Contextualized Discipleship

Today is a buzz-day at Emmaus!  Last night, Dr. Phil Thorton and Dr. Charles Lake arrived to spend 48 hours at Emmaus.

If you've never heard of either of these men, you can read a bit about Dr. Lake here and here and learn a few things about Dr. Thorton here and here.

Even more interesting than their past experiences and current passions (at least to me) is that Dr. Phil Thorton was our professor when we were students at Asbury, and as I pursued a minor in foreign missions, I took every class Dr. Thorton offered.  Listening to him teach again this morning, this time with our students as his students, was just really an awesome experience.  

All the "bones" and hypothetical examples he laid out for four years in the classroom now has skin in our lives, and we are able to share it with our professor!

So here's what it's all about.  Dr. Thorton and Dr. Lake are teaching church leaders in various oral cultures (cultures dominated by illiteracy) to be more effective in their communication of the Gospel by using culturally appropriate methods instead of trying to teach it in a Western way (as many missionaries and ministries have naturally taught it to be done over the past 200 years).     

To show what he was talking about, Dr. Thorton used popular Haitian proverbs, which are well-known and carry the same cultural interpretation, and asked students to think of Biblical parallels that could be taught by these proverbs.

The students also learned how to take cultural stories that everyone knows, many of which would be considered Voodoo myths, and identify principles in these stories that have Biblical parallels.  Thorton taught that it is best to start with that which is already known before moving into teaching the unknown, and how to do it in a culturally appropriate and Biblically sound way.  

We all talked about myths, about proverbs, about songs and dramas and how to use these cultural norms to share and teach the Gospel better.  The students loved it, the staff loved it, Dr. Thorton had a blast...It's been a GREAT conference so far.  

 For example, at one point, Dr. Thorton asked someone to read the wedding at Canaan from the French Bible.  Before the store was really underway, some of the guys were dozing (this would be the normal way the story would be shared in most churches.

 Then, Dr. Thorton asked a student to stand up and tell the story of the wedding at Canaan.  There was more interest.  Finally, several of the students were asked to perform the wedding, and everyone was on the edges of their seats, involved and interested.  There might be more effective ways to communicate the Scriptures in this culture than reading It!

The whole conference, so far, has been incredibly practical and exciting, and EBS was blessed to also be joined by a group of leaders/pastors from Gonaives who are also interested in teaching the Gospel in a more effective way.

With the final two days of intensive courses sandwiched in the middle of sessions, there is a lot of great, practical and transforming material being given to Christian leaders at Emmaus today!

We are incredibly grateful to have Dr. Thorton and Dr. Lake here, and for the Jesus that is easy to see in these humble, joyful men (let's face it, humility is a wildly popular attribute in a friend of any culture!)  Also continue to be so blessed to have Pastors Jerry Poff and Tom Black, and handy man Troy with us for just a few more days!

for His glory!