- Pax Romana, Roman Peace, was the atmosphere in the most powerful empire in the world, a diverse, pluralistic, assimilating world, with a dominant Latin presence. Romans were excellent engineers, builders, and organizers, and total control freaks. Into this world, Paul and Barnabus planted house churches.
- The first century church saw tremendous growth through the Roman empire and was assimilated into the culture, to the point that Christianity became associated with Rome. The gospel became "Learn Latin, become Roman, then be baptized and saved." Constantine organized the church, efficiently chopping neighborhoods into diocese that had to go to specific churches.
- In the 3rd and 4th centuries the west was overrun by Germannic tribes the east became the Byzantine Empire, and the Roman church became organized in a power structure to match the government. There was no accountability because lives were driven by power, not humility.
- Patrick was an apostle to the Celts, establishing a totally different approach to Christian life, focused on contextual mission to other cultures,and strong lay leadership, as opposed to the Roman ethno-centric order with a strong clergy-laity dichotomy. Patrick baptized over 100,000 Irish.
- The Roman model of evangelism was contrasted with the Celtic model, both of which are important and appropriate for different circumstances. Roman: present message, invite decision, welcome them into your church and culture. Celtic: bring people into fellowship in your community, engage in conversation of prayer and worship, in time they discover they believe what you do and you invite them to commit to it.
- Logic works when someone agrees with you (i.e. intraculturally) and is cheaper and easier than the Celtic model, though not as relevant in cross-cultural ministry.
- After no Christian missionaries went to Arabia for six centuries, Muhammad proclaimed that God was speaking through him. The task of his followers is to spread submission to God to all the ends of the earth. Moslems originally thought they were converting to another kind or denomination of Christianity.
- Then for over 250 years, "Christians" killed Moslems in the name of Jesus, and the cross came to represent this atrocity.
- Ramon Llull tried another approach, and went to North Africa in his mid-60's, preached and was deported (the aged were revered, so they didn't kill him). He spread the word through Europe to teach Arabic to reach the Middle East and North Africa, then returned to Algeria, only to be stoned. 650 years later in Algeria, a man saw a dream of a man being stoned in a village that looked like his. After it recurred for several nights, he told his wife and neighbors, and eventually found out that all 700 in the village had the same dream. Then Jesus appeared to them in dreams and many came to know Him and trust Him.
Fran left us with two questions: are we here to dominate the world or live the life of Christ, oftentimes suffering the same way to demonstrate His love? Is victory or suffering our motif? This session also made me think a lot about Catholicism in the cultural context, theology aside. Catholics carry on the traditions and cultural style of Roman worshipers. The fact that the Catholic style of worship is still comfortable for many should not be criticized as wrong, nor should any traditions and rituals that honor God be shunned. Whatever brings people closer to God in a righteous way is good. However, it is similarly wrong to push traditions that are not relevant to upcoming generations on them as the only way to worship. By insisting that Catholic traditions, or American Protestant styles for that matter, are the correct way to honor God, we copy the Pharisees, those most criticized by Jesus. We should approach our American neighbors with the same cultural awareness, bringing the gospel in the most accessible way.
No comments:
Post a Comment