For Indigenous Australians

 Emerging Indigenous Christian Leaders –# 5

Understand our young people and telling them God’s Story. 

Jeff Vanderstelt  and Dr James Montgomery Boice

This article is an edited  compilation of two articles by the above authors 

1. Understand the culture of our young people

 

Some years ago I read an article in Newsweek about a husband and wife team of scientists who studied ducks. In order to observe their habits, they built a blind by a pond, then settled in to watch. During their investigations, they observed among the ducks incidences of what they called gang rape. While it was not written in so many words, the bottom line of the article was this: If gang rape takes place among the ducks, we shouldn't be surprised that it takes place among human beings, too. And, sad to say, Newsweek is not the only source of this "man is no better than an animal" philosophy. An article in another publication featured a prominent photograph of an adult baboon holding an infant baboon it had killed. The conclusion was that if animals can kill their young, so can we. With media output like this, is it any wonder our society permits abortion and the murder of a million-and-a-half babies in this country every year?

You see, if we do not have a perspective on life that is higher than what we can touch, taste, and see, we cannot appreciate that life is not an accident of evolution, but a gift of God and so ought to be preserved. Instead, when the only direction we can look is down, we conclude that we have evolved a bit up from the animals. And because we define ourselves by the creation, we cut ourselves off from God­ the source of every good and perfect gift. Is it any wonder, therefore, that we find ourselves and our society justifying sinful, wicked behavior by appealing to the animals? If we do not retain the knowledge of God in our minds, but rather suppress it, we experience what Paul so clearly documents in the first chapter of Romans: the revealing of the wrath of God. The result is we act like the animals, and in the end we do what even the animals will not.

I am convinced the great problem in America today is that people are not thinking. It's a cultural phenomenon that has spilled over into the church. It is not just that there is a lack of a Christian way of thinking­ a "Christian Mind" ­but there is hardly a mind at all. In our day and age people, Christian and non-Christian alike, just do not think. We act and we react, but we do not consider and contemplate. There are many ways to explain this phenomenon: secularism, relativism, materialism, or just the fast pace of our lives. But we cannot overestimate the fact that our society has become so obsessed with entertainment that it has never learned to think. And this is because we have embraced a television culture rather than the print-based culture of our ancestors.

Do not get me wrong; I am not crusading against television. I would just as soon watch a movie on television as go to the theater. It is cheaper and I can do it in the comfort of my own home. There is nothing wrong with that. But we must stop believing that television is making us think. Television does not make us think; it entertains. And I am not alone in this opinion. Let me illustrate it by appealing to a couple of men who, as far as I know, are not Christians, but who understand the television medium.

The "Vannatization" of America exported to Australia

In 1988 Ted Koppel, host of ABC's Nightline program, gave a speech at Duke University. He chose as his subject matter the Ten Commandments. He began by pointing out that they were not the Ten Suggestions but rather the Ten Commandments. He then proceeded by going through each commandment and showing its relevance to the great moral issues of our day. He related "Thou shalt not bear false witness" to the insider trading scandals on Wall Street. "Thou shalt not commit adultery" was tied to the scandals associated with TV evangelists. And so on. But what impressed me most about his address was something he said at the very beginning, in the very first line of his speech. He said, "America has been Vannatized."

Now he knew nobody in that audience knew what he meant-he'd just coined the term-so he explained it. It's "Vannatized" as in "Vanna White," the very attractive and immensely popular woman on television's "Wheel of Fortune." She is, without a doubt, the major factor in the success of that program. She's imitated all over the world: there's a Vanna counterpart on German, French, and even Australian TV. Ted spent quite a bit of time talking about how popular Vanna White is. Then he said, "It's interesting, isn't it, that on that show you never hear Vanna say a word?" "How can that be?" he asked. "How could it be that someone about whom we know absolutely nothing is so popular?" "That," Koppel said, "is the very nature of television."

The reason she is so popular is not because she is telling us who she is, but because she is an image on the screen and we project onto the screen our feelings about her. That is the way television operates. That is the kind of medium it is. So if you are unhappy in your marriage and you say, "Boy, I wish I had a good looking mistress like that," she fulfills that role. Or if you are a young girl just beginning to go through puberty and a little bit uneasy about yourself and about what you are going to be, she could be your big sister­you're going to grow up to be like her! Vanna is anything you want her to be. Koppel said, "That's our world."

You see, we think of ourselves as being the best informed generation in history because of television. Television is everywhere­I read somewhere that there are more television sets in America than there are indoor toilets. Furthermore, they are on all the time: The average household watches television six hours a day. And because of that we think we know more than any generation in history. But as a matter of fact we do not. Instead, what television is doing, if I may put it bluntly, is entertaining us to death.

Laughing Our Heads Off

Neil Postman is a professor of education and special education communication techniques at Columbia University in New York City. A number of years ago he wrote a book titled Amusing Ourselves to Death. It was all about television, about the changes that have come over the western world and especially American society as a result of television. The book is divided into two parts. The first analyzes the changes television has brought about; the second the effects of television's commitment to be entertaining.

In the first section of his book, Postman contrasts our age, which he calls the entertainment age, with the prior age, which he calls the age of typography. In other words, he maintains that our age has brought about a fundamental paradigm shift. Our age is concerned with entertainment; the former with communication­and that via a verbal medium. When he talks about the former age as being an age of typography, he is talking about words.

What Postman is saying is this: Words work in a certain way. For example, if you are trying to communicate in an article, you put down what you want to say. Sometimes you indicate your point by the heading, then you develop it with arguments to explain why it is true and with answers to objections. You then form conclusions and make applications.

When you come across an article written like that, you read it carefully and with a certain amount of detachment. People admire something that makes sense and is well written, but you do not usually break into applause after reading carefully crafted prose. You see, there is a certain distance there, a distance inherent in the written medium. If you do not understand something you read, if it uses a vocabulary you don't understand, the distance allows you to look up the words. If the concepts are new and you need a little bit of time to assimilate them, the distance permits you to do that and continue on. The distance endemic to written communication permits the consideration and contemplation essential to thinking.

People who grew up in an age of typography could think in rational categories. Even their verbal discourse reflected that approach to knowledge. Postman details at length what he considers probably the greatest and best informed period in American history, the time shortly before the American Civil War. In the debates that took place between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, common people would gather in an open area while the debaters stood on a platform and spoke. Lincoln and Douglas would debate campaign issues for six or seven hours and people would stand and listen, following the discussion and grasping the issues. Furthermore, the debates were written up in newspapers and spread across the country. Those who read the newspaper reports were able to participate in the debates, too. Postman says we have lost all that today because what we have is not a typographical age, an age where people know how to think because they have been trained to think in words. Rather, we have an age where people are not trained to think­ indeed are kept from thinking ­because they are being entertained continuously. That is what television does; it is an entertainment medium.

Now, this does not mean that you cannot have educational items on television, of course, and Postman admits that. But even with educational programs you do not get what you think you get. After all, in order to educate by means of television, you must have pictures, and the necessity of pictures itself predetermines the subject matter you can present. You cannot effectively teach philosophy on television, for example. It is abstract reasoning. You can, however, educate children about deep sea fishing because you can show nice pictures of being out at sea and catching fish, and you can talk about the ocean. But basically you still have entertainment.

The opportunity God is giving us

So what is the answer? How do we combat the entertainment agenda infiltrating our young people? How do we stop them being entertained to death and learn to think? We do it by following Paul's instruction in Romans 12:2: "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." That's the way it happens. The answer is to study the Word of God. That is how we learn not only to think but to think as God does. I used to say, "If you're not feeding yourself with the Bible all the time, you will be thinking like the world." In view of our television culture, I have amended that saying to, "If you are not feeding yourself with the Bible all the time, the world is going to entertain you and you'll end up not thinking at all."

This presents a unique opportunity for our  churches today. The world is filled with entertainment and entertainment is fun and people like it and will go where they can have a good time. But sooner or later some will get sick of being entertained­they are made in the image of God, you see, and part of that image is the capacity to think. They will realize that life is more than entertainment, more than just a good time. They will come to a crossroad and say, "There has to be more to life than this. I'm not here just to be entertained, to be sold products, to spend my money on what people want me to buy. Aren't I more important than this?" They will come looking for an alternative. Now, it will not be the vast majority of people, but it will be the people with whom God is working. Churches, if they have not sold themselves wholesale to the entertainment agenda, will be that alternative. "Yes, you are more important!" they will say. "You're infinitely more important because you are made in the image of God. God has made you to be like Him!"

 

 Then the churches will point them to Jesus Christ and encourage them to be "transformed by the renewing of [their] minds." But if churches have absorbed the entertainment mentality, if they have themselves lost the ability to think, they will offer seekers nothing more than what they have already. Instead of pointing out the path of the righteous which is like "the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day," these churches will be like "clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted" and will leave the lost on a downhill path with the vision of God becoming increasingly dim. Then, like the Newsweek article I referred to earlier said, they will be no better than so many ducks on a pond.

 

How do we move from where we are to bringing our young people to where we want them to be?

 

2. Learn to contextualize our young people’s T.V culture

 

To effectively contextualized the gospel in a particular culture then requires:

 

AWARENESS

 

1. Personal

» You are bringing your own culture

» You must become aware of who you are and how your unique makeup shapes the declaration and demonstration of the gospel

» Pay close attention to your personal preferences as you make decisions about how to engage the culture

» You also come with a gospel distortion (Truth or Grace emphasis) – this means you will need to continue to be transform by the gospel (see Newbigin Gauntlet)

 

» Let others speak into your life regarding how you are perceived by those you are seeking to engage – this requires Listening!

 

2. Church Culture

 

» The people who have formed the local expression of the Church you lead or participate in also have a culture

» Are you aware of its uniqueness and how it differs or is similar to your culture?

» What practices or forms have you adopted that were once timely and culturally appropriate, but are now ineffective?

» Do you know the difference between the essentials and unessentials?

» What is the perception in the community of your Church culture?

» Again listen well in regards to how you are being perceived

3. Community Culture

» The larger community/city you live in has a culture that permeates

» There are also a large diversity of cultures within it

» Part of the job of the missionary is to discern what unique cultures you are being sent to first – this may be determined by who God has granted you favor with or like (i.e. the women praying by the river in Acts 16)

 

» NOTE: This does not mean we are to limit our reach to only one particular culture – the kingdom of God is not displayed through homogeneity, but through the diversity of cultures being redeemed

» Get to know the people within your city – neighbors, city officials, leaders in business, education, arts…find out who the influencers are and why

» Get to know the story/stories of your city – What has shaped it over the years? What are its wounds? What are it’s strengths?

 

Exegete their culture

 

We need to exegete…culture in the same way that missionaries have been so good

at doing with diverse tribal culture of previously unreached people. We need to

exegete…the themes of Rolling Stones…, Dennis Rodman, Madonna, (and) David

Letterman…We need to comprehend that the Spirit of the Living God is at work in

these cultural expressions, preparing the hearts of men and women to receive

the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to find, in good missionary fashion, those

motifs and themes that connect with the truths of the gospel. We need to learn

how to proclaim, “That which you worship as unknown, I now proclaim to you.”

This is the missionary vision at its best.5

 

Craig Van Gelder

 

Your goal is to understand the meanings of cultural patterns, rhythms

and systems. You want to learn the story and how the gospel completes

the narrative of the culture.

 

Questions to ask in this process:

 

1. What are the emotional needs of the elderly, families, teens,
2. singles, men, women, children?
3. What are the social, economic or educational needs of the same?
4. What are the flaws and difficulties with the systems of the
5. community?
6. What is their worldview?
7. What redemptive analogies best fit this culture?
8. What does this culture understand about the basic components of
9. the gospel story?
10. What questions are being asked in the culture that point to their
11. need for the gospel?

 

 

NOTE: You will have to do more than just demographic studies. You have

to dig deeper into your community and become a part of it yourself –

this means stepping into the rhythms of your culture on a regular basis

 

CONTEXTUALIZATION APPLIED

 

As you are transformed by the gospel and sent into your culture, your

job is to bring the embodiment of the gospel to you culture in forms

that are adapted to address the gospel “holes” in their stories so as

to show them that their story can only be completed through the person

and work of Jesus Christ.

Adapting a theology of mission from missiologist Leslie Newbigin,

George Hunsberber, develops 3 relationships that must occur between the

church, gospel and culture:

 

Contextualization includes Proclamation and Demonstration

1. Proclamation

 

Content: God’s Story – connect the text or topic within the

overarching story.

Ed Clowney points out that if we ever tell a particular Bible story

without putting it into the overall main Bible story (about Christ),

we actually change the meaning of the particular event for us. It

becomes a moralistic exhortation to 'try harder' rather than a call

6 George R. Hunsberger, “The Newbigin Gauntlet,” in The Church between Gospel and Culture,

5. Adapted by Jeff Vanderstelt

5

to live by faith in the work of Christ. There is, in the end, only

two ways to read the Bible: is it basically about me or basically

about Jesus? In other words, is it basically about what I must do,

or basically about what he has done?

 

Method: Link God’s Story to the People’s Story – How do the gospel

themes address your culture's hopes, fears, tensions? (1) Begin with

familiar and show how the gospel confirms what is strong and good in

the culture. Know the people's story extremely well. Show your

sympathy with it. (2) But use the gospel to challenge and destabilize

common cultural assumptions at points that they are weak

or inadequate. (3) Finally, comfort and galvanize with the promises

of the gospel. Show them that they can't finish their own story

without God in Christ.

 

(Taken from Tim Keller’s article on being context sensitive7)

 

2. Demonstration

It’s interesting to note that in the Acts 16 passage only one of the

three representative conversions took place through preaching. The

other two are through a power encounter and the quality of godly

character observed in community.

Maybe this is why Peter encourages the believers to “Always be

prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the

reason for the hope that you have.”8

Before and after this Peter is encouraging the believers to live

lives that are full of good deeds and effectively display Christ

through actions.

Good Deeds: The Active Medium of the Gospel – The good news that

Jesus came to preach had physically observable results (healings,

miracles, loving the outcasts, etc…)

 

What would good news look like to your community? What are the

‘signs of the kingdom’ in your culture?

A New Humanity: The Visible Presence – The outcome of the gospel is

a people who live together in new ways (eating together, praying

together, bearing each other’s burdens, sharing all they have with

one another etc…)

What forms of visible expression does the church need to embody

together to display the new humanity God is creating in this

community?

Contextualization must continue to be informed by the Gospel and

Mission of God so that we don’t over adapt to our culture around us,

buying into it’s idols, and we don’t under adapt to the culture, buying

into the idols of our own Christian culture.

 

Contextualization [is] a delicate enterprise if ever there was one…the

evangelist and mission strategist stand on a razor’s edge, aware that to fall

off on either side has terrible consequences…Fall to the right and you end in

obscurantism, so attached to your conventional ways of practicing and teaching

the faith that you veil its truth and power from those who are trying to see it

through very different eyes. Slip to the left and you tumble into syncretism,

so vulnerable to the impact of paganism in its multiplicity of forms that you

compromise the uniqueness of Christ and concoct “another gospel which is not a

gospel.”9

Dean S. Gilliand

 

Important questions to ask?

 

1. What are the barriers to the gospel in our culture?

2. What forms might the Church take in our culture to better embody the Gospel?

3. What do we have in common and how might our particular uniqueness lead us to adopt different forms?

4. What have you learned about contextualizing the gospel that you could share with others?

 

Notes

3 Martin Kahler as quoted in McKaughan, O’Brien, and O’Brien, Choosing a Future for U.S. Missions, 21.

4 Dean S. Gilliand, “Contextual Theology as Incarnation Mission,” in the The World Among Us, p10-11

5 Craig Van Gelder, ed., Confident Witness – Changing World (Grand Rapids: Erdmans, 1999),p14-15

 8 1 Peter 3:15

 9 Dean S. Gilliand, “Contextual Theology as Incarnation Mission,” in the The World Among Us

(Dallas: Word Publishing, 1989), vii.

 

Jeff Vanderstalt is founder of Soma Communities in Tacoma – Washington State

 

The late Dr. James Montgomery Boice was  the president of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, and is senior minister at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He authored over 50 books.