With regard to the missional movement’s understanding of Christendom, it is important to recognize that they saw what happened during this period as little more than the church contextualizing worship to the dominant culture of the civilization. Since Christianity happened to be the dominant religion of the western world, the church was able to easily… Continue Reading
Inherent in the missional church’s insistence upon incarnation and contextualization is the idea that no aspect of culture is inherently sinful, or at very least unredeemable. Missional proponents believe that there are very few aspects of human culture that are actually sinful in and of themselves; they might cite pornography or something similar as an… Continue Reading
If the “why” of mission is the fact that God sends the church, and if the “where” of mission is post-Christendom Western culture, then for the missional advocates the “how” of mission is incarnation. By incarnation, missional writers mean that a truly missional church is one that is embedded in its target culture. Hirsch notes,… Continue Reading
I have argued thus far that successful preservation of the truth necessitates that what is preserved is the doctrinal affirmations and the proper imagination of such affirmations, and I have suggested that the primary way in which this imaginative aspect is persevered is through conserving the Bible’s aesthetic forms in our worship. Culture and Imagination To speak of… Continue Reading
So is there a distinctly Christian culture? Is there a distinctly Christian music? Yes, there is—it is culture and music that expresses Christian values. In discussions of missions and music, understanding the idea of culture is critical. What is it? Shouldn’t the music of a church reflect the indigenous culture around it? The Standard Evangelical… Continue Reading
Conversations about missions and music often revolve around an insistence that in order to reach unbelievers in a target culture, we need to contextualize the message into their language, be it spoken, acted, or sung. Here are some helpful words from an excellent journal article by Mark Snoeberger that I think get to the heart of… Continue Reading
On Saturdays we repost articles from the archives that apply to current issues. The following article discusses whether a missionary should simply adopt a culture’s music in church planting. ____________________________________________ I mentioned in my report on our Brazil trip that I had the opportunity to sit down with a man who grew up in a… Continue Reading
I mentioned in my report on our Brazil trip that I had the opportunity to sit down with a man who grew up in a tribe in the Amazon. His name is Rober (pronounced “HO-ber”) Guerreiro (means “warrior”), and he is a member of a Tikuna (pronounced “chi-KOO-nah”) tribe in the Amazon jungles. Now as I… Continue Reading
This series is available in booklet format. Audio versions: Biblical Contextualization The First Principles of the Gospel Responsibility and Sovereignty in Evangelism The Power of the Gospel Introduction Audio Version There is a popular thought today in evangelicalism that says that if we as Christians are going to reach unbelievers around us, we need to… Continue Reading
Ultimately a commitment to rightly contextualize the gosple must be rooted in a confidence in the power of the gospel. Luke teaches us about that power in Acts 19. Ephesus was a city of great power. This city boasted a population of 500,000 people and was a major center of travel and commerce. It was… Continue Reading
The danger with most discussions of contextualization today is that the imply that the work of evangelism is entirely up to us. In other words, if we can just figure out the best way to communicate the gospel to our culture, we can convince people to accept the gospel. This fails to correctly recognize that… Continue Reading
Paul did, in fact, contextualize the gospel. He presented it differently with the Thessalonican Jews than he did with the pagan Athenians. But in so doing, we noticed two principles that characterized his relationship to their culture: 1. Paul didn’t approve of the culture, he was repulsed by it. 2. Paul did not immerse himself… Continue Reading
In Acts 17 we have the account of three cities, each of which has very different kinds of people, and we read a record of Paul’s preaching of the gospel in each of these cities. So what I’d like to do is to compare these three cities and Paul’s methods in each city, and try… Continue Reading
There is a popular thought today in evangelicalism that says that if we as Christians are going to reach unbelievers around us, we need to be more tuned into contemporary culture. If we want people to accept our gospel message, they say, then we need to present the gospel by packaging it in the language… Continue Reading
Part 1 – Introduction Part 2 – Dave Doran’s First General Session Part 3 – Horn and Conley’s General Sessions Part 4 – Dawson on Culture Part 5 – Snoeberger on Culture Part 6 – Doran’s Second General Session Part 7 – McCune on Mars Hill Part 8 – Snoeberger on Carson Conclusion and Evaluation… Continue Reading
Part 1 – Introduction Part 2 – Dave Doran’s First General Session Part 3 – Horn and Conley’s General Sessions Part 4 – Dawson on Culture Part 5 – Snoeberger on Culture Part 6 – Doran’s Second General Session Part 7 – McCune on Mars Hill D. A. Carson’s Christ and Culture Revisited: A Reflection… Continue Reading
Part 1 – Introduction Part 2 – Dave Doran’s First General Session Part 3 – Horn and Conley’s General Sessions Part 4 – Dawson on Culture Part 5 – Snoeberger on Culture Part 6 – Doran’s Second General Session Paul and Educated Unbelief – Rolland McCune The third session of Thursday that I attended was… Continue Reading
Part 1 – Introduction Part 2 – Dave Doran’s First General Session Part 3 – Horn and Conley’s General Sessions Part 4 – Dawson on Culture Part 5 – Snoeberger on Culture General Session 4 (Matthew 7.6) – Dave Doran After prayer and a few hymns, Dave Doran presented the first general session Friday morning.… Continue Reading
Part 1 – Introduction Part 2 – Dave Doran’s First General Session Part 3 – Horn and Conley’s General Sessions Part 4 – Dawson on Culture More Notes Towards the Definition of Culture – Mark Snoeberger The second workshop session I attended was presented by Mark Snoeberger. The following is a summary of the presentation.… Continue Reading