June 20, 2007

• Contextualization, Inculturation, Missional Emergence, Oh my!

  "C1" through "C6", and the rhetoric on both sides...  New wineskins, or a slow and gradual drift away from Christ?   "All things to all men", or the slow boiling of the frog in the pot?   These questions are as old as the Church and very excruciating.  If you're a Christian and you've ever considered which church to attend, chances are that you have faced these questions before... Much more so if you've ever gone to seminary or missions training.   To what extent will Christians be different from and separate themselves from their culture?  To what extent should Christians be concerned with clothing themselves with cultural appropriateness in order to "not offend" non-believers?  Where, in specific personal life, is the line between "giving no cause for offense in anything", and "the stumbling block of the cross"?

  Two of my pet peeves are: (1) a focus on us Christians as the instigators of revival, church 'success', and cultural renewal, rather than on God as the only One who can do this, and (2) a shortsighted "newer-is-better" attitude in missiology... i.e. "Look what God is doing in X culture today" without a prior VERY careful examination of what/whether actually God is the one doing those things, or not.

  What are your thoughts?   How has this played out in your own life?   What books or resources would you recommend on this topic?

  • 12:23 pm
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