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 Prefield Training into an evaluation of culture and its role in the life of the Christian community the Church ID: 564836
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Slide1
The Church and CultureSlide2
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.Slide3
What is this?Slide4
What can you tell me about South Suburban Evangelical Free Church?Slide5
Symbols Make Communication Possible By Turning Meanings into Forms
Person A
Person B
form
form
function
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?Slide6Slide7
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
?Slide8
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 churchSlide9
Contextualization continuum
Under-contextualized
Foreign
Irrelevant
Over-contextualized
Confused
Relativized
Distorted
Distorted
Contextualized
Understood
Relevant
Balanced
i.e. “ethnocentrism”
Or: “Rejection of contextualization”
i.e. “Relativism, Syncretism”
Or: “Uncritical contextualization”
idolatry
idolatrySlide10
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.
Commitment to biblical absolutes regarding nature and purpose of church…
You must know the biblical teaching on the church. Biblical ecclesiology must be biblical!
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 churchSlide11
Beliefs
Values
Behaviors
WorldviewSlide12
time and event
t
ask and relationship
individualism and collectivism
c
ategorical and holistic thinking
straight logic or curved logic
a
chieved status or ascribed status
g
uilt and shame
l
ow worship or high worshipSlide13
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.Slide14