Contextualization
Mission work must be sensitive to its context. After a cross-cultural communication is established, the work of contextualization begins. Contextualization is the process of proclaiming the gospel to a people in a particular culture in a way they are able to understand and receive. The work of contextualization must avoid two pitfalls: syncretism (the fusion of the gospel with culture) and irrelevance (the failure to relate the gospel to culture). The practice of contextualization enables the church to reengineering from the mission field backward.
Contents
Recommended Reading
Woodward, JR & Dan White The Church as Movement: Starting and Sustaining Missional-Incarnational Communities (IVP Books, 2016)
Newbigin, Leslie The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Eerdmans, 1989)
Resources for Further Study
Rommen, Edward Come and See: An Eastern Orthodox Perspective on Contextualization (William Carey Library, 2014)
Hesselgrave, David J. and Rommen, Edward Contextualization: Meanings, Methods, and Models (William Carey Library, 2013)
