Contextualization Assessment Starter
1. Do you know the story of the particular community or culture that you are called to?
2. If you know the story, what are the barriers to the gospel? List 3 Barriers to the Gospel.
3. What is the message and medium of the gospel for your community? Through what tangible forms would you demonstrate the gospel to your community? List 3 tangible ways to demonstrate the Gospel in “rhythm”.
4. In your community, do you know the personal life stories of any unbelievers? What are some ways you can get to know the personal stories of unbelievers around you?
5. What are the forms of celebration that unbelievers in your culture engage in?
6. How are you leading (or how could you lead) the believers in your community to either create celebrations that un-believers can engage in or join un-believers in their celebrations?
7. Does your faith community have a clearly identifiable “people group” and mission to whom they are focusing their prayers, activities and resources? If so, who is it? If not, how can you find one?
8. If the answer to #7 is yes, is there a group of believers working together toward that mission on a regular basis? And if so, how?
9. Do the believers that are working on mission together know each other’s life stories? Do you know the stories of the believers you are ministering with? How can you get to know teach other’s stories?
10. How often do the believers gather together to eat meals, celebrate and focus on a mission in their community together? What does this look like?
11. What form of serving do you think would best communicate the gospel to the community you live in?
12. Are you able to clearly articulate the Story of God (the gospel narrative)? How can you begin to tell The Story of God in a form that makes sense to your culture? List some ways to start.
13. Are the believers in your community equipped to know the Gospel Narrative (The Story of God) and demonstrate and declare it in culturally appropriate ways in their community? What are some ways you can start NOW to equip them to Tell The Story?
14. Would you say that the unbelievers in your community would grieve the loss of your church if your were to “close the doors” and the believers left the community? What would it look like to be the Church in such a way that the city would grieve if you all left?
More Questions for Personal Application…
Q: Are you aware of where the gospel could bring healing to your own life story? If so, where in your life story did you begin to believe a false gospel?
Q: How does the gospel re-inform your story?
Q: Which parts of the gospel narrative do you need to remind yourself of in order to both live out the gospel AND live out the mission of the gospel?
