Proper Contextualization

February 23, 2010 – 9:42 am

Mike McKinley, pastor of Guilford Baptist Church in Sterlin, VA, was recently interviewed about his role in “revitalizing” the church. Mike and his family were joined by seven other members from Capitol Hill Baptist Church to minister to the Guildford church body. Shortly after his arrival, the Guilford church family voted him into the position of pastor.

In the interview, Mike provides a clear and instructive answer to a question regarding the role of the homogenous principle and contextualization in church ministry:

I’m made uncomfortable, however, by attempts to contextualize that in fact become efforts to cater to a small sub-group of the population.  Some types of contextualization are so specific to a sub-culture that they in fact alienate a lot of other groups of people.   I don’t think that’s how the church is meant to be. . . .

If we make choices to “reach” 20-somethings by contextualizing our music, clothing and slang to make them more comfortable, but those choices make our church culturally inaccessible to people born in different cultures or people in their 40s and 70s then I think we’ve misstepped badly.

And as I understand what Paul is saying in I Corinthians 9, we’re supposed to give up our personal preferences and “rights” in order to remove unnecessary barriers to the Gospel.  Our contextualization shouldn’t raise more barriers than it removes.

Read the entire interview.

Mike’s book Church Planting Is for Wimps is set for publication on April 30, 2010.