Category Archives: Contextualization

One Bible, one Lord … many paradoxes

Bible commentary, Contextualization, Global Christian mission, Honor and shame, The Global Gospel

Canopy of biblical truth2

Consider the diagram above: “The Canopy of Biblical Truth.”

The idea of a canopy may be seen in this Scripture: “The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens!” (Ps 113:4). Like a canopy, God is above all nations, peoples and cultures. His righteousness is above all nations. Although his Word is rooted in specific histories and cultures, it is likewise supra-cultural. The diagram contains a sample list of contrasts reflected in Scripture. The list consists of ideas, truths, cultural values, or areas of emphasis. The list of thirteen ‘dualities’—or paradoxes (seeming contradictions)—is by no means comprehensive; it is truly a mere sampling.

Let’s explore in a little more detail these thirteen contrasts or ‘dualities.’

1. Narrative / oral—and propositional / written: God’s Word contains narrative truth in the form of histories, stories, and parables. Sometimes God’s Word and mission are referred to as God’s Story. Jesus told many stories. Moreover, the people in the Bible were primarily oral peoples whose access to books and writing instruments were extremely limited. The stories of Scripture can be read aloud and memorized in order to fit the cultures of oral peoples. In contrast, the Bible also contains propositional truth. It is the Book of books—the written Word of God. Scripture is rich with propositional truth—in the form of declarations, proverbs, principles, laws, prophetic revelations of the future, or letters explaining theological truth.

2. Honor / shame—and innocence / guilt: God’s Word is loaded with material about the honor or shame of humanity as well as the guilt or innocence of humanity. Scripture reveals that the gospel of Christ is the remedy for sin/guilt (Lev 5:19, Rom 3:23–25, 1 Cor 15:1–3). The gospel is also revealed as the remedy for sin/shame (Luke 15:11–32, Eph 1:3–11, Heb 12:2).

3. Kingdom / regal—and democratic / legal: God’s Word has enormous material about kings and kingdoms beginning in the Old Testament and continuing into the New; Jesus Christ is the Son of David (Mat 1:1)—the King of Kings whose regal kingdom is forever (1 Tim 6:15). In contrast, Scripture is sometimes cited as the foundation for democracy, limitations on the absolute power of kings, human rights, and freedom. Moreover, the laws of God—the legal aspects of God’s truth—are widely present in both Old and New Testaments, although generally inside of a relational or covenantal framework.

4. Familial / ancestral—and individual / present-future: God’s Word has a huge amount of material about his working through family and offspring on behalf of other families (Genesis 12:1). There is also much about remembering the past and having regard for one’s ancestors (Mat 1:1–17). This may be contrasted with all the material in which God works through individuals, and where the orientation is the present or future. Scripture presents the gospel of salvation as being offered both to families and individuals (Acts 16:30–31).

5. Obedience / concrete—and knowledge / abstract: God’s Word emphasizes the necessity of obedience to God and concrete action; knowledge apart from obedience results in pride. At the same time, God’s people are commanded to “love the Lord your God…with all your mind” (Mark 12:30) and are warned that they will be destroyed for lack of knowledge (Isa 5:13, Hos 4:6).

6. Mystery / both-and—and logical / either-or: God’s Word teaches the mystery of the Trinity; God is both One God, and a community of Three Persons. The paradox of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility (both are biblical truths) is also a both-and mystery. However, God’s Word also teaches in abundance many truths which are logical and either-or. “No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Either repent and be saved—or—do not repent and perish.

7. Poverty / vulnerability—and wealth / stability: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20, cf. Mat 5:3). God’s Word speaks favorably to his people in poverty and in vulnerable conditions. In contrast, God’s Word contains a ‘development ethic’ which produces wealth for individuals and nations—along with social stability.[1] The book of Proverbs contains many principles for gaining wealth.

8. Glory to God—and glory for humanity: God’s Word teaches that the glory of God is the crux of all reality (Rom 11:36). At the same time, God’s Word teaches that human beings are made in the image of a good and glorious God (Gen 1:27), and God shares his glory with those who believe and follow Jesus Christ (John 17:22).

9. Justice for the oppressed / justice for the oppressor—and acceptance of injustice: God’s Word teaches the good news that God will bring liberty to the oppressed (Luke 4:18) and that God will harshly judge the oppressor (Isa 14:3–6, Mat 23:1–36, Luke 6:24–28, Rev. 18:19–24). However, God also calls his people to accept and endure injustice and persecution (Mat 5:10–12, 1 Pet 3:9), following the example of Jesus (1 Pet 2:23).

10. Israel relativized—and Israel prioritized: God’s Word teaches that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). The laws and traditions of God’s people Israel are to be relativized under the Lordship of Christ. At the same time, we see in Paul’s letter to the Romans that the gospel is “to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Rom 1:16). We see in Paul’s letter to the church at Rome that God’s people Israel are, in a sense, prioritized (Rom 4:16–18, 9:1–5) because the promise of the all-nations blessing in Christ came through God’s people Israel, whose father is Abraham.

11. Everyday / local—and cosmic / universal: God’s Word teaches that obedience to God is for the benefit of people right now in the immediate everyday and local situation. The second half of the Ten Commandments deals with society and the realm of family and human relationships (Ex 20:12–17). The kingdom of God is for today, right here, right now (Mat 6:10). But God’s Word also teaches that he is reconciling together all things in Christ; this is the cosmic and universal level (Eph 1:10, Col 1:19–20).

12. Romantic / desire—and militant / duty: The Bible presents God as a husband or the people of God as his bride in the Old Testament (Ez 16:1–8; Is 54:5; 62:4–5; Hos 1:2–3) and also in the New Testament (Eph 5:25, 31–32; Rev 19:6–9). This shows that the nature of the relationship between God and his people is characterized by deep affection and desire. There is, indeed, a kind of romance between Christ and his bride. At the same time, God’s Word reveals that his people are under the command of an all-powerful King whose mission is to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). God’s people are called in militant duty to engage with their Lord through prayer in a battle “against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil” (Eph 6:12).

13. Alien to the culture / at home in the culture: The church is an alien community, standing against the idolatries of any political or social status quo (Rev 13:1–18) which is a rival to Almighty God.[1] At the same time, the New Testament also provides support, both for working within the church’s socio-political environment (Rom 13:1–7, 1 Pet 2:13–17)—and for identifying foreign cultural signposts as entry points for the gospel (Acts 17:22–34, cf 1 Cor 9:19–23).

What’s the point? Variety!

The point in reflecting on this sampling of contrasts is that God’s Word covers a very wide spectrum of human ideas, social situations and cultural styles. Richard Bauckham writes,

“The Bible does, in some sense, tell an overall story that encompasses all its other contents, but this story is not a sort of straitjacket that reduces all else to a narrowly defined uniformity. It is a story that is hospitable to considerable diversity and to tensions, challenges and even seeming contradictions of its own claims.” –Richard Bauckham[3]

This contributes to our awareness that although the Bible was written in the specific cultural milieu of the ancient Middle East and Roman Empire—and thus reflects the pivotal cultural values of the time—the Bible as God’s Word nevertheless stands above all cultures and reveals God’s righteousness for all peoples.

This also reinforces to us that whatever our own expression of Christianity, the way we communicate the gospel of Christ is by necessity embodied in our own set of values and our own cultural style.

I’ll end this post with a quote from N.T. Wright:

“The Christian faith is kaleidoscopic, and most of us are color-blind. It is multidimensional, and most of us manage to hold at most two dimensions in our heads at any one time. It is symphonic, and we can just about whistle one of the tunes.” –N.T. Wright [4]

Excerpted from the forthcoming book, THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World. If you would like read or review the pre-published manuscript write to Werner Mischke at werner@mission1.org.

FOOTNOTES
1. For more about the “development ethic” contained in the Bible see Darrow Miller, Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Cultures (Seattle, YWAM Publishing, 1998).
2. Dean Fleming does an excellent job exploring the paradox of the church being both for and against the socio-cultural environment in which it exists. He writes, “Perhaps most striking of all is the tension between Revelation and other New Testament writings in their respective attitudes toward the Roman ‘powers-that-be.’ Revelation’s call for Christians to ‘come out’ of oppressive Babylon seems to be a far cry, say, from Peter’s advice to ‘accept the authority of every human institution’ and to ‘honor the emperor’ (1 Pet 2:13, 17). And John’s parody of Roman power as a diabolical beast (Rev 13) cuts a bold contrast with Paul’s teaching that Roman authorities are ‘instituted by God’ (Rom 13:1) and function as ‘God’s servants’ for the church’s good (Rom 13:4, 6).” See Flemming, Contextualization in the New Testament: Patterns for Theology and Mission, 288–289. Kindle Edition.
3. Richard Bauckham, Bible and Mission: Christian Witness in a Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 93–94.
4. N.T. Wright’s quote is from the foreword to Scot McKnight’s book, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), 11.

It’s not your book!

Contextualization, Cultural intelligence, Global Christian mission, Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame, Quotes, articles & books related to cross-cultural partnership, The Global Gospel

“We can easily forget that Scripture is a foreign land
and that reading the Bible is a cross-cultural experience.”[1]

Its not your book

If you are a Christian from North America (or Northern Europe and Australia or elsewhere)—and you consider yourself influenced primarily by Western values,  consider this:

Culturally speaking, the Bible does not “belong” to you; it’s not your book.

It was the people of the ancient Middle East—characterized not by the individualistic guilt-based values of contemporary Northern Europe and North America and the West, but by the group-oriented values of honor and shame—to whom this book was originally written.

It was in the culture of the ancient Middle East—characterized not by the equality-oriented values of the West, but by the hierarchical values of honor and shame—that men inspired by the Holy Spirit authored the sixty-six books of the Bible.

It was the ancient Middle East—characterized not by the direct communication style of the USA and Northern Europe, but by the indirect communication style of honor/shame cultures—where God chose to call out for himself a man named Abraham, so that through his descendants all the peoples of the earth would be blessed.

It was into Greco-Roman culture at the height of the Roman Empire—characterized not by the individualistic values of the West, but by the family-based, hierarchical values of honor and shame—that Jesus Christ was born and grew up, worked and lived, proclaimed the gospel of his kingdom, called and taught his disciples, suffered a humiliating death, and victoriously rose again.

It was through the kingdom and story of Israel—characterized not by the fast-paced lifestyle and risk-oriented values of urban America, but by the slow lifestyle, the cautionary traditional values of honor and shame—that Christ called his newly formed people, the church, to extend his gospel of the kingdom to the ends of the earth.

Indeed, “reading the Bible is a cross-cultural experience.”

Excerpted from the forthcoming book, THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World. If you would like read or review the pre-published manuscript write to Werner Mischke at werner@mission1.org.

1. E. Randolph Richards; Brandon J. O’Brien: Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible (Kindle Locations 74–75). Kindle Edition.

What if … the gospel was better contextualized for our multicultural world?

Contextualization, Global Christian mission, Honor and shame, The Global Gospel
What ifDo we have good news for our multicultural world?

Of course we do. We have the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. But what if…

  • What if … the gospel as we know it contained some Western assumptions that make the good news of Jesus less appealing to peoples from Majority World cultures?
  • What if … we could read the Bible in a new light—the light of the cultural values in which the Scriptures were originally written?
  • What if … we discovered that the societies of the Old and New Testament had the pivotal cultural value of honor and shame—and found that this is a lot closer to the values of our multicultural neighbors than we as Westerners ever realized?
  • What if … we could overcome certain theological blind spots? What if we could shift from a gospel articulated exclusively through a legal framework? What if we could share a more comprehensive global gospel which, by God’s grace, would better resonate with our multicultural neighbors—across the street and around the world?

This is what my forthcoming book is all about: THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World.

 

Fantastic website about honor and shame in cross-cultural ministry

Contextualization, Global Christian mission, Honor and shame
What a great website for learning about honor/shame dynamics in cross-cultural ministry
What a great website for learning about honor/shame dynamics in cross-cultural ministry
A few months ago, a website was launched to serve people engaged in cross-cultural ministry.
It’s called HonorShame.com.

Here’s why I like it:

  1. HonorShame.com is beautifully designed. It is clear and very easy-to-navigate.
  2. HonorShame.com has practical, easy-to-use resources.
  3. HonorShame.com has rich theological resources which explain honor and shame as the pivotal cultural value of the Bible.
  4. HonorShame.com has a really cool video that presents the gospel using a simple story format and the language of honor and shame.
  5. HonorShame.com has a great weekly blog with practical ministry insights.
  6. HonorShame.com (actually the team behind the website) offers expert coaching and training services regarding honor and shame in the Bible and in cross-cultural ministry.

These resources at HonorShame.com can help anyone involved in cross-cultural ministry to share the blessing of Jesus Christ with persons and peoples for whom honor and shame is a vital cultural value.

Check it out! Subscribe to the blog. Use the resources at HonorShame.com.

Here’s an update on the progress of my book, The Global Gospel

Bible commentary, Contextualization, Cultural intelligence, Global Christian mission, Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame, The Global Gospel

Global Gospel updateSince February 2012, I’ve been working on a major book called, THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World.

It’s a book about honor/shame dynamics in the Bible and what it means for Christians engaged cross-cultural ministry across the street and around the world. In upcoming posts, I’ll be sharing various bits and pieces from the book.

Since our own cities and communities are becoming ever-more diverse, the need for contextualizing the gospel and connecting with people from Majority World cultures is rapidly growing. So the book is not just for cross-cultural workers serving on the other side of the world. It for those of us who want to connect with people from other cultures in our schools and workplaces. Or to make friends and share the gospel of Jesus with the new neighbors from across the world who now live in our own communities.

Here’s an update on the progress of the book

I am done writing the chapters, but we are not done with our own internal editing process. Right now, Mission ONE president Bob Schindler is reading the manuscript. Because of his suggestions we are doing some enhancements and other changes to the text. I hope that this part of the process will be done in May. I’m really grateful for Bob’s careful reading of the manuscript.

We are also currently in the process of getting endorsements from mission leaders, pastors, etc. If you would like to review the manuscript and contribute an endorsement, send me a request by email.

We will ultimately be giving the manuscript to Livingstone, the company which will proof, edit and design the book. I hope this can happen sometime in May. Their work will require at least three months. Then there is our own approval process. I am thinking the book will be available sometime around the end of the year or early 2015.

We are getting forewords written by two outstanding Christian mission leaders. One of the already-completed forewords is by Steven Hawthorne, editor of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. I am grateful for Steve’s most encouraging words.

Here’s a list of features from The Global Gospel:
  • Explains why Christians from every theological tradition, including Western ones, have theological blind spots.
  • Thoroughly explains why honor and shame is the pivotal cultural value of the Bible.
  • Organizes nine dynamics of honor/shame in the Bible into a cohesive whole using graphic icons.
  • Uses more than 84 visual aids (diagrams, charts, and graphs) to make concepts more easily understood—to serve Christian leaders, pastors, cross-cultural workers, and lay persons.
  • Thoroughly explains why understanding honor and shame is a strategic issue for world evangelization—across the street and around the world.
  • Explores in variety of ways the importance of honor/shame dynamics in the gospel—and what this could mean for reaching unengaged and unreached peoples.
  • Presents honor-status reversal as a motif of Scripture—from Genesis to Revelation.
  • Shows how the Bible’s various dynamics of honor and shame are contained in a multitude of Scripture passages about salvation and the atonement of Christ.
  • Reveals ten Scripturally-rooted ways to freshly articulate the gospel of Christ—in ways that may better resonate with Majority World peoples.
  • Explains the pathological dark side of honor/shame, but also reveals the Bible’s amazing (and surprising) bright side of honor/shame.
  • Presents five levels of awareness of honor/shame dynamics and what this means for cross-cultural ministry.
  • Demonstrates how honor/shame dynamics are key to understanding the meaning of the kingdom of God.
  • Reveals from Scripture how the legal framework for the gospel can be balanced by a regal framework.
  • Explains from Scripture how God actually shares his honor and glory with persons and people groups—fresh thinking about our motive and purpose for missions.
  • Offers a rationale to train cross-cultural workers in the Bible’s honor/shame dynamics and reinforces Scripture as the beginning point of the contextualization process.
  • Demonstrates the value of using an “honor factor” in developing mission strategy—with three recommendations related to cross-cultural collaboration and ministry to unreached and unengaged peoples.

Our publishing advisor is Dan Wright Publisher Services, located in Nashville, Tennessee. Dan has been providing expert guidance on this project “since day one,” for which I am very grateful.

If you would like to see the latest manuscript, please send me an email, and I will send you the latest PDF.

Available for preview—THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World

Bible commentary, Bible study, Contextualization, Cultural intelligence, Global Christian mission, Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame, Training

I’ve been working since February on a book concerning honor and shame in cross-cultural ministry. The unfinished book is now going out for initial reviews. Three sections are done; one section to go. The fourth section will address a wide range of practical implications for cross-cultural ministry. My goal is that it will be completed some time in the first quarter of 2014.

If you decide to preview the manuscript, please keep a few things in mind. First of all, the manuscript is not without errors. I’m sure you’ll discover some typos. That’s okay. I am not looking for corrections of errors in spelling or grammar, but feel free to share them if you want to. We have a company waiting in the wings which does professional editing and proofing. They will do that later.

I am seeking your insights and asking if the book is useful and helpful. I hope you will have a lot of “ah-ha” moments. If you do, I’d like to hear about that.

I would also like to hear if you disagree with something. Maybe you’ll see a point I am making that does not jive with your perspective or maybe it just seems unclear or inappropriate somehow. I would definitely like to hear about that.

Here is what I believe you’ll gain from this book:

  • Why shame is such a pathology in our world, and why the church is largely unprepared to deal with it.
  • The many ways that God’s Word reveals that our shame is covered and our honor restored through Jesus Christ.
  • How the honor/shame dynamics in Scripture can be a vital key for ministry among unreached and unengaged peoples.
  • One basic reason why people from Western and Eastern cultures are so different.
  • More than 70 diagrams, charts and graphics to make complex things easier to see and understand.
  • Why guilt is more likely to lead to healing behavior, whereas shame is more likely to lead to hurtful behavior.
  • Why so much violence in some honor/shame cultures?
  • Theological blind spots—where they come from, and what I believe is the most serious one.
  • Why, if you’re a Westerner, the Bible is not your book!—culturally speaking.
  • References and citations to more than 70 scholars—many of them PhDs.

  • Nine basic dynamics of honor and shame that are present in honor/shame societies and in the Bible—to help you makes sense of what the Bible says.

  • One major motif of Scripture (related to honor/shame) which ties together the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
  • How a “conversation within Scripture” can stimulate fresh ways of thinking about the gospel of Jesus.
  • What is the “gospel of the kingdom?”
  • Innovative ways rooted in Scripture to articulate the gospel of Jesus Christ—using the “thought forms” of honor and shame.

Friends, my word count on this book right now is about 106,00. That will make this about a 300-page book, so far. So it’s not exactly light reading. But I think you will find it well worth your while.

Download here—
THE GLOBAL GOSPEL:
Achieving Missional Impact
in Our Multicultural World

What does it mean to contextualize the gospel?

Contextualization, Cultural intelligence, Global Christian mission, Gospel of Jesus, Honor and shame

What does it mean to contextualize the gospel?

The great missionary-theologian Lesslie Newbigin asked, “How can the gospel ‘come alive’ in all these different cultural contexts, and still be the same authentic gospel? That is the problem of contextualization.” [1]

Saving God's FaceBelow is a presentation I’ve created concerning how to contextualize the gospel. I was inspired in part by a new book by Jackson Wu: Saving God’s Face: A Chinese Contextualization of Salvation through Honor and Shame.[2] (Amazing scholarship and hard to read. Highly recommended.) This presentation explores issues such as:

  • What does it mean to “assume the gospel”?
  • Can biblical truth overlap with a cultural context, even though it does not fit into one’s theology?
  • Where do theological blind spots come from?
  • Why is honor and shame hardly recognized as a valid theological subject?
  • Traditional view of contextualization compared to an expanded view of contextualization
  • Introducing a “Canopy of Biblical Truth”—alerting us to various spectrums of biblical-cultural values
  • How does Campus Crusade’s “The Four Spiritual Laws” compare culturally to “The Father’s Love Gospel Booklet”—a gospel presentation focusing on story, family, and honor/shame?
  • How does culture influence our understanding and communication of the gospel?
  • What are some considerations about contextualizing the gospel?
  • How does this form a foundation for something called an “Abrahamic gospel”, based on Galatians 3:7–9?

I am working on a book concerning honor and shame in cross-cultural ministry; portions of this presentation will be incorporated into that book.

1. Lesslie Newbigin, 
The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans/WCC, 1989), 142.
2. Jackson Wu: Saving God’s Face: A Chinese Contextualization of Salvation through Honor and Shame (EMS Dissertation Series, William Carey International University Press: Pasadena, 2013)