Missions Fest Vancouver is a network of 130 local congregations that promote the annual missions conference. This month, Missions Fest celebrates 28 years of bringing the Christian community of Greater Vancouver together, with a focus on the global mission of God. The organization’s director, Dwayne Buhler, offers this reflection on the equal importance of both words and deeds.

A 10 year old boy stood outside our gate, drenched from the driving rain.

Luis Alberto was the oldest of seven children, and was told by his mother that he would have to fend for himself.

This was not the time to discuss the merits of helping a person in need, but the time to act in Christian love. It was the start of a relationship; a friendship that changed the way our family looked at the world around us. The mandate to love mercy, act justly, and walk humbly with our Lord, now had a face.

The Great Debate over the social gospel versus the proclaimed gospel is not new. In 1910 – 100 years ago – the World Missionary Conference was held in Edinburgh, Scotland and was fueled by the theme, ‘The Evangelization of the World in this Generation.’

While the conference sought to bring together the many branches of the Protestant world, it only clarified the division between liberals and evangelicals.

On one side stood those with a social agenda; and on the other were those who kept watch over the veracity and supremacy of the preaching of The Word.

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For myriad years, these two sides have drawn and redrawn lines that divide the Protestant world to this day.

But there is hope. There are those who understand that the debate is not an ‘either/or’ proposition, but rather a ‘both/and’ aspect of what it really means to proclaim the entire Good News of Jesus Christ.

Missions Fest 2011 will ask a crucial question: What does the Lord require of you? Speakers who have wrestled with the fact that we are called to both act and proclaim the Gospel will challenge us with messages from God’s Word.

Viv and Ieda Grigg will bring a prophetic word of what it means to live and minister in the world’s poorest cities. Afshin Javid will tell his story of salvation from the depths of a Malaysian jail cell. African evangelist Stephen Lungu will communicate an understanding of what it means to be lifted out of poverty.

Michael Oh will share how the restorative power of the cross enabled him to forgive his enemies. Marilee Pierce Dunker will tell her father’s story: how Bob Pierce longed for a heart that was broken with the things that break the heart of God. And Mike and Danae Yankoski will share their journey of experiencing God’s zealous love in a world of injustice and misery.

When a young Brazilian boy stood at our door, hungry and soaked in a downpour, we did not have time to contemplate or debate the merits of helping the poor. There was only time to act. But those actions – matched with the message of hope in Christ, and the concern of a church that gathered around him – led to a crucial relationship.

That relationship resulted in the salvation of Luis Alberto and members of his family. Words and deeds came together to produce eternal life, not debate.

January 2011