The Gospel is NEVER to become a social gospel, meaning that we put away the preaching and teaching the Word of God in favor of doing good works and make people's temporal lives better.
The Gospel is ALWAYS about preaching the death burial and resurrection of Christ, because that is what makes the eternal difference. Without the foundation of Jesus Christ making you a new creature, all the social things that you can do are temporary at best. However, as a church planter, I am constantly reminded that we are saved to do good works through the power of the indwelling Christ (Matthew 5:16; Ephesians 2:10). The simple truth is that we cannot reach a world that we never touch and that preaching does no good when there is no one there to hear it. Being a helping hand to people who need it often builds a bridge of relationship that allows the preaching to become meaningful to them. LIVING the Word of God by reaching out to others in a tangible way provides the conversation to introduce Christ.
We need only to look at the example of Christ; while He never preached or taught a social Gospel, He sure helped a lot of people, so much that John said that the world itself would not be able to contain all the books that could be written to describe all that Jesus did (John 21:25).
"And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
"Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do. " Galatians 2:9-10