Its such an important part of what we do and what we believe in.
Dictionary.com defines it as,
Characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.
How this applies to ministry is simple. When working in holistic ministry its important to understand that humans cannot be separated into separate beings. Most common in the church world, we focus on the spiritual but ignore the physical. Another common problem is focusing on the physical while leaving the spiritual up to whatever feels right. In America, its not uncommon to focus exclusively on the emotional.
The problem is, you can't separate humans into separate beings. We aren't one being at a time, we are all human all the time.
Thats why holistic ministry is absolutely essential.
You can't minister to one 'being' effectively without ministering to them all at the same time. How can ministry involve every piece of a human at the same time? The only 'system' that reaches the whole human is relationship. The trick is, relationship is not a system at all. More on that later... stay tuned.
