I already mentioned how I love and appreciate Johnny Hunt and have for the almost 20 years I have known him. I saw this quote at Baptist21.com that encouraged me: “We have to acknowledge that many people are doing church differently in many contexts right here — we must acknowledge that you do not have to travel to Africa to find a different culture.” For a lot of us that statement is a no brainer. But you may be surprised at just how many people do not get that. We have four Gospel records. One gospel, one life of Christ, yet four records. Why? Four different audiences. Not a bad biblical argument for contextualization I’d say. Let’s compare sharing the gospel to telling someone the time. If someone knows how to tell the time, you can show them your watch and tell them exactly what time it is. Or, you can give them a watch and they can see for themselves. If a person can tell time, you can give him a digital watch, or one with Arabic or Roman numerals. The precise tool doesn’t matter, they will still get it. For some who have heard much of Christ, they need someone to show them it is time to follow Christ.But suppose that person cannot tell time. Give him a watch. He may see it as a nice ornament or trinket. But he will not get the point. He is more likely to see it as a nuisance–why would someone need something they know not how to use? More and more people are like that. I meed them regularly in the U.S. They are intelligent. It is not that they are unable to learn how to tell time. But we are so busy telling them what time it is they do not see the point. We can summarize the gospel in a few succinct points–God loves you, you have sinned, Christ came to live and die and rise again for our sins, repent and believe. Some people simply need us to help them to connect those dots. But for others such a simple plan can be confusing. They are being told what time it is when they not know how to tell time. They need more–the grand drama of redemption–Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation. They need to see in other people why “telling time” matters. They need to understand who this God is before they can grasp the reality of the Fall and the need of a Savior. I went to a village in Africa once. The people there had no clocks. They had no schedule to be at a certain place at a certain time. They knew enough about time to know the seasons and the days. They had no concept of birthdays or such annual occasions. Giving them a watch would be of little use. They would have to be shown how to tell time. I know that at one level the analogy breaks down (all analogies do). These villagers do not need to know how to tell time like they need to know Jesus. But imagine they did. If they had to know how to tell time, if it were a life or death issue, you would do more than give them a watch. You would teach them to tell time. And then you would teach of urgency. Pastor Johnny is right. Our world has changed. We have many contexts and subcultures in which to minister. I pray that more people will get that, and will separate our need to be creative in ministry application from our need to conform on the major issues theologically. Because all analogies aside, time is slipping away.
