In this issue: The highest guru
- INDIA: Celebrating Christ as the Highest Guru
- NEPAL: Witch Doctor Refers Man to Church Planter
- INDONESIA: Younger Leaders Unite
- WEST AFRICA: Slave Wives of the Gods
- IRAN: Azeri Christians Arrested
Greetings,
Recently, while hanging out with coworkers where I tutor, I felt like the foreigner who never fits in. Yes, they spoke English, but I didn’t understand the way they used the words. Their subculture may have begun in 1996, but the recently launched smartphone app has helped it take off and is even helping people fall in love with their own cities. One Texas seminary used it to hold a two-hour party that attracted 200 people, six of whom came to Christ. It’s not just an American thing, either; people are over the world are joining in. Our friend Stephen Davies, former missionary to Burkina Faso but now in London, is hooked. Have you guessed what I’m talking about?
This and the stories below got me thinking about the gospel, church, and culture. The Church and Culture blog reports on a study of America’s four Gods and another on religious literacy (take the test). American or not, how well do you know your own culture and its subcultures? Do you tend to assume we have the same values, or speak the same language?
With any culture, we are also challenged to ask what can (or should) be used as a bridge for the gospel, and what can’t or shouldn’t? Missiologists differ on the answers. Is it contextualization, or is it syncretism?
Our first story, below, provides a good case study. What do you think? Feel free to share your comments on our website or Facebook page.
Writing from the North Country (which has a culture of its own),
Pat