Comments on: Contextualization

By: michael

michael — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:40:55 +0000

“If you don’t do the missionary work of contextualization, you still can grow your church. But it won’t belong to the culture in which it’s planted.”

Oh how I wish this wasn’t true because more often than not the “church” folk are just being consolidated rather than new cultural pieces being created that are rooted in Scripture; redeeming what can be used for God and rejecting that which cannot. Yet, when you do take the time to do the missionary work, the church grows at a slower rate and is therefore deemed unsuccessful and the plug is pulled before it really ever had a chance to sprout any roots.

By: stepchild

stepchild — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:08:14 +0000

Kirkwood,
I was hoping to get people to think about whether an iPhone, neckbeard, or whatever is appropriate for their context. Since the vast majority of ministry in the U.S. takes place in the upper-middle class suburbs, maybe it’s okay that we all look alike (okay, so that was sarcasm.) I certainly don’t think it’s a good idea to worship the “stuff” that consumers define themselves with.

As I tried to communicate in this post- “cool” isn’t the point. Identifying with and understanding the people to whom we minister for the sake of incarnation is. As for your concern about dabbling too far into a culture that rejects God- I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a culture that didn’t reject God. As you mentioned, that’s why we need the accountability and warning of the local church- a group of fellow foreigners who are committed to that same work of contextualization.

David,
I actually had Bill in there first, but then I thought that between Rick and Andy, we had that side covered. Maybe I’ll edit him in, though.

Thanks.

By: Kirkwood

Kirkwood — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:51:08 +0000

When you began telling us to involve ourselves in indie culture, I was waiting for the sarcastic, punctuating comment. I think that many m’s could benefit from letting their neck beard grow, but I hope that this post doesn’t give the iPhone worshippers the “authoritative justification” that they’ve been looking for.

“Cool” can be a great means to an end. In the past I’ve let it become THE end. I would warn against dabbling too far into a culture that rejects God. Without accountability, you might become it.

By: David Phillips

David Phillips — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:11:35 +0000

Maybe you were representing, but you forgot Bill as a mentor

This is a great post. Thanks for putting this in word!