Contextualization & Glocalization

I thought Columbus settled this question several hundred years ago, but Thomas L. Friedman is convinced that The World is Flat. If you’ve not read this prize-winning book from 2005, then it may surprise you why Friedman makes such a seemingly medieval statement. Apart from the sociological data that are interspersed throughout twenty-first century business statistics, the author also has something to say about CONTEXTUALIZATION. Using the pop-term “glocalization” (to describe a culture’s ability to absorb “foreign ideas and global best practices and meld [them] with its own traditions” p. 411), he is convinced that countries that are more open to cultural change end up succeeding in today’s business market. To be glocal is to be simultaneously locally contextualized and globally connected. In short, culture is “nested in contexts, not genes, and as those contexts, and local leaders, change and adapt, so too can culture” (p. 415). Bob Roberts took the glocalization concept and ran with it from a Christian perspective, even to the point of saying that the Eastern Church is now a bigger player in world evangelism than the Western Church. Interesting, huh?

We often think of contextualization as a mono-directional activity. We think in terms of how the gospel message must be altered to somehow become meaningful for the host culture. Or we think that the host culture must somehow assimilate our presentations and do self-contextualization so as to become worthy of the message. What we often fail to do is figure out which parts of our own cultures are necessary hardware to be who we are and which parts are just accessories. If I mistakenly think that I cannot be changed, or if I don’t want to, then I cannot become the disciple Christ has planned. Paul talked about this in Phil. 3:12-17 when he said, “I’m still changing. Now you guys model me as I keep changing.”

So what does that mean for us as international workers? How can a Baptist church glocalize? Is there something that I could learn from local leaders that might make me a better and more glocalized. Since our appointment almost 12 years ago, I have moved on a sliding scale between rural South-Georgia culture and megacity Russian culture. The biggest help in this change process has been the dialogue between local Russian believers and other globally-minded internationals. We’ll never understand Russia from a textbook or even a series of tourist trips; it takes time to move beyond superficial small-talk into a trust level wherein a Russian friend can be honest about what else needs to be contextualized in our lives. Do you have a national friend who can truly be honest with you about your American cultural accessories?