Transforming Culture: A Challenge for Christian Mission [Paperback]

Sherwood G. Lingenfelter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1998

In Transforming Culture, Lingenfelter sets out a model for understanding the workings of a society and then applies this model to conflicts missionaries and nationals often face over economic and social issues. Utilizing a plethora of case studies and personal anecdotes, he identifies the root of the conflicts and contradictory assumptions that make it difficult for missionaries and nationals to work together, and guides readers to solutions for transforming culture.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sherwood Lingenfelter (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) is provost, senior vice-president, and professor of intercultural studies at Biola University. He is the coauthor (with Marvin Mayers) of Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Baker Academic; 2 edition (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801021782
• ISBN-13: 978-0801021787
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #720,410 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

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of "Transforming Culture" for Pepperdine Missions class, December 13, 2005

By 

HeyBabyQuePaso "Erin Calderon" (Westlake Village, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Transforming Culture: A Challenge for Christian Mission (Paperback)

Lingenfelter's book opens with the valuable point that Christians are pilgrims on earth, participants in the culture of Christ. Going beyond the differences between "collectivistic" cultures and "individualistic" cultures, he identifies five different social games (hierarchic, egalitarian, etc.) which determine cultural bias and are used in the rest of the book to help identify ideas such as property, privacy, family and authority, dispute resolution and communication, the concepts of borrowing and repaying, and of labor and patronage. He provides helpful grids and a quiz, all to help the reader to identify his or her own social game. This is all valuable for someone preparing to go into the mission field, as cultural bias is brought into mission along with other baggage. It is a book that should be read carefully and thoroughly, as it could be overwhelming for someone preparing to enter the mission field to recognize the responsibility to be sensitive to the cultural games of the people group while at the same time evangelizing to this group.

Lingenfelter's many examples (the Aukans, the Yapese, the Javanese) are interesting and it is valuable that he refers to all people he describes (including Westerners) as "people", bringing credibility to the idea of working against "monoculturalism", so that no one culture is better or more evolved than another. Lingenfelter works hard to stay true to the idea of living according to the culture of Christ. He emphasizes submission and the cross as guiding principles for missionaries, who should be seen as benefactors instead of as servants, reminding the reader that the mission belongs to Christ and not to the missionary or to the church. His point on leadership and how it is easy to give power to church leaders, is a very important point that should be noted for missionaries as well as for church leaders at home- are we placing to much emphasis on our leaders and not enough on God? Is leadership given based on seniority or based on skill? It is important to note that Lingenfelter does not (explicitly at least), place judgment on any single social game (the Authoritarian/Bureaucratic social game is not better or worse than the Egalitarian/Collective social game). The question to be asked at the end of the book is not even which game is "better" but rather to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each game, (admitting our own weaknesses can be humbling), while at the same time asking is the culture of the church conforming to the culture of Christ or to the culture of the world?

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good For Understanding the Social Games We Play, April 14, 2002

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Adam Gonnerman (North America) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Transforming Culture: A Challenge for Christian Mission (Paperback)

"Transforming Culture" is a useful tool for understanding the social games we play. Lingenfelter points out how we unconsciously follow different social orders at home, at work, at church and in various other situations. He uses plenty of examples from mission experience in a number of cultures to apply this to church work. As a missionary in Brazil, South America I found this book helpful in understanding and interpreting the culture in which I find myself. HOWEVER, I do NOT recommend Lingenfelter's follow-up to this text, entitled "Agents of Transformation." This latter work is thickly technical and impractical, an example of how modern missiology is too often losing sight of reality. Instead, I would heartily recommend "Cross-Cultural Conflict" by Duane Elmer as a good read after "Transforming Culture."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars J. Wolfe, Graduate Student, December 13, 2005

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Jared Wolfe - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Transforming Culture: A Challenge for Christian Mission (Paperback)

Lingenfelter's work truly lives up to its subtitle, "A Challenge for Christian Mission." This work must be made elevated as a standard in the field of missiology, and must be on the shelf of every missionary's library and in the hands of every church mission board. This book will make all radically rethink their approach to integration within a target community. Lingenfelter deftly observes and analyzes cultures from across the globe and simplifies their social structures into four categories easy for understanding. An upcoming missionary should be aware of the social games that are played in his/her target group, and should furthermore be thinking on how to adapt him/herself and the message of the Gospel to be accepted by them. Lingenfelter's main premise is that he asks missionaries going abroad to take only the Gospel with them and instead of transferring their own culture with the Gospel to his/her target groups to allow the Gospel, and only the Gospel, to transform the culture of the target group while still allowing its indigenous sociological games to remain intact. Lingenfelter is speaking out against the imposing of Western styles of "doing church" on foreign target groups for mission work. His statement is quite valid.
Lingenfelter's work encompasses six sociological factors: property, labor and productivity, generosity and exchange, authority and the family, authority and community, and disputes, conflicts, and communication. He offers several cultural comparisons from his global research to illuminate his conclusions and to offer concrete examples of how one is able to adapt to new cultural standards and behaviors. He then calls for a transforming Gospel to be brought to these cultures, a Gospel that he defines as "a message free from cultural biases that acts only to liberate reached people from the powers of sin." This powerful message is an idea that has emerged in all new mission strategies. In fact, it is vital to continued success on the mission field.