Mission in Contemporary Culture

We had a great first day of class yesterday in Transforming Contemporary Culture. I'm really excited about the students -- about half are new, the other half seasoned Fuller students. They were really engaged for the first day. I'll post more as I learn more about them.

I introduced the history of our particular class, originally title 'Mission in Contemporary Culture'. I traced it back to Lesslie Newbigin and the early 1980s Britain. It was at that time that Newbigin suggested that the West was a mission field and, several years later, Wilbert Shenk went to work with him in the early 1990s. Wilbert Shenk was hired by Fuller in 1995 to begin teaching 'Mission in the West' as well as Mission History.

What was so unusual about this move was that mission reflection was always done for/to the non-West, primarily using tools from anthropology. But what if culture was taken seriously, in the West, just as missionaries took it seriously in the non-West. What if we trained ordinary Christians with cultural tools, so they could facilitate indigenous expressions of church in the West?

The move to understand culture is consistent with the founder of our school, Donald McGavran. He stated again and again that a person should not have to change cultures to find God. The incarnation came to us, in ways people could understand, i.e. Jesus spoke and dressed within the everyday life and culture of first-century palestine. If we want to be like Jesus, we need to do the same in the cultures of the West.

So, Wilbert Shenk started MP520, Mission in Contemporary Culture, and instead of studying tribals, we studied modernity, postmodernity, christendom, postchristendom, politics, economics, health, sport, consumerism,  and the list goes on.  We studied what a missional witness might look at within these  aspects of culture, as ones who live inside these rubrics. How do we point to the kingdom as insiders, as residents who are never quite at home in this world?

Taking this class in 1998 turned me upside down. I had never heard of the idea of a mission in the West. I became Shenk's TA in the late 90s and started a PhD with him at that time. During 2004, we brainstormed where to take the class once he retired. Now I'm teaching it for the second year and I am so passionate about the material. I believe it provides essential tools for the huge transition (fifty years or so) the Western church is making from Christendom to Missional. I'm lovin it!

Technorati Tags: Fuller Theological Seminary, mission, culture

Comments

[Andrew Northern]

Ryan, it sounds like you've got a great class. I graduated from my undergrad in Bible college in 2004 and have been learning the reality of Mission in culture since then.

[Jerry]

Great to hear the start of class went well!

[Markus Watson]

Yeah, I took Shenk's class in 1997 (I think). I still think about the "MacDonaldization" of our culture...

[Jamie Arpin-Ricci]

It is very interesting to me, as I spent a great deal of time and energy to "do missions" in "frontier" settings. Then felt strongly God was calling me to serve in the Canadian urban context. I soon learned that those lessons were invaluable to me. It played a big part in my ultimately connecting to the emerging church conversation. Wish I could take the course!

Peace,
Jamie

[Existential Punk]

This is interesting because many evangelical fundamentalists, which i used to be one, insist our western culture has had it's chance and the 10/40 window MUST be EVANGELIZED. i really resonate with what you are talkin g about. Any book suggestions for this topic?

[Sivin]

I'm always fascinated and excited when many like yourself are looking at the west through missiologicals lenses.

BTW, while I was at the Lausanne Younger Leaders gathering here in Malaysia, my roommate was one of your students doing the MA in Global Leadership :-)He was reading "Leadership Next" by Eddie Gibbs while I had "Emerging Churches" in my car.

[Jared Williams]

Yeah! Keep it going, Ryan!

[Thomas]

I'm a past MP520 student myself, from the days before the celebrated Ryan Bolger took the helm.

The above claims that "mission reflection was always done for/to the non-West", and that Newbigin "suggested that the West was a mission field". However, as I survey the history of the Church, there are countless examples of those who sought to win their own generation, and did a lot of reflecting on it, too. In fact, this was the subject of seminars I took in 1979, which studied "unsere Gesellschaft" extensively. It could be too easy to exaggerate one's own historical importance, or to forget that the Spirit raises up a concern for each generation within each generation -- or indeed that the Spirit may move in phases.

George Hunsinger considers Lesslie Newbigin to be “typical of postliberal theology”. In the context of postliberal theology one might say yes Ryan, you are right, this is where it "really" began. But surely not in a wider context -- I can't see that.

[Rick]

I've taken this class as well, though not with Ryan. I'm curious about the change of name for the course. Is our mission really to transform contemporary culture? What was the thinking behind the name change?

[Ryan]

Thomas, I think the change is a strong anthropological focus on knowing the recipient culture as misssionaries have done for the last 60 years or so. Most churches do not teach their members modes of cultural analysis. But you are right - Christians have been sharing their faith to their neighbors since Pentecost...

Rick,
Regarding the name change -- the class formerly looked to map contemporary culture, but how to address it with the kingdom of God was often not addressed. I've looked to add this component to this class, so we not only understand but transform...

Pax

[filters]

i just want a peace but full life...