Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – Complications of Communicating the Gospel: Why We Should Take the Culture of the People Seriously

By Adrian de Visser
April 2007 Paul Hiebert provides guidelines for responsible contextualization:

  1. The Bible is the final and definite authority for Christian belief and practices. Every one therefore must begin at the same place.
  2. The priesthood of all believers is accepted as scriptural teaching. The priesthood of believers assumes that all the faithful have the Holy Spirit to guide them in the understanding and application of the scripture to their own lives.
  3. C. Norman Craus points out that the contextualization of the gospel is ultimately not the task of individuals or individual leaders, but of the church as a discerning community; “within that community, individuals contribute with their gifts and abilities.”4

Culturally dislocated models or Western models might work in the cities, but if the Church is to impact a country, culturally relevant models will be more relevant.

Our attempt to use local culture does not mean we will overlook cultural beliefs and practices that are in conflict with biblical truths; on the contrary, we will sit in judgment on such that are inconsistent with biblical teaching.

The truths that are central to biblical teaching or at the core of the gospel cannot be changed or altered to suit any culture. This will be a violation of the trust that God has entrusted to us. These unchangeable truths are considered as “Supra Culture,” that is above all culture.

Endnotes

1. Hesselgrave, David J. 1978. Communicating Christ Cross-culturally. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Zondervan Publishing House, 28.

2. Ibid, 98-100.

3. Winter, Ralph and Bruce Koch. 2000. Mission Frontiers. June.

4. Hiebert, Paul A. 1985. Anthropological Insights for Missionaries. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Baker Book House, 53.

Rev. Adrian de Visser is the Lausanne International Deputy Director for South Asia. He is also senior pastor and president of Kithu Sevana Ministries, a church planting ministry in Sri Lanka. De Visser serves as vice president for partnership development for Asian Access, a ministry committed to developing leaders across Asia.