Taken from "The Christian's responsibility to holistic ministry" by Luis Caban. Catalyst, Fall 1999 (Vol 2, No 1). Pages 15-17+.
Holism has been around since the 1920s, but anything described as
"holistic" is usually stigmatized as something on the fringes or
outside of the mainstream. If the word "holistic" means to be
undivided, unimpaired, or uninjured--in other words, complete--then
Christian ministry should be holistic ministry. The goal of our
ministry is not to fracture or truncate, but to bring others to
completeness, wholeness, and maturity.
A common way to
understand holistic ministry is to revisit the motto which many
churches have adopted as their own: "The whole gospel for the whole man
in the whole world."
The whole gospel.
If we preach the whole gospel, we must preach not just salvation and
sanctification. If we stop there, our preaching is not holistic. We are
also to love our neighbors as ourselves. Salvation is something only
God can do, but once this work is begun, the whole gospel calls us into
relationship with others.
The whole man.
Too many preachers address the spirit and soul of a man, but say
nothing about the body. Yet the body, as the point of contact with the
external world, is a vital object of holistic ministry. When the church
preaches a gospel that only saves the soul but doesn't feed the hungry,
take in the stranger, or clothe the naked, it is not preaching a
holistic gospel.
The whole world.
We can agree that the world includes our homes, neighborhoods,
communities, countries, and nations beyond our borders--in other words,
the people who live in these locales. Yet the world is creation itself,
which is waiting for its redemption. A holistic ministry addresses the
issues of deforestation, pollution of the atmosphere, contamination of
our rivers, and the extinction of animal species.
Scripture
uses many words to describe our ministry in the church including
servant, deacon, healer, and others. These are words which point to a
ministry which is multidimensional: a holistic ministry.
