1. Practice Discipleship:Theories of CultureA New Agenda for Theology, Ministry & Faith FormationRev. Nathan C.P. Frambach, Ph.D.

2. Three (3) Assertions The Christian gospel and culture(s) cannot beseparated We (human beings) live within a pluriverse ofcultures Congregations are one of those cultures Workshop goal: cultivate an understanding ofculture that will support and serve faithful, truthful,and effective ministry in a missional age 3. Three (3) BIG Realities 1. Culture(s) 2. Context 3. Narrative (story) The cultural turn from text to context: Scholars ofreligion have turned more and more to the interactionsand relationships between religion and culture, and todo that requires embedding religion in its contexts.(Religion and Culture, p. xii) In other words: understanding specific religiousbeliefs/practices (e.g. Christianity) entails descendinginto detail and engaging specific cultural context 4. What is Culture? Heres a topic: culture. Discuss. The question is: What is culture? Engage. Begin.Discuss. This should be difficult, perhaps even frustrating. Why? Because the notion of culture is inherentlyabstract and nebulous Check out the Websteresque definition, specifically#5 5. Culture: Not Generalized Generalized (decontextualized) attempts to understandculture are seldom helpful unless youre writing a textbook Its an old analogy, but asking someone to describe theirculture is like asking a fish to describe water (assuming youcan find a talking fish)its hard to see it when you are in it Culture includes all the things a group does togetherCulture is who we are and the world we have created to livein. It is the predictable patterns of who does what and habitualstrategies for telling the world about the things held mostdear. (Nancy Ammerman, Studying Congregations, p.15; pp.78-79) 6. Culture: Beyond Dictionary.com To paraphrase anthropologist Clifford Geertz, any roadto truly understanding a culture runs through theparticular and means descending into detail Or, Shrek was rightlike ogres and onions, cultureshave layers Understanding culture begins with the outer layerobservable behavior, customs, rituals, symbols,language, etc. Thats why we need to shift our attention to particularcultural contexts, specifically, congregations 7. What about coNteXt? Heres another topic: context. Describe your ministry contextthe social contextof the congregation (e.g., neighborhood, largercommunity) as well as the congregation itself. Bespecific. So howd that go? Easier than the earlierconversations about culture? Probably sobecause contexts are more specific.And describing them is more like telling a story. 8. Congregation as context Each congregation sees it self as a community of God,dedicated to sacred things. Yet congregations are alsosocial institutionsthey are places where peopleinteract, working with one another and servingconstituentsthe congregation is analyzed as a unit, andas a unit interacting with other units in society: people,organizations, and culturesEven as it is dedicated toGod, your congregation is a human institution located inhistory (the date of its founding to the present), in aspecific place in geography (your community), and in thelives of its members (the network maps of their lives). Eiesland & Warner, Studying Congregations, pp. 4043) 9. Descend Into Detail A deliberate, specific focus on context means at least two(2) things for leadership in ministry: 1. Moving beyond a theology as projectile view ofcongregational context and unearthing the theology thatis embedded there 2. In order to do this we need to learn how to carefullyattend to the context without rushing to impose atheology on it This demands some tools from the social sciences (e.g.,ethnography, interviews, congregational timeline)anew skill-set for many of us, but skills that can belearned 10. Ethnography, for example Its beyond the scope of this workshop to get intothese various approaches Studying Congregations is an excellent resource(particularly chapter 7) Ethnography is a focused, disciplined attentivenessto a particular context with the goal ofunderstanding it better It is a kind of holy listening that pays close attentionto narrative and stories 11. Narrative & Storied Living One more topic for discussion: story Tell your congregations story Or tell a story about the congregation where you serve Or tell a story about a significant ministry experienceconnected to the congregation where you serve The point is to help us conclude with a focus on practicesthat empower faithful, truthful, and effective ministry 12. Three (3) Practices of Story We want to conclude by proposing some practices of story thatcan help us unearth signs of Gods presence and activity inspecific, cultural, congregational contexts 1. Dwelling in Gods Story 2. The practice of story hearinglistening, listening,listening 3. Story-telling and telling the Story One way to understand culture is to understand a culturalcontext, and one effective approach to understanding acultural context is a focus on narrativewhich begins with themutual relationship between hearing story and telling story.