“Contextualization is speaking to people with their terms, not on their terms.” “Contextualization is not giving people what they want but rather it is giving God’s answers to questions they are asking and in forms they can comprehend”

Tim Brister completes his review of Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission by Darrin Patrick (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 238 pp. with Part 3: The Mission.

The first section of Church Planter answers the who question, the second section answers the what question, and the final section answers the how question—in particular how to be a church embracing God’s mission to reach the world. The remaining five chapters segue from text to context, from word to deed, and challenges church planters to match a robust orthodoxy with a vibrant orthopraxy.

It has been argued by leading missiologists like Ed Stetzer that the crucial issues in the 21st century will be found at the convergence of missiology and ecclesiology. While it may seem obvious, there is still a considerable debate as to what we are planting—i.e., what is the church. Churches take on various shapes and expresses, including micro (house church) and macro (megachurch), attractional and missional, and liturgical and contemporary. What Darrin Patrick does in the final section of his book is provide a healthy framework for thinking through the essence of the church, the posture of the church in culture, and the agenda of the church.

Darrin Patrick coaches us first on matters of the heart—having the same compassion for the lost that we see demonstrated in Jesus. He writes,
“We go on the mission of the Savior because we share the compassionate heart of the one who sees people as sheep without a shepherd” (176).

Patrick exposes ways in which our hearts are negatively affected, including busyness, hurriedness, self-righteousness, and self-protection, explaining how our participation in the mission is directly connected to the disposition of our hearts.

He proceeds secondly to matters of the mind—that is, how we should think about the church. Based on a working definition provided by Mark Driscoll in Vintage Church, Patrick unpacks eight elements of a New Testament church. Various models are described, including their strengths and weaknesses, while Patrick ultimately argues that none of the models are all that a church should be but rather be a “teaching, praying, awe-inspired, classless, possession-sharing community on mission” (190).

The chapter on contextualization address matters of the feet—how one engages the culture with a missionary posture. This chapter is perhaps the best summary explanation on contextualization in church planting literature, and I would argue the most important chapter in his book. Numerous definitions and descriptions are given from guys like Tim Keller, D.A. Carson, Ed Stetzer, Graeme Goldsworthy, and Mark Driscoll. Here are some worth noting:

· “Contextualization is speaking to people with their terms, not on their terms” (195).

· “Contextualization is not giving people what they want but rather it is giving God’s answers to questions they are asking and in forms they can comprehend” (ibid.).

· “A good preacher must be able to exegete not only the text but also the culture of the hearers in order to be a faithful and fruitful missionary. We are to bring the gospel through the church to the world and avoid allowing the world to influence the church and corrupt the gospel” (196).

· “There is no universal, de-contextualized form or expression on Christianity” (ibid.).

· “We take the unchanging gospel into the ever-changing culture so that persons in a specific time and a specific culture can comprehend the truth of the gospel and be saved by it” (207).

In his defense of contextualization, Patrick shows how God in redemptive history reverses the Tower of Babel at the event of Pentecost and accommodates Himself to His audience by giving us Scripture. He then proceeds to show how both Jesus and Paul practiced contextualization to make the gospel known and understood.

Patrick follows up with matters of the hands—how a church practically engages their community through mercy ministry, social justice, and other forms of deeds emphasis. The majority of this chapter is taken up in narrative form, sharing how his church (The Journey) has sought to care for their city with a hands-on approach.

The final chapter lies at the heart of Acts 29 and much of modern church planting directives—reach urban centers and seeing cities transformed by the gospel. Based on the cultural mandate (Gen. 1:28) and God’s direction to His people under Babylonian captivity (Jer. 29:4-7), Patrick argues for a perspective that is much broader than a church. He argues that churches should have a vision for the city. Although a much debated topic today, Patrick positively argues that churches should seek to redeem the culture by doing good deeds, being a blessing to the city, and engaging in all aspects of culture.

Critique
Darrin Patrick has written an excellent book, but there are a few matters of concern and critique. In the section on the man, I was somewhat surprised to find little attention give to the marriage and family life of the church planter. This was briefly addressed in the “qualified man” but given that so much stress and pressure placed on marriages and families, I believe this is a significant section missing in assessing the man called to plant a church. How a man leads his wife and children in apply the gospel, leading in family worship and devotions, and shepherding them through changes, difficult circumstances, and adversity is very indicative of how he will lead a congregation. Furthermore, how a church planter orders his life with God-prescribed priorities (personal devotion, wife, children, then church) is vital to the health of the church planter and the church he seeks to lead.

On the nature of the church, I question whether it is helpful to describe models of the church in such generalizations (187-89).

On the hands of mission, Patrick says relatively little about the basis and integration of deed ministry in relation to the Word. I would have liked to have seen Patrick wrestle with the tension of orthodoxy and orthopraxy and in particular how one’s theological influences their methodology.

On the issue of city transformation, Patrick asserts
“The basis for the Christian desire for the city to be renewed culturally, socially and spiritually is rooted in the past through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and in the future rising of all believers in Christ” (235).

This is a significant and controversial claim to make, and while I generally agree with his premise, concluding his book with such a bold assertion without significant warrant left me wanting Patrick to unpack this for us.

Conclusion
Over the past three years, I have had the privilege of getting know Darrin Patrick and the church he has planted. I can attest firsthand that he is the real deal, and this book is a tremendous offering from his life born out of his own gospel labors. While I can be charged with presumption to claim this book with play a leading role in training church planters in my generation, I don’t believe I’m far off in that prediction. There is simply no other book around with the same starting point, same emphasis on the gospel, and same level of healthy thinking about the church than Church Planter. It will be a required reading for future church planters both in the PLNTD network and future church planters being trained in local churches.

May our Lord who promised to build His church be pleased to use this tool to tweak and train God-called men on mission for the advance of His kingdom through planting healthy reproducing churches!

Tim Brister (@timmybrister) is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Florida. He describes himself as a Christian, Husband, Photographer, Cyclist, and Blogger. This review appeared at www.plntd.com, a network whose vision is to cultivate community for church planters and assist churches in the process of becoming church planting churches and is used with their permission.

[Editor’s note: The link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]