Contextualization: The dandelion challenge

It puzzled me.

A yellow can with wilted dandelion flowers adorning a rustic wooden pulpit in that remote African church. There is nothing like the rich rhythmic sound of Africans singing praise to God, but I found those flowers a total distraction and I would soon be preaching on the other side of that wilted bouquet.

I leaned over and asked my host, sitting beside me, about the flowers and she laughed as she told me that the earliest missionaries to this part of Kenya taught the Africans that there should always be flowers at a church service. She later elaborated: African culture has no esthetic for flowers. Husbands don’t send their wives a dozen roses on Valentine’s Day. Nor do people place flowers on their dining room tables. I am certain missionaries explained it was a way of honoring God, but, to this day, the gesture meant nothing in African context. Yet still they continue to do it, because they know they “should.”

Context is the accumulation of life experiences that define how each of us interprets what we perceive in the world and how we are motivated by those perceptions. Contextualization is the discipline of presenting an idea understood in our context so it will be accurately received in someone else’s context. The only way we have any idea of our success at contextualization is by asking the hearer, “What did you understand me to be saying?” At best it is a dynamic conversation as our respective contexts constantly evolve. For example, when an adolescent boy takes down the “no girls allowed” sign from the clubhouse he built in the back yard and starts inviting certain girls in, what changed? Context. If he gets married, the process of contextualization will become even more challenging as two people’s worlds come together, as husband and wife work to define what their joint context will become.

Cross-cultural ministries often talk about contextualization, but rarely explain what the word means. Let’s revisit the wilted flowers on an African pulpit. Contextualization means we first analyze the significance of a bouquet of flowers at the front of a sanctuary in the West. We see it as God-honoring, much like my wife buying fresh flowers when guests are coming to our home. It shows honor and hospitality.

What is viewed as God-honoring in African culture? Something more to do with music and dance, which African churches do very well. No surprise that the flowers became a meaningless tradition. However, the fact that those churches thrive to this day means the missionaries got much more right than they got wrong.

Communicating from one culture to another is an inexact science. Sometimes there is no contextual counterpart. Consider an Inuit boy explaining to his counterpart from an Amazon rain forest village what it was like living in an igloo. Lack of context can limit understanding. Add to that the challenge of creating training for a target group of pastors in a particular region. We must consider the problems facing a country as well as their historical and present realities.

History’s most extraordinary effort at contextualization was God the Father sending his Son to take on human form. Jesus spent a full nine months in the womb without becoming any less than God, to be born a fully human child. Not only did four authors, each from a distinctly different context, record his life and ministry for us, the rest of the New Testament fleshes out how Jesus’ message should be lived out by the visible “body of Christ” on earth, otherwise known as the Church.

God continues to send Christ-like emissaries to every world context, to do what Jesus did and draw people to himself. When Entrust staff members go to a different culture, they work with local people to understand what Christ will look like in that context, speaking that language, living in that culture, inhabiting their hearts and lives. The calling of every Christ-follower is to be a “contextualizer,” to continue what Jesus began when he took on human form, to show our neighbors what Christ looks like in their own cultural context. When Christ lives in us, we become what people in our families, neighborhoods and workplaces see and understand about God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, officially appointed as “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Cor. 5:20).

That is the exciting work Entrust does. In each distinctive cultural setting, we flesh out what a Christ-follower looks like and then we determine the particular tools a pastor needs to raise up the sort of disciple who can then make other disciples. It can be a prodigious challenge, but when you see the impact Christ has through believers who are the visible representation of Jesus Christ in their communities, it is perhaps the most rewarding experience possible. ■

© David Goodman

Teaching Adults: The agony and the ecstasy

Do you ever feel like they aren’t listening? You’re leading a Bible study, teaching a class or maybe even preaching. Within five minutes, eyes grow distant and minds seem elsewhere. And you prepared so well!!

Don’t take it personally. It’s not you. That’s the agony of teaching adults: ever since they discovered learning was no longer going to be fun (perhaps as early as the first or second grade) they have steadfastly refused to give the benefit of the doubt to any teacher. But the ecstasy side more than makes up for it.

Understand that most adults have no desire to go back to “school.” Do a word association with “school” and unless you are working with a valedictorian’s support group, you will find a high number of negative impressions. Remember all those occasions you asked yourself (and maybe your teacher), “Why do I need to know this?” Sometimes you ended up using it, but often …

So where’s the ecstasy? Most adults have developed into tenacious learners of anything they are convinced they need to know. If they know they need it, they will grab it. If you want to see those wheels turning, want to witness someone in the group grasp a concept in a whole new way – the ecstasy side of teaching adults – then you as a teacher must start by asking yourself, “Can this truth make their lives better or more interesting?” If you can answer with a “yes,” you know you’re dealing with something they need. That will define how you begin any lesson.

Most of us have a short attention span and within no more than five minutes will decide whether we need to keep listening. As a teacher, use those precious first minutes to convince the group what you are about to say or study together is something they really need.

If you are still reading this article, it’s probably because you’re a communicator who wants to get important truth across when you teach. Keeping a group with you for half an hour or more requires more than the initial need to know. Even your most profound point will lead your audience away as they ponder it (while you move on to your next point).

Whether preaching, teaching or leading a Bible study, forget about holding their attention; think in terms of continually regaining their attention. Our minds are too active for any communicator to hold us firmly in their grasp for very long. You must plan ways to get learners back, over and over again. A lesson or message should be a series of quick sprints, not a marathon run. A Bible study must be guided by compelling questions that refocus and propel the group forward. In every case, the need to know will help accomplish this goal.

You might think, what if I can’t identify anything in my lesson the learners need to know? The answer is simple. You have just saved everybody a great deal of time. Now find something they do need to know and go with that.

©  David G. Goodman

The Courage of an Encourager

Maybe it’s because his name means “son of encouragement.” I’ve always thought of Barnabas as a conciliator, a behind-the-scenes guy, not one to make waves. Looking a little closer, I see that one of the Bible’s best examples of a mentor didn’t just sit around uttering platitudes and smoothing the tidal waves stirred up by people like Paul.

When we’re introduced to Barnabas in the book of Acts, he is held up as a model, an early mentor through his generous giving, selling his land and turning over all the proceeds so the apostles could help the needy. Acts 4 says it was generally true that “all the believers were of one heart and mind,” but then goes on to identify at least two exceptions. Their names? Ananias and Sapphira. I can hear Sapphira saying: “Why did Barnabas have to go and do that? Now people are looking at us and wondering why we haven’t sold our property.” Her husband had a comeback. “Don’t worry, I have a plan. They won’t know we are holding back a good bit of the proceeds …” Worthy mentors prove themselves an example to follow, or not.

Later, the church’s most feared persecutor showed up, applying for membership. Everyone knew better than to trust Saul … except Barnabas. He ignored the danger, discerned Saul was indeed sincere and became Saul’s advocate to the church leadership. How striking that God used this godly businessman to show the apostles their error in judgment. It says a lot about Barnabas that the apostles listened to him and took the risk of bringing Saul into their midst, when some of them fully expected him to rip off his sheepskin and reveal a wolf in their midst. God knew Saul needed a strong, mature advocate to nurture him through his infant faith. Wise mentors look beyond an unsavory past to a transformed future, in Christ.

When the church in Jerusalem asked Barnabas to investigate startling reports of Gentiles accepting Christ, he made the 2-week journey to Antioch and was overjoyed at what he saw. He affirmed those new converts, aware it would be an uphill battle to convince his fellow Christians in Jerusalem to fully accept Gentiles as anything more than toads. Barnabas joined Paul in this battle, a battle probably full of all the emotion and rancor of some of the worst church fights you and I have ever seen. Good mentors are like frog kissers. They can look at a frog and see the next Prince Charming.

It takes sacrifice to be a Barnabas. You must work time into your schedule and do things that many find uncomfortable. Naturally we, the church, want newcomers to be just like us. But like Barnabas, mature mentors in the name of Christ must have the faith to journey into the uncomfortable. The elderly need to reach across to the young, the married need to get to know singles, African-Americans, Hispanics and Anglos need to embrace each other, Christians need to start conversations with Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. Insightful mentors see beyond jarring differences to the rich unity Christ wants to bring. 

I love the humility of the man as he gracefully transitioned from star status to a supporting role. Early in the book of Acts, Barnabas’ name generally appears first on the marquee. Later it becomes “Paul and Barnabas.” I am certain he knew early on that his immensely gifted protégé would not remain long in his shadow. Godly mentors are humble and take great pleasure in the achievements of their mentees.

As mentoring relationships progress, disagreements may arise. In the case of Barnabas’ cousin, John Mark, Paul probably had good reason to cut the young man from his team because of his failure on a previous trip. Barnabas insisted cutting off John Mark would be a loss to the kingdom and as a result, parted ways with Paul. Mentoring is not spiritual cloning. God sometimes leads co-workers on separate paths. Later, Paul mentions John Mark in a letter to Philemon, seeming to indicate a change of opinion. Effective mentors are able to think outside the box and have faith in the transforming power of God to do the unexpected.

Oh, that we all could have (and be) mentors like Barnabas. People who don’t “tickle ears,” saying nice things to make others feel good, but who speak the truth with a love that builds up and points past what is to what can be, in Christ. We need, and may each of us be, true sons and daughters of encouragement who stand by our convictions, worthy examples for others to follow, humble, able to think outside each box. We need more frog kissers.

© David G. Goodman, CEO, Entrust