Jesus Cropped from the Picture

Jesus Cropped from the Picture

The opposite error of syncretism is “ethnocentrism,” which assumes the sending missionary’s culture is superior to the receiving culture. An example is the historic blunder of colonial missionaries who forced African people to wear western clothing. Ethnocentrism is too aggressive in its critique and inadvertently puts too much in the “vice” category instead of the “neutral” category. The task of each church leader is to do what missionaries have done for years: sort through what is “virtue,” what is “vice,” and what is “neutral.” Elders, pastors, bishops, and other leaders must know historic, orthodox, apostolic, biblical Christian faith so well that they can contextualize within their own culture without ethnocentricism or syncretism. But there are three challenges church leaders face as they do this task. Lack of Historical Context The biggest challenge to contextualization is that many church leaders have an inadequate grasp of historic, apostolic, Christian faith articulated by the Great Tradition (see Part Three). Americans are generally disinterested in history and many church leaders lack an appreciation for Church history. Some may have known at one time, but have forgotten amidst all the clamor of cultural change and the madcap scramble to stay relevant. Others never really understood what historic faith meant. Finally, there are those who think they know , but do not. Without a proper understanding of historic Christian faith, contextualization is perilous.

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