Culture and the City Rethinking Contextualization for Urban Peoples

Abstract

Much of the literature and practice of missiology has focused on contextualization in homogeneous settings. As more than half of the world, including many of the least reached, now lives in cities, cultural heterogeneity is the new normal. Urban churches will need to think differently about culture and contextualization in settings that are so culturally diverse. This article addresses how older definitions of culture and ethnicity have misguided missiology and how we might adjust our understanding of culture and contextualization for urban churches seeking to engage the four billion urban dwellers.