By: timoteostewart

timoteostewart — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 15:42:45 +0000

Your ruminations make me think of the term redemptive analogy, popularized by missionary Don Richardson—particularly in his 1975 book Peace Child, which relates his (successful) efforts to find a way of explaining the gospel to a village of people in the southern hemisphere who lacked any cultural framework of sin, justice, and mercy. (Talk about having one hand tied behind your back!)

I was at a conference in fall of 2010, and one of the speakers was Rob Bell. His 45-minute talk basically amounted to saying, “Let’s not focus so much these days on metaphors of shepherds and farmers and blood. Those metaphors made perfect sense 2,000 years ago to a members of a pastoral-agricultural society who worshiped in the Temple and read the Old Testament every day, but nowadays such metaphors and parables will serve only to confuse your listeners. We need new metaphors. The gospel is timeless; the way we explain it to people, however, has to change depending on who we talk to and where they’re coming from.” I can understand where Bell is coming from.

To tie this in with your comments about calendar and time, let’s look at the idea of Sabbath. I can imagine some modern-day missionally minded evangelists presenting the idea of Sabbath to young professionals by extolling the long-term productivity gains of taking a periodic break from one’s labors, and no doubt there is even scientific research to support the practice of taking a regular break, even if it’s only 1 out of every 7 days. But is this what the Biblical concept of Sabbath is about? Is Sabbath ultimately something we practice because it enables us to be more productive in the long run? I don’t think that’s what God’s point about it (even if it is entirely true that people who take a day of rest every week are more successful and more productive in their labors). So that’s an example of how using contemporary research and values to support a Biblical idea might not entirely do justice to God’s original intent for the Biblical idea.

Great ideas as always, Chris. Looking forward to what you and others might have to add on this topic.

Comments on: Moving From Holy Week to a Missional Calendar (Repost)

By: timoteostewart