate clothing, they will most likely take your track explaining the four laws and throw it in the nearest dumpster.  However, if you show them that you really love and care for them, by helping them find food and clothes, they will most likely want to know where you get this type of compassion.  This will always provide a way for us to explain to them that they are people for whom Jesus Christ died for.  As Christians, we have more reason than any other group to serve the poor and the needy.  We, who were all poor and needy at least in the spiritual sense, have been rescued from eternal death apart from God, and have been given new life, all because He extended to us His great mercy and compassion.  How we can we not extend this same mercy and compassion to the poor and needy we encounter daily? 

God calls us to this in Zechariah 7:9-10, when He states, “Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor.  Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.”  As we show mercy and compassion in real ways by giving up our time, money, and comfort, we are then given a platform to proclaim and explain the good news of Jesus Christ.  This part of our mission is just as important as serving the poor with our actions and, as I have discussed, goes hand-in-hand with it.  We see in Mark 5, Jesus sending out the disciples in pairs of two to verbally call people to repentance.  Paul also illustrates in Romans 10:14 how crucial our proclamation of the gospel is, when he states, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”  While social justice means nothing without evangelism, it does give us an incredible opportunity to be the hands and feet of God, as well as the mouthpiece.  So, while the social justice/evangelism debate may be interesting, maybe we should spend less time fighting over which one is primary and more time working together to actually further the mission.