Postmodernity – The Guild Network

(Check out Part 1 of this essay.)

Recently, an increasing number of Western Jesus-followers have been trying to adopt an insider approach as they minister to Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists; these three major religious blocs contain the majority of the world’s unreached people groups and where Western forms of Christianity have only been marginally adopted. The contextual approach has encouraged local believers to retain certain aspects of their socio-religious culture, and many new believers self-identify as Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist followers of Jesus, rather than “Christians,” and meet to fellowship in ways that are more like the early church than modern Western style “churches.” Continue reading “Following Jesus in the Postmodern Era: Black and White or Shades of Gray? (Part 2)” →

As we continue to see history unfolding, one significant question is whether or not Christian organizations, whether local or international, are going to remain relevant in the postmodern era. This series of blog posts will identify a number of issues surrounding this topic and ideas about how to overcome these issues.

One major topic within the Christ-following community is the discussion about “insider movements.” The insider concept, which when boiled down is a way of describing how people contextualize the Gospel, can be summarized as follows: an outsider (like a Western expatriate) moves to another country that has little or no history of Christ followers. Instead of telling local believers how to develop churches based on Western Evangelical traditions, that person chooses to walk alongside them and encourages them to study the teachings of Jesus and the apostles in the New Testament as guidelines and models for how to develop expressions of faith and spiritual practices that are biblical and appropriate to their own culture. Such an approach recognizes that culture is intimately linked to the expression of the Kingdom of God in a particular place and time, rather than adopting traditions that are considered “normal” in another culture. Continue reading “Following Jesus in the Postmodern Era: Black and White or Shades of Gray? (Part 1)” →