Interested in honor and shame? What about orality? Well, you might be interested in this book. The International Orality Network (ION) has just released Beyond Literate Western Contexts: Honor & Shame and the Assessment of Orality Preference (edited by Samuel Chiang and Grant Lovejoy). The book compiles many of the papers discussed at a consultation held last year in Houston’s HBU. Samuel and Grant were gracious to invite me and so you’ll find my paper included in the book as... Read more
A lot has been written about how honor and shame influence large cultures, whether Chinese, Japanese, among many others. But what about smaller or unreached people groups (UPGs)?This post gives a few tips to help you identify ways that honor and shame influence the “unreached people group” with whom you work. This is a simple and practical post. Possible Conversation Starters Here are a few possible sample questions that you could use to learn more about their “honor-shame” perspective. How... Read more
(This post originally appeared on Ed Stetzer’s blog The Exchange) I’ll never forget when an atheist, Chinese taxi driver shared the gospel with me. It was one of the best presentations I’ve heard. He didn’t believe it, of course, but he had heard the message so many times that he could rattle it off like Billy Graham himself had trained him. I had spent the past 15–20 minutes explaining the gospel in a way that made better sense in an... Read more
A few months ago, I ran a series reviewing and applying John Walton’s book The Lost World of Adam and Eve. I just found out that a shorter review I wrote has been published in Missiology: An International Review. If you want to check it out, click here. Read more
I was informed that a number of my links to Chinese resources were broken or inaccessible in the Mainland. Many were on the wu-rong.org site. Most of the Chinese language resources use Dropbox. However, if you need links that are more consistently available in Mainland China, click here for Chinese language materials. For the Chinese translation of Saving God’s Face: Dropbox: 挽回神的脸 Baidu Cloud: 挽回神的脸 This is important to note because many Chinese friends may not be able... Read more
One reason why people reject the gospel is simply this––they don’t get it. Maybe it’s not a coincidence that many Christians don’t read their Bible for a similar reason––they don’t get it. How do we make the Biblical message simple enough that anyone can understand it? Honestly, there’s a problem with that question. On the one hand, the answer is blatantly obvious––we can’t. The Bible talks about an infinite God. How could we ever expect anyone to get our minds... Read more
Gospel presentations have a disproportionate influence on the way people afterwards read the Bible. Therefore, it substantially shapes their biblical & theological framework. (That last sentence summarizes one of my basic convictions). It’s worth reading again. This single idea is the seed for both The Promises of God as well as The Creator King. Why do it this way? Typical gospel tracts and presentations are extremely cursory and confusing for many people, especially those who have not heard the gospel... Read more
Practical. Contextualization. Some people think those words don’t belong together. My newest book will be released in just a few weeks. It will be titled One Gospel for All Nations: A Practical Approach to Biblical Contextualization. When you write a book with that title, you’re bound to hear questions like, “So, do you have an example of what you mean?” Yes, I do. In fact, that’s the reason for this post. I have recently added TWO new gospel presentations to... Read more
I’m thrilled to announce that I have started a separate website specifically for Chinese readers. The web address is wu-rong.org. If you go there, you will find various Mandarin resources, including: a free translation of my book Saving God’s Face, which is titled 挽回神的脸. multiple tools for evangelism using an honor-shame perspective. evangelistic and training videos in Mandarin a few initial blog posts A few gracious readers were kind enough to translate a few of my blog posts. I simply don’t... Read more
Do you have Chinese friends who should read Saving God’s Face? Now they can! I’m excited to announce that my first book has now been translated. The Mandarin title is 挽回神的脸：以荣辱为救恩的中国处境化 Also, I am giving it away for FREE!! I was granted exclusive rights over the distribution of the Chinese translation. I am thankful to the book’s publisher, William Carey International University Press, who graciously handed me these rights as a ministry to the Chinese church. So, you can download... Read more
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