Transforming Culture
A Challenge for Christian Mission
Sherwood G. Lingenfelter
Published: 1998-11
Pages: 192
"Lingenfelter's book opens with the valuable point that Christians are pilgrims on earth, participants in the culture of Christ. Going beyond the differences between 'collectivistic' cultures and 'individualistic' cultures, he identifies five different social games (hierarchic, egalitarian, etc.) which determine cultural bias and are used in the rest of the book to help identify ideas such as property, privacy, family and authority, dispute resolution and communication, the concepts of borrowing and repaying, and of labor and patronage. He provides helpful grids and a quiz, all to help the reader to identify his or her own social game. This is all valuable for someone preparing to go into the mission field, as cultural bias is brought into mission along with other baggage. It is a book that should be read carefully and thoroughly, as it could be overwhelming for someone preparing to enter the mission field to recognize the responsibility to be sensitive to the cultural games of the people group while at the same time evangelizing to this group" -- Amazon.com.