Some of us in many traditions too often see evangelism as simply introducing people to Jesus only as a means to get to heaven. It neglects discipleship as well as the broader dimension of Jesus’ gospel of the Kingdom of God. Others fall into the trap of excluding personal evangelism purely for the goal of social activism. It’s too bad we so often err on one side or the other in this false dichotomy we’ve set up between personal salvation and social justice.
The gospel is not a gospel of either/or but one of both/and. To me as a Christian, I truly believe in the Wesleyan mandate that there is no personal holiness a part from social holiness, and no social holiness without personal holiness. It is my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and the empowerment in my life through the Holy Spirit that sustain me through the resistance, and just plain hard work, of pursuing justice within the world for all of God’s children.
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