My Last Blog? (Hopefully not)

I know it's wierd, but every time before I go on vacation I think about what I need to say before I go in case God takes me and I never get back to Valdosta...and never get to preach or blog again. So, in case this is my last blog, here is something I want you to know. Actually, there are a lot of things I would like you to know...but since this has a link to the church website and since it is so much on my heart, here is something I need to say before I go.

Why We Must Contextualize
I am just going to touch on this; there is so much to say on this... we could be here all day. And I don't have all day; I know, neither do you.

"Define your terms."
-Voltaire

What is contextualization? Ed Stetzer put it creatively when he said that churches must not only exegete the Scripture, we must also exegete the culture. We need to study the culture we are in so that we can make the truth comprehensible to the people in that culture. Missionaries know this. They study the culture they are in. Then they dress like the culture, speak like the culture, and as much as is Biblically permissible, become like the culture, so they can communicate Christ to the people. Pardon the football analogy, but if I were trying to reach a bunch of Tennessee fans, I would not wear my Florida Gator gear. They probably would not listen to me. Now, I probably should put on a hat with a large T on it, but I might get sick...so I would just wear something neutral...to get a hearing. I would eat their food, learn their slang, etc, etc. This is what Missionaries do...and this is what we must do.

Why?

Number one: The Great Commission leaves us no other option - the church must be missional.

Number two: What we are doing right now is not working; ie, the US church is Not being Missionally effective right now. 80% of Churches are either stagnant or dying.

Number three: We need to face the fact that we no longer are a Chrisitan nation. Drastic changes have taken place in our culture in the past 50 years. It is not just that there has been a technological explosion, an information explosion, tremendous diversity, etc...but we are quickly becoming Postmodern, which means our society is increasingly processing life radically different than previous generations.

Number four: These changes mean that if we are going to be missionally effective -the church must adapt. For instance, if a Missionary moved from England to Brazil, he much keep the message but change the method. This is what Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians 9 when he said, "I have become all things to all men that by all means I might save some." This is why he even changed his given name from "Saul" to "Paul", a Greek name, so he could reach Greeks.

Number five: The same is true of us. Many are saying, and I agree strongly, that a key weakness in the church today is that we are not responding quickly enough or strongly enough to these cutural changes. This is why we are not missionally effective, to a large degree. We just are not willing to pay the price to fulfill the Great Commission. So, if we want to be missionally effective we need to be culturally relevant. It is just that simple.

Number six: A theological reason to contextualize - Jesus did. His name is Immanuel which means God with us. He became as we are. He took on flesh and rubbed shoulders with us. This is what you do when you want to reach people. However, when we refuse to contextualize, we give the message that God does not relate to you on your level. He is not there at the 7-11. He is not there when you argue with your wife, or surf the internet. He is not present where you live, work and play. God lives in a sterile, formal, ritualisitc church where they sing songs you can't relate to, use words you can't understand, and follow traditions that don't make sense. What a different picture we get of Jesus in the gospels! As Christ's representatives, we must contextualize.

Why is the church today dragging it's feet on this?

Change is hard. It is like learning a foreign language. None of us are going to do it for the fun of it. No, we only do it if absolutely necessary. Like Lorena. She was Hispanic and could not speak a work of English. Yet, she married an American man, Chris, who could not speak Spanish. I asked him about it and he said, "Communication is overrated." Well, I don't think Lorena agreed because she was working very hard to learn English ASAP! Obvously, she had something to say.
The point is, we tend to be like Chris. We are in no hurry to learn their languge because we don't think it is necessary. I am here to say, It is necessary.

Change also feels like liberalism. It feels like we are backing up, compromising, watering down the Bible. But nothing could be farther from the truth. We may be compromising tradition...but even there, what is the purpose of tradion? Tradition is simply something that worked so well for so long that we we kept doing it. What I am saying is that we need to be so in love with the truth and so desireous that many, many know this Jesus that we are willing to examine all we do. If the Bible commands it, we do it. Period. Whether people like it or not. But if the Bible does not command me to do something, and I keep doing - it even it makes me less effective at obeying Christ's Great Commission - I am guilty of Mark 7:8: "Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of man."

I think we also feel like all this is new...and it is better safe than sorry. Better go with what is tried and true than what is risky and possibly wrong. Yesterday in my sermon, I mentioned the Parable Jesus told as recorded in Matthew 25:14-30. It is the parable of the talents. And do you remember the key truth? It is that Jesus told us to embrace risk. Yet I must confess that I tend to be like like the man why buried his one talent. I think: "Better safe than sorry." But clearly, this parable teaches just the opposite. It teaches, Better sorry than safe. Better to step out in faith, better to try, better to risk than bury your talent in the ground.

This is gutsy stuff. Contextualizing to the culture is not for the faint of heart. But then again, neither is following Jesus.