primary or secondary cultural context

THE NEXT EVANGELICALISM - Soon-Chan Rah

church growth movement prioritized personal salvation/individualism at the expense of social justice/community - p. 97

church growth movement/megachurch rise revealed its captivity to western/white culture's market driven materialism by also awarding greater respect to bigger/richer - p. 98

Problem: racial segregation is justufied because churches grow faster along homogenious lines - THEREFORE BLINDING AMERICAN EVANGELICALISM TO GROWING PLURALISM! - p. 98

primary cultural systems or secondary cultural systems

primary = prioritize relationships
secondary = prioritize structures/institutions/services

primary = tribal, values people,survival depends on relationships & oral communication

secondary = industrial, impersonal, survival depends on knowledge & written communication, especially through machines .......p. 100

p. 105 = intersection of primary and secondary cultures is era of NT church: flourishing frimary culture of Judaism + emerging secondary culture of Roman Empire (note rodney Stark's 1996 Harper Collins book The rise of Christianity:How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religion Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries
* about 1,000 Christians A.D.40 to 4 million A.D.350 (56% of world population)
* conversions occured along relational networks (primary)+ care for diseased, poor
* news travelled the empire via good roads, trade