Articles

The way church has been organised in the West has tended to embrace a white, middle class, Christendom culture, and understood it as Christian.  When looking to plant missional churches, there is a need to understand and engage with the culture in which one is planting.  The complexity of this for the contemporary church planter means not only facing cultural issues of geography, various people groups or socio-economic differences.  There are also the challenges for the church in how it organises itself in a post-Christendom, post-modern and post-commitment context.

Not all are called to cross-cultural mission, but even if we remain in a culture we are familiar with, we need to recognise the cultural chasm between church and those outside.  All churches need some form of incarnational expression of faith, and this is particularly true when planting new churches.  This is not to accept uncritically a new culture.  It is recognising we are not taking Christ to them, but that he is already there among the people.  We minister by creating opportunity for the liberating and redeeming of each culture, believing within it is the possibility of salvation, holiness and grace.