Three Streams

This week I came across a fantastic post by Phil Johnson on contextualisation that summed up my own views about the whole matter with such eloquence I could only dream about!

You can read the post for your self but he really hits the nail on the head when dealing with current attempts at contextualised mission. Johnson goes further in his critique than I ever have but I realise through reading his post that his position is actually my own position.

Before I go on, contextualisation is the attempt to make Christianity more accessible to other ‘cultures’ and ’sub cultures’ by enabling these groups to express faith etc in their own terms or to communicate the gosple within the terms of the culture. The problem is that in doing so the NT gospel is often lost or completely perverted in the process. I have always assumed that cultural relevance should be a central concern for missions and evangelism but I have always been concerned by the departure from the gospel. By reading Johnsons post I realise that I dont really believe in cultural relevance at all but have probably been too sheepish to say so! Dont misunderstand me, there are some cases where it is ok, western missionaries westernising Africans is not really a good idea. However The assumption about western subcultures and youth cultures is the real issue that is being discussed here. Contrary to common belief youth culture is not some far out twice removed tribe that does not understand the gospel in plain terms. The real issue with western youth culture (a culture, incidently, that is not limited to teens but is actually a cross generational culture) is that it rejects Christianity it is not that it doesnt understand it!

Many of the values of what is supposedly youth culture are

• rejection of authority
• hedonistism
• pragmatiism
• Shrinking back from absolutes
• moral , spiritual and religious relativeism

These values are celebated not only by the people who embrace them but also by many ‘Christians’ who seek to ‘reach them’! The reality is that these values, to use bible speak, are ‘worldly’. They are of this world, they are ungodly and they need to be challenged not embraced and celebrated. The gospel is counter counter cultural and preachers have always been counter cultural this is why most of them got imprisoned, beaten up or killed for their faith. Those who are serious about God, as Johnson says, need to pay more attention to biblical contextualisation than cultural contextualisation. Most of the stuff that comes from the cultural relevent brigade usually end up ignoring repentance, hell, holiness, the judgement of God, the cross, the uniqueness of Christ etc etc.

We need to remember, its not the irelevance of the gospel that is the issue, it is the unpopularity of the gospel. We dont need to make the gospel relevant, it is relevant. The response to the unpopularity of the gospel is faithfulness, as we are faithfull in proclaiming the true gospel the Lord will add to his church.

Its time for true shepherds to rise up and drive the wolves from the sheepfolds!