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Making the Truth Culturally Relevant
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 Eagerly Nikolai sits down at the eLearning Center in Ukraine to work on his Bible
study course. As the pastor of two village churches, he is grateful for the opportunity for “on-the-job training." He's troubled, however, by one of his assignments when he's asked to read a passage from
three different translations of the Bible and compare them. He feels fortunate to have one
translation! Why would he need
three?
Andrei is pursuing his degree in biblical education by taking a course in Survey of Theology at an Internet café in Kiev. He's really enjoying the course until he gets to the section which explains that each year there are students of theology who admit that they thought they were Christians but now realize that they are not. Perhaps they had wrong motives or failed to exercise genuine saving faith. Andrei is asked if he has doubts about his original commitment to Christ. If so, he should write out a description of his current understanding of what Christ did for him and a prayer that explains and confirms his acceptance of Christ's sacrifice for his sins. Since his father was actually put in prison because of his faith, Andrei is confused by this assignment. Why would someone SAY
that he is a Christian when he
isn't?
Both of these scenarios are, fortunately,
hypothetical. Such course assignments, appropriate for American culture but inconceivable in Europe, have been replaced with
learning activities that are more culturally relevant. A team of teachers, each with experience in Europe, recently reviewed several distance learning courses
looking for “Americanisms” in the
graphics, text, illustrations, and
assignments that might be effective in
North America but not in Europe. God's Word transcends cultural boundaries, but it takes some forethought to explain it in ways that people can understand. Pray with us that we will be culturally and spiritually sensitive as we seek to “correctly explain the
word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15).
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