In the first half of the 20th century, Christianity in America was embattled by a controversy that seemed to pit two of the church’s goals against one another: battling for souls versus battling for society. For the last one hundred years, churches have fought over whether it is more important to emphasize “Gospel proclamation” or “Gospel demonstration.” The fact that many churches outside of the United States have seemed to see no contradiction between saving souls and serving society did little to lower the temperature of the argument. What if the way of Jesus isn’t “either/or” but “both/and”?
