Missionaries are often forced to wrestle with questions which never even occur to Christian workers who remain in their own cultural contexts.  For example, "How do I practice the ordinance of the Lord's Supper in a culture where the elements which I am accustomed to using are not readily available (and worse yet, foreign to the indigenous people)?"  In Bible college, I remember hearing Dr. Bob Gray (Florida) tell how he was labeled a liberal for being one of the first churches in his area to get a baptistry and begin baptizing converts indoors rather than at an outdoor natural water source.  And yet at that same time, those with this scrutinizing opinion met in church buildings rather than in homes (or caves) which was the New Testament practice.  Sometimes we are not aware of why we put our emphases where we do.  Contextualization involves taking a prayerful and careful look at delivering the Gospel without unnecessary baggage.

The premise for contextualization comes from two prominent biblical teachings.  First, the Gospel is for all people (the theological phrase for this is "supra-cultural"); and this equally implies that the Gospel is capable of being received by every culture (every people).  If the Gospel is for all people, then all people may embrace the Gospel.  And second, it is God Himself who ordains (yeah, even loves) this diversity.  It is God Who created diversity (Creation and the Tower of Babel).  This diversity apparently remains by His design.  It is seen on the pages of Revelation chapters 5 and 7 by the multi-ethnic throng represented around the throne.  Because of these two truths, missionaries must engage cultures realizing that not everything in a given culture is bad; nor is everything in a given culture, good.  All cultures must bow to God and His Word as to whether something is right or wrong.  And therefore, the Bible stands in judgment on all cultures (including our own).

As with many ideologies, various definitions are adopted or assigned by their respective users.  This writer chooses to identify with the definition cited by the U.S. Center for World Mission in their Perspectives Reader, 3^rd edition.  "Contextualization involves presenting the Gospel in ways that consider the worldview of the respondent culture [target or receiving people]; adapting the biblical message into forms that are true to the Scriptures but appropriate to the local culture and society."  Contextualization in missions is best illustrated in Acts 15 where the context is the Jerusalem Council's decision involving Gentile converts.

Every missionary must, in miniature form, re-live the decision of the Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15.  In the case of Acts 15, the Jewish church leaders had to take a second look at what they were communicating to these Gentiles to ensure that they were not exporting Judaism in addition to the Gospel.  Their task was not to make Jews out of these new Gentile converts, but to allow them to embrace Christ in their own unique culture and allow the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit to challenge, convict, and correct whatever aspects of their culture were unbiblical.

Today, a missionary must ask himself, "How do I communicate the Gospel without attaching my own preferences and baggage to the message?"  "How do I present the seed of the Gospel without delivering an American potted-plant, loaded with top soil, chemicals, clay pot, etc.?"  We are seeking to communicate Christ not American culture or all of our own ideas concerning preferences and methods.  Many missionaries in the past (although with good intentions) have tended to focus on externals (clothing and other outward forms of religious practices - worship styles, church government, music styles, etc.) rather than on their message and what it might look like for these people to follow Christ in their own culture.  Missionaries who are sensitive to deliver the Gospel seed (rather than a potted-plant) also allow the Holy Spirit to do His job of revealing sin.  This allows the receiving people to reject anything about their own culture and practices which the Holy Spirit reveals to be unscriptural and offensive to God. 

The task is to make disciples of all nations, not to make American Christians of all nations.  A Chinese believer should be, first of all, a believer; and second of all, Chinese.  We should be able to find fellowship with them over the Lord Jesus Christ, the Scripture, the Church, and the things of God; while at the same time find ourselves struggling with differences in clothing, language, foods, building styles, methods, etc.  The result constitutes a diverse, God-glorifying host redeemed by the Lamb of God. 

David Parker, Biblical School for World Evangelism - www.bswe.org