Filed under: Bible, Institutional Church, Missional Church, Quotes | Tags: Andrew Jones, Christianity, context, contextualization, gospel, Institutional Church, Jesus, John MacArthur, Love, missions
I was planning on posting a book review today, but I read something last night that I figured I should post. Apparently there is an argument going on in some circles of Christianity about the biblical basis of contextualization. For those of us without theology degrees, that basically means sharing the good news of what God is doing and has done in the world in a way that speaks relevantly to the culture you are in. For example, when missionaries originally went into Africa to share the gospel they brought pipe organs to teach people to worship, European clothes for converts, and only instructed people in English. That is not contextualizing the gospel. On the other hand, someone who learns the language, customs, taboos, idioms, and culture of a group of people in order to more effectively share God’s love with them, contextualizes the gospel of God in the new culture.
Here is a part of a post on Andrew Jones blog. I not a regular reader of his, but this one pulled me over to check out his site.
Context. Does it matter?
When John MacArthur reportedly said a few weeks ago at the Shepherds Conference that “contextualization is a curse” and “the apostles went out with a complete disdain for context”
. . . I said nothing.
When his sidekick Phil Johnson followed it up with “Regarding contextualization, Paul did not adapt his message to the values and beliefs of the culture the Athenians lived in”
. . . I went on pilgrimage to my inner monastery and renewed my vow of silence.
When Phil added a few days ago that Paul used NONE of the strategies of postmodern missional ministry [culture, contextualization, conversation, and charitableness]
. . . I stuck my teenage son’s smelly sock down my throat so that i could not speak and then smeared raspberry jam on my keyboard so that i could not blog.
But when a commenter on Phil’s blog responded with “I never thought that ANYONE would see Paul’s evangelism to the Athenians as “contextualisation”!
. . well . . . I could contain myself no longer. The sock popped from my mouth and nearly knocked my ‘Perspectives’ off the bookshelf, and the raspberry jam magically dissolved, presenting me with a bright and shiny set of keys to tap out some response.
A quick recap:
Phil over at Pyromaniacs has a big post called “Paul on Mars Hill: Part 1″. which is worth reading just to see how people can read the same story and come up with opposite conclusions. His second part “Paul in Athens” got posted today and is consistent with his argument.
But I find his argument hard to swallow.
Phil’s says:
“People who are enthralled with style-driven missional strategies almost always single out this famous account. “Paul blended into the culture,” they say. “He adopted the world view and communications style of his hearers. He observed their religion and listened to their beliefs and learned from them before he tried to teach them. And he didn’t step on their toes by refuting what they believed. Instead, he took their idea of the unknown god, embraced that, and used it as the starting point for his message about Christ. And there you have some of the major elements of postmodern missional ministry: culture, contextualization, conversation, and charitableness.” Phil 1:1 (Phil’s first main point, in the first installment of his series)
Well, its true that I do see the need for some cultural sensitivity to both our own culture and the culture to which we are sent.
When some missionaries went to Africa with complete disdain for contextualization, they brought pipe-organs with them so the natives could worship God properly, without their nuances of culture.
When some missionaries went to North America with complete disdain for contextualization, they took away their native dances and forced the converts to learn English so that they could worship God properly, in the correct language, and without their nuances of culture.
Where is Gary Larson when we need him?
WE WERE BLIND TO OUR COLONIAL ABUSE BECAUSE WE WERE BLIND TO THE IMPACT OF OUR OWN CULTURE ON THE GOSPEL WE CARRIED.
For the rest of the rant go here
Andrew ends with this:
BTW – I have a lot [lot lot lot lot . . . LOT] of respect for both John MacArthur and Phil Johnson. Phil and I almost had a cup of coffee together a month ago in London but we had to put it off for another day. Both are godly men who love God and the Scriptures and I look forward to meeting them in person one day.
Bottom line. I believe that the Apostle Paul listened and conversed and looked for the redemptive analogies that would help him convincingly and prophetically shed light on the good news of Christ. The next generation are finding their own mythologies that will influence how they understand concepts of redemption, salvation, blood sacrifice and other theological concepts. They will need eye openers. They already have stored away a few redemptive analogies from the poets and writers of their own day and will draw on them to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom. Some of those stories are helpful and some will need to be corrected. But we do need to be aware of them.
And thats why you might find me in the cinema watching Harry Potter.
Honestly I can’t even believe there is an argument.
Isn’t LOVE always contextualized in any relationship? Wether in marriage, parenthood, friendship, or even spirituality?
Oh how I wish (hope? pray?) that followers of Jesus would be know by that (How well we love) instead of for what we are against. Isn’t it time I (we) (they) started living that way?
To quote a remarkable man from Grand Rapids, “LOVE WINS!”
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this whole thing.
Filed under: Bio, Missional Church, Missional Living | Tags: Christianity, God, incarnate, Incarnational Living, Jesus, Love, loving others, Messy people, Missional, serve, Spirituality, toxic people
We all have “those” kind of people in our lives. Wether they are friends, family members, or ex’s, there is always that one person who has made bad choice after bad choice to the point that their lives are in ruin. Many times we label them with words like leeches, losers, or just plain toxic, And if “yours” is like “mine”, then you know that when they call you, their life is in a state of crisis, and more often then not they need some kind of help. To be totally honest, I hate answering those phone calls, I dread returning those messages, and I make excuse after excuse to put it off. Yesterday I got one of those calls…
He needed a ride to get some money or he were going to be kick out of his one room studio. It was an emergency. I had things to do, I had to go to work in a few hours, and I really had no desire to again enter into his life and be confronted with all of the chaos and hurt. I really just wanted to say I was too busy to help.
So, at 8:30 in the morning, I drove downtown to pick him up and hear the whole story. He had gone on a drinking binge (again), got in a fight with his girlfriend, and she left, taking what little they had. This caused a downward spiral into a deeper multi-day drinking binge, and now he was broke, lonely, and on the verge of being homeless. I had already resolved not to allow myself to believe his excuses, or to lend any money, but there was something about the way he kept telling me, “I really f-ed this up”, that made me realize that God was already working here.
I wish I could say that in our brief time together in the car he surrendered to the way of Jesus, miraculously was healed of his alcohol addiction, turned his life around, and found a few thousand dollars on the street. Instead, we found a way to get him enough money to pay this months rent (he even offered gas money to me), and we had a few disjointed conversations about God and His love for all people. He gave me the classic line that he was already on his way to hell, but he didn’t understand why bad things happened to the “good” people he knew. He’d given up on God but he didn’t understand why God had given up on others. Amid his ramblings I tried to share that God did care about him, and that He wanted the best for him, to experience real life. It was in the middle of this that he uttered these words that nearly brought me to tears, “I know that, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
Wow, are you serious! Really. I didn’t want to be there. I really didn’t have any hope for him, and would have done anything to avoid being there. And yet, in spite of myself, God allowed his love to be incarnated in me! To this hopeless man, I appeared as the love of God. What an honor.
I dropped him of at his apartment, told him I loved him, and that he would be in my prayers, and that was the end of it. I don’t know what will happen next, I don’t even know how much of his story was true. But I do know that God’s love showed up in my car yesterday, without me even really wanting it to, and it got me thinking. How many other people in my life are searching desperately for the love of God, but no one is showing up to revel it to them? How many of us miss out on chances to be Jesus to others because we’re to busy, or because it is too mess?. And how many people are just waiting to be able to say to us,
“I know that God loves me, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”
Filed under: Bible, Missional Living | Tags: Bible Study, Christianity, incarnation, Jesus, Love
In our discussions this past weekend we looked at the beginning of Luke 5. In it, there is a very interesting exchange between Jesus and a man suffering from leprosy. It’s only 4 sentences, but to me it speaks volumes about not only about the character and heart of God, but also His desire for His followers.
While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw
Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me
clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And
immediately the leprosy left him.
“I am willing.”
Think about that. The mystery of the incarnation of Jesus is the fact that the all-powerful, all-present, all-everything good God humbles himself and takes on the form of one of His creations, a human. And here, in a dirty, no-named village, this transcendent and holy God reaches into the human condition at its most rejected and connects with it. In Jewish culture, leprosy was a disease which rendered its victims unclean and ostracized from all of society. Lepers were separated from the “clean” and forced to live outside of the community. If a Jew came in contact with a leper and unfortunately touched him/her then he was rendered unclean and would have to go through purification rituals to re-enter Jewish society. Therefore Jews did everything in their power to avoid contact with lepers.
And then there is Jesus. The incarnation of the grace, love, and power of God who not only is willing to interact with the leper, but actually reaches out and touches him! Jesus becomes unclean. God touches a leper. God loves.
“I am willing”
We still have lepers today. They might be made unclean by their race, their economic status, their sexual preference, their political persuasion, or even the way they look, but each of us are faced with “types” of people we really do not want to have any meaningful contact with. It may be because of our ignorance, our fears, or even our past experiences, but we all carry prejudices that cause us to avoid contact with our own unique “lepers”. Who are your lepers? It’s a natural human response. What types of people do you avoid?
And yet Jesus response remains the same.
“I am willing.”
Jesus reaches into to the hurt, the pain, the mess, and the judgmental attitudes of others, and offers healing and love to all people. As His followers are we called to anything different? Am I willing to reach out and touch the un-loveables in my life? Am I ready to trust the way of Jesus and love others in spite of what others may think?
Am I willing? Are you willing? Are we willing?
What would the world be like if we were?
Filed under: Bible, Missional Living | Tags: actions, Bible Study, Christianity, Forgiveness, Grace, Jesus, John 8, Love, loving others, non-verbal, posture
Lately, I’ve been thinking through the the concept of posture. By definition posture means “The attitude of the body.” It’s essentially the non-verbals we give off in any situation. As a follower of Jesus, my posture is many times (if not always) more important then what I say. I was reminded of the story in John 8 of the woman caught in adultery:
The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court,
they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act.”
“Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”
They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground.
But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
When they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the center of the court.
Straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either Go From now on sin no more.”
Picture the scene, the woman having just been caught in a very compromising position is brought into the temple courts, most likely with her clothes thrown about her, racked with tears because she knows the penalty for her actions is stoning. She’s thrown to the ground at Jesus’ feet, sobbing, unable to look up from the ground at her accusers, waiting for the stones to fall.
A few things stand out to me. First, obviously, where is the guy? We could jump into that one, but I think it’s enough to say that he is unfairly let off the hook.
Second, is Jesus’ response. Not only does He end up defending her, but it seems so much deeper then that. Look at the posture Jesus takes. He kneels down into the dirt next to the woman. Could he actually be sheltering and protecting her? His very body is made into a covering for her guilt and shame.
I was always hung up on what Jesus wrote in the dirt, seems like an odd time to be doodling or making lists. But from this perspective it makes more sense. What if Jesus was writing a message to the woman who’s eyes were locked on the ground? Could it have said something as simple as “I’m here for you” or “Trust me, I’ll take care of this?”
Jesus takes the position as an advocate for that woman. He’s not so much worried about what she has done and how wrong she is, as He is concerned with her as a person; protecting her, pleading for her, and offering freedom to her.
Wow! Obviously, this has huge ramifications for how followers of Jesus should treat others. Jesus wasn’t condoning her behavior. Nowhere in Scripture does He say “Sleep around, have fun, no big deal,” but He is esteeming her as a person who is loved by God regardless of her mistakes or bad decisions. That is the essence of grace. And that is what Jesus-followers are called to offer the world. Our posture must be one of love and of advocacy. We must be willing to side with the condemned, the voiceless, the “sinners”. Not because we agree with what they have done, but because we know what God has done for them.
Filed under: Bible, Missional Living | Tags: Bible, Christianity, Christians, God, Grace, James 2, Jesus, Judgement, Love, mercy, Post-Christian, Spirituality
This might be beating a dead (or dying) horse, but here goes anyway.
As I was writing in my last post, I want to be known by what I do and what I am for. To often our society stereotypes and categorizes people and beliefs by what they are against: Republicans are against big government, Democrats are against the wealthy, Christians are against homosexuals, and reasonable people should be against any coffee shop with stores on every corner. OK maybe not that last one, but I think you get the point. Perhaps we define ourselves and other by what we are not because its easier to see what we hate in others then in ourselves, and by extension can say “I’ll never be/do that.” Yet the reality is, that all of us, when faced with the right circumstances are capable of the darkest evil. In my reading today I came across this thought in James 2.
“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!”
Wow, mercy triumphs over judgement. I may be reading too much into that, but is it saying that rather then judging people by what they do or think, we are called to speak and act out of mercy?
And what is the law that gives freedom? As I understand scripture, it’s grace. The new law of Jesus is based on the fact that all of us are offered forgiveness that we do not deserve. That we all blow it and fall way short of what God created us to be. James seems to be reminding followers of Jesus that, as those who have been forgiven solely because of God’s love, we need to treat others the same way. How quickly do I forget. If anyone in the world should be agents of forgiveness, love, and reconciliation, it should be Christians who rest their entire faith and eternity on these things.
Perhaps that is what is bothering me the most. Rather then being know for what we (Christians) are against, we need to stand for what we are for. How much different would our world be, if, when people thought of Christians, they thought of the most loving, forgiving, inclusive, and creative people they knew. Maybe, it’s time for us to reframe our culture’s view of Christians. Maybe it’s time we take a stand for who we are. It can be done, but it can only be done by each of us living it out. What are we waiting for?
