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MTV…PS2…Thai…German…Jesus

The incarnation as the ultimate form of contextualization

Steve Argue and Dave Livermore

You are gifted.  You really are.  Right now you are in a role where a whole lot of people--church leaders, parents, grandparents, and even world leaders--are counting on you to bridge the gap between generations.  You are called to be the point people, the bridge, the missing link for teaching and passing on the eternal values of the great Christian tradition to this generation of students.

With a few courses in youth ministry (maybe even a degree in the subject), a mastering of the MTV schedule, a familiarity with the latest movies, and an occasional visit to the area high school or middle school, we’re ready to take on the challenge.  And so…

• We help our students decode the pastor’s sermon for application to their lives.

• We develop talks, worship sets, and retreats that will minister to students where they are.

• We challenge our students to see beyond the visiting missionary’s outdated clothes.

• We pay attention to the movies, music, and fashions that are hip in youth culture.

• Parents want us to talk sense into their kids who are in turn venting to us about their parents.

• We remind the elders to incorporate youth-friendly programming in the worship services.

• We teach our churched kids to avoid language like “saved,” “ministry” and “holy” with their friends who don’t know the lingo.

• We teach students to beware of their American offenses before heading on the upcoming missions trip.

• We play interference between the church custodian and the students over the idea of transforming the sanctuary into a marshmallow volleyball court.

No matter how loud the music, how gross the food, how late the conversations, how inconvenient the interruptions, how frequent the poor decisions our students make, we’re there for them.  Because we love them…we really do.

So are we making a difference? Yes, of course…We think.

But do you ever fear losing touch with the next batch of students? Do the ever-changing tides of culture ever feel like too much with which to keep pace? Can we stay “connected” with students?  And if that’s the question, what or who is it exactly, that we’re trying to connect?

No matter where we enter another culture, whether in Asia, Africa, or the local high school, we enter a cross-cultural experience.  The responsibility is on us to “contextualize.” 

Contextualize…that is to relate and communicate an idea, and in our case, the Story of God into language our listening audience understands.  When it comes to youth ministry, most of us reading this article contextualize pretty naturally.

But might we push this idea of contextualization a bit further? It’s great that we can relate to students and that they love us.  It’s great that our students come to church, have healthy relationships, and have avoided the drinking scene.  But do they love God? And if they say they do, what does the God they love look like?

Maybe there’s another side of this contextualization prism.  Could it be that contextualization is as much about explaining God as it is being relevant to culture?  This seems to be God’s point in sending Jesus. 

The ultimate picture of contextualization is the incarnation--the eternal Son breaking into our world to reach out to us.  But the purpose of him reaching out to us was ultimately to reveal himself.  And this is the basis for all of Hebrews.  Consider Hebrews 1.1-2; “In the past, God spoke in various ways and at various times…But in these last days, he has spoken to us through his Son.”  Very literally, we should take this to read that God has spoken “in Son.”  If you’re Thai, you speak in Thai; if you’re German, you speak in German; if you’re God, you speak “in Son.”

The Son is God’s ultimate disclosure, a declaration of who God is in a way our earthly minds can handle.  Sure, Jesus became one of us and is able to sympathize with us; but ultimately, Jesus is almighty God who wants us to see him clearly.

So we understand God through Jesus. We see how God is like us and how he is unlike us based upon what we see in Jesus. He comes to live with us. He eats with us. He experiences pain like us. He has family responsibilities, experiences adolescence, and rejection just like we do. He comes to be human. How much more relevant could God be?

Then God contextualizes himself ever further by making us, the people of God, the body of Christ. As Christ’s presence continues to indwell us, the church, God continues to contextualize himself in all places. He continues to speak “in Son,” as Christ’s body, the Church, are scattered throughout every country in the world.

And so our role has an incredibly high calling.  While we might measure our relevance by how well we can track youth culture, is it possible that we’ve kept in touch with culture, but have fallen out of touch with God?  And if so, contextualization fails.

So what does this mean for me? Should I get rid of my Play Station 2 and pitch my dating talks?  Not necessarily, but what if we were to take seriously our divine purpose to clearly teach, explain, and show the real Jesus to this emerging generation?  While Jesus is relevant, he is also gloriously holy, righteous, and perfect.  He is the author and sustainer of all things and the only one worthy of our total devotion and worship.  May this be the Jesus to whom we are pointing students. May we paint a clear picture of him through great exegetical communication, biblical modeling, and servant leadership.  And may our cry of “Jesus for this generation” answer with the cry of “this generation for Jesus.”

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