CONTEXTUALIZED PREACHING IN A MULTISITE CONTEXT: MAXIMIZING CONTEXTUALIZATION WHILE MAINTAINING UNITY AS ONE CHURCH A THESIS-PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GORDON-CONWELL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY ROBERT A. BRYANT MAY 2017 Copyright © 2017 by Robert A. Bryant. All Rights Reserved CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v ABSTRACT vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS 15 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW 57 CHAPTER 4: SEMINAR ON CONTEXTUALIZED PREACHING IN A MULTISITE CONTEXT 95 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 124 APPENDIX A SEMINAR CLASS NOTES 141 APPENDIX B INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS 165 BIBLIOGRAPHY 192 VITA 196 iii FIGURES FIGURE 1. RUBRIC TEMPLATE 66 FIGURE 2. RUBRIC PHASE ONE 69 FIGURE 3. RUBRIC PHASE TWO 78 FIGURE 4. RUBRIC PHASE THREE 83 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Rachel, you have been a constant source of encouragement and strength through my studies, in ministry and in our journey together. Kezia, Elliana and Shiloh you make challenging days beautiful. Woodside Bible Church campus pastors, thank you for the ongoing support and conversations about contextualizing throughout the campuses. Jeff Wallace, you have become a good friend and a tremendous blessing of God. Dr. Scott Gibson, Dr. Matthew Kim and Dr. Nick Gatzke your discipleship throughout these past three years will have lasting effect on me and through my ministry. Finally, Christ Jesus my Lord and Savior your grace and mercy are overwhelming, it is in great humility that I offer these thoughts. Lord, may you use this work in some small way to bring glory to You. v ABSTRACT Deepening our appreciation for contextualized sermons found in the messages of Jesus, Paul and other Bible preachers is important for every preacher. By examining Scriptures, studying the literature on the subject and conducting interviews with experienced preaching campus pastors, the author identifies the inevitability and unintentionality of preachers to ineffectively contextualize sermons. With greater attention and strategy, preachers can contextualize their sermons to congregations with distinct cultural narratives. Preaching in multisite churches often is more restrictive in cultural adaptation because of the overarching goal to be one church. This goal of unity has potential to edge out contextualization. A practical approach is presented for preachers to understand their cultural context and tailor their preaching to their particular community; as well, a rubric is offered to multisite pastors to contextualize preaching while strengthening being one church in vision, mission and values. vi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Identification of the Problem Preachers and churches desire to have impact in their cultures, so that they will have influence over their cultures. Few churches seem to influence the broader community. The reasons are numerous, yet one common cause – as this thesis will demonstrate – is that they do not go far enough to culturally contextualize the preaching of God’s Word. Contextualized preaching, in the author’s review of the literature, is when the preacher adapts the sermon to the uniqueness of a particular culture without compromising Scripture. This could be due to preachers not fully appreciating why sermons must be contextualized to have greater cultural effect or preachers may have not studied how Jesus, Paul and others demonstrated contextualizing sermons to specific communities. Further, churches, especially multisite churches, have internal factors which set parameters for the degree of contextualization.1 The Bible and cultural intelligence answer the question “why should preachers contextualize sermons?” Our communities are constantly changing with people moving into the country and others moving around the country. New residents constantly are bringing fresh influences affecting the local culture. It is the residents of a community that develop its specific cultural narrative. These narratives are stories that people tell about themselves to make sense of their shared experiences. Cultural narratives include the pragmatic-productive narrative valuing the acquisition of possessions and power, the individualistic narrative encourages people to prioritize personal freedom above all, the honor-shame narrative stresses respect, reputation, duty 1 The author has interacted with numerous multisite churches primarily through Leadership Network over the previous five years where he has formed this conclusion. 1 and honor, and the discursive narrative which places highest value on art, philosophy and learning.2 This short list of possible cultural narratives reveals the differences between cultures. Within these cultural narratives, people think and make decisions differently, and they feel and emote differently.3 When there is little attempt to adapt preaching to a specific culture, the culturally-generic vocabulary, language and forms of communication will limit a community’s understanding of the message. While God’s truth may be accurately presented, without regard for the background and experience of hearer’s thoughts, feelings and decision making, the message will have less bearing.4 Understanding one’s culture and appropriately adapting to it will make a message clearer and more effective. Sermons can be adapted to be made attractive and relevant, and a message can also be adapted to challenge and confront. Since cultural narratives are distinct, messages can be far more effective when tailored to a community. Contextualized sermons adapt the vocabulary, language and form of communication of God’s Scriptures to a particular community.5 While the gospel is universal for everyone in all cultures, as soon as a preacher communicates the gospel, it is unavoidable to share it in a way that is more relevant to some cultures and less for other cultures. Jesus did not simply say not to preach the gospel to people who are hostile to it, rather he contextualized his message. When Jesus said to not throw pearls to pigs, he connected far more to the world of farmers raising pigs.6 2 Timothy Keller, Center Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 90. 3 Keller, Center Church, 90. 4 Dean Flemming, Contextualization in the New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2005), 13. 5 Flemming, Contextualization in the New Testament, 19. 6 Matthew 7:6 (English Standard Version [ESV]). All Scripture is quoted from the ESV unless otherwise noted. 2 With this illustration, Jesus’ gospel presentation was contextualized more for some hearers but less for others. In fact, contextualization is inevitable. Every preacher either intentionally or unintentionally contextualizes. Tim Keller points out that, “If there is no single, context-free way to express the gospel, then contextualization is inevitable. As soon as you choose a language to speak in and particular words to use with that language, the culture-laden nature of words comes into play.”7 Every preacher chooses language, words, stories, explanations and applications in preaching sermons. Anytime a preacher says more than the words written in the Bible he/she contextualizes. Jesus demonstrated that an intentionally contextualized sermon can have greater cultural effect on its hearers.8 However, an unintentionally contextualized message will have far less effectiveness when it does not teach to the main objections and questions people have in that culture.9 Contextualization calls for sermons to be adapted to specific objections of the people represented in a culture. Contextualization includes but is not limited to adapting language, vocabulary, illustrations and applications, and it also goes far beyond those factors to adapting a message to the way people reason. Tim Keller shares how contextualization “is giving people the Bible answers, which they may not at all want to hear, to questions about life that people in their particular time and place are asking, in language and forms they can comprehend, and through appeals and arguments with force they can feel, even if they reject them.”10 7 Keller, Center Church, 94. 8 Flemming, Contextualization in the New Testament, 20. 9 Keller, Center Church, 89. 10 Keller, Center Church, 89 3 Contextualization is not without concerns. While under contextualizing makes a message less relevant, over contextualizing prioritizes culture above the truthfulness of God’s Word.11 This happens when God’s message is modified to avoid confronting culture, so that the preacher, the church and the message will be more palatable to the culture. When God’s truth is edited, over contextualization is condemnable. Ed Stetzer notes, At the other end of the contextualization spectrum is too much adaptation. A message is presented in terms that are easily understood by the audience, but truth is compromised. We see this in places where Christian customs have been added to pagan belief systems, resulting in a confused syncretic of doctrine, and in churches that try to incorporate modern philosophy into their theology, whether or not it’s biblical. The result is watering down of the truth.12 The problem arises when the values of a culture are given authority over Scripture. In an attempt to make Christianity palatable, some preachers have mistakenly redefined doctrine in cultural terms.13 Over contextualization is when the Scriptures are adapted to a culture and the culture has superiority over God’s Word. Natee Tanchanpongs correctly identifies that contextualization involves keeping the essentials while flexing on the non-essentials.14 These concerns are legitimate and of highest importance. Every word the preacher speaks, each illustration and application constantly run the risk of either over or under contextualization. It is important to disciple preachers to remain biblically accurate while culturally relevant. 11 Flemming, Contextualization in the New Testament, 34 12 Ed Stetzer, "What Is Contextualization? Presenting The Gospel In Culturally Relevant Ways," The Exchange (blog), Christianity Today, October 12, 2014, accessed January 11, 2017, http:// www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2014/october/what-is-contextualization.html. 13 Craig Blomberg, “We Contextualize More Than We Realize,” in Local Theology for the Local Church, ed. Matthew Cook (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2010), 37. 14 Natee Tanchanpongs, “Developing a Palate for Authentic Theology,” in Local Theology for the Global Church, ed. Matthew Cook (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2010), 110. 4