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Contextualization

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November 2014

November 11, 2014

How NOT to Contextualize the Gospel for Animists?

How might a more biblical (rather than philosophical) view of monotheism shape evangelism among animists?What do...

September 2014

September 24, 2014

Why and how to talk about “face” in China

Why and how might the mianzi/lian distinction shape our conversations with Chinese Christians and non-Christians?...

September 05, 2014

"Face" videos now on Youku

For those who work with Chinese people, you can now watch, share, and download the...

September 02, 2014

How does God seek "face"?

A few weeks ago, I released a video explaining how honor-shame might influence our gospel...

August 2014

August 21, 2014

How to Babel on the Gospel in China

I want to briefly illustrate the idea from my previous post. I suggested that it...

August 13, 2014

Do you want "face"?

Have you ever wondered how honor-shame might influence a gospel presentation? This video gives...

July 2014

July 08, 2014

Five More Ideas for Crafting Stories among UPGs

In a previous post, I suggested 10 ideas for crafting stories among unreached people groups...

July 03, 2014

10 Ideas for Crafting the Biblical Story among UPGs

Storytelling often is a key component of ministry among many Unreached People Groups (UPGs). Various...

June 2014

June 25, 2014

The Logic of Biblical Application (Part 3)

Does it matter what method we use when trying to find the application of a...

April 2014

April 30, 2014

Atonement via Honor and Shame (a summary)

It's been one year since Saving God's Face was first published. As a way of...

April 07, 2014

A Gospel Video from HonorShame.com

My friend over at HonorShame.com has posted an exceptional gospel video. He captures so many...

March 2014

March 13, 2014

Absolute Truth and Its Relative Shades of Significance

Over at Brainpickings, Maria Popova has put up a nice illustration (drawing from Josef Albers)....

March 11, 2014

Changing the Gospel or Just Our Perspective?

Does contextualization mean "changing" the gospel? That is exactly what one missions leader seemed to...

December 2013

December 19, 2013

Contextualizing Shakespeare and the 3 Little Pigs

This video is a perfect example of contextualization. Contextualization involves interpretation, communication, and application. This...

December 17, 2013

"What does the text mean?" and other unhelpful questions

If we want to find the meaning of a biblical text, what things are not...

November 2013

November 25, 2013

What does the fox say…about the gospel?

Are you one of the 100+ million people who've seen this video? I know...

November 14, 2013

Jesus Preached a Chinese Gospel

My previous post, examined the story of the rich, younger ruler (Mark 10:17–30). I suggested...

November 06, 2013

What if the rich, young ruler had been Chinese…?

Western Christians make a big deal of the rich young ruler story (Matt. 19:16–29; Mark...

October 2013

October 31, 2013

When Short-Term Workers Don’t Contextualize

Short-term volunteers are a major part of mission strategy. Long-term missionaries have mixed feelings about...

October 30, 2013

Contextualization Gone Wrong

Here's a beautiful example of what contextualization does not look like. Related articles The...

October 24, 2013

A Chinese Perspective on Justification

How would I outline a Chinese perspective of justification? I could write a book on...

October 03, 2013

The Gospel with Chinese Characteristics

How do we contextualize the gospel for a Chinese context?More specifically, what would you say...

September 2013

September 26, 2013

Train Short-term Workers to Do Contextualization (Orientation Packet)

Do you ever have volunteer teams come to China? I have created a contextualization packet...

September 18, 2013

One of the most important quotes I’ve read on contextualization

The following is one of the most significant quotes I’ve ever read about contextualization. I...

September 12, 2013

Doing Biblical Theology from Outside the Box

Ideally, we can share the biblical story orally and visually. In other words, what people...

September 03, 2013

Why Israel? Recovering the Bible's Forgotten Middle

This post depicts Israel within the biblical story. The summary follows the picture below. God...

August 2013

August 29, 2013

How Do We Do “Theology from a Box”?

Today, I begin to explain step by step how to tell the whole story of...

August 27, 2013

Keeping the Biblical Story Coherent and Balanced

If you would like to download the graph above, click here (a bigger picture) or...

August 13, 2013

What Vanilla Ice Teaches Us About Contextualization

There is an entire generation of people who can sing nearly every lyric of Vanilla...

August 08, 2013

A Theological Version of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell"

When people are not against something but not necessarily "for" it, what do they do?...