Translating the message so our listeners can hear

A survey of youth demonstrates again how culture and language have shifted, and how we need to adapt to communicate effectively

Albert Mohler's Weblog gets a double response here, yesterday and today. In addition to its implications on Christian thinking, the research he's writing about points out a strategy factor we cannot afford to miss:

This research project demands the attention of every thinking Christian. Those who are prone to dismiss sociological analysis as irrelevant will miss the point. We must now look at the United States of America as missiologists once viewed nations that had never heard the gospel. Indeed, our missiological challenge may be even greater than the confrontation with paganism, for we face a succession of generations who have transformed Christianity into something that bears no resemblance to the faith revealed in the Bible. The faith "once delivered to the saints" is no longer even known, not only by American teenagers, but by most of their parents...

We now face the challenge of evangelizing a nation that largely considers itself Christian, overwhelmingly believes in some deity, considers itself fervently religious, but has virtually no connection to historic Christianity... Our responsibility is to prepare the church to respond to this new religion, understanding that it represents the greatest competitor to biblical Christianity.

Amen! Not too long ago I was in a church that stagnated because it couldn't get this point. Its strategy was to teach as if everyone came in with a great Biblical foundation. (I wish that were the case, but wishing doesn't make it so.) For a while, the two adult Sunday School options were Systematic Theology or the book Pilgrim's Progress. The classes were great--but only for those who already understood a great deal about the faith. Some of us finally woke up and started a "Welcome Class" that assumed much less of the class members.

Missionaries have to understand Biblical truth, obviously. They also need to learn the language and culture where they are; otherwise they'll never be able to communicate and be understood. We need to do this at home now, too.

North America and Europe's culture and languages are no longer what they once were. We who would communicate Biblical truth at home need to realize that if we speak in terms that made sense 30 years ago, our audience will simply be confused. We have to learn our neighbors' culture, and even their language. Words like "God, "truth," "morality," don't mean what they used to, in the minds of most of Westerners.

And we need to really explain things. For example, many people no longer know the original significance of Christmas and Easter. We have to avoid our private jargon. Words like "grace," "atonement," and "justification," rich and wonderful though they are (if you understand them) will cause many people's eyes to glaze over in bafflement. "Washed in the blood of Christ" may be one of our greatest teachings, but imagine what goes through a secular person's mind if you say it without a good explanation.

We must not change our message, but we must translate it afresh. We have to think like missionaries, right on our own streets.

Posted: Tue - April 12, 2005 at 06:14 AM |

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson getCategoryName("<$CategoryUUID$>");

Translating the message so our listeners can hear

Thinking Christian by Tom Gilson