G.O.S.P.E.L. — by Propaganda

Here's another take on the gospel. Excellent urban video.

For the Kingdom,
Bob A

Are You Skeptical About the Resurrection?

Christianity makes some pretty audacious claims. We celebrate one of those on 31 March — Jesus' resurrection. If you're a skeptic looking for truth or even a believer who wants to strengthen your belief, this may be a good book to read, "Raised? Doubting the Resurrection" by Jonathan Dodson and Brad Watson. It's free and available for Kindle (.mobi), Nook/iBooks/Sony (.epub), or as the generic PDF. The authors and publishers are encouraging people and churches to give it away. (I haven't, yet, read the book but read and liked another book by Dodson, "Unbelievable Gospel", so feel good about recommending this.)

What is the Gospel?

Sometime on Tuesday, the US President, Barack Obama, was interviewed on a wide range of topics by ABC's George Stephanopoulos. I saw a report of the interview on a news/blog site, God Reports, and then read the transcript from ABC News. The thing that caught my attention was at the very end of the interview, almost like an afterthought. Stephanopoulos asked President Obama some concerns that had been expressed about the possibility of an American being selected as the new Pope:

...a lot of eyes on Rome as the cardinals prepare to pick a new pope. And for the first time, some American cardinals on the list. Well, what I wanted to ask you about, there seems to be some concern, and you hear this a lot, that– among Catholics, there shouldn’t be an American pope because that pope would be too tied to the U.S. government. Kinda the mirror image of John F. Kennedy’s problem back in 1960. What do you think of that?

Frankly, I haven't kept up with Catholic news. Sure, I knew that the previous Pope had retired — that hadn't happened in something like 600 years. And, yes, I knew that the College of Cardinals were meeting to select a new Pope (that engendered a lot of teasing with some friends who are fans of an American baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals). But, quite honestly, that does not impact my life in any way at all. No disrespect intended, it just doesn't.

President Obama gave a witty response, I don’t know if you’ve checked lately, but the conference of Catholic bishops here in the United States don’t seem to be takin’ orders from me, but what caught my attention was President Obama's next statement:

I– my hope is– based on what I know about the Catholic Church and– the terrific work that they’ve done around the world.

And certainly in this country, and, you know– helping those who are less fortunate– is that– you have– a pope who sustains and maintains– what I consider the central message of the gospel. And that is– that we– we treat everybody– as children of God and that– we love them– the way Jesus Christ taught us to love ‘em.

Look at that again, ...the central message of the gospel ... is that we treat everybody as children of God and that we love them the way Jesus Christ taught us to love 'em. That got me thinking, "I don't think that is the gospel message, but how would I define the gospel?" [Disclaimer: This is neither a political statement, nor criticism of President Obama — his statement just got me thinking.] So, I worked on it for a bit. I wasn't starting from scratch; I had heard other people define gospel, but I had never tried to do that for myself. If you want a single New Testament passage that gives a definition, a good place to start is Colossians 1:13-23. But, I wanted to see how I would define gospel. This is what I came up with:

We were once alienated from God and were enemies of God because of our sin, our evil behaviour (Col. 1:21). Jesus came to earth as a human descendant of Israel's King David (Rom. 1:3). However, Jesus was not just a good man. Jesus is God's Son (Rom. 1:3), he is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15), he is one with God the Father (John 10:30), he is fully God (Col. 1:19). He was powerfully proved to be God's Son by his resurrection from the dead (Rom. 1:4). He reconciled us with God through his death on the cross (Col. 1:22), forgave our sins (Col 1:14), and made us citizens of his Kingdom (Col. 1:13). This reconciliation to God becomes reality when we believe this good news (Eph. 1:13) by faith (Eph 2:8). The guarantee, the seal, of our reconciliation and our ultimate salvation is the presence of God's Spirit in us (Eph. 1:13). Our good works (love, justice, service, etc.) are not the cause of our salvation, but are the result of our salvation by faith (Eph. 2:10) and the evidence that God's Spirit is in us (Gal. 5:22-26).

•  How would you define gospel?

For the Kingdom,

Bob A

Sharing Christ While Experiencing "Crowded Solitude"

Bill Westfall wrote a post, Crowded Solitude in Pittsburgh, for his blog, Earth's Edge Perspective, that got me thinking today — especially the first 4 paragraphs. It got me thinking first how easy it is for me to withdraw into solitude in a crowd or even when there's not much of a crowd but when I'm around people I don't know. Last night, for instance, I was at the airport waiting for my parents to arrive from the US for a visit. There was a crowd there but I poked my nose in my (digital) book and withdrew into solitude.

Then I got to thinking how necessary it is to be intentional in engaging people when we're around them. Many of us (OK, maybe this is a case of projection, pointing and realizing that while I'm pointing at someone else, 3 fingers are pointing back at me) are more comfortable with choosing the time and place in which to engage people. We fail to take advantage of natural opportunities to talk with people, just be friendly, find out where they hurt or what their needs are, and then present Christ to them. And, I'm not talking just about "sharing a Gospel witness." I think we want and must get to that point but we may begin presenting Christ to people by simply loving them enough to care about them as individuals.

The key is that we have to be intentional...

• ... intentional in engaging people
• ... intentional in loving people
• ... intentional in caring about people
• ... intentional in talking about the deep issues of life with people
• ... intentional in sharing the truth of the Gospel with people

According to Paul, the truth of the Gospel is ... Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.... (Colossians 1:21-22 NIV but see the whole passage, Colossians 1:12-23). We have to be intentional in sharing that.

• So, what do you think — can we share Christ while experiencing crowded solitude?

For the Kingdom,

Bob A

Do I Have to Become a Na'vi to Be Effective Among the Na'vi?

The issue of contextualization in missions is one that is hotly debated. Wrongly practiced, the cross-cultural witness presents a "gospel" that is so watered-down that the one who hears this "gospel" doesn't have to confront his or her own sinfulness. The gospel of Jesus becomes a gospel of no offense. It results in one simply incorporating jesus (intentional lowercase) into his or her existing world view. In other words, it results in syncretism.

When contextualization is done appropriately, the gospel is not changed. However, the one sharing the gospel must critically examine his or her own worldview in order to separate what is cultural from what is biblical. The gospel will confront the individual and the community with their true sinful nature; the gospel will offend as it challenges deeply and, often, subconsciously held cultural beliefs and traditions that run counter to God's Word. My job, as a witness to the gospel and as a discipler of believers, is to look for ways to present the gospel so that it is understood fully and truthfully by the hearer -- I need to let go of any of my own cultural baggage that might hinder the hearing of the gospel and the growth of the church and employ forms that are contextual for my host culture, as long as those forms are not counter to the Bible. For example, rather than using the Roman Road presentation of the gospel that is systematic and that speaks to particular groups of Americans, I might choose to present the gospel in a story format by telling the story of the Philippian jailer from Acts 16. Or, as churches are started, the form of worship that is used by an African church might look very different from that used by a Korean church.

Every cross-cultural witness that I know eventually struggles with this -- some, admittedly, earlier in their ministry than others. Being able to contextualize means that the cross-cultural witness, whether from another country or another ethnic group within the same country, must enter the culture as a learner.

Becoming a Na'vi

While there is much to criticize in the movie Avatar, it contains some useful reminders of what contextualization means when one wants to effectively communicate cross-culturally and to facilitate change. In the movie, Jake Sully's mission is to convince the Na'vi of Pandora to relocate so that the corporation can extend its mining operations. Jake realizes that he must understand Na'vi culture in order to do that and asks Neytiri to teach him. Jake is taken to the "village" and introduced to the spiritual leader of the Na'vi, Moat. Jake repeats his desire to learn Na'vi culture and Moat challenges Jake by saying, It is hard to fill a cup that is already full. Even if you haven't seen the movie, you know where this is going. Jake convinces Moat and some of the Na'vi that his cup is not full -- in other words, that he doesn't come with preconceived ideas and that he is capable and willing to learn. Predictably, a major sub-plot of the rest of the movie is the revelation that Jake's cup is pretty full though he mostly overcomes that and becomes an insider.

Take away's for me as a cross-cultural seed planter:

• The mere presence of an outsider and his or her interaction with a society will bring change. Sully tried to enter Na'vi culture in order to effect change. Change within the Na'vi began with his very first contact with the warrior, Neytiri. Culturally, Neytiri should have killed Sully at first contact but she did not. Further, she allowed him to follow her back to the village. I need to be spiritually discerning to do what I can to ensure that my presence in a host culture brings positive change.

• Though some non-Christian anthropologists might disagree, change in a culture is not inherently bad. The change in battle tactics that Sully introduced helped the Na'vi defeat the corporation and its army and helped them gain their freedom from external control. Our mission as cross-cultural witnesses is to facilitate change. The gospel accepted is change effected. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV)

• As outsiders, we need to become aware of our own cultural biases and be open to seeing the world from the perspective of our host culture. We're most effective in our mission when we can do that. The corporation tried to force change among the Na'vi. When that didn't work, they sent Sully in to learn the culture to try to effect change from inside. When we begin to understand our host culture, then we know better how to present the gospel in ways that make sense to members of that culture.

• As we understand our host culture, we will be changed. In Avatar, Sully did not just move from being somewhat apathetic about his mission to being empathic with the Na'vi. He completely identified with and adopted the Na'vi culture -- from a Christian perspective, he went way too far (one of the places where the illustration breaks down). Further, he changed his methods for effecting change and began to use strategies that made sense to the Na'vi and it was then that he became an effective change agent. Our challenge is to change in ways that do not compromise either the gospel or our witness in the host culture but that allow us to communicate more effectively.

So, in order to be effective among the Na'vi, do I have to become a Na'vi? To a point, yes; but only to a point. After all, isn't that what Christ did?  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (John 1:12, NIV) Jesus became flesh but did not adopt our sinful nature and practices. And, isn't this what Paul said that he did? I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. (1 Corinthians 9:22, NIV)

What would it mean to become a Na'vi among your host culture? What kind of changes does an outsider need to make? What changes have you made?

For the Kingdom,
Bob A

David Watson in his blog post, Church Planting Essentials – Exploring Contextualization and Deculturalization, does an excellent job discussing this topic. It was his post that prompted me to write my post. Also, thanks to Mina E for her comment that "there's a lot of cross-cultural stuff in Avatar". Her comment helped me watch the movie with an eye and ear to that perspective.