New Testament Precedents to the Practice of Contextualization in Contemporary Mission

Abstract

Although every culture needs to be transformed by the Spirit and the Word of God (Pierson, 2009:257), it is still essential that the communication of the gospel, in whatever setting, seeks to make the gospel concepts and ideas relevant to people within their own cultures (Hiebert, 1985:55). However, the need to be culturally appropriate always should be closely coupled with an in-depth analysis of the Scriptures. Because “people can only understand that which is part of their cultural frame of reference” (Rogers, 2004:65), the presentation of the gospel must be both biblically sound and culturally relevant in order to be meaningful to the receiving peoples.