OnMovements

Integral Mission

•

Jay Lorenzen

The folks over at Micah Network came up with a lovely term: Integral Mission. I love the way they defined it–wording that helps us keep both proclamation and demonstration in balance:

Integral Mission is …

” .. the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. It is not simply that evangelism and social involvement are to be done alongside each other. Rather, in integral mission our proclamation has social consequences as we call people to love and repentance in all areas of life. And our social involvement has evangelistic consequences as we bear witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. If we ignore the world we betray the word of God which sends us out to serve the world. If we ignore the word of God we have nothing to bring to the world. Justice and justification by faith, worship and political action, the spiritual and the material, personal change and structural change belong together. As in the life of Jesus, being, doing and saying are at the heart of our integral task.”

,

•

3 responses to “Integral Mission”

  1. Trent McEntyre Avatar
    Trent McEntyre

    I have a problem with living the “integral mission.” I spent many years in ministry justifying word-only programs. In my evangelistic zeal, I neglected other needs and failed to see how they connected to the gospel. Thankfully, the Lord has begun to change that in my life and ministry.

    I just became part of the Campus ministries’s “good news-good deeds” learning group. We just finished a meeting focused on lessons of justice and movement from the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr..

    Thanks to Jay, Chip, and Eric for leadership this week. Thanks to Laurie and Vicki for your wonderful hospitality. Thanks to the rest of the group for your heart and insight. I know I learned a lot this week. I look forward to continuing this learning experience and working to advance this in our ministry with y’all.

    Trent
    Atlanta, GA

  2. jay Avatar
    jay

    Trent….thanks for the comment. We’re all trying to figure out how to live the “integral mission”–but I’m loving learning how. The gospel is more and more beautiful as I do so. Great having you join the learning community. Shoulder to shoulder, Jay

  3. Carlos Avatar
    Carlos

    Greetings from Peru,
    Thanks for sharing your experiences about Integral Mission. I am looking for educational materials to work topics such as justice, grace, reconciliation, compassion, personal integrity, etc. Can you recommend me any organization or educational experience who works these topics from an educational view?
    Cheers, and thanks,
    Carlos

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

Social Media

Categories