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What are some aspects of Christianity, as you practice it, that may be the result of your culture more than of the gospel? Have you seen churches of a culture other than your own expressing the gospel differently than you? In what ways?
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Pagan holidays is a big one for me. I don’t resist anymore because it causes friction in my marriage. I pray that my wife will see the error some day and want to do whats right in the sight of God, mostly for our own consciouses. Yes I have seen churchs who put more emphasis on rituals and symbolism rather than obeying the scriptures, putting thier own spin on worship.
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This question begs for self-reflection. I might have been so much a part of my culture that I cannot discern where my practice of faith is more cultural than Christian. Yet on the whole, I think that the practice of Christianity in my country is more Western than it is local. The faith was brought to us generations ago by Western missionaries, so our pews are straight and arranged in parallel rows, instead of chairs in circles. Our worship instruments are piano and guitar, sometimes with drums, instead of Chinese guzheng or cymbals. Thankfully, though, our worship songs have evolved into true Chinese compositions instead of Chinese translations of English songs. The church will invariably organize special programs for Good Friday, Easter and Christmas, but not for Autumn Mooncake Festival. The cell group or Christian education timetable will schedule appropriate breaks for Christmas so that families can celebrate it, but not for local ethnic festivals like the dumpling and mooncake festivals.
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I would say that some parts of evangelism have been modernized to a more one size fits all way of approaching it. Jesus Himself basically did evangelism individually with each person. He never did it the same way twice! Evangelism is a partnership with the Holy Spirit, not a factory output type of situation.
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people in every languages that accept Jesus Christ as their saviors mostly put worship in their cultural context. In the culture where I come from dance in traditional culture. But when Christianity came, many people received Jesus Christ as their savior. Instead of practicing traditional songs and dance traditionally, people composed worshipping and dancing song in traditional context and singing worshiping God in singing and dancing the way they used to do it traditionally.
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Where I attend church, many of the participants sing, pray, and worship God from their pews. Some even go to the altar to pray and cry out to God. The Western church is around seventy minutes long. I hope one day worship with other believers in different cultures where a church service goes for hours. (Be lead by the spirit of God)