Revisiting the “Whole Gospel”: Toward a Biblical Model of Holistic Mission in the 21st Century

Review of Jean-Paul Heldt's article

I wanted to share some thoughts about an article I recently read by Jean-Paul Heldt, Revisiting the “Whole Gospel”:  Toward a Biblical Model of Holistic Mission in the 21^st Century.  Heldt introduces a statement by Speer, “evangelization is nothing less than the good news in action.  Thus, mission is generally bound up with the message of salvation, and so in order to understand the nature of mission we need to come to terms with the terminology of salvation.

The mission of salvation might be seen as any kind of release which we provide to others in the name of Jesus.  Holistic mission could be seen as administering the full scope of salvation as we find it revealed in the Old and New Testament.  It applies to the whole of life, the whole of the world, and the whole of time.  The uniqueness of Jesus is right at the heart of the matter, as is the scope of His power and authority, and the efficacy of His saving acts.  I believe that when we have dealt with these issues we will have come a good way to delineating the limits of mission, and the scope of salvation.  The first thing that the New Testament specifically relates regarding the mission of Jesus, and about the mission of His followers, is that He came to save His people from their sin.

Heldt asserts that John 9:25, “I was blind, now I see” draws to an idea that there is an integration of physical healing and spiritual salvation.  For some reason or another, the mission of the church has been obscured with attempting to have these ideas to be competing priorities which then is reflected in the budgets that many churches prepare without identifying that Christ’s message was holistic.

 It becomes apparent that Heldt’s definition of holistic mission and development as the integration of physical healing and spiritual salvation, a restoration of the body and reconciliation with God is indicative of that approach that Christ came to demonstrate the good news in action beyond words.  Holistic mission can be defined as "the task of bringing the whole of life under the lordship of Jesus Christ" according to Dewi Hughes.  Then the mission of God is "to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven" (Colossians 1:20) and our part is crossing geographic, cultural, political, economic and social barriers with the intention of transforming human life in all its dimensions, according to God’s purpose, and of enabling human beings to enjoy the abundant life that God wants to give to them and that Jesus Christ came to share with them.

In the article, he ascribes that beyond the obvious symptoms that a person exhibits are some underlying factors that are deeply rooted to the real problem.  In contrast to only dealing with only symptoms, Christ exemplifies the merging of two dimensions of human life, the spiritual and the physical and broadening the picture of human life in its totality:  physical, mental (and economic), social (also political), and spiritual.  Thus, the need for redemption and mission must include these dimensions as well.

Finally, a Christian response to people uprooted by conflict, persecution, poverty, economic collapse, famine and natural disasters should be considered.  Scripture has a great deal to say about both the care and plight of aliens and foreigners. Hospitality, solidarity and love toward the displaced are responses grounded in Scripture. Not only are the provision of food, housing and caring for refugees necessary, but the church has the unique task of bearing "witness to the reality of Jesus’ victory"⁴ that gives meaning and purpose to existence. The response of the church must include ensuring survival, providing protection, offering spiritual care and enabling people to recover identity and vocation.

Reference:

Jean-Paul Heldt, “Revisiting the ‘Whole Gospel’: Toward a Biblical Model of Holistic Mission in the 21st Century,” Missiology: An International Review 32, no. 2 (April 2004): 151.