Contextual challenges seem constantly in front of our call to share the faith with the human family throughout the world. The early church handled these challenges quite well. The gospel of John is a fine example of sharing a biography of Jesus within both a Jewish and Greco-Roman context. The book of Hebrews spoke into a Jewish Christian context that was influenced by Jewish philosopher Philo and his incorporation of Plato’s thought into the Jewish faith in Alexandria. We have very good examples of brothers and sisters in Christ creatively and effectively sharing the Christian faith in numerous contexts – Chinese, Malaysian, Bantu, Filipino, and Ethiopic to name a few.
Contextualizing the Christian faith isn’t easy, and, for some, it’s a little scary. The notion of getting creative with the Christian faith can be alarming. There is real concern about losing the historic and literary grounds of the faith while creatively engaging a new context. Such concern is appropriate as we should desire to remain within the parameters of the historic Christian faith. Attempts to deny the divinity of Jesus, his incarnation, his death for humanity, and his resurrection seem to surface century after century, and are in conflict with our earliest sources about Jesus. Contextualizing doesn’t require ignoring any of these truths we affirm, but real evangelism is rarely easy. Sharing the Christian faith with those who have never stepped into a church and/or have grown up in another faith takes time, authentic relationship, and understanding that grows over months and years.
