Don Richardson defined the concept of redemptive analogy in his books
Peace Child and
Eternity in Their Hearts.
He explained how, embedded in a culture, there is usually some practice or understanding which can be used to demonstrate the Gospel. Findings these sometimes unexpected keys is sometimes called a gorilla moment.
Of course, the idea was not really new. Jesus used the technique all the time in his story-telling: "The kingdom of God is like ..." Many of the prophets used it too, and preachers down the years.
The gospel stories are so familiar to us, that we completely overlook the fact that Jesus' method of communication was totally revolutonary, used redemptive analogy within story-telling, and was something very close to street theater.
The concept of redemptive analogy is a part of contextualizaton - that is, presenting the Gospel in terms which relate to the particular culture. For two valuable pages on understanding contextualization, see:
Strategic Network and
Mission Review.
Increasingly, in a postmodern postChristian culture, we need to employ the same methods in evangelism. The Hollywood Jesus site is employing precisely this technique to extract meaning from current films. Of course, you don't need to dig very deep into Tom Hanks'
film The Green Mile - it's more than an allegory already! May God use it to turn many people to Him.
We believe that using a 'handle' or parallel with some secular truth is one of the main keys to using the Web (and indeed other media) for evangelism, because:
- it is meeting non-Christians where they are at.
- non-Christians are not, in general, searching for Christian webpages. But they are searching for pages on almost every other subject imaginable.
This approach is explained in many other pages of this guide.
Redemptive analogy links
Here are some interesting links relating to redemptive analogy, story-telling, and related themes. Please
tell us of others that could be added.
- Create INternational's excellent listing of resources
- Behold the Ox of God
Evangelical Missions Quarterly article by Joy Anderson. An explanation of bridges to the Gospel in the Dinka culture of Sudan.
- MovieGlimpse
Looking at recent film releases for spiritual meaning.
- Bollywood films - opportunity for evangelism based on redemptive parallels
- Awesome House
and Leadership U
More film pages which find Christian parallels in a secular movie.
- Christ the Tao
Exciting page by David Marshall showing how knowledge of God is universal, and also gives redemptive analogies from Taoism, Hinduism and Confucianism. Marshall is also the author of
True Son of Heaven: How Jesus Fulfils the Chinese Culture and
Jesus and the Religions of Man
- Lessons from Candles
Spurgeon's two long lectures filled with illustrations drawn from candles. He gave these lectures to show how easy it is to illustrate spiritual truth through everyday objects.
- Myth matters
Why C. S. Lewis's books remain models for Christian apologists in the 21st century. Lewis bequeathed us a method and a language for sharing the gospel with the modern and postmodern world. If you haven't read the
Narnia children's stories or Sci-fi trilogy, you have a treat waiting for you.
- The methods of Paul
Paul sought to find redemptive analogies when speaking to Gentiles.
- newWway.org
Essential insights for communicating in relevant ways to the modern world.
- The Worldview Clash
Don Carson argues that in our evangelism we need to confront people with the 'big story' of the Bible.
- What Will A Ministry Designed for Busters Look Like?
Explanation of why the buster generation is different from all those which went before.
"Busters are less likely to accept Christ as their Savior than prior generations. They are the first generation raised without the assumption that Christ is the starting place for religious expectations."
- The Gospel for shame cultures: a paradigm shift
Are we missing a key way of presenting the Gospel to certain cultures?
- Use of drama
Another Mission Frontiers article.
- Dramashare
Christian resource for drama scripts and much more.
- The methods of Jesus
Scroll down - it's not the top item.
- Translating the Gospel
Very significant and thought-provoking article by Mike Frost on contextualization and communicating the Gospel meaningfully - an essential read.
- Other options for Muslim evangelism
Contextualization item by Phil Parshall from EMQ magazine.
- Global Mapping produce a range of CDs including 'World of Islam' which contains a number of books by contextualization expert Phil Parshall.
- The Human Universals of Culture: Implications for Contextualization
Scholarly article from International Journal for Frontier Missions 12:3.
- Contextualization - Building Bridges to the Muslim Community
There is no community more needy!
- Beyond the fringe - reaching people OUTSIDE the church
The important of understanding and relating the prevailing postmodern culture.
- Global Mapping International
Top missions resource supply among other things a CD of 27,000 African proverbs, with ways to bridge them across to a Christian application!
African Proverbs mailing list is also a regular source of proverbs - check also Rev Peter Addo's insight into his Ghanain Ga culture and proverbs.
- Cultural Insights
Christian cultural research ministry whose entire focus is helping other
Christian workers identify redemptive analogies for the culture or group
they work with.
- Contextualization of the Gospel in Sukumaland, Tanzania
Different ways that African Proverbs, Sayings, Stories and Symbols can be
used to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Sukuma Ethnic Group and
other people in East Africa. As described in the two books:
"Towards An African Narrative Theology: Something Good From Africa:
Enriching World Christianity with African Wisdom", and
"Were You There? Stations of the Cross: Scripture Meditations as
Written Theology, Religious Paintings as African Symbolic or Visual Theology."
- 10 ways to avoid becoming a missionary
I am reminded of a very funny TV sketch of many years ago: the late (Jewish) comedian Marty Feldman attempting to get good terms from an insurance agent 'to insure himself against the danger of becoming Jewish'. What terms would be offered, perhaps, against the awful fate of becoming a missionary?
OK, we are not all called to be cross-cultural missionaries in person. And the mission field does start outside our front door. Or at the end of our modem. But it remains true that there are still huge needs overseas which can only for the foreseeable future be met by cross-cultural workers from outside those countries.
And, err, it's a funny thing, but there is one gender which seems twice as good at hearing God's voice, if their numbers overseas are a reflection of it.
Mission statesman and author Stewart Dinnen's short article is just a little bit challenging.
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