Evangelism by Word or by Deed?

From comments to a blog post entitled Preaching Jesus Up Against the Jesus of Suburbia by Chris Erdman, referring to a comment by J. Michael Matkin:

Michael, you said, 'Words alone won't change the tide. Only when people see communities that can only be explained if the gospel is true, when they see people marked by the cross, that's when the wind will shift.'

With these pregnant words you've articulated the reason we take the gospel so seriously and seek to form people according to the Word against the counterfeits. Our words, formed by the Word, form communities that 'explain the gospel' by the way they live. Missional communities. They make sense only if this gospel is true and is truly having its way among them.