The Greater Debate: March 2008

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Intro

Questions regarding the relationship between church and culture are critical to the mission of the church. Faithful mission practice requires an understand of the culture in which one is serving. Historically, discerning missionaries have engaged the culture, seeking to communicate the gospel in indigenous forms while remaining faithful to Scripture. Unfortunately, in the West, we often make the mistake of giving culture short shrift, convinced that we understand the carious cultures within Western countries.

The church must recognize that we re in the midst of a cultural revolution and that nineteenth-century (or older) forms of church do not communicate clearly to twenty-first-century cultures. A major transformation in the way the church understands culture must occur for the church to negotiate the changed ministry environment of the twenty-first century. The church is a modern institution in a postmodern world, a fact that is often widely overlooked. The church must embody the gospel within the culture of postmodernity for the Western church to survive the twenty-first century.

[Emerging Churches. Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger. Baker Academic. 2005]

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