Aotearoa New Zealand Association for Mission Studies

Abstract:

Speaking the Lingo:

Contextualisation as a Prerequisite of Mission to Pakeha Post-Christian NZ

Christianity in Aotearoa-New Zealand has never been deeply embedded in Pakeha cultural experience. To attempt mission therefore requires an engagement between faith and culture which remains as a journey to be embarked upon. In the light of waning plausibility structures, contextualisation is essential to local mission.

Setting aside the early period of mission to Maori, the Christian church arrived in this land as part of the cultural baggage which Europeans brought with them. It was transplanted intact and has remained largely exotic to subsequent Pakeha experience. The forms of faith have languished outside a developing sense of Pakeha identity. Together with an emerging post-Christian era in the West, these factors have begun to threaten the viability of the Christian movement in New Zealand.

Mission is hampered by the proclivity to import theological systems and ecclesial programmes which reinforce the essentially foreign nature of the church. Transformative mission will entail a process which is deeper than the adoption of strategies for the promulgation of an assumed fixed tradition.

Contextualisation allows members of a particular cultural cluster to pursue faith in their own words, symbols and cultural forms. It locates proximate analogies to theological motifs, allowing deeper appreciation of and participation in that which we indicate by 'gospel'. Engagement with localised social issues aids genuinely redemptive aspects of the faith. Commitment to mission among Pakeha demands an equivalent dedication to the challenge of re-theologising and reform.

Undertaking contextualisation calls for analysis of Pakeha culture and history, including such indicative themes as land, voyage, beating the odds and fair play. It also suggests the reframing of such traditional Christian symbols as sin, incarnation and reconciliation. Liturgy, polity, form and practice of the church warrant scrutiny.

In these and other ways, engagement with culture through contextualisation is essential to mission.

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