I was watching football with some people this weekend. This is what I do . . . don’t bother me on Saturdays (unless OU is doing bad then I am too depressed to watch any football). I had a fellow whom I have been coming to know over the last few of months join us for the game over at my sister’s house. He is an outgoing guy who seems to be very genuine. He is not a Christian, but comes to me with religious questions each time he and I are together. Once he gets a few too many beers in him, I become the Pope . . . at least to him.

He is different. He is very different. Not so much because he is an odd fellow, but because he has absolutely no knowledge of Christianity beyond the basic folklore you catch on TV shows and the world news. When we talk, I find that I am having to rethink my approach each time. It is not a matter of dumbing things down (for he like to talk deep theology), but it is a matter of making sure that I am not assuming a marraige to the Christian way of thinking that I am so used to assuming. Christianity does not even form the background music to his worldview anthem. I am finding this more and more common.

As we were talking, he said that he needed to get high. He left his pot out in the car so he had to get up to go get it. He asked me with hardly a hesitation, “Do you get high?” I politely declined his invitation and he was back within fifteen minutes.

Maybe it was because I was having some beers while watching the game, but he did not assume anything on me—the religious guy he was talking to—either. We were both building a relationship without any assumptions. I think that this was the biggest shock that I had. Christians and non-Christians alike are losing their stereotypical binding to a passing “Christian culture.” We are starting over and this is not such a bad thing.

Really, many times I feel like I am on a mission trip in a foreign country introducing them to Christianity for the first time. They don’t know me and I don’t know them. And this is in Oklahoma—smack in the middle of the Bible belt of America!

Things have changed. We are in a fresh mission field and we need to be trained for this mission. If we don’t begin to understand this, we are going to have to have other nations sent their preachers here. (Oh wait, they already do).

One of the difficulties in church ministries these days is understanding the dynamics and ethos of those in our culture today. We must ask and evaluate the thinking of those we are trying to reach. This is nothing new. Those who have had studies in missiology understand its importance. Missiology is the study of missions, in which the student is prepared to engage in another culture. In a sense, missiology is cultural prolegomena. We must understand the way people think before we can make the Gospel relavent to them in their own context. This is called contextualization. The missiologist will ask many questions:

  1. What is the history of this culture?
  2. How do they think?
  3. What are their norms?
  4. What are their taboos?
  5. What is their communication style?
  6. What is the best way to get the message of the Gospel across?

Naturally, no one preparing for missions will raise an objection to this need. If they do, then they probably would not make it through the program. Why? Because they would not be prepared to represent Christ, the Church, and the Gospel to this culture.

Ironically, it seems that we have less trouble adopting this incarnational philosophy when it comes to other cultures than we do our own. What I mean is that we fail to do cultural prolegomena within our own context. We live in a world that is changing greatly. While our message stays the same, we must be willing to incarnate that message in a way that is sensitive to the needs and ethos of the day. This means that in our own culture, we must be continually doing missiology. We must be asking the same questions above, being ready at any time to adapt and sacrifice our sacred cows of methodology so that we can have true impact. Let’s take the above questions again and ask them of our culture.

  1. What is the history of my culture? One of suspicion of authority. The loss of heroes. Post-modern. Post-Christian. Post-fundementalistic. Feels betrayed by religious charlatons.
  2. How do they think? Critically when it comes to matters of religion. Pessimistic due to history.
  3. What are their norms? Reality shows and fast paced living. Entertainment.
  4. What are their taboos? Canned language, salesmen, and dogmatism.
  5. What is their communication style? Very fast paced and informal.

The last one cannot be answered in a short blog, but it needs to be wrestled with based upon our missiology, not our christian sub-culture taboos and norms. We are not here to transform the culture to look like our local churches or denominations. This is why I have appreciated so much the emerging conversation. They are asking these tough questions. They are doing missiology.

“Do you get high?” Don’t you know? Of course not! In fact, I don’t hang around people who do. Excuse me, but I am leaving. Have a nice life—pagan! I don’t think we would be trained to act this way if we went to a foreign land. Why should we here?

Oh, one more thing. I did not tell the whole story. My friend say, “do you get high?” When I declined, he said, “Do you mind if I do?” I said “no.” How would you have responded?

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