Christ in Culture: Lesson 1

August 20: The History and Necessity of Contextualization

Key Idea: The gospel is unchanging, but the way we communicate it must be adapted to particular cultures without losing its essence.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 9:19–23 — “Becoming all things to all people for the sake of the gospel.”

Introduction

1. Starting Broad – Observing Culture

What stories or values most shape our culture today? (movies, slogans, social media trends, common sayings)

Do you think Christianity still feels like “common sense” to most people? Why or why not?

Where do you notice Christian ideas (like forgiveness, justice, or love) lingering in culture, even among those who reject the faith?

2. Narrowing In – Changing Plausibility

Charles Taylor and Tim Keller note that belief in God once felt obvious but now often feels implausible. Where do you most experience this shift (workplace, family, school, city)?

Have you had a conversation where the other person didn’t even share your categories (sin, truth, God, redemption)? What was that like?

Why do younger generations often view Christianity not just as unconvincing, but as oppressive?

3. Deepening – Frameworks and Stories

Taylor says we all act and think out of hidden “background frameworks.” What are some of today’s unspoken cultural “scripts”?

How would evangelism change if we thought of sharing the gospel as telling a better story, rather than winning an argument?

Which of the three main challenges to Christianity do your peers wrestle with most: oppressive, unloving, or untrue?

4. Application – Personal Engagement

Where do you feel least confident in explaining your faith today?

What kind of apologetic has been most effective for you: rational arguments, personal stories, cultural critique, or acts of love?

How can we grow into people who don’t just defend Christianity but embody and tell a better story with our lives?

The Call to Intentional Contextualization

Definition: Contextualization means giving people the Bible’s answers to the questions their culture is asking, in forms they can grasp and feel, even if they reject them.

True contextualization adapts the gospel’s communication without compromising its essence.

A faithful presentation is both clear and compelling, yet still confronts sin and calls for repentance.

Overcontextualization leads to compromise; undercontextualization leads to irrelevance. Both hinder gospel fruitfulness.

Cultural Narratives:

Honor & Shame Cultures – shaped by duty, family, and reputation.

Guilt & Freedom Cultures – shaped by individual rights and personal well-being.

Fear & Power Cultures – shaped by possessions, power, and security.

Layers of Culture (Onion Model): Worldview → Values → Institutions → Customs → Behaviors.

Contextualizing the gospel means reshaping a person’s worldview, not merely adjusting surface behaviors.

As David Wells writes:

“Contextualization is not merely a practical application of biblical doctrine but a translation of that doctrine into a conceptuality that meshes with the reality of the social structures and patterns of life dominant in our contemporary life.”

A Brief History of Contextualization

Henry Venn & Rufus Anderson (19th c.): Urged missionaries to plant churches that were “self-supporting, self-governing, self-propagating.”

Shoki Coe (Taiwan): Critiqued Western imposition of church forms and pressed for national churches to do theological reflection within their own cultures.

World Council of Churches (Theological Education Fund): Popularized the term contextualization in the mid-20th century.

The Danger of Overcontextualization

As Craig Blomberg notes, some evangelicals and liberation theologians redefined Christianity by adopting cultural values over Scripture.

J. Gresham Machen, in Christianity and Liberalism (1923), warned that liberalism’s attempt to adapt Christianity to modern science emptied the faith of its essence.

Liberal reinterpretations looked like this:

The Bible: wise but fallible human book.

Jesus: a Spirit-filled man, not preexistent God.

The Cross: inspiring example, not substitutionary atonement.

Christianity: following Jesus’ ethics, not receiving new birth.

This was not contextualization but syncretism—blending Christianity with alien worldviews, producing a different religion.

The Balance: Contextualization vs. Syncretism

Tim Keller, Center Church:

Faithful contextualization: Adapt the gospel’s communication to culture.

Syncretism: Dilute the gospel by letting culture override Scripture.

Two balancing truths:

There is no culture-less presentation of the gospel. We always speak in cultural forms.

There is only one gospel, which transcends and judges every culture.

Forgetting (1) → rigid traditionalism.

Forgetting (2) → relativistic liberalism.

Cultural Case Studies

Language: “God” vs. Gott (German), “Grace” in Swedish—concepts need careful translation.

Time: Worship lengths vary; what feels “too long” is culturally conditioned.

Illustrations: Jesus used mustard seeds—relatable in His culture, but not universal.

Emotions: Cultures differ in how they express joy, sorrow, or reverence.

Leadership: Korean respect for seniority vs. American egalitarian instincts.

Bruce Nicholls warns against confusing Christianity with “the American way of life,” where suburban evangelical churches can unconsciously embrace consumerism instead of New Testament faith.

Enculturation in Scripture

Old Testament protective enculturation: Israel’s civil laws, holy days, and dietary boundaries safeguarded covenant identity (e.g., Ezra 10).

New Testament:

Acts 10 – Peter learns the ceremonial law is abrogated.

Acts 15 – Council of Jerusalem rejects Judaizers’ attempt to weld Jewish cultural law to the gospel.

Result: The gospel becomes a transcultural message, free to take root in every culture without erasing cultural distinctives.

As Richard Lovelace wrote in Dynamics of Spiritual Life:

“With the onset of spiritual decline, the church’s expression ceases to be creative and becomes mere rehearsal of the forms that once expressed life and spoke to the world with arresting power.”

Theological Core that Transcends Culture

The gospel is not bound to any culture. It proclaims:

Atonement – Christ’s substitutionary death.

Justification – By grace through faith.

Sanctification – Spirit-empowered transformation.

Indwelling Spirit – Authority in spiritual conflict.

Mission Orientation – Prayerful, communal, Scripture-saturated witness.

Philippians 3:4–9 – Paul rejected confidence in his cultural and religious credentials to gain Christ and His righteousness.

The danger of the Judaizers then is the same today: binding the gospel to one cultural form rather than allowing it to speak powerfully across all cultures.

Disenculturation: the Gospel’s Counter-movement

Lovelace coined or at least strongly popularized disenculturation as a secondary element of renewal: the Spirit’s work of freeing believers and churches from cultural bonds—whether destructive (absorbing unholy elements) or protective (confusing Christianity with a favored subculture)—so that the gospel can be lived and communicated with integrity. WikipediaDANGITBILL!

In his renewal model, Mission, Prayer, Community, Disenculturation, and Theological Integration form the “secondary elements” that outwork the gospel’s core (justification, sanctification, the indwelling Spirit, authority in spiritual conflict). Disenculturation is therefore not optional “culture talk” but central to sustained renewal. tcsharing.blogspot.com

Why Enculturation Happens (and How It Looks)

Loss of justification as daily ground: When churches lean on performance, pedigree, or cultural respectability instead of Christ’s righteousness, they become vulnerable to worldly validation and drift. Lovelace famously urges believers to start each day resting on Christ’s “wholly alien righteousness,” noting that many defects of sanctification spring from losing our bearings in justification. GRACE & PEACE

Worldliness masked as maturity: Pastors observe people “severely enculturated” because their functional loves and securities are set by the age’s plausibility structures (success, comfort, partisanship), not the gospel. johnstarke.substack.com

Rigid protective shells: Churches can fuse the faith with a cultural package (“the Christian way equals our way”), producing legalistic forms that once served holiness but now stifle mission. (Summaries of Lovelace’s disenculturation make this protective-vs-destructive distinction explicit.) DANGITBILL!

Biblical & Historical Pattern

Lovelace reads Scripture and church history together:

OT pattern: generations arise, drift into syncretism/enculturation, God disciplines, the people repent, and God raises up leaders for renewal (e.g., Judges–Kings). He names this recurring cycle explicitly. Rackspace Cloud Files

NT/Church history: Renewals (e.g., Reformation, awakenings) involve a gospel re-centering (justification by faith) that ignites holiness and mission while shedding both worldly compromise and culture-bound legalisms. (This reading saturates his book and is emphasized in reputable reviews.) The Gospel Coalition+1

How Renewal Displaces Enculturation

Lovelace’s pathway (synthesizing his “primary” and “secondary” elements):

Depth presentation of the gospel (primary): Preach and daily appropriate justification, sanctification, the indwelling Spirit, and Christ’s authority over evil. This restores assurance and power, breaking the need for cultural approval. GRACE & PEACE

Corporate practices (secondary) that enact disenculturation:

Mission that faces the world with cruciform love (not tribal rivalry).

Prayer that depends on the Spirit against “immeasurably superior forces.”

Community that embodies the new creation across class/ethnic lines (counter-culture).

Theological integration that applies Scripture comprehensively to the thought-forms of the age. tcsharing.blogspot.com

Diagnostics for Leaders (Lovelace-style questions)

Where are we borrowing identity from culture (brand, class, nation, party) rather than from union with Christ? (Justification drift.) GRACE & PEACE

Which parts of our ministry are perfectly comprehensible without the Holy Spirit? (Prayer/authority drift.) covenantlibrary.org

What cherished forms (music, schedule, leadership style, rhetoric) function as gatekeepers for belonging, even though they’re not biblical essentials? (Protective enculturation.) DANGITBILL!

Where have we absorbed the age’s loves (consumerism, image, power) so that outsiders see an echo of the world rather than a foretaste of the kingdom? (Destructive enculturation.) johnstarke.substack.com

Practical Takeaways for Teaching & Session Work

Catechize justification until assurance becomes the congregation’s reflex; Lovelace believes this is the engine room of renewal. GRACE & PEACE

Build renewal liturgies: confession/assurance, gospel-driven sacraments, intercession that names the age’s idols. (Mission + prayer + community together.) tcsharing.blogspot.com

Run periodic “disenculturation audits” of budgets, language, volunteer pipelines, and leadership habits—asking which reflect Christ’s kingdom vs. local custom. DANGITBILL!

Teach contextualization with a spine: translate without trimming; apply without appeasing; welcome without whitening-out biblical edges. (The reviews and summaries of Dynamics consistently present this balance.) The Gospel CoalitionBrian G. Hedges