Posted on November 1st, 2008 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Contextualization • Culture • Evangelism • Missional • Outreach
Categories: Evangelism
passion for the Great Commission
From the outset of this article, I want to be clear that I believe in and promote evangelism. One of my ministries offered to our FEB churches through Northwest and FEBInternational is that of coaching for evangelism following the grassroots method of encouraging Significant Conversations. Furthermore, it is not my intention [...]
Posted on October 1st, 2008 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Culture • Islam • Language • Missionary • Religion • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Contextualization
What kind of God commands people to strap bombs to their bodies and blow up crowds of people? What kind of God tells people to drive passenger planes into the sides of buildings? What kind of God commands parents to kill their children? What kind of God would come to one of his worshippers and [...]
Posted on August 5th, 2008 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Bible Version • Communication • Culture • Language • Sindhi • Training • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Bible Translation
Both literal or “word for word” translations as well as meaning-based or “thought for thought” translations are legitimate representations of the original biblical manuscripts. Each style of translation has strengths and weaknesses in providing readers access to the content of the biblical writings in their own language. The argument in these articles is that a [...]
Posted on June 1st, 2008 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Ethnic • Intercultural • Language • Leadership • Training
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
NOTE: A companion workshop to these articles is available to multi-ethnic churches that provides information, exercises and interaction to encourage the implementation of those disciplines that promote healthy intercultural relationships. Please contact Mark at mark.naylor@twu.ca
Whose rules rule?
In the innovative cultural simulation game, Barnga, created by Sivasailam Thiagarajan, groups of people play a simple card game [...]
Posted on May 1st, 2008 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Ethnic • Intercultural • Language • Multicultural • Sindhi
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
NOTE: A companion workshop to these articles is available to multi-ethnic churches that provides information, exercises and interaction to encourage the implementation of those disciplines that promote healthy intercultural relationships. Please contact Mark at mark.naylor@twu.ca
The High Power Distance / Low Power Distance1 Culture Clash
HPD = High Power Distance [...]
Posted on April 8th, 2008 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Dialogue • Ethnic • Intercultural • Language • Leadership • Missions • Multicultural • Sindhi
Categories: Culture and Worldview
NOTE: A companion workshop to these articles is available to multi-ethnic churches that provides information, exercises and interaction to encourage the implementation of those disciplines that promote healthy intercultural relationships. Please contact Mark at mark.naylor@twu.ca
The Power Distance Contrast
In Pakistan there is a strong tradition of “holy men” who are called Pirs. One day I [...]
Posted on March 3rd, 2008 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Culture • Ethnic • Intercultural • Language • Leadership • Missions • Multicultural
Categories: Culture and Worldview
NOTE: A companion workshop to these articles is available to multi-ethnic churches that provides information, exercises and interaction so that those disciplines that promote healthy intercultural relationships can be implemented. Please contact Mark at mark.naylor@twu.ca
Multicultural Fragmentation
The story of Babel (Gen 11) records the story of the first failure of an intercultural enterprise. Since [...]
Posted on December 3rd, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Culture • Dialogue • Evangelism • Intercultural • Missional • Missionary • Training • Worldview
Categories: Evangelism
The Common hunger of Humanity
What we as human beings search for and value in life is the “meaningful” and the “good.”
With regard to the “meaningful,” we are always trying to make sense of our world. Hopelessness, which is what we seek to avoid, is the antithesis of the “meaningful” and happens when the [...]
Posted on November 13th, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Islam • Missions • Training
Categories: Contextualization
Three ways to understand the Bible
My wife, Karen, heard a message by a young woman with no theological training on Jer 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you….” The young woman spoke of the verse as if it was addressed to us today and talked about the plans God has for us. Although [...]
Posted on September 3rd, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Bible Version • Church • Culture • Language • Missionary • Translation
Categories: Bible Translation
As a missionary involved in Bible translation for the past 18 years, I was disappointed with the tone of the article “‘Packer’s Bible’ now bestseller” appearing in the BC Christian News, August 2007 Vol 27 #8. During the course of celebrating the growth in sales of the English Standard Verson (ESV) – a welcome addition to [...]
Posted on August 1st, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Contextualization
“That’s just NOT right!” exclaimed a woman in a Bible study I was conducting. The object of her disapproval was Naomi’s instructions for Ruth to approach Boaz while he was sleeping (see Ruth 3). She was correct in that she recognized the inappropriateness of such an action within our society. She was [...]
Posted on July 1st, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Leadership • Training
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
(This is an edited reprint from FEBInternational’s publication “Focal Point”)
“There are too few trained leaders!” This statement jumped out at me from my browser one morning a short while ago. Although the Operation World web page was referring to Burkina Faso, this statement describes many countries with thousands of young Christians [...]
Posted on June 1st, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Culture • Language • Sindhi • Translation
Categories: Bible Translation
Many years before I was involved in Bible translation, I happened to be in the public library and I picked up a copy of The Three Muskateers. A different copy of the same book was also lying on the shelf. I opened the second copy and was astounded to find that [...]
Posted on May 5th, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Cross-Cultural • Culture • Ethnic • Multicultural • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
What is culture? There is a current debate (National Post, March 2-, 2007) about whether fashion should be classified as culture, with implications for government funding. Canada has policies promoting “multiculturalism.” I have read books and heard sermons concerning the need for Christians to remain separate from “the prevailing culture.” [...]
Posted on March 5th, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Culture • Language • Missional • Missionary • Missions
Categories: Missional Church
Validating Missional and Communal
“Attractional” churches according to Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch are those congregations that develop “programs, meetings, services, or other ‘products’ in order to attract unbelievers into the influence of the Christian community.” They argue that this approach is “increasingly ineffective” and is the result of “old Christendom” [...]
Posted on February 5th, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Culture • Leadership • Missional • Missions
Categories: Missional Church
A Fatal Trend
When we were missionaries in Pakistan there was a time when “church planting” became the standard for our team - it was the tie to church planting that validated the ministries we were involved in. However, the demand for a direct church planting connection resulted in an analysis and [...]
Posted on February 5th, 2007 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Culture • Evangelism • Intercultural • Missional • Missions
Categories: Missional Church
In The Shaping of Things to Come, St Thomas’s Crookes is given as an example of a church that is shaped around its participation in God’s mission to the world. The basic level of the church consists of cells whose aim is to relate relevantly and redemptively with a particular [...]
Posted on December 5th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Contextualization • Culture • Islam • Language • Missional • Missionary • Religion • Sindhi • Worldview
Categories: Missional Church
An Inward or Outward focus?
Hudson Taylor was a pioneer missionary to China who recognized the need to immerse himself in the Chinese culture in order to relate the gospel to the people in ways that made sense to his audience. He learned their language, wore his hair in a pigtail, wore their [...]
Posted on October 5th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Culture • Leadership • Missional • Sindhi
Categories: Missional Church
FEBI goal: missional churches
FEBInternational, the mission arm of the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches of Canada, is a church planting mission and has been from its inception over 40 years ago. Recently under the leadership of the current director, Richard Flemming, this goal has been clarified as planting missional churches. This [...]
Posted on September 5th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Bible Version • Church • Communication • Culture • Language • Sindhi • Translation
Categories: Bible Translation
I admit it: I am doing Bible translation1 because I want to see the Sindhi culture change. I want to see people affected by the word of God so that they put Christ at the center of their lives. As people use God’s word as their guide to life [...]
Posted on August 5th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Culture • Islam • Language • Missionary • Sindhi • Translation
Categories: Bible Translation
Bible Translation Shapes Faith
A missionary colleague phoned me up quite irate about a translation choice in the Sindhi NT1. A couple of Muslim friends had dropped in for a chat and asked him why Christians did not pray like Muslims by prostrating themselves to the ground. My colleague replied that the Bible speaks of worship [...]
Posted on July 5th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Bible Version • Church • Communication • Culture • Language • Sindhi • Translation
Categories: Bible Translation
Importance of Clarity in Bible Translation
In discussing Bible translation and Bible versions with a number of people in our churches I have discovered a not uncommon assumption - that the more formal or literal a translation is in maintaining the form of the original language of the text, e.g., NASB, the [...]
Posted on June 4th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Sindhi • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Bible Translation
Accuracy requires a single standard
I remember seeing an ad for a new translation of the Bible claiming to be the “most accurate translation” available today. Although a good marketing tactic, it is less than honest because accuracy in Bible translation is relative to the underlying philosophy and goals of the translation. [...]
Posted on May 4th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Islam • Language • Missionary • Missions • Sindhi • Training • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Part V: Theological Basis for “Christ centered worldviews”
What would this worldview look like if Christ was Lord?
I remember the time a young believer brought a friend to me so that I could explain the gospel to him. We were living among the Muslim Sindhi people of Pakistan working with [...]
Posted on April 4th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Sindhi • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Part IV: The Benefits of “Christ-centered worldviews”
When translating the Old Testament in the Sindhi language of Pakistan or when teaching from the Old Testament to Sindhis I am constantly amazed at the similarities of culture and worldview. One believer enthusiastically exclaimed to me, “The reason why we understand the [...]
Posted on March 4th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Culture • Islam • Missionary • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Part III: The Problem With a Universal Christian Worldview
Paul Long tells of the conversion of a chief in the African Congo. Those bringing the gospel demanded that he renounce his charms and medicines before hearing the message, culminating with the destruction of his “life charm”.
“Teller of the Word,” [the chief] said, [...]
Posted on February 4th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Evangelism • Intercultural • Religion • Sindhi • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Part II: Worldview Clarification
Worldview distinct from Theology
In these articles I am arguing that we should speak of “Christ centered worldviews” in the plural, rather than claim that there is only one “Christian worldview” that is correct to which all people should conform. It is important to realize that “worldview” is very [...]
Posted on January 4th, 2006 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Missions • Sindhi • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Part I: Communication within worldviews
It is quite common to come across the phrase “The Christian Worldview” in evangelical writings. I believe that this phrase is unhelpful and misleading particularly for those involved in cross-cultural missions and I would propose an alternative. I believe that we should instead speak of “Christ [...]
Posted on December 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Culture • Islam • Religion
Categories: Contextualization
Jesus, No Justification for Sin
There is much politically correct rhetoric about Islam in this day of suicide bombers. For example, political leaders have proclaimed that “Extremism is not true Islam. True Islam is peace-loving.” Although politically circumspect, it is not all that accurate. Islam cannot incorporate Western values and remain uncompromised [...]
Posted on November 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Culture • Religion • Translation
Categories: Contextualization
Jesus, the Essence of Reality
I was traveling down a street in Larkana, Pakistan with a friend on a very hot summer day when we came up to a “T” intersection. On the sidewalk directly in front of us sat a beggar girl. She was crippled and lay exposed to the blazing [...]
Posted on October 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Missions • Short Term Missions • Training
Categories: Missions
A team of Canadian youth was involved with young people from another culture for an intense two weeks of ministry in children’s camps. They came back excited and impacted, but apart from relief at their safe return home, the church and parents showed little interest in the effect that experience had [...]
Posted on September 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Ethnic • Evangelism • Language • Leadership • Mentoring • Missional • Missionary • Missions • Training
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
The Need for Cross-cultural Leadership Training:
Why FEBInternational is developing
the CLTP program
“We no longer need ‘general practitioner’ missionaries here.” This comment from an experienced FEBI missionary points to an important reality in missions today: the need for quality personnel who can provide “value added” ministry. A guiding principle to validate [...]
Posted on August 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Contextualization • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Missionary • Missions • Sindhi • Translation • Worldview
Categories: Contextualization
Contextualization is an important part of missiology. This is the process of discovering culturally appropriate means of communicating the transforming power of the gospel. Authenticity requires the missionary to live out the gospel with integrity according to the assumptions and priorities of his or her own culturally shaped worldview. However, [...]
Posted on July 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Culture • Islam • Language • Missionary • Missions • Religion • Worldview
Categories: Islam
Religions do not bring people to God
H. Kraemer in his influential book, The Christian message in a Non-Christian World, builds a strong case for the inability of religions, as human constructs, to bring people to God. The revelation of God in Christ is solely a redeeming act of God, and not aided [...]
Posted on February 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Culture • Islam • Language • Sindhi • Translation
Categories: Bible Translation
A High View of Scripture
Walk into any store in Pakistan and almost inevitably high up in a corner the Koran can be seen wrapped up in expensive cloth and covered in fresh rose petals. Hand a copy of the Koran to a devout Muslim and they will kiss the book reverently [...]
Posted on January 4th, 2005 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Culture • Dialogue • Islam • Language • Sindhi • Translation
Categories: Bible Translation
Scripture as “supra-cultural”
One of the frustrations of Bible translation in an Islamic context stems from the Muslim belief that the Koran was written in heaven and is thus “supra-cultural,” that is, it is not shaped or determined by human culture or language. Although written in the Arabic language, the Muslim conviction [...]
Posted on December 4th, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Contextualization • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Evangelism • Language • Missionary • Religion
Categories: Contextualization
Learning to be an effective change agent for Jesus Christ in another culture is the goal of a missionary. This can be mistakenly reduced to methods of communicating the gospel message which do not reflect sufficient appreciation or validation of the existing culture. Cross-cultural ministry is not a matter of learning [...]
Posted on November 4th, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Culture • Dialogue • Evangelism • Islam • Missions • Religion • Worldview
Categories: Culture and Worldview
"I have become all things to all people so I could save some of them in any way possible." (1 Co 9:22)
Making Room
The beginning of missions is "making room" for others as they are; adjusting our program and perspective to match the concerns and priorities of another society. It is opening [...]
Posted on October 4th, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Missions • Pluralism • Religion
Categories: Culture and Worldview
In Canada we live in a pluralistic (1) society. How are we as Christians to respond to different philosophies, lifestyles, religions and cultures? What is the right attitude for those who believe in the exclusive claims of Christ? Should we appreciate other people’s cultures? Should we appreciate other people’s religious [...]
Posted on September 4th, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Culture • Islam • Missions • Pluralism • Religion
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Skepticism concerning One Truth
Billy Joel (1993) wrote a popular song entitled Shades of Grey which illustrates a desperate skepticism stemming from exposure to the convictions and beliefs of others:
Some things were perfectly clear, seen with vision of youth
No doubts and nothing to fear, I claimed the [...]
Posted on August 4th, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Culture • Evangelism • Pluralism • Religion
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Adapted from Crucial Issues for Christian Mission 5.3 Living in a Pluralistic Society
by Mark Naylor Oct, 2002
Through our church Karen and I run an unconventional Bible study which we affectionately call our "heretics Bible study". Within this group we welcome unorthodox opinions and encourage questions that reflect belief [...]
Posted on July 4th, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Culture • Dialogue • Evangelism • Islam • Missionary • Missions • Pluralism • Religion • Sindhi
Categories: Culture and Worldview
Approaches to Interfaith Dialogue
E. Stanley Jones was a Methodist missionary in India during the first half of the 1900s who was a strong advocate of interfaith dialogue. He set the rules for his "round table talks" so that "no one argue, no one try to make a case, no one talk [...]
Posted on February 3rd, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Culture • Language • Sindhi • Translation
Categories: Bible Translation
Is Meaning Related to Form?
A colleague in Pakistan more familiar with Sindhi(1) poetry than I am, recently pointed out some similarities between the Song of Deborah in the book of Judges and a type of Sindhi poetry called "qawwali." He noted that both qawwalis and the Song of Deborah range [...]
Posted on January 3rd, 2004 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Cross-Cultural • Culture • Language • Mentoring • Missionary • Sindhi • Worldview
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
Before my wife, Karen, and I went to Pakistan in 1985 we learned the LAMP (Language Acquisition Made Practical) method of language learning. Although I often wished the course had been better tailored to suit my ability (perhaps LAMPSSSSS - Language Acquisition Made Perfectly Smooth Sailing for the Simple minded [...]
Posted on November 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Culture • Islam • Missionary • Missions • Religion • Sindhi • Worldview
Categories: Contextualization
One of the greatest shocks a missionary faces when entering a new culture with the gospel is the discovery that other religions can teach us important spiritual lessons. I can still vividly picture the follower of Sufism (a mystical philosophy of Islam) who taught me a good lesson. He stood before me [...]
Posted on October 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Ethnic • Intercultural • Language • Mentoring • Religion • Sindhi • Training • Worldview
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
<p>While we were learning the Sindhi language in Pakistan during the 1980s my wife, Karen, tried to discover the word for "share" and was given a word essentially equivalent to the English "give". The problem was that "share" is a concept based on a principle of individual ownership and the permission required for another to [...]
Posted on September 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Dialogue • Language • Leadership • Mentoring • Missionary • Missions • Training • Translation
Categories: Cross-cultural leadership training
The people in the best position to teach others are those who are actually involved in doing the task that needs to be taught. This conviction is behind the goal of creating an experience-based mentored environment for the training of cross-cultural ministers through Northwest Baptist Seminary (www.nbseminary.com/), located on the [...]
Posted on June 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Evangelism • Islam • Leadership • Missionary • Missions • Sindhi
Categories: Contextualization
Karen and I worked in evangelism and church planting for 10 years among the Sindhi Muslim people in Pakistan. Although our goal was to plant a church and a number of Sindhis became followers of Christ, we were not successful in establishing a "3-selfs" church (self-governing, self-supporting, self-propogating). Whenever we [...]
Posted on May 3rd, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Communication • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Islam • Language • Missionary • Sindhi • Training • Translation
Categories: Bible Translation
The Perfect Translation Illusion
The translation of Scripture into other languages is a cross-cultural mission activity that enjoys enthusiastic support in evangelical circles. But curiously this support is coupled with wide spread ignorance concerning what constitutes an accurate Bible translation. There seems to be an illusion that the perfect translation is [...]
Posted on February 1st, 2003 by Mark Naylor
Tags: Church • Cross-Cultural • Culture • Missionary • Missions • Pluralism
Categories: Missions
Global technological and political developments have changed the face of the world and altered forever the way the church can participate in God’s work of establishing his kingdom. The great gods of science and secularism of the 20th century are making room for the pluralism and skepticism of the postmodern mind. An increasing [...]