Contextualization

In every book and every article I have been reading on leadership the idea of CONTEXT has arisen. CONTEXT as a conceptual idea is tossed around in a lot of situations [contexts] but pinning down its meaning is like trying to pin fluid jello to the wall. This week however I have sat with three professors and 12 or so students and we engaged in an endeavor to do just that,
pin down the meaning of context. We asked questions like "What is contextualization?", "How does one determine one's context?" [also in the case of institutions and systems], "Who decides the questions?", "Who decides the answers.". It was all very heady stuff, hard to grasp and decidedly academic.

Always when I am in this type of setting, I am enjoying the heady, philosophical atmosphere of learning, but the other side of me is extremely pragmatic, "what does this have to do with real life?" or more importantly, "what does this have to do with the church and specifically our congregation?"

After the seminar I had more of these questions than answers so I decided to back up a bit and go to where I usually start on these sorts of quests for understanding; the dictionary.
The definitions of CONTEXT, varied more than usual from dictionary to dictionary, but I will paraphrase/combining what I read.

CONTEXT: a noun
1. the words or phrases around a word that help us grasp the meaning of the word
2. Situations, facts, environment, setting, of a situation, [or group of people say like a church]
that gives meaning, understanding to their identity

I thought that the definitions, varied as they were, really offer a good understanding of a word in context. Which also explains why I like to read a large bible passage than just a little one, because in its context we find broader meaning.

But the second definition, the one I was really after, wasn't so clear as a working definition.

For our church today [and I would guess most mainline churches also] context asks questions about who we are? Who we have been? What about our setting in a small town in upstate New York has influenced how we act, what we do, how we are church?

What seems to me to be part of the broader understanding of CONTEXT are questions relating to the setting, environment, community we find ourselves in currently? The context of our times, the setting of our day, the implications of our environment and reality of it's culture all have impact on who we are as a church but also who we are as individuals.

These are difficult questions of how our context affects our identity as a congregation. These are harder questions to decipher, i.e. Who are we? Who we seek to be? Who we will have to be in order to survive into this next generation?

I am going to be pushing us in this direction, seeking a clearer identity, asking what is our CONTEXT and how does that change or direct we should be. We will have to pray that the spirit shows us the way. But truly questions of CONTEXT, are going to be most important as we seek to grow in faith and service.

More work today, more prayers for the day.
God is good and always God is good.