The Call to Contextualize - by Jae Hoon Lee (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Equip Your Church to Reach Today's Generations

Are your church's outreach efforts feeling stalled? Do you sense a growing disconnect between traditional evangelism methods and the people you long to reach?

If you've felt that familiar methods are failing and trust has been lost, you are not alone. The Call to Contextualize offers a practical path forward for ministry leaders seeking to address this crisis of evangelism.

Drawing on insights from twenty-three years of effective ministry, pastor Jae Hoon Lee uses biblical examples, theological principles, and practical case studies to present an incarnational model for evangelism called accommodation evangelism that adapts the gospel message and methods to the audience's needs and cultural context while preserving the gospel's integrity.

In The Call to Contextualize, you will find:

• A theology of contextualization and accommodation evangelism. Discover how to effectively communicate the gospel in a way that is recipient centered, adapting the message to the audience's language and cultural context.
• Practical ministry application. Learn from biblical examples such as Jesus and Paul, alongside the extensive experience of Onnuri Church, to implement contextualized evangelism in your ministry.
• Biblical, theological, and missional foundations. Explore the scriptural underpinnings of a recipient-centered approach to the gospel, focusing on principles of divine communication and the theological concept of incarnation.
• Gospel and culture. Study how the gospel is conveyed through cultural forms, necessitating the church's adaptation of its methods to resonate with contemporary society while being faithful to the original message.
• Missional communities. Embrace the call for your church to become a missional community that prioritizes relationships as the foundation of evangelism and values reconciliation as a core expression of God's love for humanity.

This book offers encouragement and practical guidance to churches seeking to reach the lost with wisdom, creativity, and love. It's time to reimagine what evangelism can look like in your context. Equip yourself and your church to engage people with the gospel in ways that truly resonate with The Call to Contextualize.

Review Quotes

"The Call to Contextualize has the potential to further the bringing of the good news of Jesus to all people more effectively than any book I have read in the 21st century. . . . It is a book I recommend highly to pastors and church groups as well as to seminaries and schools that educate Christian leaders. I believe it will be a significant resource for the church to fulfill the call of Jesus found in Acts 1:8, 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth.'"

--Greg Waybright, president emeritus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, from the foreword

"Astonishingly, there has been a recent trend to oppose contextualization, a perennial staple in mission. This book aims to correct this regression, not only proving that it is a biblically-rooted concept but also including ministerial application from an experienced practitioner. But Jae Hoon Lee does not simply rehash what is old; he adapts contextualization for the modern world with his unique brand of accommodation evangelism. Missionaries and missiologists would do well to heed this as a way forward."

--Allen Yeh, dean and vice president of academic affairs at International Theological Seminary

"Gospel-centered, thoughtful, contextually perceptive, honest, and urgent: These are words and phrases that describe this important book. What Jae Hoon Lee has done here is given a careful and well-researched analysis of the decline of numbers and reputation of Protestant Christianity in Korea and then given us hope by showing the importance of knowing the context as we live into our calling as witnesses. The combination of looking at global trends with attention to specific Korean issues makes this a unique contribution for people East or West who care about the church's evangelistic calling. A healthy and necessary corrective from the many approaches today which do not live into the whole gospel and do not take time to understand the local and global context."

--Scott W. Sunquist, president and professor of missiology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

"Jae Hoon Lee has provided us with a timely, accessible, and much-needed reminder of the importance of evangelism in the local church. His focus is on the importance of adaptation to the cultural and individual contexts of the receiver as a means of contextualizing the gospel. Lee pleads that we abandon one-way proclamation and instead learn to listen, engage, and vulnerably identify with the surrounding culture. This book is important for several reasons. First, drawing on cross-cultural missiological insights, the book places mission back in the heart of the local church. It is a powerful reminder that contextualization is best done not by outsiders but by those from within their own culture. Second, while Lee engages theological and theoretical considerations, the book contains an extensive case study of the experience of Onnuri Church. Finally, the winsome, humble style of writing is consistent with the approach to evangelism the author is urging us to adopt, leaving this reader hungry for action. Let's do it!"

--Paul Bendor-Samuel, executive director of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies

"Most churches wrestle with how to do evangelism well. In a time when notions of what evangelism should look like vary greatly, The Call to Contextualize advocates a proven and promising approach. Anchored in solid biblical, theological, and missiological foundations, this book describes an audience-oriented, contextually sensitive kind of evangelism that puts people over programs. What distinguishes this book from many others is its inclusion of numerous practical examples of evangelism tailored to specific groups of people. Although this approach arises from a Korean church experience, it is flexible enough to be implemented in a whole range of local and global settings. I strongly recommend this book!"

--Dean Flemming, professor emeritus of New Testament and Mission at MidAmerica Nazarene University

"The church that longs to rekindle its spirit of evangelism will surely be helped by Jae Hoon Lee's keen insights in The Call to Contextualize. Following Calvin's understanding of God's accommodation in his revelation to humanity, Christ's incarnation of love and humility, and the Apostle Paul's strategic use of language and mission, Lee provides thoughtful and time-tested methodologies from his extraordinary pastoral ministry at Onnuri Church for communicating the gospel so different audiences can be reached with the unchanging good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. His creative and theologically conscious study will both guide and inspire congregations to a fresh season of reaching distinct groups in their churches and communities for the Lord Jesus Christ."

--Peter A. Lillback, president of Westminster Theological Seminary

"There is only one gospel, for it is the good news of the single great biblical story of what God promised and accomplished in history through Christ for the redemption of creation. But not only are there myriad ways in which that good news can be communicated, there are also as many ways of hearing and responding to it as there are ways of being human in the kaleidoscope of cultures and contexts. Jae Hoon Lee convincingly calls us to take that fact more seriously, with strong biblical validation and a range of creative and fruitful examples of audience-focused evangelistic initiatives."

--Chris Wright, global ambassador for Langham Partnership and author of The Mission of God

"We are followers of the living God, who is alive and active in every time, place, and culture. Thus, it is imperative that our evangelism reflects this reality. I have spent time breaking bread with Jae Hoon Lee while in Korea, and he truly has a pastor's heart, a depth of wisdom, a strategic mind, and a global vision. Lee's book reminds us of the relational, personal love of Christ, and it offers tools for evangelism shaped by this pattern and rooted in the unchanging truth of the gospel. I look forward to the church across the globe answering the call to partner with the Spirit that Lee has laid before us in this text."

--Barry H. Corey, president of Biola University

About the Author

Jae Hoon Lee (DMin, Gordon-Conwell) is the senior pastor at Onnuri Church and chair of The Gospel Coalition Korea and Handong Global University. He is chair of the Korea Lausanne Committee and served as cochair of the host committee for the Seoul2024 Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization. His books include Great to Good, and he and his family live in Seoul, Korea.