We all come to scripture with our own cultural lenses. But the Bible was written in cultures where honor, community and purity were deeper concerns than innocence, the gospel also effectively addresses shame, estrangement and defilement. Because these facets of the gospel are not our primary concern, we read our Bibles without seeing the rich honor/shame dynamics in almost every Bible story. Thus evangelism has more often focused on teaching people to understand their guilt (to appreciate the Western gospel emphasis) than on starting with how the gospel addresses people’s native concerns.
The Jan/Feb 2015 issue of Mission Frontiers delves into this topic with articles by top authors on these subjects, like Jayson Georges and Werner Mischke. What does all this mean? — that your reading of the Bible might be greatly enriched, and that global outreach can be greatly empowered based on what we experience there. For those wanting to share this insight within their network, 5,000 extra copies of this issue are being printed to be available through the link below for a suggested donation of $80 per case of 80 (75% off the subscription price).
http://themissionnetwork.org/mf-discount
A 60% pre-publication discount on The Global Gospel has also been extended to Dec 12th:
http://theMissionNetwork.org/global-gospel
Feel free to share these offers with interested friends.
MF should ship on Dec 16th or 17th, and The Global Gospel should ship Dec 19th.