Discipleship-based Multiplication and Syncretism
We remind ourselves that discipleship-based multiplication is a biblical mandate. In no place in scripture are we merely commanded to count decisions for Christ; we are given a clear directive to make disciples. One of the questions that we must constantly answer is how much does our expression of Christianity really reflect God’s Word and how much reflects our own cultural biases. In global missions many times the animist will intermingle Christian truth with his or her culture of consulting the spirits for direction in life and the tribesman may continue to maintain his shrine to his ancestors after professing faith in Christ; these are examples of syncretism. Syncretism is the blending of some Christian truth with traditional beliefs and cultural practices which leads to non-biblical beliefs and behaviors. Here is a pointed question for us in the West, “Would the consultation of spirits, worshipping ancestors, and/or mixing mystical beliefs with Christian truth be any less syncretistic than our mixing gross individualism (self-worship), hedonism (pleasure seeking), and materialism (everything measured by the monetary) in our expression of Christianity?” Absolutely not!!! This is by no means an attempt to justify ungodly practices in any culture. It is an attempt to awaken us to the reality that culture has indeed infected our expression of Christianity. Our syncretism tends to manifest itself in three areas:
Individualism – We simply enthrone ourselves, and everything is about me and mine. I am referring to people in churches whose complete expression of Christianity would be void if it wasn’t all about themselves. It really is a mixture of Christian beliefs in order to exalt myself and what I desire.
Hedonism – This belief that pleasure and happiness are the highest goal in life blends with Christian truth in the West to produce a very syncretistic expression of Christianity. For many, Christianity is nothing more than a vehicle for my personal comfort. Isn’t it interesting that Christianity has never found great inroads into a culture outside the context of difficulty and suffering; yet, we insist on our version that is all about our pleasure. (Stay tuned to future blogs for a discussion on Christ-centered austerity).
Materialism – This overemphasis on the monetary and the physical leads us to measure ministry with culturally motivated metrics instead of biblical measures. Ornate buildings, church budgets heavily weighted to the pleasure of the people who sit in the services, and an overall atmosphere of facilitating our self-centered lifestyles instead of carrying on ministries that transform lives all point to the fact that we are very syncretistic.
These are the things that we have integrated into our syncretized forms of Christianity. These things consume us and cause us to have a false sense of Christian purpose when, in fact, we have a purpose that is far from the one God gave us. In the next blog entry we will look more closely at discipleship-based ministry and why it conflicts with our culturally- based approaches.
