For the past few years the issue of "contextualization" has been intensely discussed and debated. Throughout the many discussions I have had, listened in on, and read, I have found some legitimate differences in perspective, but also some pretty serious misunderstandings concerning the nature of contextualization. I will spend several posts sharing my thoughts on the nature of contextualization and the need to contextualize. Today, we talk more about the danger and necessity of contextualization and engaging culture. One of the first issues has to be what is contextualized and what is not.
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Evangelical Christians do not believe everything is culturally determined and formed, though we (humans) do perceive our world through a cultural lens.
There are some things that we consider eternal and unchanging, such as the nature of God and biblical revelation. Thus, the "gospel" is generally not something that most evangelicals want to contextualize (though they may say "contextualize the gospel," they tend to mean its communication rather than its content).
Evangelicals tend to believe that we don't change the gospel because we don't own the gospel. We don't change or alter the gospel because the gospel is history. The gospel is the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that rescues sinful humanity from eternal ruin.
Thus, evangelical believers don't need to say that they want to "make the Bible relevant" or "make God relevant." They already are (though I will address issues of Bible tranlastion in this series). Yet, contextualization matters because we are not eternal, timeless, and a-cultural. Some of the ways we worship, how we present eternal truths, and how we live in and relate to society all must be considered. We live in a culture. How we see things, understand them, and present them to others must take culture into account.
Source: ChristianPost.com
Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is President of LifeWay Research and LifeWay's Missiologist in Residence. Ed is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine and Catalyst Monthly, serves on the advisory council of Sermon Central and Christianity Today's Building Church Leaders, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USA Today and CNN. Ed is Visiting Professor of Research and Missiology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and Visiting Research Professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Ed blogs daily at EdStetzer.com.
