I have been preaching parts of the book of Mark in our new church plant here in Kaohsiung. And I’m struck once again by what a truly unique ministry experience it is to plant a church in a highly unevangelized region! While we have ‘church services’, we don’t really have a church yet. That is, […]
Tag Archives: Culture
East Meets West: A Great Gulf Fixed?
You may have seen the recent East meets West infographic by Yang Liu that is making its rounds across the internet. As attractively designed and effectively communicative as any infographic that I’ve seen. Designed by a Chinese woman whose family moved to Germany when she was 14, the main panels of the infographic put various […]
Category Creation
John Piper tweeted (yes, that’s a word in my vocabulary now) yesterday, “Harder and just as urgent, alongside contextualization, is category creation.” Almost all modern missionary training emphasizes the importance of contextualized ministry. That is, as we enter another culture, we must give careful thought to how to communicate the Gospel so that it is […]
Missions: Westerners Need Not Apply? (Part 2)
The last post started to discuss the idea that national believers are the most qualified to serve as missionaries (meaning, the most qualified to be exported to another place with the Gospel). Let me say again that there is certainly a core of truth here: already speaking a language and fitting into a culture are […]
Cultural Orphans
To a Chinese person, the idea of accepting the message of Christianity can produce some real anxiety. One of the main reasons for these feelings is a fear of isolation. After all, many Chinese people have no family members who are Christians, no co-workers who are Christians, no neighbors who are Christians, and no friends […]
The Riddle’s Answer is in Your Heart
One of the questions that comes up most often about missions in China is about cultural adaptation. Probably due to the exoticism of China in their eyes, many Westerners find it hard to imagine themselves ‘living like the Chinese.’ While there is certainly a good and right place for studying new cultures, such efforts have […]
Public Faith, Public Idols
We are working our way through the book of Daniel right now at church. Could anything be more practically related to college students? Away from home for the first time, confronted with a hundred new temptations, immersed in a culture that is completely hostile to their faith. We’re primarily studying the way our faith influences […]
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