I don’t think the first phase of our mission will be all that
glamorous in terms of baptisms and bible studies. At the recommendation of
previous missionaries, we are trying to take the first full year on the ground
to be full-time learners of the language and the culture. One of the things
we are doing as a team is collaborating on a study of religious customs, rituals, and rites of passage. Over
the next several months we will be conducting surveys and compiling all the
knowledge we can on Catholicism and its rituals and practice, weddings,
funerals, birthdays, the rite of confirmation, infant baptisms, Andean animism,
superstition, etc. In every culture
there are things that point towards Jesus, things that point away from Jesus,
and things that are more or less neutral. We have to be well-acquainted with
the underlying meaning of things as we approach church-planting as cultural
outsiders.
In the field of missiology (the study of missions) the word
“contextualization” is thrown around a lot. Contextualization is the craft of
relating something in a way that is understandable to people from a different
culture. In actuality, everyone participates in some contextualization because
we all deal with subcultures within our own culture. For example, your parents and
your children (if you have children) are members of different subcultures.
There is a generation gap between you. You might have to explain something to
them in a different way than you would with someone your own age. This same
concept is amplified when it comes to communicating cross-culturally. Creative
and judicious contextualization is of vital importance when communicating the most
important thing in the world: the Gospel.
When contextualizing biblical truth, we must be aware of
the cultural baggage we bring along with us to a new place. We are not
commissioned to spread American culture to those who are lost, we are
commissioned to spread the transformative Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must, therefore, critically analyze our own ways of doing things. Do we do the things we do
because they point towards Jesus? If so, those practices can be shared. Many
times American cultural practices are spiritually neutral but end up getting passed
along to the natives because that’s just how the missionaries have always done
it. The spiritually neutral things are often the things the sending churches
back home get upset about when missionaries decide not to impose them on the natives. Thirdly,
there are things in American culture that we bring along with us that actually
point people away from Jesus. God forbid we infect other cultures with our
sinful cultural baggage!
The other pitfall of contextualization is syncretism.
Syncretism is what God constantly warned the Israelites of doing when they
entered the land of Canaan where people were practicing false religions. It’s
the mixing of the worship of God and his message of good news with the pagan
religions of the world. There’s a fine line between contextualization and syncretism.
Trying to spread the Gospel without first taking time to carefully analyze the
culture often results in syncretistic churches. I’m reminded of the words of Jesus as he sent
out his disciples “be as wise as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matt.
10:16). Our goal as newcomers to this culture is to become culturally savvy so
that we can skillfully contextualize the Gospel and help the church make decisions about what’s good, what’s bad, and
what’s neutral in Peruvian culture.
Our whole team is finally together in Arequipa! |
Jake, it is so encouraging to be able to keep up with you on your post. May God bless each of you and may you faithfully transmit the gospel message in truth and spirit to those the Lord has sent you to serve. God bless you. -- Keith
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