Missional Grid

When I was still in college (20 years ago already), I remember asking our Missions prof, "If missionaries who contextualized the gospel are heroes on the foreign mission field, why are those of us who contextualize the gospel in our home mission field villian-ized? Why is it okay -- admirable, even -- to adopt the host culture and language in foreign missions, and yet anathema to do the same in our own culture?"

Never one to avoid speaking his mind, the prof replied, "There's no difference at all. Or at least, there shouldn't be, and shame on us for creating such a double standard."

Hudson Taylor was roundly criticized in his day for adopting the traditional dress, hair-style, and cultural expression of the Chinese nation that he ministered in. Hindsight has recognized the genius of Taylor's approach, and also the fruit of his efforts.

Bruce Olsen (author of mission classic Bruchko) also joined the tribe -- literally -- and began a work that resulted in many Motilones becoming followers of Jesus. "Contextualizing the Gospel" became widely advocated and practiced in recent history.

In his book Aqua Church, Leonard Sweet addresses the same approach in his comments about the need for differentiating between "content" (the Gospel) and "container" (our methodology/missiology/ecclesiology).

In the wake of seven prominent members of Emergent posting a response to their critics, Andrew Jones was challenged to defend certain theological questions at his blog. Andrew, being much brighter than some of us, wisely chose to quote sections of various well-known missions documents (including the Lausanne Covenant, the Manila Manifesto, and the Apostles Creed) in his answer. In doing so, he reminds all of us that the grid we are working from is missional, and that we must not lose sight of the goal of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to a foreign culture that has been heavily impacted by postmodernism.

Several books that I'd recommend reading, which speak to this issue of contextualizing the Gospel in foreign cultures, include Don Richardson's Peace Child and Eternity In Their Hearts, as well as Charles Kraft's Christianity In Culture and The Anthropology of Christian Witness. (Gerald Arbuckle's Earthing The Gospel is another good resource, written from a Catholic perspective, post-Vatican II.)

Richardson's books are less technical (and less expensive) than Kraft's, and therefore serve as a great introduction (and "Peace Child" is a modern-day missions classic). All of these books have insights on how our own culture has become foreign territory to us, and of our need to learn all over again how to contextualize the Gospel for our own (postmodern) culture.

Thanks again, Andrew, for pointing us back to our missiological roots.