A missiological study into the need and importance for Reformed Baptists to engage in deliberate Biblical contextualisation in urban, post-modern South Africa

Abstract

Postmodernism and urbanisation pose significant challenges and opportunities to Christian witness in the West. In South Africa, Reformed Baptists are battling to engage with and reach new generations with the Gospel. While the reasons may be many and varied; one could be inadequate and unbiblical views of contextualisation. While South African Reformed Baptists are passionately committed to biblical truth and orthodoxy, they appear to be negligent in the matter of faithful biblical contextualisation. Reformed Baptist pastors appear to be slow to take cognisance of and adjust to the unique challenges and opportunities that postmodernism and urbanisation present to Gospel ministry. Contextualisation is a thoroughly biblical concept and practise. God's inspired Word (both Old and New Testaments) is manifestly receptor orientated. The incarnation, and the preaching and missionary praxis of the apostles, causes us to conclude that it is impossible to have a high regard for Scripture, and be negligent or dismissive of contextualisation. A commitment to Scripture and to the glory of God ought to both fuel and govern all aspects of Christian ministry all the time. Contextualisation is no simple matter -- it is fraught with dangers and complexities: over contextualisation leads to an eroding of fundamental Gospel truth; under contextualisation results in a rigid, one size fits all approach. Both errors result in syncretism. South Africa's postmodern, urban context needs to be carefully considered. Contextualisation should be done intentionally. Moreover it must be governed by Scriptural parameters and should be in step with robust, historical theology. The historic Christian Gospel must be contended for, and it must be faithfully contextualised in our day and place. This means adopting the stance of a cross cultural missionary in "our own" culture and environment.