Transforming culture : a challenge for Christian mission /
Sherwood Lingenfelter.
- 2nd ed.
- Grand Rapids, Mich. : Baker Books, c1998.
- 190 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-184) and indexes.
Transferring or transforming culture? -- A model for analysis of social order -- Property: the silent enemy of church growth -- Labor and productivity: divisive values in mission -- Generosity and exchange: the stone of stumbling in interpersonal relationships -- Authority and family: the foundation of social order -- Authority and community: the context of local churches -- Disputes, conflicts, and communication: to command or to serve? -- Transforming culture.
"Lingenfelter's book opens with the valuable point that Christians are pilgrims on earth, participants in the culture of Christ. Going beyond the differences between 'collectivistic' cultures and 'individualistic' cultures, he identifies five different social games (hierarchic, egalitarian, etc.) which determine cultural bias and are used in the rest of the book to help identify ideas such as property, privacy, family and authority, dispute resolution and communication, the concepts of borrowing and repaying, and of labor and patronage. He provides helpful grids and a quiz, all to help the reader to identify his or her own social game. This is all valuable for someone preparing to go into the mission field, as cultural bias is brought into mission along with other baggage. It is a book that should be read carefully and thoroughly, as it could be overwhelming for someone preparing to enter the mission field to recognize the responsibility to be sensitive to the cultural games of the people group while at the same time evangelizing to this group" -- Amazon.com.
0801021782 (pbk.) 9780801021787 (pbk.)
98047736
Missions--Anthropological aspects. Intercultural communication--Religious aspects--Christianity. Christianity and culture.