The central activity of missions is the communication of the gospel. Why? Because as Mark 8:36 notes,<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
So called \u201cMissions\u201d efforts that only address physical needs have missed the point and left their recipients \u201cfor dead.\u201d It\u2019s not an \u201ceither or\u201d but a \u201cboth and.\u201d Jesus himself healed, cast out demons, raised the dead, and fed the hungry, but all these activities were secondary to his primary mission of the proclamation of the gospel.\u00a0 In fact, communication was so central to Jesus\u2019 \u201cmission trip\u201d from heaven to earth that one of his key names was \u201cWord\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God\u2026 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.\u201d(John 1:1,14)<\/i><\/p>\n
Eric Wright says it well in \u201cA Practical Theology of Missions\u201d<\/i> when he writes,<\/p>\n
\u201cMissionary activity that fails to focus on the proclamation of the gospel fails to be missionary. Philanthropy, perhaps; missions, no. However, as sinners grow in grace they increasingly manifest both love for God and love for their neighbors. Works of concern and compassion spring up as believers see neighbors in need. Evangelism precedes and produces, social action.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0Billy Graham stated,<\/p>\n
\u201cRejecting Christ leaves people dead on the inside. Dead Spiritually. 1 Timothy 5:6 says, the soul separated from God is dead even while she liveth.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0Missions must address both the body and the soul. Otherwise, people are \u201cleft for dead\u201d in \u201ctheir trespasses and sins\u201d (Colossians 2:1).\u00a0 The above picture shows a mother of a student in the Emanuel House Ministry in Quisqueya, Dominican Republic who received in August a much-needed new floor and latrine, as well as well as the all-important need of Christ as her savior.\u00a0 Missions: addressing both physical and spiritual needs.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The central activity of missions is the communication of the gospel. Why? Because as Mark 8:36 notes, \u201cWhat good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?\u201d So called \u201cMissions\u201d efforts that only address physical needs have missed the point and left their recipients \u201cfor dead.\u201d It\u2019s not an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/juaquin-kent-mom1-600x343.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/juaquin-kent-mom1-600x343.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Kent Husted","author_link":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/author\/khusted\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empoweringaction.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}