Contextual

Your ministry's context gives shape to your church's ministry.   In this blog I want to share with you why this statement is true and essential for effective gospel work.  And I am not just referring to reaching the lost for Christ.   This statement is just as true and essential for nurturing and growing your church members.

I have been writing about our values as churches, those Biblical values that shape the culture of a contemporary, Reformed, gospel-focused denomination such as the CRCA.   Last week we began to look at what it means to be Contemporary Reformed as we considered the value of being confessional.   The other half of being Contemporary Reformed is being contextual.

This is not the first time I have reminded us about this Biblical value in the CRCA.   When COVID arrived at our shores as churches we all found ourselves in a different ministry context, and we had to learn to adjust.   I wrote back then that our changing ministry context in this pandemic demands that we understand the reality of those around us and adapt to the new normal.  You can read that post here.

In another blog I made the point that while the Biblical message never changes, if we as churches are ever going to reach our world, our methods must change.   This simply recognizes the fact that our ministry context changes over time, and we need to respond to the changes around us.  We change our methods not to 'fit-in' to the culture around us, but to reach the culture around us.    Let me illustrate:  some years ago a church asked me for some advice.  Established in the early 1960's this church had become a thriving Reformed church in the growing suburbs of Toronto, Canada.  The membership was largely made up from people from a Dutch European background who were moving out of the big city.   But a couple of decades later they noticed the church starting to decline sharply in Sunday attendance and members.  And it was no wonder.  The church by then was in the middle of one of the most concentrated Asian communities in Canada.  If this church was going to not only survive but thrive, they needed to adapt to this changing context and discover ways to build bridges into the Asian community.   Their changing ministry context gave shape to new ways to do ministry and reach the culture around them.   Which as a church they continue to do.   

When I arrived from Canada 13+ years ago to work among the Reformed churches in Australia I found myself in a different ministry context.   I knew Canadian culture and the CRC in Canada, but I soon realized if I was going to be effective in ministry in the CRCA I not only had to understand the Australian culture, but also the culture of the CRCA denomination.   This meant that I needed to do a whole of listening and getting to know the people among whom God had called me to minister.  As a wise dairy farmer once taught me, if you want to know what to feed your flock, you need to know your sheep.   Any pastor who desires to be successful in preaching and pastoral care would take that wisdom to heart.   That is what good shepherds do.   They know their sheep.  (see John 10:14, 27)   This has to do with your context of ministry.  Every church is unique, every community different, every person a one-off.   And to be effective in our gospel work we need to shape what we do based on our ministry context.   What works in one place or with one person does not necessarily work with another.   We need to be flexible.   

This value of being contextual is not some novel idea.   We see this most clearly stated by the apostle Paul in the first century at the very dawn of the development and growth of the Christian church.  He writes:   

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

The apostle Paul's ministry was in the context of the Jewish, Roman, and Greek cultures around him.  When he says that he has become all things to all people he was saying that he adapted himself to whatever context he found himself in. (see also Acts 14:8-18; 17:16-31)   He did not change the message, but his method of communicating that message.   He did all of this for the sake of the gospel, that people would find salvation, wholeness and completeness in Christ. 

For a church to contextual will require not only knowing the people within your church, but also the people outside your church:  the unchurched, the lost, the people of your community.   You need to be able to answer the question:  who is your community?   You need to study demographics.   What are the main ethnic groups, the percentage of men, women, and children, married and single,  employed, unemployed, education, the number of unchurched, etc.   Until you begin to understand your community you will not be able to reach them effectively with the gospel.   Your ministry context is what must give shape to the ministry of your church.

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These two aspects of being Contemporary Reformed describes the two sides of the hinge that opens and closes effective gospel work as churches.   We have foundational beliefs we hold on to.   We are confessional.   But we bring these foundational beliefs to our contemporary context -- both those inside and outside of the church.   That will require us to be contextual.  Both sides of the hinge are essential if we are to reach people with the good news of Jesus -- confessional and contextual!