Author Archive
Biblical Foundations and Guidelines for Contextualization (Pt 4)
Posted by: | CommentsBiblical Foundations and Guidelines for Contextualization (Pt 4)
Editor’s Note: This guest blog is written by the IMB’s Regional Leader for Central Asia. It is a six part series, giving the biblical foundations and guidelines for contextualization, and making application to Christian ministry in the Muslim world. This series will appear as a chapter in the forthcoming book “Look What God is Doing in the Muslim World.”
Contextualization Guidelines
How do we apply these principles to the work of the Gospel in the Muslim world? Based on years of wrestling with the task under the authority of the word of God, here are guidelines for our work in the Muslim world, founded on these Biblical principles. The guidelines are grouped under three headings: The Messenger of the Good News, the Message of the Good News, and the Church.
The Messenger of the Good News (with primary focus on us, the foreign workers)
We must openly identify ourselves as followers of Jesus. Hiding our identity is out of bounds. Jesus made it clear that we must not deny Him before men. Security concerns are real, and we need to take them seriously. However, we must never let security concerns drive us into hiding Read More→
Biblical Foundations and Guidelines for Contextualization (Pt 3)
Posted by: | CommentsBiblical Foundations and Guidelines for Contextualization (Pt 3)
Editor’s Note: This guest blog is written by the IMB’s Regional Leader for Central Asia. It is a six part series, giving the biblical foundations and guidelines for contextualization, and making application to Christian ministry in the Muslim world. This series will appear as a chapter in the forthcoming book “Look What God is Doing in the Muslim World.”
1 Cor 9:1-23 (cont’d)
The key to understanding this passage is found in verse 12: “We endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the Gospel of Christ.” Paul’s passion was the advance of the Gospel. He didn’t want anything unnecessary to stand in the way of that advance. This did not mean that he was prepared to compromise any Biblical truth or Biblical command in the process. Verses later on in the chapter make that clear. However, he was willing to endure any inconvenience or personal hardship himself that might enable the Gospel to spread more effectively. He expanded on that thought with some key principles for cross-cultural ministry.
Contextualization as Renunciation of Rights
First, Paul voluntarily chose not to make use of legitimate rights. He had a right to eat meat, to take along a believing wife, and to receive monetary support. He would not be sinning at all if he did any of those things. Indeed, such things would be considered normal and even expected, and other apostles apparently did them. Never the less, Paul gave up those rights in order not to put any obstacle in the way of the Gospel.
We struggle with this as Americans. We are raised to demand our rights. Read More→
Biblical Foundations and Guidelines for Contextualization (Pt 2)
Posted by: | CommentsBiblical Foundations and Guidelines for Contextualization (Pt 2)
Editor’s Note: This guest blog is written by the IMB’s Regional Leader for Central Asia. It is a six part series, giving the biblical foundations and guidelines for contextualization, and making application to Christian ministry in the Muslim world. This series will appear as a chapter in the forthcoming book “Look What God is Doing in the Muslim World.”
What does the Bible have to say, then, about contextualization? Are their grounds for it in Scripture? In fact, the process of contextualization begins in the New Testament itself. There are several examples of it in Scripture, and these examples both establish the legitimacy of contextualization and teach us something of how we should go about it ourselves.
Theos & Elohim
One of the most pervasive examples of contextualization in the New Testament is also one of the most subtle. It is the use of the Greek word theos to refer to God. Theos in origin was a thoroughly pagan word, used to refer to the capricious and immoral deities of the Greek pantheon. In content and conception, it was light years away from the Biblical understanding of God. However, when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in the centuries before Christ, theos was the word chosen Read More→
Biblical Foundations and Guidelines for Contextualization (Pt 1)
Posted by: | CommentsBiblical Foundations and Guidelines for Contextualization (Pt 1)
Editor’s Note: This guest blog is written by the IMB’s Regional Leader for Central Asia. It is a six part series, giving the biblical foundations and guidelines for contextualization, and making application to Christian ministry in the Muslim world. This series will appear as a chapter in the forthcoming book “Look What God is Doing in the Muslim World.”
Every Christian Contextualizes
Contextualization is one of the hottest topics in Missions today. Simply put, contextualization is the word we use for the process of making the Gospel and the church as much at home as possible in a given cultural context. American Christians have a tendency to think of contextualization as something missionaries and overseas Christians do “over there,” Read More→
Why Cities?
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In 1800, only about five percent of people lived in cities. A century later this had risen to about fifteen percent. By 1975, the percentage of urban dwellers in our world had risen to forty-one percent. Estimates are that by 2050 almost 80% of the world will live in urban areas. In Asia the present growth rate will produce by the year 2000 at least fourteen cities with a population of over ten million – three of these exist already in India, namely Mumbai (Bombay), New Delhi, and Calcutta. There will be thirty-two cities with over five million citizens and more than a hundred with over a million inhabitants. In India, cities like Madras, Hyderabad, and Bangalore already have climbed over five million in population, and they are numerous more cities over or near a million in population. It is true that India is primarily a rural society; however, the cities are growing and will continue to grow. There needs to be a concerted effort and a strategy on the part of the church to penetrate these spiritual strongholds of Satan.
We live in an urban world. However, only about nine percent of evangelical Christians live in the cities of a million or more inhabitants. Read More→
Beautiful Things
Posted by: | CommentsAs you think about and pray for the people of Yueyang, please also consider how you might make a tangible impact on the lostness in this place.
The Heart of God — Are We There Yet?
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“The command has been to “go,” but we have stayed — in body, gifts, prayer and influence.”
- Robert Savage
“Are We There Yet?”
Posted by: | CommentsToday, we can identify the people groups that remain untouched by the Gospel. For the first time, it is conceivable that all people groups can be reached in the coming years with a Gospel presence. According to IMB’s 2009 statistical data* there were 506,019 baptisms, 204,192 churches. Church membership overseas was at 10.7 million, and there were 24,650 new churches.
Yes, there is still a long way to go, but progress is being made every day.
Now is the time to also take a fresh look at the challenges ahead and be ready to finish the task. With 45,560 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, there is much work to be done.
- 4,743 people groups are not engaged at all with the Gospel
- 6,426 unreached people groups (those with less than 2 percent of people who profess to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ)
- 1.7 billion with little or no access to the Gospel
- 1.5 billion Muslims – 22 percent of the world’s population
- 950 million Hindus in the world
- Christian witness among China cities less than 1 percent
- 3 percent evangelical believers among Ethiopia’s 82 million people
- 355 million in South America do not know Christ
- Less than 1 percent Christian among more than 270 million living in the Central Asia region
- 650,000 Lezghi in the Causcasus Mountains fear evil spirits
- 97 percent of all Palestinians are Muslim
- 89 percent of North African and Middle Eastern people groups are unreached
- 311 people groups in India have no known evangelical believers
- Only 1,600 believers among 1.6 million Muong of Northern Vietnam
Chinese fear aging process: Survey
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(China Daily)People in China are among the most fearful of getting old, a new global survey suggests. According to Bupa, a British healthcare organization, which asked 12,262 people in 12 countries about their attitudes toward aging, 28 percent of the Chinese polled said they feel depressed when they think about getting old. About 30 percent of Chinese respondents said they worry about who will look after them in later years, while 91 percent agreed the government of the world’s most populous nation should improve care for the elderly. About one third of Chinese respondents – more than double the global average – said they have put money aside for retirement, while 46 percent have taken out insurance, the poll showed.
As China moves into the next couple of decades, it is entering uncharted territory. It is safe to say that the traditional system from China’s past of children caring for their elderly parents is rapidly eroding. Many feel the government is not prepared, nor adequately concerned, about the gravity of this social shift.
Please pray for Yueyang’s older citizens. Ask that men and women who are followers of Christ will step-up and help meet the needs of this recently neglected part of Chinese society. Pray that expressions of self-less and Christlike love will help draw men and women of all ages to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ!
“Red-collar” jobs most sought after in China
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For nearly 20 years, white-collar jobs have been the most prized in China since the 1990s. However, times change and now more people are hoping to trade their white collars for red ones. So-called “red-collar” workers refer to civil servants in China. China has about 50 million civil servants now, and more people are planning to enter this class through public entrance examinations. Because of its stable income, security and the promise of promotions, more and more people are aspiring to be civil servants.
Often young professionals who are seeking civil servant jobs mistakenly believe that they cannot also pursue a relationship with Jesus Christ. Leaving them with a ‘cost counting’ mentality where they feel they must choose between having a career as a civil servant or having faith in Christ. While we don’t deny that radical obedience to Christ can often result in various levels of persecution in China, the reality is a bit more complex. There are many obedient followers of Christ who are also Chinese civil servants in China today.
Please pray that the gospel would be shared far and wide across Yueyang and that men and women at all levels of society and government would have an active and obedient faith in Christ!