Having been a Christian from a young age, I have long been familiar with the word, “mission”.

For a considerable time, I associated the word with being overseas doing some kind of physical labour as well as preaching the Gospel. Yet, I never had to confront the tension of when to do what, as it was always simply a function of the programme that was planned.

It was not until I was challenged to live missionally – an “everyday life” of knowing God and making Him known wherever I am – that I truly wrestled with the tension between proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel.

Which should take prominence in any given situation? Is the feeding of a homeless person only given “true” meaning if I told her it was Jesus who sent me? Or is it more critical to “save” her from her physical hunger?

Is there really a priority for one over the other in a disciple’s life and ministry?

Wholly inseparable 

“Integral mission” contemplates that our proclamation and demonstration of the Gospel are not dichotomous; they do not even come “alongside” one another as parallel concerns, but are in fact integrally fused into one another.

When my daughter was an infant, I carried out what seemed like “thankless” tasks on account of having declared myself as her father.

On one occasion, while I was changing her, she soiled herself in the process of being changed. I remember that brief moment of frustration as I reached out for a fresh diaper, telling her in the process: “I’m doing this because I’m your ‘Papa’, ok?”

For some strange reason, I felt inexplicably compelled to tell her that my demonstration of love to her in meeting this immediate need was premised on my declaration of being her father, and what that meant to me – even though I knew she could not yet grasp it.

Over time, as I watch her grow in her consciousness of this truth/reality (as well as her ability to speak), I’ve observed that she now uses the word “Papa” to identify both who I am and also what I do for her/am able to do for her (often by pointing to it).

Seed and fruit

Perhaps it is hard to identify where the proclamation and demonstration begin/end in this analogy.

And maybe, that is precisely the point. Both are so integrally connected that there is hardly any debate as to which is of priority:

“… 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”.

Does either one come first?

Where we speak of actions being the fruit of what we profess to believe, it is also true that actions carry the seed of what eventually grows into the fruit of belief itself.

And, as the Bible tells us, the world stands to gain from tasting of such fruit, as much as it does from seed falling on the right kind of soil.

There’s no Word without deed in missions