The Final Countdown!

Here we are.

As I look back at the nearly 300 lessons I've completed, the 8 Hebrew exams and 8 Greek exams, the 3 comprehensive exams and 3 summary papers, the 6 term papers and 2 book reviews; the ethnography; the countless mentor meetings; and the lessons I've had to write - well, I want to take a nap! Considering that during this season my husband and I became caregivers to his mom before her death; I changed jobs to one much more challenging; we moved into a different house and a different church ... I am amazed that it has all gotten done, frankly, and only 8 months behind "schedule". When people ask me how I do it I tell them I don't know - it's a God thing!

So, I have 6 months left. 6 months in which to write a Graduate Research Paper of 25-50 pages and complete a Capstone Project that addresses the major components of things I've learned over the last 4 years! Meanwhile, this represents the final teaching component of the study!

I'm biting off the whole elephant here because the final section was all review around certain themes. So I thought I would emphasize some of these thematic elements because really they summarize the entire study program I've been pursuing. So - here goes!

• Supracultural absolutes surpass the level of culture but must shared incarnationally. Contextualization, modeling, storying, and other tools are valid paths for communicating these absolutes. This includes art forms, language, ritual - all things that make up a "culture". There is no such thing as 100% identification with a culture, but intentional efforts can be made.
  
• Communication always occurs in a social context. Therefore, it is important to understand the social context to which we wish to communicate. For example, is the society face-to-face, or are other forms of communication effective. Being "all things to all people" means understanding and learns their social contexts. Learning styles are both personal and social, so it is important to grasp how socialization might affect a learning style.
  
• Decentralization and grassroots involvement are crucial for vitality. The modern "evangelical" movement in the U.S. is a good example. Loosely defined and without any specific organizational structure, evangelicals have become a significant group within Christianity. Its strength lies in its decentralization. Decentralization allows grass roots "fringe" groups to appear; this can be risky, but it can also be progressive. Often positive movement starts not at the center, but at the fringe. Thus, hierarchy can actually be counterproductive to vitality.
  
• However, people tend to conform to the voice of the majority. The fringe voice is hard to communicate. This is called "Social Momentum" and as a result, research tends to go in one direction or another for a while. This prevents clear, critical thinking about ideas with conflict with existing theories. Yet watch the fringes - that is where you will see a lot of breakthroughs. We can especially see this in scientific fields. Fringe ideas will float for a while, unable to be published, then suddenly a breakthrough happens!
  
• Change happens. It just does. Whether missionaries enter a culture or not, that culture doesn't remain static. Business will change it, or environment, or government. Therefore, missionaries bring the crucial element of love, always serving as an advocate for the people, as a partner and never a dominant benefactor. Much of missions history reflects the positive impact of missions on societies. And Christianity has historically elevated the status of women, slaves, and manual laborers.
  
• For religious change to occur successfully in a people group, indigenous involvement is crucial. There must be grassroots level adoption with leadership support. The missionary can facilitate this by an awareness of cultural forms and functions, but ultimate change will have to come from within.
  
• Translation always involves some level of interpretation, because theological assumptions and factors come into play when decisions must be made.
• Our worldview must always be dynamic. We don't possess absolutely perfect knowledge, so we have to be willing to update our worldview. Worldview is the path between faith and life. It is key because we don't change all of who we are because of faith - we retain cultural elements. So a dynamic worldview will help us sort through what is biblical and unbiblical, what is cultural and supracultural, within our worldview. Along those lines, we must roll back the blankets of prejudice that cause us to see all things from within our own cultural tradition.
  
• Christians have the opportunity to glorify God by fighting disease, whatever its source. We have the responsibility to intentionally challenge it based on the wisdom God gives us.
  
• As we face an increasingly globalized world, we have to be able to assess whether there is any connection - any unifying level that makes us mutually dependent and responsible. Is there anything beyond "every man for himself"? This is the essence of "global civilization" ... not a one-world government, but a realization that we are all made in the image of God.
  

It's been a fun ride! I appreciate your reading these brief summaries. Thanks for bearing with me!

Theology Review!

Wow - I'm already in the review portion of my program. Only a few more lessons - just 4 more summaries after this one - and I'll be done writing these lessons, and focusing on my term paper and capstone project. For those of you who have borne with me over 4 1/2 years and inconsistent timing of posts - thank you!!!!

So the next few lessons will be a brief review of major areas of study. This is the theology review. It was hard for me not to get bogged down here, as I love historical theology. At the end of the day though, God is about changing lives, and I have to keep moving to maximize preparation for ministry. I'm sure some of this will grip you and you will be able to study more in depth; there are great resources out there for all these areas of study.

Scripture. The biggest point of study relating to Scripture for this program has been the translatability of the Bible. This isn't something that we see in, for example, the Quran, where the very holiness of the text keeps it at a distance for translation purposes.

The fact that Scripture is so translatable means that Christians want Scripture if they don't already have it. And where the entire Bible is translated, errors are minimized and mission is maximized. Furthermore, Biblical confidence is closely linked to evangelistic zeal and world mission. So, as translators work toward accurate translation, they can also seek to increase Biblical confidence and evangelistic fervor.

Finally, the community of faith and Scripture are inseparable. The canon emerged, it wasn't imposed. Believers as a group learn what Scripture means and how to obey it. While we can and should study Scripture alone, it is meant to make a difference in how we relate to the "one anothers" in our lives - the other believers with whom we do life.

God and humankind. God is perfect and man is fallen. That's a simple theology of God and humankind. But the key component is not that fact, but what God did with that fact: The Incarnation. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Our transcendent, perfect, holy God is also very personal. He "translated" Himself for us to bridge the gap caused by our sin. Hallelujah!

Christ, Salvation, and the Kingdom of God. Newbigin observes that we live in the time between Jesus' exposing and disarming the powers of darkness, and His reign being fully revealed in its glory among the nations. The character of Jesus' earthly ministry is to be the character of this time. Marking by suffering and the signs of the kingdom, the Church will have a double character - suffering and victorious. Showing kingdom-level justice and love reaveals "glimpses of the kingdom". Working for the common life of our nation and world gives us a share in God's project for His world.

Eschatology, The Afterlife, and Spirit Powers. Jesus is coming back - isn't that all we need to know? Well, since so many errant movements have started around doctrines of the end-times, we need to go a little deeper than that. Gabriel Fackre points out that there really are only a few clear elements that make up the kernel of eschatology, and we are too easily distracted by the surrounding "husks". What are the major points that are very clear? Jesus will return; there will be a resurrection of the body; there is a final judgment to come; there is eternal life for both the righteous and the wicked; there is a restoration of all things. Most of our divisions are on things outside this kernel. Scripture gives us broad brushstrokes when we was outlined detail. We have to maintain a focus on purpose (mission) versus dogma about nonessentials!

The Holy Spirti, the Church, and Gifts. The gifts of the Spirit are to empower and equip believers for service. They enable us to fulfill the mission God gives us. A natural talent becomes a gift of the Spirit when it is yielded to the Holy Spirit and used by him.

These gifts are exercised within a regular, local gathering before God. Paul pictures this group as a body and as a family or household. Central to his teaching is the idea of love. Love is the sacrifice God requires that should govern all our relationships. Fellowship in the Christian context is joint participation alongside another. Historically and biblically, this has meant the exercise of the gifts of many - the entire body. Presently there is an emphasis on the gifts of the few - ministry as hierarchy who does the work for us.

A whirlwind tour to be sure. The bottom line is that we should view all our doctrinal studies through the eyes of mission - does this enhance and support our God-given mission? Don't pursue disputable topics that distract from mission.

Withdrawal and Engagement

From before the time of Christ, there have been religious groups who saw their role as standing apart from society, maintaining a pure system with minimal engagement. The Essenes in intertestamental times are thought to be such a group. While there was some positive functions - the preservation of Scriptures, for example - these groups played much less a role in daily society than groups such as the Pharisees and Sadducees, who tried to be intentionally involved in their cultures.

Other groups have always wanted a top-down structure which enforced a set of beliefs on all within their sphere of influence. The conquistadors who baptized all the natives and claimed them as believers exemplify this type of cultural "engagement".

Ultimately, both those who withdraw and those who force engagement minimize their effectiveness in a society. The pattern that shows the most success - the pattern we even see among the early church - is a group of people whose relationship to each other and to their God impacts every aspect of life and through the resulting actions, "turn the world upside down".

Lesslie Newbigin presents the role of the Christian in Biblical engagement as beginning with opening up underlying assumptions, asking unasked questions, and probing unrecognized presuppositions. A biblically solid believer will have something solid to stand on when engaging society in such a manner. A lifestyle that is consistent with teachings, solid scholarship, authenticity, and credibility will go a long way toward significant cultural engagement.

Ultimately, we have the same contribution to make as the early church. We can provide both support and challenge, challenging toward truth. We can show the truth of the message by its impact in our lives, and demonstrative how reasonable and logical it is. We can tell our story.

Christ and Cultures

What role does faith play in a culture?

Does it merely play a private role, allowing individuals to be personally fulfilled while society hums on at an abstract secular level?

Does it define the laws and norms of the culture from the top down?

Or does it impact society at a different level - at the worldview level? When a person truly adopts all tenets of their faith ... does it make a difference in what they think and how they react? And if enough people have a changed worldview, can the society be changed? Should we hope for that? If the changes come from the grassroots level - rather than forced by government edict - can that be positive for a culture? Can it be better than "secularism".

One of the quotes that stuck out from my recent study is from teacher Corrine Armstrong: "Christ is not there to maintain evil systems." When Christ enters a heart, the kingdom of God intersects with that individual's kingdom of residence. Soon, a clash of values may ensue. That will certainly affect the individual, but it has the potential to affect society in a dramatic way if the movement reaches the tipping point with enough believers choosing to line up with Christ's kingdom.

That might sound dangerous but consider: if the Christians who served in Hitler's regime had chosen to align with Christ's kingdom rather than their earthly kingdom of residence, history could have looked very different. Radically obeying Christ would have meant, at the very least, refusing to participate in the killing of millions of people considered less than perfect. It could have led to even more radical actions, such as the overthrow of a man who came to power claiming Christian values. As Armstrong rightly argues, Christ doesn't side with evil. Allow it for a season - sure. Maintain it through the efforts of His people - no.

So if we "buy" the idea that in general it's okay, even helpful, for Christ to make a difference in a culture - how should we make the leap to making a difference in our OWN society? What elements needs to be considered in our Western, post-modern world?

* First, know where we come from. The Enlightenment contributed to a culture that values Knowledge, Reason and Progress. Technology is an outgrowth of that. We have to understand and appreciate these elements, but seek to use them responsibly.
* Know what postmodernists are looking for. Postmodernism is in many ways a cultural reaction to the failure of modernism. When Modernists embraced the industrial revolution and began to treat humankind and society as a machine, the stage was set for postmodernism. It's a logical response to a society that failed to use its knowledge to address its flaws. As a result, "postmodernists" have a distrust of systems, but long for relationship. They desire holistic approaches over ones that overspecialize and lead to 'functional silos'. It challenges existing structures and seeks to find an authority worth trusting.
* Recognize the hope and challenge. The early church succeeded in a similar milieu to postmodernism, not by plans but by a radical walk in the Spirit. We don't change our world through our church programs but by pointing to the One who can be trusted and living a life that is radically obedient to Him, even when confronting our own society. We earn the right to speak into their lives. The church serves to provide a human presence to show the love of God, and to act as the gentle conscience of society. For example, the prosperity Gospel avoids challenging entrenched socioeconomic structures. The kingdom as God intended it will love people at all socioeconomic levels and in love challenge the structures that keep people in poverty. It will raise valid questions about issues of human life while also meeting the needs of people facing difficult decisions. In short, it will provide a balance of support and challenge - a balance that research shows is essential for learning to occur.

There are no easy answers when seeking to understand how faith transforms cultures. The list of "don'ts" is easier to compile; the examples of success are harder to identify, perhaps because they occur as the yeast in dough, imperceptibly yet obvious through the result. As New Testament believers our starting point is always the same - our relationship with the living God.

The Excluded Middle??

As I've noted before, Western thought loves dichotomies. We love to compartmentalize and to make things black and white. This tendency is reflected in what's called the "law of the excluded middle" - the logic of Aristotle that something either is, or it isn't, and that the two are self-eliminating. For example, one is either man or not a man. There is no middle ground. As with most philosophies, this one took off because there is some truth to it. There are aspects of life that are black and white. Much philosophical debate has surrounded what those elements are, but we instinctively know that Aristotle was on to something.

Yet as with any thought outside Scripture, there is imbalance to the law of the excluded middle. And generations of that imbalance has led to today's "two-story" view of facts and values. For many thinkers, there is a lower story of facts, and an upper story of values, and "never the twain should meet". This has infected religious scholarship, and so you will sometimes read authors who speak of the "realm of faith" and the "realm of facts" - as if the two are exclusive. Even the evangelical church is impacted when we speak of the "things of heaven" and the "things of earth". Our churches tend to focus either on heaven (evangelistic) or earth (social justice) - with few successfully balancing the two.

Paul Hiebert challenged this thinking in missiological circles with an article called "The FLAW of the excluded middle". Essentially, he said that while we see things in two tiers, most of the rest of the world sees the "excluded middle" where life is lived in a spiritual realm that intersects with earthly existence. In this middle world, people use charms against evil spirits, spit to avoid the "evil eye", don't name babies until they are a year old out of fear of a spirit overtaking the child, where virgins are raped because they are supposed to cure AIDS. It's the place where everyday needs meet spiritual realities. It's the middle world that has to be impacted for true development to happen, and it's the middle world that holds the most challenges for missionaries who are discipling new Christians.

Examples abound: Liberation theology in Latin America met the real need of people who felt economically disenfranchised - but it linked them to Marxism more than Christ. Communism flourished at the height of the industrial revolution when workers felt disenfranchised and taken advantage of, and evangelical churches were withdrawing from public engagement because of the rise of naturalistic teachings and a sharpening distinction of faith/facts spheres. In Islamic countries, "folk Islam" fills the void left by traditional Islam which emphasizes the 5 pillars but doesn't attempt to solve the problems of the people.

To truly impact this middle world we have to first grasp that our faith is a total life experience. The kingdom of God isn't ultimately about us getting to heaven - it's about His glory revealed in us and through us. And when we come into relationship with Him through Jesus, we reflect His glory to those around us as His kingdom reigns in us. Heaven is the culmination - the perfect experience of His kingdom - but we can have a measure of that experience in the here-and-now.

Once we grasp that, we then have to recognize that our proclamation of the Gospel must reflect a total life in Christ. That means that we care enough to do something. Our secular jobs take on new meaning in this view, as we see that God is using us to give a glimpse of His kingdom to those around us. Not merely in our actions and attitudes - but in the very work we do we can testify to His kingdom purposes. Finding a cure for cancer can be a part of advancing His kingdom if the researcher testifies to God's guiding hand in the process and makes the cure publicly available as a testimony to God's healing power.

On the mission field, we care about the people's lack of water and work hard to provide them good drinking water - all the time telling them about the Living Water. Missionaries function this way every day in "creative access countries" where their job is their reason for being there, and the evangelism comes along the way. But it's something we can all practice every day, for His kingdom can be at work in us and through us wherever we are.

"Will not the Judge of the earth do right?" (Gen. 18:25)

International development cannot be considered apart from issues of justice. When "Dictatorships, Coups, and Terror" (the title of lesson 18) strike the earth, and people search for justice not only politically, but socially and economically as well, does the church have an answer? Do we have any message than to offer a "pie-in-the-sky, sweet by and by" as some non-believers view heaven?

I believe we do. And I believe we must articulate that message in a way that is distinct from secular organizations that also claim to advance justice. Lessons 18-19 stirred a lot of thinking in this area. Again, there are more questions than answers at this point. Liberal and Catholic theologians have spent a lot more time addressing these factors than the evangelical church, and so it is understandably going to take a lot of thought and prayer for evangelicals to know what role God wants us to have in the search for earthly justice. This is just a snapshot of some of the thinking I've done on the subject in recent weeks.

Why bother? We know that true justice will only come at the final reign of Christ. We know that in a fallen world, all our efforts will be flawed. Why not focus on spiritual needs and point people to the ultimate rescue to come, rather than spending time and energy on earthbound justice? That's a basic question, and a lot of evangelicals have decided to do just that - focus on heaven at the exclusion of earth. Interactions with individuals are opportunities to evangelize, nothing more.

One of the most condemning comments I read came from Nelson Mandela, imprisoned in South Africa for his fight against apartheid. Mandela watched and grew concerned as evangelical leaders embraced the ruling South African government and failed to consider the challenges faced by Africans under apartheid. He observed that only the communists treated Africans as humans and political equals, leading many Africans to equate freedom with communism. Christians missed a major opportunity to demonstrate God's heart toward the weak and outcast. Today, apartheid is broken and South Africa is learning to walk in political freedom, but a strong liberation theology dominates much of the thinking of Africans. Evangelicals missed a golden opportunity to love people, glorify God, and impact long-term theological development among His church in South Africa.

Our Western mindset tends toward compartmentalizing. We separate church from state, sacred from secular, earth from heaven. Much of the undeveloped world makes no such distinctions. What happens in heaven affects earth and what happens on earth affects heaven. Therefore, every earthly action has evangelistic opportunity, and every conversions affects earthly actions. 1 John teaches us that loving God and loving others are inseparable parts of our walk with Him. Micah 6:8 speak of God's expectations as justice, mercy, and love for Him. Pursuit of authentic justice has historically been part of the Christian experience and should once again be part of evangelical church life.

What is justice? Sometimes we don't always know what "side" to support. We don't know what true justice looks like in a given situation. This sometimes leads to inaction, and other times to knee-jerk reactions.

We need to take a step back and study justice in light of Scripture. What does Scripture emphasize when it talks about God's justice? What does God make a point of underscoring in Israel's governing laws? Such a study is far beyond the scope of this post, but we can draw some general principles from the laws He states and the pictures He gives through men like David, a man after God's own heart.

We see that He seems to emphasize things that were counter-cultural. Taking care of widows and orphans, loving strangers in the land - these things weren't done by the nations surrounding Israel, and they probably didn't come naturally to Israel either. For example, cultural anthropologists tell us that the innate reaction to strangers is fear and assumption of bad motives. God's law goes the direct opposite of what we are hard-wired by sin to do.

We see that He seems to emphasize actions that are intentional. David went out of his way to find someone from Saul's lineage to whom he could show kindness. Mephibosheth - weak and wounded - was carried to David's table and seated where he thought he didn't belong. We rightly see this as a picture of God inviting us to His banquet table in our broken state. But evangelicals have often ignored that it equally reflects the heart God wants us to have - to intentionally seek out those we can love with His love who are living on the fringes of society.

We also see that He emphasizes justice that protects the right people. Romans 13 has caused a lot of confusion among Christians who see abuses of authority by governmental leaders. But in the context of the whole counsel of God's Word, we see Romans 13 not as justifying the wrong actions of governmental authority, but as defining their right actions: They are charged by God to fight against evil and give approval to what is good. When government approves what is evil and fights against what is good, it has violated God's purpose for its existence and will have to answer to God for its actions.

What that means for the church, especially in a democracy, is that we must seek to advocate for protection for the right people. We have a responsibility to line up on the side of good, every time. And we must be willing to practice that justice ourselves, like the early church did when they rescued babies left to die in the wilderness. Our governments are ultimately part of a fallen world system and won't always get it right. But the church can fill a void by actively practicing justice that protects the right people. I have in my mind a picture of two families right now: One took in two children with 30 minutes notice because the mom was going to abandon them to DHS without someone to adopt them. The other has traveled to Ethiopia and China to adopt babies left in orphanages, one of which is a blind, developmentally disabled boy. Both families put feet to the words of social justice. They are living out protection of the right people; I shudder to think where those 4 kids would be today without their intervention. We must be politically engaged, but we can't rely on government. We have to be the church, every day.

We also have to guard against our human tendencies. For example, we have a tendency to elevate the successful, the wealthy, the winners. Does a custodian have equal chance of becoming an elder in your church as a wealthy business owner? If not, then we are subtly practicing economic injustice. We have a tendency to judge "the other side" more harshly than our own. Do we automatically defend our preferred party line, assuming that the other side has nothing to say? If so, then we are subtly practicing political injustice. As one author wrote: "Seeing what we expect to see is a common human ailment." We have to get outside of our tendencies.

Finally, we see that God provided a perfect picture of justice - Jesus. Jesus came to show us what the kingdom of God is like. He didn't just talk about healing in heaven - He demonstrated it to outcast women and lepers. He established the church not as an end, but a means. We have to represent the kingdom of God as Jesus did: challenging the powers of evil and demonstrating the supremacy of God's kingdom. That requires engagement and conviction. When we recognize we are equipped in the course of our duty as citizens to carry the kingdom of God wherever we go, the church becomes a history-making force ... not in pronouncements but in people.

The World Around Me

My world is expanding, and the world around me is getting smaller all the time as I proceed through Module 4.

By that I mean simply - the more I learn the broader my vision of the world becomes. At the same time, the more I learned, I realize how connected we all are and how actions have impacts far beyond our national borders. In that sense, my world is bigger, but the world is smaller.

The lessons I've studied recently in Module 4 (lessons 13-17) underscore this point significantly. Through these lessons, I have examined wealth and poverty from a global standpoint. I've learned that the poor of Los Angeles would be the middle class in Calcutta. This is stunning to me.

My study program emphasizes development, so much of what I have studied presents different viewpoints on development. Many of these are new to me and I'm still processing them, and trying not to come to conclusions too quickly. But there have been some key themes that emerged in the study of wealth and development that merit sharing here.

• The industrialized countries hold 20% of the world's population, but consume 80% of the world's food. An interesting fact - but what do we do with that information. Bringing that into a healthier balance would be good for everyone - they wouldn't starve and we wouldn't overeat. But how does that happen? We know that forced redistribution isn't a viable long-term option (see: USSR). We could send massive quantities of food around the world, but that's relief - not development. How can we help them help themselves? And what about countries with poor soil - should we approach those differently. More questions than answers.
• Development problems are both spiritual and material. Often, physical problems have spiritual causes. And sometimes, addressing material needs opens the door to meet spiritual ones. But we have to recognize that the issue cannot be separated. The struggles of Israel in Judges would have looked to the outside rather material - wars, poverty, oppression. Yet we know from biblical revelation that they had spiritual causes. In today's world, the same is true. Not that every spiritual cause can be laid on those suffering - sometimes they are victims of another's sin. But separating the spiritual from the material causes is a western concept, not a biblical one.
• Incarnational mission will meet people where they are, in a manner that honors who they are - but will love them enough to move them beyond their present situation. That's what God did for us when He walked this earth.
• Development should consider how to be of, by, and for the people. If we truly believe in democracy, we should apply that to development. Often we do it "for them" (or worse, for ourselves). We need to come alongside and find ways to help them identify the need, be involved in the process of meeting it, as well as serve them authentically in a way that is truly "for" them. This can happen in a number of ways: micro loans; incarnational service; national involvement; grassroots opportunities. We just have to quit thinking of ourselves as the hero and see ourselves as a servant in God's kingdom purpose - leading the people to a better place materially and spiritually.

Note that this is different than relief. In urgent crises, relief is necessary. People have to survive before they can thrive. But relief can also be counterproductive to successful development. We should be wise about how long to extend relief and also seek to involve locals as much as possible. (For example, the IMB distributes food through local churches, who know those who truly need food and those who just take it and sell it on the black market. In contrast, some major secular relief organizations just open the back of a truck and give food to whoever is in line first - often the strongest who got there by pushing back the weak.)

• We cannot refuse to respond. Yes, indigenous involvement is important. Yes, we have to take into account ways to avoid creating a dependency culture. But God has always used instruments to achieve His purposes. In the case of Israel noted earlier, the judges were raised up as tools of God. Matthew 25:31-40 gives practical, not theoretical, ways to serve. As an article by World Relief noted, "God never intended for the righteous to sit idle while the restless poor struggle for survival." It would take $30-40 billion a year to meet the educational, health, and water needs of the entire world - and that's the amount spent each year on golf.
• Stewardship is vital. Obviously, we want to use funds wisely, so that we don't send $30-40 billion a year forever. That isn't healthy either. As we gain knowledge, we should pray for wisdom and look for organizations that are serving the grassroots level in ways that demonstrate successful development, not institutionalized programs. As Ralph Winter notes, "When the means to an end becomes the end, you are in big trouble." Watch your giving to assess whether the goals are being accomplished by the organizations you give to, or whether the means to an end has become the end.

Finally, I'll close with a significant quote from Lesslie Newbigin on having a Christian worldview. As someone who has focused much on theology but has been weak on practical application, I appreciate his message:

"The Christian story provides us with a set of lenses, not something for us to look at but to look through."

May we learn together to look through those lenses on a global scale!