II. KNOWLEDGE-FOCUSED CONTEXTUALIZATION

This focuses on contextualizing theology, not behavior. Many have been showing a major concern for truth, but truth defined theoretically and academically, rather than truth as something that is lived.

B. A disinterested church

People aren't much interested in contextualized theology. Most of the rapidly growing churches in the world are not very contextualized at all, according to the understandings we have developed.

Our gospel requires a major focus on truth, knowledge, and understanding. This is a crucial dimension of Christianity, but something to experience, not just to absorb intellectually. We are to "experience the truth" (John 8:32).

B. Other dimensions

As I pondered the problems with our theory, I began to ask if there might be other dimensions in Scripture. It became clear that there are two more:

Allegiance/commitment leading to relationship with God and his people. Our Gospel requires people to move into a new allegiance, confronting and abandoning any other primary allegiances with the need to move into a relationship with Jesus that replaces all other relationships as primary in our lives.

Spiritual power leading to freedom. If we are to be true to Jesus´ approach, our gospel requires us both to communicate (Acts 1:8) and to minister to people in power with the aim of setting captives free (Luke 4:18-19).

C. The allegiance / relationship dimension

This is the most important of the three dimensions. It starts with conversion--a commitment to Christ--to establish a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

The aim is to replace any other allegiance / relationship as primary. All other allegiances are to be countered with commitment to Christ. All other allegiances are to be secondary to this one.

It continues as growth in one's relationship with Christ and with others expressed as loving God with one's whole heart and one's neighbor as oneself.

It includes practicing all that the Bible teaches on subjects like love, faithfulness, fellowship, the fruit of the Spirit, intimacy with Christ (see. John 15), forgiveness, repentance, reconciliation, obedience--indeed all the major doctrines.

True intimacy and relationship should not be confused with knowledge about intimacy and relationship. Knowledge is to be experienced and obeyed in relationship.

Under this dimension, the church is to be experienced as family.

Witness to one's personal experience is key to communicating this dimension.

Discipleship-teaching is the way to get this dimension across.

Theologizing is experienced in discipleship, worship and submission to God (Romans 12:2).

D. The power / freedom dimension

The power in focus here is spiritual power (not the power of love, political power, power of prestige, etc).

This dimension recognizes that humans are held captive by Satan.

Jesus worked in the power of the Holy Spirit to set captives free (Luke 4:18, 19). He did nothing under the power of His own divinity (Phil. 2:5-8).

Jesus passed this power on to His followers (Luke 9:1; John 14:12; Acts 1:4-8).

Satanic power must be defeated with God's power. (It cannot be defeated simply with truth or a correct allegiance, though these help.)

Under this dimension, the church is experienced as both a hospital where wounds are healed, thus freeing people; and an army that attacks the enemy, defeating him both at ground level and at cosmic level.

Awareness of the power dimensions of Christianity needs to be taught both cognitively and, especially, experientially (as Jesus did).

Theologizing is experienced as confronting and defeating the enemy in warfare, resulting in freedom to grow in relationships and understanding.

E. Review of the knowledge / understanding dimension

This dimension involves teaching led by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13).

Scripturally, both truth and knowledge are experiential, not simply cognitive.

Truth provides antidotes for ignorance and error

Though spiritual truth is pervasively relational and experiential (John 8:32), there is also a cognitive and informational dimension. This dimension embodies truth and knowledge of all aspects of Christian experience.

In this dimension, we are to learn about the contents of the other two dimensions.

We are expected to grow in this knowledge dimension as in all other dimensions of Christian experience.

Satanic and human lies are to be countered with God's truths.

Under this dimension, the church is to be experienced as a teaching place (classroom).

Theology should be both cognitive and experiential.

A maturing missiology, in its attempts to deal with Christianity in culture will, therefore, take seriously all three of these crucial dimensions of biblical Christianity. It will not fail to teach theology. But it will balance the truth / knowledge dimension with a major concern for the other two dimensions. It will, furthermore, recognize what the Bible recognizes—that the relationship dimension is the primary dimension, with the other two dimensions serving it.

B. The relationship dimension must be primary.

Since the knowledge / truth and the power / freedom dimensions are to serve the relationship between God and humans, both our theorizing and our training should put the primary focus where the Scriptures put it--on relationship--not knowledge about relationship but actually relating, to God and to each other.

C. Some benefits

It can strengthen a weak-relationship Christianity.

It can empower a powerless Christianity.

It can enable God´s people to get beyond the mere intellectualization of God´s truth to genuinely experiencing it.