Practical missionary work today will involve engaging the culture with many different methods, such as contextualization. In this paper, the writer will conduct academic research in the world of missions and examine to see what happens if missionaries apply contextualization methods to fulfill the Great Commission. This task will be accomplished by studying the biblical foundations of the Great Commission found in the Old and New Testament. Then the paper will look at the missional theology of Jesus Christ. Finally, the article will go further by examining the role of the church today locally and globally in the Great Commission. The writer will not only look at proponents of the Great Commission but those who demonstrate some opposition to it. The purpose of this paper will be to prove that the relevancy of the Great Commission today. Also, another goal will be to show that when missionaries incorporate contextualization in their ministry efforts that it is an effective way to reach the people groups of the world.
Mission, Missions, and the Missionary
When people usually think of missions, different things come to mind. Some people may envision a group of people that venture into a small third world country and distribute food and supplies to the less fortunate. Others may envision Christian missionaries traveling to a small remote village somewhere and preaching Christ to foreigners. Other people may envision someone going to a country and building homes and infrastructure in undeveloped countries. While other people may think of a famous Christian evangelist traveling to a foreign country and preaching in large stadiums such as the late Billy Graham or Reinhard Bonnke. With so many people having so many different ideas about missions, it is essential to discuss what missions is and what it entails.
God has called His people to join Him on mission because He wants to make Himself known to the world.[1] However, according to a poll done by the Barna Research Group in 2018, 51% of the churchgoers do not know what the Great Commission is.[2] With that statistic, it is no wonder that over 1.65 billion people in the world have no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ.[3] The church is doing something wrong when it comes to the Great Commission. The church in America has become a place where people collectively follow one leader with no aspirations of ever trying to learn or advance the Kingdom of God.
It is easy to confuse the word mission and missions to the untrained human eye. Missions refer to the church itself taking the message of the gospel to nations through evangelization and planting of churches in the world to people who do not yet know Christ.[4] Meanwhile, the term mission or Missio Dei is God’s mission that divinely intervenes in the life of all people by offering grace, favor, and mercy through redemption given by Jesus Christ. God’s mission is a privilege that all can enjoy if they accept His gift of reconciliation unto Him. The Missio Dei enunciates the good news that God is a God for all people.[5] As one could see, there is a clear distinction between the term mission and missions. Mission is concerned with God and His heart. Missions have more to do with the response of the church to God’s heart.
Missionary is another term that brings confusion in the contemporary church world today because there may be people that do not fully understand what it means. Therefore, many will not ever embrace the call to become one. The term was first associated with the office of an Apostle, and it means to be a sent one or emissary.[6] Jesus sent the Apostles to go and evangelize and baptize others in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:20). Today the term missionary refers to a person or group of people that have left the comfort of their context and venture into ones they do not know. A missionary is someone who carries out the mission of God because they can never get used to the sound of pagan footsteps on their way to a Christless eternity.[7] It is imperative to understand these terms to implement a useful missional theology that infiltrates and permeates the culture of today.
Contextualization
Missional theology is a disciplined study that explores contemporary issues and challenges that may not be explicitly listed in the Bible or be found in traditional theology.[8] Missional theology interacts by investigating disciplines such as anthropology, history, and other social sciences to discover appropriate approaches for contextualization. Contextualization takes theological concepts such as justification, redemption, and atonement and makes them relevant and practical to the panta ate ethne (all the nations).[9] That last statement is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to effective mission strategies. If contextualization, by definition, means to take a word, a thought, or a concept and then place in its proper context, the question would be, how is it relevant to missions?[10]
Contextualization takes place in America every Sunday in pulpits across America. The idea of many preachers is to keep it as simple as possible because by doing so, people will understand the message and then try to apply it in their lives. For example, a minister may take a verse like Joshua 1:8 and attempt to unleash some historical facts from the passage. Then they will try to discover what the writer was saying to the people at that time. Then the minister may use key terms in the text that may be relevant to them then and to the current congregation present. Then the minister will begin to use illustrations and applications relevant to influence the minds and change the hearts of the listeners. The Bible itself is contextual, and God uses what He spoke in times past to the Mediterranean world to be His instrument to inform, influence, and impact the Western world that people live in today. It is essential that the church does get involved in syncretism. Syncretism accommodates the worldviews of this age and reshapes those beliefs and practices to blend with the current culture.[11] This type of practice can lead to a watered-down gospel and a powerless church.
Professor Mark Lounsbrough, chair of Missions and Evangelism Department at Faith Bible College in Ankeny, Iowa, uses four guidelines for using contextualization. The first guideline is that the Scripture must never be misrepresented. While cultures may change, the original message of the Bible must never change. The second guideline he mentioned is the idea of cultural relevance. Cultural relevance does not have the authority to change the nature and meaning of Scripture but rather apply the truth of God in ever-changing life contexts.[12] The next idea that Lounsbrough mentioned is that of religious sensitivity. When a missionary is in a foreign country must become aware of the cultural practices of the country, especially in matters of religious beliefs. Many times, in some cultures, many people may not have access or knowledge about the Bible and the grace of God. It may be inappropriate to beat them over the head with a bunch of scriptures that they do not understand. It would be better perhaps to infiltrate the culture with acts of love and kindness. It is better to show people care and concern first. By getting through the cultural barriers first allows people in other cultures to trust the missionary, and that will open the people up to hear about Christ. The last guideline he mentioned was that in different cultures, words that we often use here in America might be viewed differently in another context. This concept means that a missionary would have to study the culture first and allow the Holy Spirit to lead them to use creative ways to mister effectively in a foreign culture. The truth is that God knows what method to reach everybody where they are. If God has called a missionary to foreign lands, then He will equip them for the task.
There have been cases in times past where countries have had issues with missionaries and how they conduct themselves on the mission field. In 1971, the World Council of Churches sponsored a meeting on the inter-conflict in South America between missionaries from industrialized nations into less developed countries. The results from this finding are not surprising since there seems to be more aware of cultural sensitivity than perhaps it may have been in 1971. The Council concluded that missionaries had been ethnocentric, intolerant, and they imposed alien thought that eventually isolated converts away from their families, which disabled them socially.[13] In some countries, a decision to follow Christ could ostracize them from their family. Often missionaries leave a negative impression, and it causes people to be turned off by the truth of the gospel. Initial evangelism should always lead to discipleship because discipleship is intentional, relational, and can be messy sometimes, but it goes through life with the individual by tracking the progress.[14] It does a national in a foreign country no good to convert them to Christ but leave them in a hostile environment by themselves. The converts must be nurtured into mature disciples.
Contextualization in the Old and New Testament
God began His missional work in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve disobeyed God. It was through the prophecy of Christ in Genesis 3:15 that the plan of redemption would be revealed. The Old Testament, from Genesis onward, is an account of this initiative as it culminates in the revelation of Christ and his redemptive work among all peoples.[15] Sin in the Garden not only had individual consequences but universal as well. God would later speak to a man named Abraham and choose to make a covenant with Him. The covenant that God made with Abraham was an agreement between him and God. God chose to initiate a covenant with him to establish him as a nation, and to extend salvation through Jesus Christ.[16] This covenant that God made with Him was made even though most everyone around him believed in polytheism. Abraham’s election and God’s covenant with him represent the first expression of God’s redemptive concern for all nations.[17] Polytheistic societies did not believe in a monotheistic God. They felt that the Creator of the Universe was not intricately involved in the daily affairs of humans. Monotheism is the idea of pure transcendence where God has a divinity that is unique and distinguished from anyone else.[18] The polytheistic approach of other nations would eventually lead to a showdown to prove that God is the one and true living God. Time and time again, in the Old Testament writings, God has wanted His name proclaimed in all of the earth (Ex. 9:16).
In the time of the patriarchs, the term El is used to describe a deity of the Ugaritic pantheon known as a father and creator.[19] It was a name that Abraham was familiar with hearing. The name El was popular and was known for many different facts that involved everyday life. Ironically, this is the name that God introduced Himself in the Bible to Abraham as Elohim, which means the Eternal God and as Yahweh, which is the one and only God.[20] Not only did God avail Himself as Creator (Elohim) but as a personal God (Yahweh/Jehovah) as well. It is through this that contextualization took place because the people that served polytheistic gods now could hear God declare Himself as the One and True Living God. God knew the cultures that were around Israel at the time and how they received information. God used their culture and language to infiltrate them because He wanted praise and glory of His name to be heard in all nations by hearing the good that He did for them (Jer. 33:9).
In the New Testament, the gospel message was not only heard in the temple, but it was in homes as well. There were no church buildings until about 250 A.D., so meetings were held in homes in a relaxed, nonthreatening welcoming atmosphere.[21] It was through stories about Christ, testimonies, fellowship, and communion that people encountered the power of the Spirit of God. The result was that the word of the Lord spread, and disciples were added to the church (Acts 2:46). Contextualization took place in creative ways so much that it was appealing to masses of people that included Jews from Jerusalem and Judea and the Hellenistic Jews.
The Apostle Paul used contextualization in Acts 17. Paul was in Athens and speaking to men who worshipped false gods. Paul commended them for their piety but showed them who the real God was. He used an inscription on a statute as an opportunity to share the gospel with them. He encouraged them to seek God because He wants to be found. He went on to tell that God is now declaring to men that they should repent. Many of them heard Paul that day, but few choose to repent. Paul planted seeds in the hearts of those men, but only a few believed and joined him. God caused the Holy Spirit to lead Paul to Athens to share the gospel to preach to all in a way that they would understand so that they could respond to God’s call to repent. The Bible informs us that Dionysius, the Areopagite, Damaris, and others unnamed answered the call that day all because of contextualization (Acts 17:22-34).
By studying the life and ministry of Jesus, it has been discovered that everything He did had a purpose to it. One such instance is found in John 4 with the woman at the well. The well had belonged to Jacob, one of the patriarchs. Jesus stopped to receive a drink of water that day, and we see God’s plan of salvation extends to Samaritans and, eventually, the whole world (Jn. 4:42). God wanted to reach beyond the Jewish people, so He sends Jesus into Samaria.[22] Jesus used contextualization of the well to offer living water that could only come from Him to illustrate His point. The result was that many Samaritans would later come to know and believe in Christ because of the way He articulated the gospel message to this woman (Jn. 4:39-42).
Role of the Church Today
After Pentecost took place in the book of Acts 2, a new era began because activity shifted from the descendants of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) to God now working in and upon all peoples through the power of the Holy Spirit.[23] The church in the Bible does not just mean a building where people are housed to worship God. In the Greek language, the word church is translated as ekklesia, which can be defined as people who share equality and brotherhood that are called out and unto God for a specific purpose.[24] The church has been called to evangelize the gospel and then make disciples of Christ (Matt. 28:20). Christ himself was a teacher that used issues of the day to illustrate power spiritual truths, and the church must follow in His footsteps. The church is called to present God’s message vividly, intelligibly, attractively, effectively, and persuasively.[25] The Holy Spirit will put His body in situations and circumstances on a regularly for them to recognize ministry moments as He once did when he walked on the earth. Those moments will require each individual not just to know the Bible alone but be able to articulate the message of God’s kingdom in a postmodern world.
The world today is comprised of people that believe in no real absolutes. Many believe that God is dead; therefore, they can do whatever they please. Some people have turned their backs on God and the church. The church must take a stance and be fully aware of the times. In 1 Chronicles 12:32, the children of Issachar understood the world they lived in, and so should the church. Technology has become like a god to people, and many people will seek it as truth before they seek the Bible. The church can no longer build bigger auditoriums and patiently wait for people to come to them. The church must be equipped, trained, and sent into the harvest field of everyday life by engaging the culture through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In most churches across America, Sunday worship can be one of the most interesting times in the country. People go to their church of choice based upon preferences that they enjoy. Those reasons could be because of economics, social, political, or even racial preferences. It seems that some clergy attempt to control the masses by controlling the way they think. Americans tend to see political correctness, social justice, and patriotism as righteousness with God. It is sending mixed signals to people. People within the church have become more concerned about their personal needs rather than being concerned within the community they live within. God has called the church to be diverse, interactive, and dependent upon one another. It was never called to be divisive. When the church becomes servant-minded, it will become one of the most significant forces on the earth. It will be seen in beauty, love, and power.
Another issue that seems to be prevalent is that many people who get saved and come through the church never get discipled. This action leads to frustration because people then try to live according to rules, laws, regulations, and church morals. Discipleship is the crux of the Christian faith. Discipleship can take followers of Christ from 12 disciples in the gospels to 3000 in the book of Acts. When a person experiences Christ, and they decide to follow Him, it becomes a life of commitment and submission to His will. This type of life revolutionizes and rearranges people and communities. It becomes a life without borders because people will travel to the ends of the earth to share the salvation message and disciple others. Discipleship can not become a lost art. It must be done intentionally, and it is possible through the method of contextualization.
Conclusion
In Matthew 24, Jesus began to give a discourse on the events of the last days. He said in that before the end would come that there would be a preaching of the gospel of the kingdom as a witness to all nations, and then the end would come (Matt. 24:14). Jesus wanted His disciples and then later those who would read this account of this discourse in Matthew to know three things. One the end is near and coming one day. No one can know the time nor the hour when it would happen (Matt. 24:36). Secondly, before this end happens, there would be some participation required from people to accomplish this task to share the message of the kingdom. This task would not be the work of clergy alone, but God would need all people to become His hands and feet in the earth. Finally, the last point of this passage was that Jesus is interested in all people from all walks of life. He is interested in all nations and races of people. Heaven will be a melting pot made up of all types of people and not a segregated community.
Similarly, in the book of Revelation 7:9, the Apostle John sees a vision of a multitude of people. The writer states that in this vision, he saw a significant number of people, which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues. They all stood before the throne of God Himself, and before Christ worshipping them. Jesus started in Matthew’s gospel account by showing the church its assignment on earth, and John the Apostle showed us prophetically in Revelation the end result that will one day take place in heaven. The key to all of this taking place will be found in two key ideas. First, the church must receive the message itself and then be prepared to share it. Secondly, it must be presented in a way that people from different cultures must then accept it. This can only be done through contextualization. The writer believes that believers should become students of everyone’s culture so that people could be infiltrated with God’s truth. When this takes place, the gospel shall be proclaimed to all nations, and then the end will come.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Bevans, Steven B. Mission and Culture: The Louis J. Luzbetak Lectures. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2012.
Cook, Matthew, Rob Haskell, Ruth Julian and Natee Tanchanpangs. Local Theology for the Global Church: Principles for an Evangelical Approach to Contextualization. Pasadena, CA: World Evangelical Alliance Theological Commission, 2010.
Douglas J. D. and Merrill C. Tenney. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1987.
Franklin, Karl J. Current Concerns of Anthropologists and Missionaries. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1987.
Glasser, Arthur F. Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing, 2003.
Larkin, William Jr. and Joel F. Williams. Mission in the New Testament: An Evangelical Approach. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998.
McConnell, Douglas C. The Holy Spirit and Mission Dynamics. Pasadena, CA: Evangelical Missiological Society, 1997.
Oborji, Francis Anekwe. Concepts of Mission: The Evolution of Contemporary Missiology. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2006.
Ott, Craig and Stephen J Strauss. Encountering Theology of Mission: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.
Peters, George W. A Biblical Theology of Missions. Chicago: Moody Press, 1972.
Pratt, Zane, David M. Sills, and Jeff K. Walters. Introduction to Global Missions. Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, 2014.
Sills, David M. The Missionary Call: Find Your Place in God’s Plan for the World. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2008.
Terry, John M. and Robert Gallagher. Encountering the History of Missions: From Early Church to Today. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017.
[1] Zane Pratt, M. David Sills, and Jeff K. Walters. Introduction to Global Missions. (Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, 2014), 1.
[2] Barna Research Group, “Research Releases in Faith and Christianity,” Barna.com, 08 October 2019, n.p., https://www.barna.com/reserach/half-churchgoers-not-heard-great-commission/ (08 October 2019).
[3] Pratt, Sills, and Walters, 30-31.
[4] Francis Anekwe Oborji. Concepts of Mission: The Evolution of Contemporary Missiology. (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2006), 43.
[5] Oborji, 42-43.
[6] Craig Ott & Stephen J. Strauss. Encountering Theology of Mission: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010), 17.
[7] M. David Sills. The Missionary Call: Find Your Place in God’s Plan for the World. (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2008), 15.
[8] Ott & Strauss, 19.
[9] Pratt, Sills, and Walters, 19.
[10] Mark Lounsbrough, “Contextualization in Missions Today,” Faith.edu, 06, September 2016, n.p., https://www.faith.edu/2016/09/1825 (13 October 2019).
[11] C. Douglas McConnell. The Holy Spirit and Mission Dynamics. (Pasadena, CA: Evangelical Missiological Society, 1997), 173.
[12] Mark Lounsbrough, “Contextualization in Missions Today,” Faith.edu, 06, September 2016, n.p., https://www.faith.edu/2016/09/1825 (13 October 2019).
[13] Karl J. Franklin. Current Concerns of Anthropologists and Missionaries. (Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1987), 99.
[14] Raymond Smith. “Evangelism and Discipleship,” class notes from GTHE 516 Theology and History of Global Mission, October 2019.
[15] Raymond Smith, “A Biblical Theology of Missions,” class handout from GTHE 516 Theology and History of Global Mission, October 2019.
[16]J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, eds., “Covenant,” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary,(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1987), 314.
[17] Arthur F. Glasser. Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing, 2003), 57.
[18] Steven B. Bevans. Mission and Culture: The Louis J. Luzbetak Lectures. (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2012), 41.
[19] Matthew Cook, Rob Haskell, Ruth Julian and Natee Tanchanpangs. Local Theology for the Global Church: Principles for an Evangelical Approach to Contextualization. (Pasadena, CA: World Evangelical Alliance Theological Commission, 2010), 23.
[20] Cook, Haskell, Julian and Tanchanpangs, 24.
[21] John M. Terry and Robert L. Gallagher. Encountering the History of Missions: From Early Church to Today. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017), 9.
[22] William J. Larkin Jr. and Joel F. Williams. Mission in the New Testament: An Evangelical Approach. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998), 218.
[23] Glasser, 259.
[24] George W. Peters. A Biblical Theology of Missions. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972). 200.
[25] Peters, 213.
Dr. Kurt Lee 