A New Context

As our team is preparing for a new part of our journey I am using my time to read A LOT. I haven't read that much since I left seminary in the US and I enjoy it thoroughly. Do you know the feeling when you discover one of these "nuggets of wisdom"?

Carl Raschke is one of the writers I love reading. Consistantly I feel like he puts into words what I can only feel in my gut without knowing how to articulate it. In his book "Globochrist" he talks about how "the historical Roman and Germanic epistemologies that inform so much of Western theology just will not work in Asia". Out of my own experience I simply have to say "Yes!". I do acknowledge that some connections can be made -- we do live in the time of Globablization... but Western epistemolgies will fall short of penetrating the core of Asian culture - we need to contextualize much deeper than we often feel comfortable.

A few weeks ago a friend said to me "I believe you really know whether your church has an impact for Christ when your church would disappear and people who are not inside this particular church community would really miss it". Does our church have an impact on society? the community? individuals outside our protected community? It made me ask what it really means to contextualize our faith; and to live a missional life myself...

Pray for our team... to be ready to be formed by His Spirit; to leave our wisdom behind; to learn the context we are in; and seek His guidance in how to make Him known...