For more than fifty years—encapsulated in a famous backroom debate between Billy Graham and John Stott, but in reality stretching back further, to the beginnings of the neo-evangelical movement and Carl F. H. Henry’s The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism—evangelicals have wrestled with the nature and extent of the church’s mission.
Is the mission of the church narrow, focused primarily on conversion through sharing the gospel and seeking to persuade others to trust in Christ? Or is it broad, encompassing everything that Christians are sent in the world to do, through following Christ’s commands? How does the mission of the local church when gathered relate to the obedience required of Christians scattered about in their various vocations? Should evangelism take priority over social action, or are both evangelism and social action equal partners, or as John Stott memorably suggested, like two wings of a plane?
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