I was thinking the way I share the gospel. I rather how often I use church terms and lingos to talk to unbelievers. I remember one time I use the word fellowship and the other person scroff and said, ‘What was that…Lord of the rings?’
Too true too true. I don’t think non-believers care about the term fellowship. I mean, they don’t understand it. Or devotional or praise night or Sunday School.
I reflected on Acts 17 when Paul went to Athens. There were full of idols and other gods.
Paul can start of saying…’repent, you are a sinner and believe in Christ.’
Instead, he took the idols situation and use it to direct toward Christ.
“Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. 24″The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28’For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ 29″Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
I highligted verse 23 and 28 because Paul is using the idols and their poets and bring Christ to them through that. As Canada, Mississauga is becoming more diverse and pluarlism is on the rise, how can we use our culture and bring people toward Christ?
People no longer understand the role of the church or a desire to go to one. This is not to say the church is not useful. They simply don’t grasp the idea of going to church. Especially for those living outside of Canada and migrate from parts around the world. Church is a foreign territory.
As I start conversing with others, I need to discern from the Holy Spirit. And more importantly, I need to see from their eyes and where they are from. How do they view religion? What about church? Do they know who Jesus is? Do their beliefs have salvation? Do people even grasp the idea of sin?
This is what we call contextualize. And I am just learning…
