The Integration of Development and Evangelism

Abstract

Although the rhetoric relating to the importance of both evangelism and development in the world mission of the church has been rich over the past few decades, little has been actually done by the evangelical world community to implement the implications of this discussion. Obstacles that have prevented the integration of evangelism and development have been numerous: A narrow understanding of evangelism; a secular definition of development; a crisis of faith (focus on law versus grace); and a cultural insensitivity, to mention a few. There are some efforts being made, however, to integrate both evangelism and development in the work of the church. A case in point is the work of the Issaan Development Foundation, the Institute for Sustainable Development and the Thailand Covenant Church in Thailand over the past few decades. Some basic principles held by this integrated ministry are the authority of the Word of God, a focus on integrating all of life by the grace of God, a flexible organizational system, contextualization of all areas of ministry, power encounter between the values of the gospel and those of society, a focus on the local church, and a process/broker approach to ministry.