Exegeting culture takes time

Rob Hadding, aka UberGoober, has written a profound statement on exegeting culture (and we thought nothing good could come from the Redneck Riviera):

It is the responsibility of the missional believer (church) to accurately exegete the culture into which she desires to introduce the gospel. It is equally her responsibility to accurately exegete the biblical truth she intends to introduce. The exegesis of the culture is not merely a diagnostic of the ills of a given culture, but also to gain access to its language, customs, heritage, and politics. The exegesis of the Scripture is not merely prescriptive to cure a culture’s ills, but to understand and be able to clearly convey the life giving message of the gospel. If the believer (church) fails to do both, it will result in syncretism or legalism, both of which are fatal to the missionary enterprise.

As I reflected on his words, it occurred to me that the exegesis of culture takes time, whether you're in Seattle, Melbourne, Nairobi, London, or the lush green valleys of South Wales. As we recently celebrated our third anniversary in a new culture, I am just beginning to sense a tiny bit of progress in understanding the nuances of "Wenglish" (a blend of Welsh & English), the customs of Welsh society, the highly-revered heritage of these valley towns/villages. I understand very little of politics, in Wales or England, so I still have a long way to go. And then I thought about the short-term pastorates of many North American colleagues—the latest average I heard was somewhere between two and three years. How can a person exegete the culture in such a short period of time? As a catalytic church planter, ((1 A catalytic church planter is someone who does the preliminary work of organizing and gathering an initial core group of people, then handing it off to someone else for the long term.)) I remember the "fish out of water" feeling when we moved from the city of Omaha, Nebraska, to a rural potato farming community in central Michigan. Like a different world; and yet both communities are technically part of the midwestern United States! Does God "call us to serve" in one community for just a couple years, until we "feel the Holy Spirit leading" to a completely different community, even within the same county, state, or country? Not if we understand the importance of cultural exegesis and biblical exegesis…these things take time. As Rob puts it, our failure to do these things can be "fatal to the missionary enterprise." A sobering word for all of us.