Bifurcation can be such an unholy word

"It is not a matter of engaging in both the gospel and social action, as if Christian social action was something separate from the gospel itself. The gospel has to be demonstrated in word and deed. Biblically, the gospel includes the totality of all that is good news from God for all that is bad news in human life—in every sphere. So like Jesus, authentic Christian mission has included good news for the poor, compassion for the sick and suffering justice for the oppressed, liberation for the enslaved. The gospel of the Servant of God in the power of the Spirit of God addresses every area of human need and every area that has been broken and twisted by sin and evil. And the heart of the gospel, in all of these areas, is the cross of Christ." - Christopher J. H. Wright International director of John Stott Ministries (from Knowing the Holy Spirit Throught the Old Testament)

This, actually reminds me of the E. Stanley Jones quote: Evangelism without social action is like a body without a soul. Social action without evangelism is like a soul without a body. One is a corpse, the other is a ghost. We don't want either one.

So - why do we so often settle for ghosts and corpses in our ministrues?

Quotable

The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. --C. S. Lewis

Evangelistic smackdown quote of the day

"Every man needs reconversion at forty on general principles! Because at forty we settle down, begin to lose that sense of spiritual expectancy, begin to take on 'protective resemblance' to environment, and to play for safety.

I once heard an Anglican bishop say that the period of the great number of spiritual casualties is between forty and fifty and not between twenty and thirty, as one would expect. Why? Well, if 'heaven lies about us in our infancy,' the world lies about us in our middle age. We come under its standards, fit into its facts, and are slowly de-Christianized." (E. Stanley Jones, Christ and Human Suffering)