Contextualisation

Cut this "bit" from a "big bit" from a discussion on modern missionary approaches.

British missiologist Stuart Murray-Williams who suggests some pretty pungent reasons as to why it is so necessary for us to learn the lost arts of contextualization.

• Because there is a general recognition of a yawning cultural chasm between church and contemporary culture that hinders movement in either direction. Church members struggle to bridge the gap at work or relaxing with friends; many know their friends will find church incomprehensible, irrelevant, [or] archaic.
• Because inherited forms of church are attractive only to certain subcultures (especially white, middle-class, educated and middle-aged conformists) and are have proved themselves ineffective in mission beyond these.
• Because of the increasing alarm that we are losing from our churches many former members who are not losing their faith but find church uninspiring, disempowering, crushing and dehumanizing. In post-Christendom, institutional loyalty and inertia no longer prevents this hemorrhage of disillusioned Christians.