Agents of Transformation: A Guide for Effective Cross-Cultural Ministry [Paperback]

Sherwood G. Lingenfelter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1996

Church planters and cross-cultural workers learn how to cut across cultural biases with the gospel, transforming without ''Westernizing.''

Product Details

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: Baker Academic (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801020689
• ISBN-13: 978-0801020681
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,145,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sherwood Lingenfelter (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) is provost, senior vice-president, and professor of intercultural studies at Biola University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Book Review: Agents of Transformation, January 23, 2010

By 

K. Schaub (NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Agents of Transformation: A Guide for Effective Cross-Cultural Ministry (Paperback)

Lingenfelter is a dedicated Christian anthropologist. His analysis of cultural situations gives any would-be "Agent of Transformation" a solid anthropological foundation for building and maintaining new relationships, studying culture and bias, and studying how the receiving culture thinks.

Lingenfelter believes a missional attitude of "dying to our own social and cultural prisons" is important if one is to minister cross-culturally to others. Much of the book deals with contextualization and accommodation in relation to biblical ministry. He helps the reader ask questions like: What accommodations can I make without compromising the gospel? What biases do I have that are not necessarily biblical and needed in order to minister to a different culture? What might acceptable worship look like in another culture? What things are biblically non-negotiable? What things are simply preferential?

This book is a good resource to have. But it can be really frustrating. Lingenfelter's books are usually incredibly dry, in my opinion, and this book is no exception. I would also guess that many of these ideas are difficult to put into practice. He does a good job of pointing out the signs of cross-cultural misunderstandings, however, I don't think he spends enough time telling the reader how to put these ideas into practice. I think there is more to ministering cross-culturally than to avoid the temptation of trying to sell our culture to the culture we are ministering within.

With those criticisms aside, I think Agents of Transformation is a good read for missionaries (and probably church planters in America). Missional thinkers have to deal with a constant tension between (1) remaining biblical in ministry to a target people and (2) dealing with the drivers of a new culture. They have to decide what is bad in a culture, and must go, and what is OK in a culture, and can be kept or tolerated. The missional thinker has to wrestle with these questions, trying not to allow their own home cultural biases to overtake their missiology, and trying not to allow anything to overtake what the Bible says about whatever matters they might deal with.

4.0 out of 5 stars Important model for cross-cultural workers, October 20, 2009

By 

mwilson "mwilson" (Monrovia, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Agents of Transformation: A Guide for Effective Cross-Cultural Ministry (Paperback)

Key insights and interpretive model for would-be culture change agents. Very helpful for those who would proclaim the unchanging gospel in any cultural setting.