A Whole-Person Gospel for the Whole Community: An Interview with Manuel Arteaga

Photo Credit: Manuel Arteaga

Best Practices for Adventist Worship (BP): When we preach the gospel as good news for the whole person, what needs in a community come into focus that might otherwise be ignored, especially for children and families?

Manuel Arteaga (MA): When we preach the gospel as good news for the whole person, it forces us to notice what we have come to call the quiet gaps in our communities. These are the needs that often remain unseen or unaddressed because they are not always dramatic or immediately visible, yet they shape daily life in profound ways.

Whole-person gospel preaching draws our attention to things like safe and reliable childcare, emotional regulation, nutrition, physical and mental health, crisis prevention, and family unity. It brings literacy, trauma-informed care, and long-term formation into focus. It challenges us not to overlook families, but instead to center them, recognizing that stability—particularly economic stability—is deeply connected to human flourishing.

In this sense, gospel-centered preaching cannot remain abstract. It must reckon honestly with the gaps that quietly shape a community’s capacity to thrive. To proclaim good news faithfully is to take these realities seriously, allowing the gospel to illuminate not only hearts, but the conditions in which people live.

BP: Why might community development and early formation be gospel issues, not just social or humanitarian ones?

MA: Community development and early formation matter because the gospel is not only about where someone goes after they die, but about the abundant life Jesus envisions here and now. The good news of the kingdom speaks to how life is lived, how dignity is restored, and how hope is made tangible.

This necessarily shapes how we relate to the youngest among us. Early formation matters because childhood is where imagination, identity, and a sense of the future begin to take shape. When the gospel informs how we care for children, it becomes something they experience long before they can articulate belief in doctrinal terms.

Community development, especially in under-resourced neighborhoods, becomes a practical way to put gospel values to work. It is not a substitute for faith, but a faithful expression of it—one that takes seriously Jesus’ concern for the least, the overlooked, and those still becoming.

BP: How does gospel-centered preaching move a congregation from compassion to sustained presence and engagement in a neighborhood?

MA: One of the aims of gospel-centered preaching is to move people toward a more incarnational, embodied expression of faith. If we believe in the incarnation—that God moved into the neighborhood—then we are also called, as the body of Christ, to do the same.

This means being with a community, not merely in it, and not only for it. It requires learning the rhythms of a neighborhood, knowing names and stories, and sharing in both the joys and the traumas that shape communal life. This kind of presence mirrors the way Christ walked among people, entering fully into their lived realities.

A gospel that remains disembodied will inevitably lack credibility. Gospel-centered preaching finds its integrity when it is matched by a church willing to live the message it proclaims. Without that embodied witness, compassion risks becoming momentary concern rather than sustained commitment.

BP: What does it mean to “preach the gospel” to someone who cannot yet articulate belief, and how does that reshape how we think about formation, care, and ministry?

MA: Preaching the gospel to those who cannot yet articulate belief requires a paradigm shift. Many people—especially children or those unfamiliar with religious language—may not be able to receive the gospel primarily through explanation or rhetoric. Yet the gospel can still be proclaimed by embodying the good news of the kingdom before it is explained.

Historically, the church has often emphasized articulation over embodiment. But the method of Christ reminds us that love was made visible before it was named. The gospel was lived before it was taught.

In this way, every church is called to be a love letter to its neighborhood. A community that communicates care, dignity, and presence shows people they are loved before telling them. Formation, care, and ministry begin not with persuasion, but with faithful presence.

BP: How does investing in tangible expressions of care and stability shape the credibility and trustworthiness of a church’s gospel witness in an under-resourced context?

MA: We were reflecting on this recently as a team, and it became clear that when the church steps in to help stabilize families and create a more hopeful future for children, the gospel begins to sound less like spiritual escape and more like truth.

When the good news is accompanied by tangible expressions of care—whether through education, housing, early childhood formation, or community stability—it takes on weight and credibility. The gospel is no longer heard merely as a promise of someday, but as a present reality that meets people where they are.

In this way, credible hope emerges not from rhetoric alone, but from a faith willing to take shape in real places, among real people, over time. A church that embodies such hope bears witness to a God who does not abandon us, but dwells with us, patiently and persistently working toward renewal.