CT2010: Dialogue session 1 - Popular Culture as a Global Missiological Challenge

Popular Culture as a Global Missiological

ChallengeMargunn Serigstad Dahle, Tony Watkins

and Lars Dahle

media awareness

media presence

media ministries

Many media messages challenge our claim that Jesus is Lord, but asking key questions about media is an extremely effective way of provoking interest in that claim.

Popular culture

movies

music

books

cartoons

computer games

our cultural contextreflecting

shaping}

Popular Culture reflects the society it helps to create.

William Romanowski

serious missiological challenge

locally and globally

The Global Village

Marshal McLuhan

audio-visual tapestry

stories

Finland – Peru

No story exists neutrally as raw entertainment without reference to cultural beliefs

and values.

Brian Godawa

Surface

Middle

Deep

see it as entertainment

realise that there is a message

realise traces of worldviews

the story behind the story

identified and critiqued

We don’t see itbecause we see with it

Os Guinness

worldview

double listening

develop a Christian mind

relate the Word to the world

double refusal

escapism and conformity

double listening

listening to the word

listening to the world

How can we develop a Christian mind, which is both shaped by the truths of historic, biblical Christianity, and acquainted with the realities of the contemporary world? How can we relate the Word to the world, understanding the world in the light of the Word, and even understanding the Word in the light of the world? . . .

We have to begin with a double refusal. We refuse to become either so absorbed in the Word, that we escape into it and fail to let it confront the world, or so absorbed in the world, that we conform to it and fail to subject it to the judgement of the Word. Escapism and conformity are opposite mistakes, but neither is a Christian option.

In place of this double refusal we are called to double listening, listening both to the Word and to the world. . . . We listen to the Word with humble reverence, anxious to understand it, and resolved to believe and obey what we come to understand.

We listen to the world with critical alertness, anxious to understand it too, and resolved not necessarily to believe and obey it, but to sympathise with it and to seek grace to discover how the gospel relates to it. . . .

'Double listening', however, contains no element of self-contradiction. . . . These voices will often contradict one another, but our purpose in listening to them both is to discover how they relate to each other. Double listening is indispensable to Christian discipleship and Christian mission.

John StottThe Contemporary Christian, pp. 27–29

The Damaris Approach

39

Humans are God’s image-bearers

Humans are rebels against God

Culture is

wonderful!

CULTURE IS TERRIBLE

40

Maintaining holiness Engaging with culture

41

No single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’–Abraham Kuyper

Biblical Study

Damaris has great respect for the Bible and believes that it is God’s word. Damaris engages in rigorous study of the Bible’s content and context in order to understand and respond to it with integrity.




Cultural Study

Damaris has great respect for contemp-orary popular culture and believes that it is an expression of people’s search for answers to fundamental questions. Damaris engages in rigorous study of its content and context in order to identify, understand and respond to the underlying worldviews with integrity.





Biblical Communication

Damaris has great respect for people and their freedom, and acts as a humble guide to the Bible. Damaris invites people to consider and respond to the message of the Bible, including the answers it provides to questions raised by popular culture.





Cultural Communication

Damaris has great respect for people and their freedom, and acts as a humble guide to contemporary popular culture. Damaris invites people to evaluate and respond to the underlying worldviews.




truth

grace

integrity

humility

© Steve9091, 2007. Used under a Creative Commons licence

making connections

From now on, to be holy means to cross boundaries, to connect with others and to welcome the very people who had previously been ‘outside the door’. In the eyes of Jesus of Nazareth, the greatest sin is not to be connected to those whom the Father loves, on whose misery he has compassion, and to whom he wants to grant access to his presence.

Michael Herbst

shared starting point

shared language

positive interaction

The way to deal with the challenge of the media is to be better at understanding it than anyone else, and to be able to relate it God’s word.

?How do we understand Christian mission in relationship to popular culture?

What is the role of popular culture in shaping and reflecting our various cultural contexts?

What kind of missiological approaches to popular culture do we need to develop in our own cultural context?

www.engagingmedia.info

www.damaris.org / www.damaris.no

www.culturewatch.org

www.tonywatkins.org

twitter.com/tonywatkins_

facebook.com/tonywatkinspage

Entertainment & Humor

CT2010: Dialogue session 1 - Popular Culture as a Global Missiological Challenge