Thursday Reflection for Week 1

Thurday's class focused on culture. So in small groups we tried to come up with our own definition of "culture," and then Ryan proceeded to lecture on the history of how culture has been viewed in the West. Most of the things that we were talking about I was familar with because of my background in sociology. However what struck me was the fact that in terms of missiology, no one in the West bothered to study culture and its effect on how people live their lives until way later. How are we to properly minister to people we know nothing about? And this just does not go for people and places overseas, but also has to do with our neighbors, co-workers, and friends. Ryan commented that this failure to recognize these social factors has caused two levels of faith to develop--unless the reality of God is at the core of who we are, we will create another surface level faith, while the core of who we are is deep into something else. He said that missions is supposed to help create this reality within people so that God is at the core. I really feel that these two levels of faith are at work within my context of college ministry. I think this is why students can justify getting drunk on Saturday night, and then go into church on Sunday morning. So what are the powers that we must identify and combat within the college context to allow God to penetrate the core of student's lives? And once those are identified will we be equipped to do something about it?