Reflecting over my three years at College of the Ozarks, I cannot think of a class where I have learned more relevant information about the world than I have in Missions to the Middle East. After this class, I feel adequately equipped with a strong foundation to begin engaging Muslims for Jesus. The methods and tools we discussed each week have widened my view of the missions, God and the world in ways I have never experienced before. I took this class because I felt God placing a burden on my heart for a people group he was bringing to our country’s doorstep. In a culture where so many people’s hearts are hardened towards followers of Islam, it is critical that the Church realize Muslims are the prize, not the problem.
That problem vs. prize
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The concept of contextualization was a new concept introduce to me in this class. There seems to be a stigma in the Western church about contextualization. When it was first explained to me, I felt like we were somehow distorting the bible. There were defiantly parts of me that were apprehensive for the first part of the lecture contextualization was introduced. The truth is contextualization in not only okay, it is found in scripture itself. Seeing that Jesus worked in honor/shame through the story of the prodigal son and Paul in guilt/innocence by providing proofs helped me grasp that the gospel of Christ transcends culture in a very visual way. You can see God reaching out and sharing his truth with humanity. Whether it is a Muslim or someone for a different culture, contextualizing the gospel helps make faith in Jesus personal. I don’t want a Muslim to feel like he has to learn English, act westernized and abandon his culture to know Jesus. The corn shucking analogy really helped me understand this concept. Understanding that the Church is only expressed in local expressions radically broadened my worldview. I want to help Muslims discover what it means to be a Christ follower at their core identity even if their cultural identity remains Muslim. We don’t have to change who we are to come to Jesus, he meets us where we are. The Middle East does not need more C-1 or C-2 churches; it …show more content…
Seeing that a local body does not have to look like an American church is very freeing. The C-scale can be applied to any group or even a subculture. I look forward to identifying where the churches in Belize fit in the scale. I think they will be close to a C-2 or C-3. It is important to remember that the C-scale is just a guide and no church will fit perfectly inside one level. However, it is a great tool to using when looking at house
N.T. Wright: During my first semester at Northwestern College, I was assigned the book, “The Challenge of Jesus” by N.T. Wright for one of my Biblical Studies courses. This book and every other book Tom Wright has written has dramatically impacted my Christian faith. Dr. Wright has not only defended the basic tenants of the Christian faith, but also has shown how an academically-minded pastor ought to love and care for his or her congregants. N.T. Wright was previously the Bishop of Durham and pastored some of the poorest in the United Kingdom. His pastoral ministry has helped shape his understanding of God’s kingdom-vision which he is diagramming within his magnum opus “Christian Origins and the Question of God”. This series has instructed myself and countless other pastors to be for God’s kingdom as we eagerly await Christ’s return. Additionally, I have had the privilege of meeting with N.T. Wright one-on-one on numerous occasions to discuss faith, the Church, and his research. I firmly believe Tom Wright is the greatest New Testament scholar of our generation and he is the primary reason why I feel called into ministry.
According to David M. Carr, the history of Scriptural interpretation indicates that religious texts are popular candidates for reinterpretation and, as such, are spaces wherein the personal identity of the reader frequently inscribes itself at length:
In Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcy's essay, "Worldviews in Conflict," the authors evaluate the shifting culture context of today's society and how Christianity fits into this situation. The essay compares the differing views between Christianity and today's worldview, and informs the reader on how to engage today's culture. "Worldviews in Conflict" is a reliable source because its authors, audience, publication, and purpose make it
The church has a problem. The eternally relevant message with which she has been entrusted no longer readily finds a willing ear. According to Henderson, the solution lies in first understanding how our world thinks and then, beginning where people are at, bring them to see "the functional relevance for their lives of the actual relevance of our message". In high school speech classes, we were taught to "know your audience." As a careless high schooler, I didn't really care what she meant, but it eventually made sense (once I actually decided to think about it). You wouldn't use sock puppets to explain math to accountants; you wouldn't use in-depth power-point presentations to explain math to first graders. With this in mind, why do many Americans still try to talk about Jesus using the methods used thirty years ago? Why do we use Christian "jargon" to explain Christianity to those outside the faith? Henderson contends that modern American Christians must change their approach to sharing the faith in order to fit modern America. The pattern of Henderson's book is straightforward: he examines a particular aspect/mindset/value of modern Americans; he then gives ideas about how a Christian might share Words of Eternal Life with such an American. Henderson's writing is both straightforward and enjoyable. He gets right to the heart of the American mindset, then illustrates it with descriptions from scenes from popular movies, personal anecdotes, jokes, etc. In all, Henderson does the modern Christian a great service in writing "Culture Shift." Jesus told Christians to tell others about him ("Go, therefore, and baptize all nations...") and Henderson can help us along the way through this book
First, Sweeney provides an overview of American evangelicalism that is brief and balance. This is demonstrated by his broad yet comprehensive writing style and selection of chapter themes. Next, Sweeney’s inclusive approach provides the reader not only with the history of the more famed evangelicals, but also acknowledges the influences Pentecostals, charismatics, women and black leaders of the movement. Additionally, he is not afraid to highlight many of the shortcomings within the movement. In fact, “he confronts the American imperialism and “cultural chauvinism” that often accompanied mission in the nineteenth century (98) as well as the unfortunate embrace of slavery and racism by some evangelicals.” Lastly, chapter four contains a good summary of the development of modern missions movement. To his credit, Sweeney includes within this summary several trailblazing women in the rise of evangelical missions and affirms that women “worked more freely with internationals abroad than they could minister to Americans at home.” Moreover, he discusses criticism concerning “contextualization” and offers a couple of perspectives on the demographic trends of evangelical
As a committed Christian in Jesus Christ, I believe that I should spread the Gospel in my Christian journey because God calls me for the Gospel. For this reason, I need to prepare various strategies how to share the God’s love to those who do not know Jesus. Accordingly, learning what Muslims believe in their God and think about our God, Jesus Christ, is one of my strategies effectively sharing the Gospel with Muslims. Nowadays, Muslims extremely increase and widely encroach on the entire world. In other words, it is possible to have a chance to encounter them in my ministry or in mission field. When I was studying in Missiology for a bachelor’s degree, I rarely had a chance of learning about Islam. Nevertheless, I have constantly tried to exactly know differences between Islam and Christianity, having eventually learned integral approaches to my Christian journey through this book. In the last two semesters, I had informal discussion times with a professor and my friends who are practicing Muslims. Every time we discussed about God, who is revealed in the book of John. In that time, they asked critical questions that were very sharp and tough. I believe if I already read this book before discussing with them, I would give right answers about God in Christian perspective. This is
Goheen, Michael, and Craig Bartholomew. Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008. Print.
In David deSilva book, Honor, Patronage, Kinship, and Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture deSilva states that context is extremely important as well as understanding the culture, without these elements one cannot properly understand the interpretation of Scripture. David deSilva gives an enlightening contextual study of first century Mediterranean culture. deSilva believes that all culture delivers the framework for all communication, and the New Testament writings is no different in how the culture provides the framework for communication.
The book consists of three parts. The first part has five chapters of which focuses on explaining what the key questions are and why we find them difficult to answer. The second part has nine chapters explaining in detail what N.T. Wright considers Jesus’ public career and the approach he had in first century Palestine. The third part of the book, the last chapter, challenges readers to wrestle with the questions of Jesus’ life and ministry.
Since the Crusaders attracted many newcomers and ones who have fallen away from the faith, to continue such unity, they needed to find ways to inspire the ones who ha...
In conclusion, teachers who share their worldview with their students and encourage them to also expand and develop their own biblical worldview are giving their students a whole integrated education. The hope of a teacher should be that what their students learn will carry them through life by always seeing everything through the lens of God’s
Mead, Loren B. The Once and Future Church Reinventing the Congregation for a New Mission Frontier . The Alban Institute, Inc., 1991. Kindle eBook file.
It caused a great deal of self-reflection on how I could go about engaging culture. I came away with a couple of great take aways that I will apply. The first is on changing the world. Like Crouch said there is a great paradox that exists when we talk about changing the world. Yes, as Christians we are called to love and care for the world, and culture is damaging the world.
Hermeneutics is the study of these questions and whether we can bridge the gap between these different contexts? The significance of each context is crucial for readers to have balanced perspective and balanced reading of historical texts. And context is important in hermeneutics because while the Bible was written ‘for us’ it wasn’t written ‘to us’ .
My interactions with Jim left me with a number of questions that I continue to struggle with to this day. What does hospitality look like for those who profess to be Christians? Should Christians be trying to work harder towards better relationships with the other and those who believe differently than us? Is pluralism a plausible concept? What is my role as a pastor in leading the congregation in a time of Joys and concerns? As a pastor, how do I respond to Jim’s claims when I feel so passionately about interfaith relations? Who is my neighbor? The main focus of this project will be the challenge that Christians face to be witnesses of their faith in an increasingly pluralistic world. To examine these issues and questions, I will be looking at them from a wide variety of lenses including scriptural, theological, doctrinal, historical, and pastoral care.