What is "contextualization" or "contextualized ministry"?
These are terms that have become quite common among missionary circles in recent years. And are probably defined differently by different groups, academics, and missionary personnel. For us here in the Thailand Covenant Church, we seldom use these words except when talking to other interested parties; for us, they are best defined by the translation of the Thai words that we actually use: "To allow Jesus to be reborn in the local culture." In other words, stripping the Gospel of its Western trappings and allowing it to come alive in a way that makes sense to the people in the local community, in our case, the people of Thailand. So, for us, not only does the church not look anything like Western churches, the church in Isaan (Northeast Thailand) don't look exactly like those in Northern Thailand or in Bangkok. Because the people in these different areas have different customs, different musical forms, etc.
This will probably all make more sense if seen in actual practice. Rev. Tongpan Prometta, the president of the Thailand Covenant Church, presented a four-hour seminar at the Isaan Congress in Khon Kaen, Thailand, in October, 2000. That seminar is translated into English in four parts:
A lengthy paper by Paul DeNeui, Voices from Asia: Communicating Contextualization Through Story, incorporates most of the above seminar and adds other material. The Table of Contents, with links to each section, is below:
A story, What Happened When Grandma Danced provides another illustration of how contextualized ministry in Isaan developed.
Following are some papers related to contextualizing the Gospel within the Thai culture:
The Significance of Phra See Ahn for Northeastern Thai Buddhists -- Translation of an interview with a Thai church leader regarding a Buddhist prophecy.Strings: Media for Gospel Communication in Northeast Thailand -- A paper by Paul Deneui (2002) which analyzes the Thai practice of string-tying and how it can be integrated within contextualized church ministry.
Contextualizing with Thai Folk Buddhists -- A paper written by Paul DeNeui (2002) which gives a background, description, and analysis of ministry within the folk Buddhist culture found in Thailand.