Challenges to Contextualization

Another quote on "contextualization," the necessary process of adapting to the culture you are trying to engage with the gospel. From Tim Keller's Center Church:

The subject of contextualization is particularly hard to grasp for members of socially dominant groups. Because ethnic minorities must live in two cultures--the dominant culture and their own subculture--they frequently become aware of how deeply culture affects the way we perceive things....

In the United States..., Anglo Christians sometimes find talk of contextualization troubling. They don't see any part of how they express or live the gospel to be 'Anglo'--it is just the way things are. They feel that any change in how they preach, worship, or minister is somehow a compromise of the gospel. In this they may be doing what Jesus warns against--elevating the 'traditions of men' to the same level as biblical truth (Mark 7:8).

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