Physical And Spiritual Needs

This is what we deal with in Contemporary Evangelism course. We call this transformational and incarnational evangelism. Christians should not draw any distinction between both physical and spiritual needs. In the ministry of Jesus He did not draw any dichotomy between the two. In fact, most of the time He used people’s physical needs to meet their spiritual needs. For instance in John 6 Jesus used the lad's bread and a few fish to feed the 5000 people. He used it to teach them a great spiritual lesson. When the lesson was over, many of the people left the scene. Jesus then turned to the Disciples and asked them whether they too would leave. The problem that some churches have is that they cannot connect the physical needs to the spiritual. Therefore, they settle for the physical needs. If we do that then we are not true to Christ and His church. We have to combine both and reach the whole person.

The reason our world has become so wicked, evil, and dangerous is that Christians have kept the good news to themselves whiles the world is rapidly heading to a Christ-less eternity. Our contemporary church is unlike the New Testament church, in that the NT church took the gospel to the whole world. They did not have any governmental or human protection. All that they had was the presence, power of the Holy Spirit, and prayer and that was enough for them. In fact, they turned the pluralistic world of the time upside down.

I believe that in the urban and suburban centers of the world, a pastor without any theological education or training would probably resign. Why? The answer is simple. In such environments you would have congregants who are medical doctors, lawyers, engineers, university students, etc. If the minister does not have the proper theological education, how can he minister effectively to such people in the church? While I am a proponent of theological education, I am also an advocate for the balance between sound theological education and true spirituality. I believe that God used the Apostle Paul effectively to plant churches in the Gentile world because he had a good balance of true spirituality and sound theological education. Any minister of the gospel that wants to be effective should not stop learning and studying.