Congratulations to Sharon Walraven! She has won the third and final drawing of the month for free books. She has won a copy of…. One Gospel for All Nations: A Practical Approach to Biblical Contextualization plus her choice of one of the following…. Vainglory (by Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung) The 3D Gospel: Ministry in Guilt, Shame, and Fear Cultures (by Jayson Georges) Saving God’s Face: A Chinese Contextualization of Salvation through Honor and Shame (my first book) The Glory of God... Read more
In this post, I will explain why Gal 3:8 says that God’s covenant with Abraham is the gospel. I will simply outline how I understand the gospel from the perspective of the Abrahamic covenant. For a fuller discussion of the gospel and its framework (i.e. the themes of creation, covenant, kingdom), you can check out One Gospel for All Nations. The Promises to Abraham Let me first cite a few passages the state or restate God’s promises to Abraham. It... Read more
This past week Tim Challies posted his thoughts about guilt and shame. His view is representative of most people evangelicals I meet. Because his comments are so conventional, they unfortunately are very incomplete and need clarification. I appreciate our brother’s blog. His suggested resources and commentary is often helpful. However, in this instance, his perspective is only correct in part. In this post, I would like to clarify the significance of guilt and shame within the Christian life. Although my... Read more
We have a winner to the Week 2 book giveaway! Congrats to Caleb Spindler, who entered the drawing with his tweet letting people know about my newest book One Gospel for All Nations. He will win a copy of…. One Gospel for All Nations: A Practical Approach to Biblical Contextualization plus his choice of one of the following…. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible The Global Gospel: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural... Read more
Justin Taylor has posted a quote from David Wells regarding contextualization. I recently wrote about the danger of “de-contextualizing” the gospel (which feels a bit like finding the above stormtroopers gaurding your local mall). So, I found Wells comments particularly eye catching. Within the extended quotation, Wells writes: Biblical revelation was given in a particular cultural context but it is also intended to be heard in our own context. . . . It is the task of theology, then, to... Read more
This video is so beautifully relevant for understanding what it takes to do contextualization. This magician helps us understand the power of empathetic perspective taking. As you watch, continually apply what he says in your mind to contextualization. Any thoughts? Read more
There are many ways that Christians share the gospel around the world. Despite the variety of methods used, the most common gospel presentations have at least one thing in common. They largely skip directly from creation to Christ. Typically, if there is a reference to Israel story, it will be incidental or non-essential. In view of my previous few posts, we need to consider whether this is ok. Does Israel’s story matter? Should the Abrahamic covenant shape our evangelism methods?... Read more
This is the third and final week I’ll be giving away free books. This week, I want to try something different. I would like for you to send me your story. Specifically, I would like you to answer this question: How is your ministry influenced by honor and shame? This is broadly stated to give you freedom to reply as you like. You may share stories about ways that understanding honor and shame have led to breakthroughs in your... Read more
I had a number of concerns in mind when I wrote One Gospel for All Nations. One of them is a tendency among missionaries (among others): People tend to do contextualization by decontextualizing the Bible. What do I mean? In order to make the gospel understandable, they typically reduce the message to a few key principles or ideas that essentially strip the Christian story from its historical and narrative context. Where is this trend most evident? The almost total omission... Read more
The winner from week one’s book giveaway is hquach, who signed up to receive blog posts directly to his mailbox. Congrats! hquach will receive three free books of his/her choice as offered in the giveaway. (hquach, I have your full email address and will contact you soon). If you didn’t win, don’t forget I am giving away more books this week. You can still enter your name. See my previous post to see how to when free books this week. Read more
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