presenting the unchanging gospel in forms ... - Global Interaction

Marilyn and Keith
Jobberns
CONTEXTUALISATION
At a meeting of pastors in an Adelaide Resonate
event in 2007, a staff member shared this story:
An Australian Baptist pastor found that people in the
community felt that the church was not spiritual,
because they had a 1950s view of church – a list of
dos and don’ts. Spiritual reality, they believed, was
more likely to be found in the New Age or occult.
Later, I saw a clairvoyant on the game show “Deal
or No Deal”. She introduced herself as a “Spiritual
Adviser”. The reaction from the Aussie audience
was totally cool – it seems it is acceptable to be a
Spiritual Adviser but maybe not a Baptist pastor.
What struck me is that many unchurched Aussies
these days are spiritual people, and we need to
meet them on their ground, using their language
and cultural forms. It might seem unfair that
people have a 1950s view of church, but even
more strange (and silly) is that many pastors
appear to have a 1950s view of the Aussie
community – a mono-cultural society which forgot
that people are meant to follow their grandparents’
Christian religion. Consequently we wait for them
to come to our church. Maybe we could get out
and experiment with calling ourselves “spiritual
consultants” rather than pastors?
In this Vision we explore contextualisation – what
it means to be culturally relevant in our missional
activity. In the simplest terms it means taking the
prevailing culture seriously and trying to express
the eternal truths of the gospel in ways which
people of that culture can comprehend. The article
on page 15 notes that people who are closed to the
appeals of the church and its associated sociocultural
baggage might be much more responsive
to Jesus if we:
1. speak and understand their language patterns
2. understand and identify with their culture or
sub-culture
3. affirm their language and culture as valid
avenues for expressing faith, and
4. love them.
Can I encourage your continued prayer for crosscultural
staff as they help people in unreached
communities become followers of Jesus? And, as
Jesus-followers in Australia, pray that we might
genuinely engage with the culture and context of
our communities. Pray that we will be agents of
change in the purpose of God to bring all people to
himself through his Son.
This issue of Vision marks the conclusion of Grace
Munro’s role as Publications Consultant. Grace’s
mission experience, theological reflections and
writing and editing skills have been the foundation
on which much of our publications have depended.
Her contribution to the wider ministry of the mission
has been outstanding and we wish her God’s
blessing in her new role at Kew Baptist Church.
Keith Jobberns
General Director
02 FEBRUARY 2008 | VISION | GLOBAL INTERACTION