Saturday, April 11, 2009

How Culture Affects Conversion

Former DG staffer, Jonathan Dodson has posted a helpful article that challenges us to re-examine our Western paradigms of gospel conversion. Here’s a key quote:

Gospel change in some cultures is more gradual than instantaneous. The American Evangelical tradition of “deep consciousness of personal sin followed by a sense of joyous liberation” is not common to all cultures. Missionaries labored for years before they saw a single conversion, and even then, the conversions were sometimes very different than what they expected. Cultures that are more communal experience conversion differently that cultures that are highly individualistic. In many African and Asian cultures, conversions come in pairs or families instead of by single individuals. Not all gospel change happens identically, especially across cultures.

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