We use the term ‘worldview’ to refer to a person’s framework of core beliefs and values. It has been common in the past to treat worldview as one aspect of culture, but this is unhelpful for our purposes. Different individuals in a community can share a common culture yet hold to different worldviews. For example, they might all drive on the same side of the road (culture) but have different views regarding the value of compliance with traffic laws (worldview). Except for isolated communities, it is increasingly common to find a diversity of worldviews within the ethnic groups of the world. So I will use the term ‘culture’ in a more limited way to refer to the shared and transmitted social conventions of an ethnic community and ‘worldview’ to refer to the network of core beliefs and values that some people have, whether the whole community shares them or not.

The Bible is a record of revelations intended to reform the beliefs and values of the peoples to whom they were addressed as well as those of peoples who followed them. The Biblical authors form and reform the worldview of their readers and hearers by making assertions, by narrating meaningful events, and by revealing the causes, consequences and purposes of those events. This was part of Jesus’ mission as well; he said, “In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:37 NIV). In other words, one of the chief functions of the Bible is to transform the worldviews that people have and bring them into alignment with a single, revealed worldview, which the Biblical authors call “the truth”. This is a theocentric (God-centered) worldview, in which the value of every person, object, and action depends on its evaluation by God and its compatibility with His program, the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

With regard to culture, however, the New Testament affirms diversity rather than uniformity. Acts 10 tells how God revealed to Peter in a vision and by the outpouring of His Spirit that He accepts Gentiles who believe in Him. Acts 15 tells how God showed James and the Apostles, through key Scriptures and the evident work of the Holy Spirit, that Gentile believers should follow the customs of their own culture rather than adopting Jewish culture (although they would need to shun some bad practices). The result of this revelation was that church life for Greek disciples was different from church life for Jewish disciples, and each of these believer subcultures was appropriate for the culture in which it was embedded. A further result was that the cultural differences that exist between Jewish believers and other believers no longer formed a barrier preventing fellowship between them.

Paul affirmed cultural diversity in many passages.1 He even adapted his own lifestyle2 and preaching style3 to fit the customs of the people to whom he was ministering. Jesus affirmed the value of every ethnic group when he said that the Gospel must be preached to every ethnic group before He returns (Matt. 24:14). The divinely orchestrated multi-language praise miracle at Pentecost (Acts 2:4–11) revealed God’s acceptance of diverse languages and peoples. The heavenly praise scene in Rev. 7:9 shows that God intends to save worshippers from every different language and ethnic group. The implication is that God’s Kingdom will not be complete until it includes the full diversity of peoples and languages!

In summary, then, the Bible reveals a divine program, mediated by Jesus Christ, that fosters conformity to a single, revealed, theocentric worldview while maintaining diversity of culture. This program is realized in communities of disciples who love God and follow Christ and meet together for worship and fellowship, i.e., in “churches”.

I suggest that these churches are “contextualized” to the extent that (1) they conform to the worldview revealed in the Bible, and (2) honor and maintain the customs of their native culture insofar as they are compatible with the Bible.

Contextualization of Church Life within Cultures

The task of sowing and planting contextualized churches is called contextualization. In the words of Darrell Whiteman,

Contextualization attempts to communicate the Gospel in word and deed and to establish the church in ways that make sense to people within their local cultural context, presenting Christianity in such a way that it meets people’s deepest needs and penetrates their worldview, thus allowing them to follow Christ and remain within their own culture.4

Whiteman notes further that:

Contextualization is not something we pursue motivated by an agenda of pragmatic efficiency. Rather, it must be followed because of our faithfulness to God, who sent God’s son as a servant to die so that we all may live.5

Whiteman takes the incarnational ministry of Jesus as the chief mandate for contextualization. As noted above, however, the Scriptures make it clear in many places that God values cultural diversity while calling the people and communities to be transformed into the moral and mental likeness of His Son. A first step, as Whiteman notes, is for the Word to “penetrate their worldview”, but it seems to me that the ultimate goal cannot be less than full alignment with the revealed worldview.

Although the Bible as a whole does not endorse any particular culture or even dictate a full set of customs (as Islam traditionally has), the Biblical worldview does inculcate particular values, and Jesus offers the power of the Holy Spirit to actualize those values in the lives of His disciples. For example, the New Testament does not dictate any particular mode of dress, but it calls for modesty. It does not dictate any particular political system, but it does call for servant leadership. It does not mandate any particular economic system, but it does condemn greed and advocate generosity. It does not dictate certain postures for prayer, but it does call for one to pray often to God.6 It does not dictate particular forms of music and instrumentation, but it does call for one to sing praises to the Lord.

God’s program, in fact, is to save and sanctify His people in the context of community, i.e., through local churches. Ideally these Christ-centered communities will develop a Biblical worldview and bring out the best in their host cultures, while shunning practices that conflict with the Bible. In this way they can achieve a contextualization of God’s Kingdom in their community.

The Danger of Syncretism

The main threat to God’s program of contextualization is syncretism. The Concise Oxford English Dictionary (11th edn.) defines syncretism as “the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought”. We can see in this definition at least two kinds of syncretism: cultural syncretism, which results from mixing elements from different cultures, and syncretistic worldview, which results from mixing elements of different worldviews. From a missiological point of view, both conditions are symptomatic of insufficient contextualization.

Cultural Syncretism

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Rick Brown is a Bible scholar and mission strategist. He has been involved in outreach to the Muslim world since 1977.


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