“Christians should feel that their church is an original work within their own culture.”
“Christians should feel that their church is an original work within their own culture.”
A church plant in Montreal Quebec. Indigenous does not always mean isolated tribes in a far of place. What about thinking of campus ministry as cross cultural ministry that requires application of the same principles? (Kevin Jesmer)
Excerpts from Charles Kraft, Christianity In Culture (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1979)
Found in Classic Texts In Mission and World Christianity. Edited with introductions by Norman E. Thomas. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001) p. 215-216
“A contemporary church, like a contemporary translation, should impress the uninitiated observer as an original production in the contemporary culture, not as a badly fitted import from somewhere else.”
“…the Bible demonstrates God’s willingness to work in terms of any culture rather than his desire to perfect and impose a single culture. They should further understand that the church is meant to be intelligible to the world around it; that God expects to be made intelligible to humanity by means of the church. And faithful church people are to work toward this end by consciously attempting to produce church structures with the receptor culture that are dynamically equivalent to those portrayed (though partially) in the pages of Scripture. “
“What is desired, then, is the kind of church that will take on indigenous forms, possess them for Christ, adapt and employ them to serve Christian ends by fulfilling indigenous functions, and convey through them Christian meanings to the surrounding society.”
“Christians should feel that their church is an original work within their own culture.”
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