The Church and Culture

 Understand how the deepest level of cultural reality, worldview, is the backbone of religious systems.  Integrate concepts of culture that have been explored thus far in Pre-field Training into an evaluation of culture and its role in the life of the Christian community, the Church.  While affirming the Biblical authority over belief and practice of all men and all nations, realize that Biblical instruction to the Church can be sorted into categories of culturally universal (or supra- cultural) expectations and culturally conditioned behavioral specifics.  Accept and embrace the broad range of specifics of church life, customs, systems, and relationships that can be and are influenced by national culture.

What is this?

What can you tell me about South Suburban Evangelical Free Church?

Symbols Make Communication Possible By Turning Meanings into Forms Person A Person B form function Form and Function Question: How should we communicate the message when the forms we are familiar with do not carry the same implications (do not have the same meaning) in the new culture?

Missionary culture Unreached culture Biblical culture How can God’s truth communicated to ancient cultures, be communicated to today’s unreached cultures, through a messenger from still another culture?

We cannot advance church planting movements when we uncritically assume as normative in all settings our North American ecclesiology: our Western assumptions about the nature of the church, our church practices, our forms of worship, our systems of church government, our standards for the education of church leaders, our focus on buildings, etc…. Contextualizing the church

Contextualization continuum Under- contextualized Foreign Irrelevant Over- contextualized Confused Relativized Distorted Contextualized Understood Relevant Balanced i.e. “ethnocentrism” Or: “Rejection of contextualization” i.e. “Relativism, Syncretism” Or: “Uncritical contextualization” idolatry

(1)De-constructing of our culturally-shaped models of church and church life… You must know your own culture and the ecclesiology assumed in your culture. You must be able to analyze your own ecclesiology and critique it according to biblical truth. (2)Commitment to biblical absolutes regarding nature and purpose of church… You must know the biblical teaching on the church. Biblical ecclesiology must be biblical! (3)Analysis of target culture’s forms of social grouping, social meetings, organizational structures so that biblical ecclesiology can find appropriate cultural expression. You must know: (a) the ecclesiology assumed in that culture; and/or (b) forms the church might take in the target culture given its social structure. Contextualizing the church

Beliefs Values Behaviors Worldview

 time and event  task and relationship  individualism and collectivism  categorical and holistic thinking  straight logic or curved logic  achieved status or ascribed status  guilt and shame  low worship or high worship

 Understand how the deepest level of cultural reality, worldview, is the backbone of religious systems.  Integrate concepts of culture that have been explored thus far in Pre-field Training into an evaluation of culture and its role in the life of the Christian community, the Church.  While affirming the Biblical authority over belief and practice of all men and all nations, realize that Biblical instruction to the Church can be sorted into categories of culturally universal (or supra- cultural) expectations and culturally conditioned behavioral specifics.  Accept and embrace the broad range of specifics of church life, customs, systems, and relationships that can be and are influenced by national culture.