Lausanne World Pulse – Contextualization and God’s Global Mission
By Glenn Smith
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Montréal, like most cities in the world, contains many subcultures—all of which need to be infiltrated with the gospel. |
It always struck me funny that classical philosophers and theologians began their writings with a prologue, which in Greek is called a prolegomenon. Pro expresses what comes first and legein means “to say.” Therefore, a prolegomenon is a formal, critical introduction to a lengthy text. Why one needs to say something before one says it was a question I asked for years. I have come to understand the usefulness of such an approach!
For a number of years, I have been inviting students, audiences and readers to join me on the 19-kilometre trip that I make every day from my home in the inner suburbs of Montréal (Canada) to my office downtown. It provides a prolegomenon to the themes that inform this article. The themes include the social context in which we live our daily lives and our common ecclesial traditions rooted in the Bible, Christian history and theology.
But this article is also about reflecting on the mission of God. Systematic theologians warn us that too much emphasis on social context threatens to reduce the universal truth of scripture. On the other hand, church planters and evangelists warn us that too much theology often seeks to disguise itself as a universal truth-claim and takes us away from the real work of the gospel in particular contexts. I believe that contextual theology done in the framework of biblical theology seeks to situate itself between these two ends of the spectrum while heeding the warnings of the two. God is Alpha and Omega; however, Jesus became a first-century Jew and lived and laboured primarily in the cities of Palestine in the era of second temple Judaism.1 We will return to this very issue at the conclusion of this article.
In the homes on my street, I can hear several different languages, symbolizing a diverse array of cultures. What was once a former European immigration has now shifted to a truly global movement.
In many ways, my journey resembles the trip that you, the reader, would make through your context. I walk out the door of my home into an amazingly cosmopolitan neighbourhood called Chomedey, which is part of the Census Metropolitan Area of Montréal. In the homes on my street, I can hear several different languages, symbolizing a diverse array of cultures. What was once a former European immigration has now shifted to a truly global movement. When I first began thinking about my neighbourhood I was struck by the linguistic plurality. Today, the “Islamisation” of Chomedey is very real. As I stride toward the bus stop, I pass the only Protestant Church and then cut through the parking lot of the Roman Catholic parish. Thirty years ago, both churches were full for weekend services. The United Church had a Sunday school that taught over two hundred children. The exodus of Anglophones from Montréal has decimated the congregation. Today, forty people gather on Sunday for worship. The Roman Catholic parish once celebrated forty-five masses each week. Last year, they sold the parish to an immigrant Orthodox church.
These remarkable religious changes remind me that my neighbours are much more concerned with their own pursuits and the development of a personal value system rather than that offered by ecclesiastical structures. All things religious have been marginalized in Montréal.
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Glenn Smith is senior associate for urban mission for the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and is executive director of Christian Direction in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is a professor of urban theology and missiology at the Institut de théologie pour la Francophonie at the Université de Montréal and at the Université chrétienne du Nord d’Haïti. He is also professor of urban missiology at Bakke Graduate University in Seattle, Washington, USA. |
