Recently in Our Place in the Mission Field Category

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. The place to start in this conversation is with an understanding of culture. So, let me start with a bit of a personal journey...

In the first three parts of this series, we examined how we need a better hierarchy, better language and better understanding. In this concluding post, I'll demonstrate why I think we need better structures as well, if we want to fully involve all of God's people in all of God's mission.

As we continue considering how we might involve all of God's people in all of God's mission, we should consider what it means to convey better understandings of the role of God's people on mission.

There are several components to consider here. We need to think like global Christians. We live in an era where media, especially video, has a common presence in church services. 

No one having gone through the book of Acts can contend that the Early Church was exceptionally fruitful. The key fact that testifies the fruitfulness of the apostolic Church is the fast and perpetual increase in the number of souls. Many passages support this truth:

Words have meaning. Well, unless you are into the verbal gymnastics of the postmodern extreme. Dirt does not mean water, chalk does not mean cheese, and alkaline battery does not mean maple tree. It is because words have meaning that we should take care in how we use them when speaking on the mission of God, and it is because words have meaning that we should use intentional language to involve all of God's people in all of God's mission.

Most church leaders struggle with the ongoing issue of the people in the pews being passive spectators rather than active participants. Everyone wants to have "Every member in ministry," but our lack of success is seen by our ongoing purchasing of books and continuous attending of seminars designed to cure that very plague.

Jerry Rankin, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, spoke to The Christian Post last week about his new book with missiologist Ed Stetzer called Spiritual Warfare and Missions.