Incarnational And InFormational Evangelism

Incarnational and informational evangelism has been in existence since the time of Christ. In fact, Jesus integrated both in His evangelistic outreach. We see that when He fed the five thousand people with a little boy's lunch. We find that when He healed the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda. Therefore, there should not be any dichotomy between the two.

When we separate or divorce incarnational evangelism from informational evangelism or vice versa, we commit a great blunder. The Bible warns about the danger of this dichotomy in both James and the first Epistle of John 3:16-19. Both evangelistic strategies were integrated in the ministry of Jesus. He modeled it for the disciples and us. Therefore, if we pit one against the other, we misrepresent Christ. A believer cannot keep the good news of Christ's salvific work to himself/herself. Neither can a believer ignore the material nor physical needs of others. When we do that, we become the proverbial rich fool in Luke 12, and the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16.

The lessons the disciples learned from Jesus were that Jesus was a caring leader who cared both for the physical and spiritual needs of people. The lesson is evident in feeding of the five thousand people in the Gospels. That narrative is shared in all the four Gospels. Therefore, the disciples learned from Jesus that they were not to divorce incarnational evangelism from informational evangelism. They are both of the same coin. Therefore, when we draw a dichotomy between the two, we misrepresent Christ in a needy world.