Timothy Tennant on Why Christians Need to Stop Contextualizing the Gospel

A few months ago, I wrote a series of posts on why it’s so important to contextualize the gospel.

The feedback was good, and interesting. But a question that kept coming up, again and again, was: “When is contextualization too much? Can’t we OVERcontextualize the gospel?” I had to admit, the answer was, “Yes.” We can over-contextualize the gospel. In ministering to Hindus, we can make Jesus one among the gods. In ministering to materialistic westerners, we can make Jesus a product. In ministering to Postmoderns, we can make Jesus an experience.

In response to this, some advocate “balance” in contextualization. But “balance”, for one, is an illusion in any sphere of life. We don’t “balance” Jesus’ humanity with His divinity, we embrace both whole-heartedly. We don’t “balance” our joy with Jesus’ glory. We don’t “balance” free will with God’s election. We embrace them all 100%, because the need to balance usually points to a dilemma, either false or true.

So if using the word “contextualization” means our sole guidance to gospel ministers is, “Be balanced”, then maybe we’re just not using the right word. Keep reading