Culture and Gospel: Communicated

Contextualization is not merely a communications issue.  Proponents really offer contextualization as a necessary missiological strategy.  The intent is to find ways to faithfully communicate the gospel message to other cultures (though not all missiologists and practitioners hold to this principle or are successful at its application). 

The great missionary-theologian Lesslie Newbigin asked, “How can the gospel ‘come alive’ in all these different cultural contexts, and still be the same authentic gospel? That is the problem of contextualization.”


Most ethical writers would like to discover principles of ethics that are absolute (and so obligatory) and are also relevant (with specific content bearing on practical ethical decisions). In a biblical worldview, the law of 
God, our ethical standard, is absolute because of God’s absolute control and authority. Yet it is also relevant because God reveals it to us in our experience through his covenant presence. He is with us in the ethical struggle. He knows the problems we must deal with, and indeed he has designed the moral law with our situation fully in view. 

Peoples everywhere, open the doors to Christ! His Gospel in no way detracts from our freedom, from the respect that is owed to every culture and to whatever is good in each religion. By accepting Christ, you open yourselves to the definitive Word of God, to the One in whom God has made Himself fully known and has shown us the path to Himself.

How do We Communicate the Gospel to Our Culture? - Dr. Ravi Z