Using Comparisons Between The Traditional versus Progressive Outlooks in Cross-Cultural Evangelism
Introduction - Throughout the world there is a growing trend towards more effective - contextual evangelistic approaches. Increasing evidences of God using preaching that draws from people’s experiences, stories, and real life problems is producing results never before thought possible in such short time with certain audiences, but not with others. With an emphasis on "possibility faith that makes all things possible with God," there is an awakening going on in churches across denominational, ethnic, and social stratus. However, much of this excitement is largely centered in certain camps of the Christian world - why?
Perhaps much of the effort of contextualizing the Biblical message has neglected the philosophical assumptions of the people. It is understood that contextualization involves a knowledge of both the philosophical interpretation of the message and its audiences perspectives. The contextualizer needs to understand the basic metaphysical, epistemological, and axiological presuppositions of the people in order to maximize understanding of the message.
All kinds of contextualization (Translation, applications, correlations, observations, explanations, and interpretations of events) should be faithful to the nature of the scriptures. However, this does not mean that a communicator can neglect the methods that make the message most compelling in the minds of the audience.
For example, Africans love stories and proverbs. Jesus communicated at least one-third of His teaching through stories and proverbs. These allow for a common philosophical vehicle of communicating truth close to the heart of most Africans. Jesus uses a rich display and profound respect for symbols such as in the parable of the sower and the seeds from Mark 4:1-22. He espouse an epistemology that takes as its starting point participation in the struggle to survive, prosper, and avoid the natural enemies of life through farming. He begins where the people are at socially, economically, educationally, physically, spiritually, as well as philosophically.
Beginning with the doctrines of Paul’s epistle to the Romans would not fit the philosophical pattern of most Africans’ outlooks as well as the stories of Jesus. By paying close attention to the philosophical patterns of the people we seek to communicate across cultures to, we will enhance the appeal of the scriptures through a multi-dimensional approach.
Similarly, there seems to be a problem with the philosophical emphasis in contextualizing one’s ministry cross culturally. Trying to balance the ministry of truth and grace has always been a struggle for the church. When one puts too much emphasis on the pursuit of truth there is a subtle neglect of its gracious applications. However, stressing pragmatical applications without a thorough grasp of the full implications of truth is like firing a gun without aiming. Since decision-making is only as good as the information upon which it is based, truth must always proceed practice.
For example, even Jesus taught, "If you know the truth, the truth will set you free." (John 8:31) Here Jesus found Jews that paid attention to His sayings without bothering to commit themselves to Him personally. Just as it is possible to believe in a message without repenting and coming to a knowledge of the truth.
To continue in the truth is a sure sign that one has been transformed - regenerated through a new birth in Christ. If people really grasp His truth they will liberate themselves by obeying it implicitly and explicitly. Those who continued in the truth would then be real fishers of men (Matt. 4:19) and those who would be co-laborers in the Lord’s vineyard. To fail to continue seeking His kingdom will be a real indication that they failed to follow completely the truth and its author. (Matt. 6:33) Somewhere there had to be a philosophy of religion that could embrace these essential balances between truth and practice.
A Case Study Comparing Two Seminaries Using Traditional Philosophical Approaches Versus Two Seminaries Using Progressive Ones In Nigeria.
Ten years ago I began to research four seminaries in Nigeria to determine the effectiveness of their curricula for theological teacher training for my Ph.D. dissertation. Now it is apparent that the findings of the dissertation can be applied as well to improving the training of cross-cultural communicators as well as educators. What started out as a search for effective practice led me to discover a philosophy of religion that embraced the balance between truth and practice. The more I reflected on the results of the research, the more it became clear that effectiveness in training theological educators correlated with greater facility in cross-cultural evangelism and church planting. The same schools that scored high on the theological teacher training criteria were the ones that produced the best missionaries and planted the most churches. Conversely, the schools that performed lowest on the criteria for effective theological teacher training were the ones who produced poor quality missionaries and a dismally small number of new churches. The progressive schools planted 102 churches during the seven years of observation while the traditional seminaries only planted three. Added to this the graduates of the traditional schools seemed to face far greater problems with membership attrition in their churches than the graduates of progressive schools. While the traditional graduates stressed preservation of the truth and emphasized maintenance of historic Christian values. The progressive graduates focused on qualitative and quantitative growth of the church. Some reason had to be found for the vast philosophical differences in emphasis on application of truth in these two schools.
I began to wonder if the comparisons could teach us something about correlating educational philosophical studies with those of missions, evangelism, and cross-cultural church planting training. If there indeed was a fair measure of correlation, a whole new reservoir of information for training our missionaries and guiding our denominations in church planting ministries could be tapped into. Note the following comparisons between how we can improve our training of evangelists as certain seminaries have changed their curricula to improve the theological training of teachers.
I began by asking the question, "Why have some seminary curricula not kept pace with or anticipated some of the changes that need to be made to contextualize their curricula? I wondered why some of the courses in seminary were taught in isolation from subjects corresponding to the philosophy of education. There seemed to be an over emphasis on the acquisition of content of the scriptures without a balanced concern for learning how to communicate it in Africa. Much of seminary education in traditional schools seemed far too abstract to most students as the content was not translated to practicalities of the real problems of Nigerian life. The platitudes and generalities given in class did little to help the student-Pastors and missionaries to contextualize their knowledge to the ordinary citizen. The problem of ineffective curricula seemed to lie most with the world view of the curricula and their proponents. Worldview perspectives of the two types of curricula determined how the teachers taught their students what was essentially real, true, believable, valuable, and worth practicing I set out to evaluate the effectiveness of four seminaries and discovered that two of them espoused a traditional philosophy of education while the other two held to a progressive philosophy. I defined traditional and progressive philosophies as follows:
"A traditional perspective is a mentality of handing down knowledge, practices, beliefs, and customs from one generation to another without major changes. Emphasis is given to the preservation of truth, standards, and courses that were originally set up by the historic founders - ancestors, family members, early missionaries, or great past heroes."
"A progressive perspective is evidenced by a mentality of change, marked by utilizing contextualized approaches to combining theory with practice in balanced effectiveness, relevance, and appropriateness. The progressive outlook stresses an integration of faith and learning with a fair degree of risk in bringing about innovation. There is a concerted effort with the progressives to match the audiences’ needs, learning styles, world views, abilities, backgrounds, perspectives, culture, experiences, and educational levels with the approaches of presenting truth."
Purpose of the Comparative Study
The purpose of my study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two progressive curricula and their teacher-graduates in comparison to two traditional curricula and their graduates. Fourteen criteria for determining the effective teacher were field-tested, refined, and adapted in several theological seminaries in Nigeria before the instrument was applied. In evaluating both the traditional and progressive approaches to education I concentrated on the following seven areas:
1. Contexts - The history, situations, and surrounding circumstances involved with each theological school, how their curricula developed, and who was teaching in the seminary and for what reasons.
2. Inputs - I sought to get a wide array of opinions and analysis from staff, students, graduates, and faculty members.
3. Rationales - Motives were very important to me in this study as an indication of the driving forces for operating by fear or faith etc.
4. Processes - I sought to get ideas of how and what was taught in the classroom and out of the classroom. Often the overt curriculum was not as important as the hidden covert curriculum in the school’s philosophies - traditional or progressive.
5. Antecedents - Starting characteristics of students, faculty, history of the school, denomination(s), facilities, materials, courses, contents, syllabi, and goals both stated and implied.
6. Transactions - Teaching procedures, learning procedures, and practical or theoretical assignments and what balance.
7. Outcomes - The surveys and interviews revealed how close the teacher-graduates evaluated their curricula to match up with the fourteen criteria for a successful theological educator. I used Robert Stake’s model of evaluating curriculum - 1969.
I purposely looked for gaps of inconsistencies between the intentions of each curricula and the outcomes in determining which schools were most effective in what they set out to accomplish. I wanted to see what issues, methods, and philosophies were perceived to be the effective by graduates of the four schools in respect to the following criteria:
1. Did the curriculum and your teachers help you to become a better director of learning? This specified the graduates ability to use their knowledge of educational philosophy, psychology, and methodology in becoming a more effective teacher.
2. Did the curriculum and your teachers give you a greater ability to understand the nature of your students? This specified the ability to use cultural anthropological techniques and interpersonal skills in gaining a greater rapport, trust, and relationship with their students.
3. Did the curriculum and your teachers give you a greater set of teaching skills and methods. This assumed an ability to help their students conceptualize and communicate to the students according to their most favored learning styles.
4. Did the curriculum and your teachers give you a greater ability to motivate your students for learning. This assumed an acquired set of skills in stimulating the students according to their needs, interests, and goals.
5. Did the curriculum and your teachers help you plan a variety of goals and show you how to meet them? This assumed the ability to take historically appropriate goals and synthesize strategies to see the objective accomplished.
6. Did the curriculum and your teachers show you how to balance an atmosphere of freedom and critical inquiry? This assumed the ability to manage a classroom in the sense that a teacher could encourage questioning without losing the discipline atmosphere needed for group learning.
7. Did the curricula and your teachers give you a variety of teaching procedures for different subjects and kinds of students? This assumed the ability to use one’s pedagogical skills to suit one’s students capacities, abilities, and backgrounds.
8. Did the curriculum and your teachers give you skills in carrying out administrative duties? This assumed the abilities to plan, organize, lead, delegate, and to evaluate the students and their progress in learning.
9. Did the curriculum and your teachers give you adequate skills in evaluating your students’ progress continually? Many could give tests, but few knew how to continually assess the students progress in learning.
10. Did the curriculum and your teachers give you skills in using your students’ cultural heritage to enhance learning? This assumed the ability to use cultural anthropological techniques to contextualize their communication to students from many different cultural backgrounds.
11. Did the curriculum and your teachers give you skills to handle students’ problems? This assume the ability to ascertain the root causes of individual’s problems and to counsel them through to the solution of the difficulties.
12. Did the curriculum and your teachers help you to prepare quality lectures and maintain a high professional standard? This assumed the ability to understand what were the cognitive, affective, behavioral, and spiritual competencies for each subject.
13. Did the curriculum and your teachers help you to be resourceful and knowledgeable about your subject area? This assumed the ability to locate and utilize materials that would help catalyze the students learning in both practical and theoretical ways.
14. Did the curriculum and your teachers help you to personally ascend the ladders of higher cognitive, affective, and behavioral level development. This assumed the ability to know about Ben Bloom’s taxonomy of the levels of learning and to perform consistently at the higher levels in their subject specializations.
Conclusions on The Comparison of Effectiveness Between the Traditional versus. the Progressive Seminary Approach to Training Leaders
The following were some of the conclusions I discovered in comparing the effectiveness between the traditional and progressive curricula and their proponents. The results came from a sample interviews and questionnaires of 40 theological teacher graduates represented from each of the four seminaries.
1. A progressive curricula and approach to learning was better able to produce graduates who excelled in thirteen out of fourteen of the above criteria. The progressive philosophical approach tended to be able to adjust better to the changing needs of the students, church, and society than the traditional one.
2. The progressive curricula and philosophical approach yielded greater satisfaction ratings from the teacher-graduates due to the following four most common reasons:
a. It allowed the school to match its training approaches (Curricular and instructional) to the student’s needs, backgrounds, gifts, callings, goals, and Biblical essentials in theological education. The emphasis on relevance between students and philosophical approaches of the schools training provided for a greater philosophical contextualization of truth and its applications. Perhaps this is one of the key correlations to the success of the progressive schools in church planting and evangelism.
b. It allowed the school greater facility in matching the school’s contents with the ability and interest levels of the students.
c. It facilitated the matching of the schools’ programmes (Teacher Education and Pastoral and Communicators) with the goals of the students and graduates.
d. It catalyzed the matching of the schools’ philosophies toward the church with background (culturally, educationally, and pragmatically) of the students.
3. The progressive schools tended to gear their educational approach more toward a field-dependent learning-teaching style while the traditional schools used more of field-independent learning and teaching approach. The following are some of the essential aspects of the field-dependent learning and teaching approach worth emulating:
a. A belief that there are often more than one alternative solution to problems. This teaches the student how to approach problems from a multi-dimensional perspective (Biblically, culturally, educationally, philosophically, psychologically, inductively, deductively, and intuitively)
b. A freedom to use a wide variety of teaching and learning styles. These will include:
1). Innovative Learning and Teaching - Creating experiences for the students through an illustration, case study, or field assignment. Helping people to discover their own solutions through involvement, motivation, and experimentation.
2). Analytical Learning and Teaching - By developing learners who can conceptualize solutions by looking for the underlying principles they are able to visualize answers in their minds. They prefer to study the theories and then be given opportunities to practicalize them on their own.
3). Common Sense Learning and Teaching - These learners prefer to find out "how to" do something. They want to know the practical value of a truth, concept, or an experience. They learn best through hands on experiences and interactions with other people who are modeling the truth. They want guidelines in carrying out the assignments applications.
4). Dynamic Learning and Teaching - These learners are energetic who prefer to look for ways to bring about change. They are usually thinking "what if" something is true and looking for implications. They enjoy looking at information concretely and processing is through imagining its hidden potentials. They learn best when they are free to teach others, talk with other dynamic thinkers, and share ideas with discovery oriented people. They are most adaptable to change and enjoy it. They like a variety of situations that can challenge their ability to create something new out of something old or out dated.
c. Students are looked at as active learners rather than passive recipients of knowledge. For example, one of the recent students of a progressive seminary has planted three new churches on his own initiative. Along with this he has contracted with a media service in Nigeria to produce videos on the "How To" of urban and village church planting. These training videos will be used in theological schools across Africa for teaching others specific guidelines in church planting in dramatic visual formats.
d. Integrative problem-solution approach to education is stressed. Rather than expecting students to find applications of their own, they serve apprenticeship church planting internships where they are expected to start their own church before being allowed to graduate from seminary. This gives the students a real responsibility and a measure of accountability in their education. This enhances theoretical and practical integrative problem-solving abilities.
e. An emphasis is given to the Bible and theology as a source of truth to be communicated as a relevant solution to the problems of the context of the students and their prospective pupils. This philosophical contextualization emphasis marries other models of theological, linguistical, anthropological, and social contextualization for a better total product in the graduates.
f. Specialization of training for one’s particular area of emphasis rather than generalized education "where one size fits all" approach to education. Rather than offering each student the same courses in Bible and theology and missions as the traditional seminaries do, the progressive offer streams of specialized programmes. This allows the student to match his gifts, callings, personalities, cultures, goals, and experiences with the right curriculum contents, courses, and specialists who can personalize his mentored training.
g. Imagery, parables, stories, drama, simulations, small groups, field assignments, practicums etc. are integratively woven into each class and subject area. This allows the students to contextualize their approaches, methods, and means of presenting the truth according to the audiences’ customary style of learning.
h. Competency based education approach on spiritual, cognitive, affective, and behavioral levels are emphasized. Instead of emphasizing acquisition of facts for the sake of stretching one’s thinking capacity, there is a concentration on becoming proficient in knowing, being, and doing. Since these dimensions are intertwined the students are allowed to progress at their own pace in areas where they can major on developing their strengths.
i. Augmentation of left (analytical) and right (holistic-intuitive thinking) brained thinking in teaching and learning is emphasized. By balancing the development of the two hemispheres of the brain, the progressive approach gives freedom to think and grow up into all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. (Eph. 4:12-16)
1). Left Brained thinkers respond better to analytical, objective, logical, digitalized, cause-effect, lists, lectures, theoretical, and cumulative learning and teaching styles.
2). Right Brained thinkers respond better to intuitive, dramatic, emotional appeals, subjective, environmental - contextual relationships, open-ended essays examinations. imagery stimulation, and spontaneous discussions.
j. Attempts to synergies cultural and theological concepts and western educational philosophies through whole grained education that stresses contextualized approaches. This synergistic approach believes that one plus one is often greater than two. It patterns its approach after Eccl. 4:9-11 that says, "Two are better than one for they have a good reward for their labor." Naturally, this is talking about people, but it can also apply to the positive combination of two approaches cooperating together for a better total result.
Chief Characteristics of Progressive and Traditional Philosophical Approaches To Training Leaders
Let us look at some of the main differences between the traditional versus the progressive outlooks and see how we can more effectively evangelize cross-culturally to both groups.
PROGRESSIVE MENTALITY CHARACTERISTICS
1. Integrative thinking patterns challenging the status quo.
2. Problem-Solving perspectives
3. Initiating, Innovating, and Seeking to bring about Change with feedback.
4. Information is useful as it provides equipping of individuals, groups, and family goals.
5. Specialization of jobs after a foundation of Bible and theology to equip people with adaptive skills to the changing needs of culture, society, and the church.
6. A belief that emphasizes more than one alternative to problems.
7. Whole-grained teaching and learning
8. Freedom to think, be critical, and allow for individual differences in learning, planning, and implementing.
9. Research, investigative, and inquiring minds who really want to know!
10. Flexibility encouraged in the way objectives are met.
11. Encouragement of innovation along with the freedom to fail.
12. Viewing students, people, and leaders as continual active learners.
13. Emphasis given to active practitioners through trial and error learning and growing.
14. Augmentation of both left (analytical) and right (holistic, circular reasoning, and intuitive perceptions) brained thinking in teaching, learning, writing, discussing, spending, and planning.
15. Selection of innovative leaders rather than status quo leaders.
16. Synergism of cultural,theological concepts, and philosophical concepts through whole grained education that emphasizes progressive contextualization.
17. Refusal to accept forces of fatalism, impossibilities, or traditionalism.
18. Refusal to be dominated by fear of failure, rejection, or public misunderstanding.
TRADITIONAL MENTALITY CHARACTERISTICS
1. A belief that emphasizes gaining God’s pleasure by submitting to authority and power.
2. A need to see the clear-cut absolutes truths of scriptures.
3. A resigned mentality to the will of God which is sometimes evidences in a kind of fatalism.
4. A need to have those in one’s immediate context are in agreement with a decision.
5. A fear of public disapproval which often leads to a consensus style of leadership under an authoritarian cover.
6. An underscoring of the need to conform to the way that the great evangelists of the Old and New Testament spoke the word of God with all boldness.
7. An emphasis on knowledge and content acquisition without the encouragement to experiment freely with new evangelistic applications.
8. Transference and contextualization of the message generally neglected or spiritualized.
9. Generalized training in evangelism, communication, and Bible knowledge.
10. Information is taught and accepted as truth in systematic ways rather than allowing open discussion about its relative truth to various situations.
11. An insistence on a thorough knowledge of the past models, principles, and doctrines.
12. An emphasis is given to the common problems rather than the evolving needs of an organization.
13. Mainstream solutions for most problems.
14. An emphasis on submitting to idealistic truths and authority while discouraging individualistic and independent thinking.
15. Cognitive solutions sought for most things rather than a synergism of cognitive, affective, and behavioral.
Contrasting Views of Good and Bad Means of Communicating Cross-Culturally With Traditional versus Progressive Oriented Audiences
All of this is a representation of the traditional perspective that prizes the group-collectivistic ideals of the community. The social unit that one belongs to heavily influences an individuals decisions, but also shares in the responsibility and benefits of the decision. There is a general feeling of group solidarity that gives one his identity, roles, and responsibilities as deemed fit by the elders or leaders or consensus opinions of the group. Collaboration is a big concern for the traditionalists as they crave a oneness of mind, spirit, attitude, and behavioral standard that sanctions or criticizes individuals. One’s family identity is shaped by the community that one grows up from. There are rewards for those who learn to submit to one’s authorities in the traditionalist’s camp, but in different degrees as seen in the above four quadrants. As can be seen by the above four quadrant, the elderly and less educated or more non-formally educated of the traditional oriented thinkers, tend to prefer group consensus decision-making for its safety and security benefits.
If you want to reach the greatest sense of motivation and accountability for the various kinds of traditional thinkers, simply use the proper motivations and accountability elements. For example, if you want to reach the non-formally educated youth try using appeals that emphasize group accountability and individual motivations. However, if you are aiming at the families and the elders who are formally educated, but group in their motivations, adjust your appeals accordingly. The more youthful and formally educated one becomes, the greater tolerance there is for one to act more as an individual. In fact these are the kinds of people who usually end up becoming opinion shapers for the rest of the traditionalist if they can survive the great pressures to conform to previous practices.
PROGRESSIVE ORIENTED AUDIENCES
Individually Motivated
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Youth Who Are | Youth Who Are
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Formally Educated or Oriented |Non-formally Educated or
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Individualistic | Group
_________________ |_____________________________
Accountability | Accountability
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Family and Elders | Family and Elders Who Are
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Formally Educated | Non-Formally Educated or Oriented
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Group Motivated
The above charts show that instead of just assuming that a particular culture contains all of a certain kind of audience, we need to look at the characteristics of each audience before trying to communicate across cultures. Some audiences may stress a progressive outlook and lifestyle that emphasizes doing over being, action over reflection, equality over hierarchy, informality rather than formality, and functional friendships instead of long-term loyalties. These people are proud of the fact that they identify closest with groups of people who share their individual goals rather than vice versa. They are achievement and competitive in nature. Often times a person’s worth is measured by objective standards, evidential accomplishments such as degrees, social status, rank, privileges, and possessions earned.
To invade one’s private world of decision-making is a serious breach of trust for
the youthful - highly formally educated individuals. However, as can be seen by the above four quadrant, the elderly and less educated or more non-formally educated of the progressive tend to prefer group consensus decision-making for its safety and security benefits. If you want to reach the greatest sense of motivation and accountability for the various kinds of progressive thinkers, simply use the proper motivations and accountability elements.
For example, if you want to reach the non-formally educated youth try using appeals that emphasize group accountability and individual motivations. However, if you are aiming at the families and the elders who formally educated, but group in their motivations, adjust your appeals according. One’s decisions are found mainly in his own control and with his own personal accountability. (Stewart, 1969:69)
Notice that you can reach both traditionalist and progressive thinkers who are of similarly age group and of similar educational backgrounds. They tend to share similar motivations and accountability aspects. However, for deeper changes and developments you will need to use the following changes that give one more specific guidelines for producing change across cultures.
Guidelines For Communicating To the Traditional - Non-formally Educated
1. Be a strong leader who teaches and preaches with problem-solution styles of communication.
2. Emphasize the importance of relating well to one’s neighbors.
3. Share the importance of community concern and assistance.
4. Focus on the testimonies of changed lives.
5. Point out how the spiritual signs and wonders are important to one’s faith and the revelation of truth.
6. Show the people how the Holy Spirit is their comforter, guide, deliverer from evil, healer, kinsman-redeemer, teacher, and emotional supporter.
7. Avoid syncretistic practices.
8. Provide plenty of opportunities for interaction with others, arrange for group Bible studies, and prayer meetings where prayers are directed toward solving critical and practical problems in the lives of people.
9. Show the people how intercessors can come to their aid in times of need to resolve fights, quarrels, and strife.
10. Stress the dramatic, the absolute, and the power of the scriptures to deal with a wholistic approach to problem resolution.
11. Be expressive in how you say things with verbal and non-verbal expressions.
12. Be a strong leader that takes decisions on the basis of your calling, knowledge, and your own relationship with the people.
13. Approach the heads of village first to gain their confidence, backing, and cooperation.
14. Look for intercessors who can help you navigate through the cultural barriers to communication.
15. Emphasize close relationships and means of reconciling our relationship with God and others through Christ.
16. Stress the importance of spiritual events like conversion, baptism, and spiritual worship services etc.
17. Stress the personal element in scripture along with the dramatic personal lives of the apostles.
18. Use more of the inductive approach to your presentations and communications.
19. Use lots of conversations, descriptions, and testimonies in your presentations.
Guidelines for Communicating To the Progressive - Formally Educated Oriented Audience
1. Emphasize correct teaching that meets felt, perceived and real needs systematically.
2. Stress the importance of personal responsibility in acting on faith in the objective elements of scripture.
3. Emphasize the application of faith in correction principles of interpretation and analysis of scripture.
4. Point out the importance of doing personal Bible study and having a personal time of prayer with God using lists of requests and answers.
5. Stress how each individual should gain a grasp on all the important doctrines of scripture.
6. Show the people how to relate the truth of the Bible to their daily family ministry, and personal lives.
7. Avoid too much emphasis on experiences as it may be rejected for making truth too subjective.
8. Show the people how to do personal evangelism, personal Christian service in the churches and in their neighborhoods.
9. What you say is often more important than how you say it to formally educated people.
10. Involve other more educated people who have rank, status, and credibility in the urban community.
11. Emphasize the doing of God’s will and not merely hearing it.
12. Organize your topics into sequences that can be covered in depth. Focus on one particular issue at a time through a topical pattern of teaching and preaching.
13. Use an inductive approach to your presentations and communications.
14. Stress the importance of making the most of one’s time and opportunities.
15. Stress the theory and concepts of scripture than provide illustrations.
16. Use plenty of analysis of words, terms, and concepts in your presentations.
Guidelines For Communicating to the Traditional - Formally Educated
1. Emphasize correct teaching that meets felt, perceived and real needs according to people’s traditions and through historically and culturally approved channels.
2. Stress the importance of group responsibility in acting on faith in the objective elements of scripture.
3. Emphasize the application of faith in correct practices that reinforce the positive values of one’s historic values.
4. Point out the importance of doing family seed Bible studies with groups. Have neighborhood prayer meetings asking people to share their hurts, sufferings, and problems for group intercession.
5. Stress how the group stands to benefit by obeying the authority of God’s word.
6. Show the people by personal demonstration of power in renouncing the forces of evil publicly. Claim God’s promises over the devil and all his emissaries. Pray for deliverance against all forces causing sickness, suffering, and oppression.
7. Give emphasis to the positive experiences of the Godly who have benefitted from power of God.
8. Do not minimize the subjective elements of the Spirit’s ministry through the exercise of spiritual gifts.
9. Show the people how to do group evangelism, corporate Christian service in the churches and their neighborhoods.
10. Involve other more educated people who have rank, status, and credibility with a known traditional outlook that the people will respect.
11. Emphasize the doing of God’s will and not merely hearing it.
12. Organize your topics into sequences that can be covered with dramatic demonstration in story form. Focus on one particular issue at a time through a devotional pattern of teaching and preaching.
13. Use an deductive and then an inductive approach to your presentations and communications.
14. Stress the importance of making the most of one’s time and opportunities for the benefit of one’s family, clan, organization, or tribe.
15. Stress the theory and concepts of scripture after you have given adequate case studies to stir their sense of curiosity and reduce their conservative opposition to change.
16. Use plenty of analysis of words, terms, and concepts in your presentations after you have adequately illustrated the problems in dramatic fashion.
17. What you say is equally as important as how you say it.
Guidelines For Communicating To the Traditional - Formally Educated
1. Be an intelligent, warm, and strong leader who teaches and preaches with problem-solution styles of communication.
2. Emphasize the importance of relating well to one’s neighbors using proper cultural norms suitable to one’s higher social standing, rank, and status.
3. Share the importance of community concern and assistance for those who are in a social structure commensurate with the majority of your audience.
4. Focus on the testimonies of changed lives of those who have been able to integrate their education with faith in Christ, His Spirit, and His promises.
5. Point out how the spiritual signs and wonders are important to one’s faith and the revelation of truth. Indicate how these are in harmony with the truth, knowledge, and wisdom of the scriptures.
6. Show the people how the Holy Spirit is their comforter, guide, deliverer from evil, healer, kinsman-redeemer, teacher, and emotional supporter. Point out the Holy Spirit’s role, responsibilities, and identities in the New Testament as well as the Old Testament.
7. Avoid syncretistic practices and point out areas of inconsistencies according to principles from Acts and the books of Corinthians and Thessalonians.
8. Provide plenty of opportunities for interaction with others, arrange for group Bible studies, and prayer meetings where prayers are directed toward solving critical and practical problems in the lives of people. Have someone give a clear expositional message on the supporting Biblical prerequisites for answers to prayer.
9. Show the people how intercessors can come to their aid in times of need to resolve fights, quarrels, and strife.
Give Biblical examples of the types and responsibilities of intercessors who are able to minister through various manners like Onesiphorous who ministered to Paul while in prison.
10. Stress the dramatic, the absolute, and the power of the scriptures to deal with a wholistic approach to problem resolution. Give integrative messages and assignments in the scriptures to leaders who can investigate the correlations between the scriptures and contemporary realities in society.
11. Be expressive in how you say things with verbal and non-verbal expressions. Be sure that you put emphasis on the correct verbal meanings from scripture. Follow the pattern of making accurate observations, interpretations, correlations, applications, evaluations, and then communications from Biblically correct hermeneutics.
12. Be a strong leader that takes decisions on the basis of your calling, knowledge, and your own relationship with the people. Temper these decisions with intelligent consensus gathering from the thinkers of your group. Do not be swayed by the strong personalities in your group who may need their ego bolstered, but stick to your convictions of the truth.
13. Approach the heads of village first to gain their confidence, backing, and cooperation. Consult with the educated men of the group according to their areas of expertise. Then use their consultation to formally present your claims to the group publically.
14. Look for intercessors who can help you navigate through the cultural barriers to communication. Back up your message with written and spoken statements of support by other educated leaders who the group respects.
15. Emphasize close relationships and means of reconciling our relationship with God and others through Christ. Point out the intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual divisions can be mended through a profound relationship and knowledge of Jesus Christ as Paul had in Phil. 3:8-10.
16. Stress the importance of spiritual events like conversion, baptism, and spiritual worship services etc. Teach the Biblical basis of each event thoroughly to your members relating the truth to the symbolic and literal meanings demonstrated publically.
17. Stress the personal element and individual responsibility along with the group obligations to care for one another in scripture. Give with this dramatic personal testimonies of lives of the significant educated men and women from the community.
18. Use both an inductive and deductive approach to your presentations and communications.
19. Use lots of conversations, descriptions, and testimonies in your presentations. Support this with Biblically based principles by analyzing the underlying motifs in the book of Acts of the apostles.
Conclusion - The correlation between the successes of the progressive philosophical approach to contextualized training of teachers and cross-cultural communicators is no accident. By using the principles of contextualized progressive philosophy, your training in cross-cultural missions and evangelism can dramatically improve. Notice that all of this assumes a proper progression from truth to application and not vice versa. As Jesus reminds us, "If we know the truth it will set us free. I believe that Jesus wants us to continue His truth with its philosophical applications and contextualization that relate both to our thinking and practice with fervency. Only then we will be set free from all that binds and impedes progress.
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