This four-part series explores the foundations of Christian mission through the lens of missiology, the study of God’s mission and our participation in it. It begins with the character and mission of God, then considers the nature of human culture, the challenge of contextualization, and the story of the church’s missionary witness across history. Together, these reflections offer a biblical and practical vision for joining God’s redemptive work in the world. Click here for access to part 1.
What is Culture?
Anthropology is commonly defined as the study of humanity, but more specifically, it is the study of human culture: the patterns of meaning, behavior, and belief that shape how people live together. Yet defining culture is far more complex than it first appears. Ebbie Smith offers a helpful starting point: “culture is the learned design or pattern of living for a particular people.” [1] From that foundation, we can identify several key characteristics of culture.
First, culture is shared. It is not merely the habits of individuals or even the collective behaviors of a group, but the common patterns that unite people into a recognizable whole. Second, culture is learned. Although we are born into cultural settings, we are not born with culture; rather, we acquire it through the process of enculturation. Third, culture acts as a script. It is not only descriptive, reflecting how people live, but also prescriptive, shaping how members of a group are expected to think, act, and feel. That does not mean culture is rigid or unchanging. While it is deeply formative, it is also dynamic. Individuals can revise their behaviors, and entire cultures can shift over time. [2] Finally, culture is largely taken for granted. As Smith puts it, we are “totally submerged in it.” [3] From within, culture often does not feel like culture at all; it simply feels like the way things are.
The Complexity of Culture
Because human societies are complex, culture is also complex. Charles Kraft proposes that we understand culture in terms of levels. Higher-level cultures tend to be more diverse, and they are composed of multiple lower-level cultures. These levels range from multinational cultures, to national or ethnic cultures, to subcultures, and finally to local expressions such as community or family culture. [4]
In addition to these levels, societies also include what Paul Hiebert refers to as cultural frames. Unlike cultural subsets, these are institutions or settings within a society that individuals move between—each with its own patterns and expectations. For example, within a single cultural context, the norms of a sports arena, a religious temple, and a workplace may differ significantly. People shift between these frames intuitively, adapting to each environment as needed.
This layered and contextual nature of culture means we should not view cultures as monolithic. While there are shared themes across a society, important variations exist. As Hiebert notes, “worldviews (a significant part of what makes a culture) may vary considerably depending on people’s age group, socioeconomic status, ethnic identity, religion, education, or family background.” [5]
The Layers of Culture
Understanding culture is complex in another way: each culture consists of what Lloyd Kwast describes as layers. [6] In any group of people, culture runs deep. The outer layers are the most visible, but they are supported and shaped by deeper, internal layers. These external aspects reveal what a culture does—its behaviors, customs, and practices. But to understand why a culture functions the way it does, one must look beneath the surface to the underlying beliefs, values, and assumptions that give those outward expressions meaning.
The most external layer Kwast identifies is behavior—the observable actions of a particular people. This includes both what a culture does and what it produces, such as tools, clothing, art, and agreed-upon symbols like flags or gestures [7]. These behaviors are shaped by a deeper layer: values. People act collectively in ways that reflect shared judgments about what is good, beneficial, or best [8].
Yet even values are not the deepest part of culture. Beneath them lies a culture’s beliefs—its shared perceptions of reality and assumptions about what is true. It is important to distinguish between a culture’s stated beliefs and its functional beliefs [9]. Stated beliefs may be expressed verbally or in writing, but they do not always shape behavior. Functional beliefs, on the other hand, are the ones that actually drive decisions, reinforce values, and produce consistent behavior. When stated and functional beliefs are in conflict, it is the functional beliefs that reveal what the culture truly holds to be true.
All of these layers rest on the deepest level of culture: worldview. A worldview answers life’s ultimate questions: Who are we? What is the nature of the world? What has gone wrong? What can be done about it? [10] This core layer is the most formative and often the least visible. While surface-level behaviors can shift easily, genuine and lasting cultural change must begin at the level of worldview. Only when a new worldview takes root will new beliefs emerge, followed by new values, and ultimately, new behavior.
Implications for Christian Mission
This understanding of culture carries important implications for Christians. To begin with, because we tend to take our own culture for granted, we often confuse cultural assumptions with Christian truth. This confusion becomes even more dangerous in societies shaped by a Christian heritage, where cultural norms may appear Christian but are not rooted in the gospel. Christianity cannot transform the aspects of culture we have already mistaken for Christian.
We must also be careful in how we engage with other cultures. Whether we are loving our neighbors or communicating the gospel across cultural boundaries, we must guard against ethnocentrism. We are not called to measure other cultures by our own, but by the gospel itself. Our aim is not to make others like us, but to help them become like Christ.
Finally, whether we are making disciples within our own culture or in another, we must become students of culture. We need to understand people all the way down—from their outward behaviors to their values, beliefs, and worldview. True transformation requires engaging every layer. Most importantly, we must help people see the world through a Christian worldview, offering them a biblical framework in which Christian beliefs, values, and behaviors make sense.
Bibliography
Flemming, Dean E. Contextualization in the New Testament: Patterns for Theology and Mission.
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005.
Hiebert, Paul Gordon. Anthropological Insights for Missionaries. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book
House, 1985.
Kraft, Charles H., “Culture, Worldview and Contextualization.” In Perspectives, edited by Ralph
Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, 400-406. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2014.
Kwast, Lloyd E., “Understanding Culture.” In Perspectives, edited by Ralph Winter and Steven
C. Hawthorne, 397-399. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2014.
Lovejoy, Grant, “Cross-Cutural Communication.” In Missiology, edited by John Mark Terry,
253-264. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2015.
Smith, Ebbie, “Culture: The Milieu of Missions.” In Missiology, edited by John Mark Terry, 235-
251. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2015.
[1] Smith, 236
[2] Kraft, 402
[3] Kraft, 402
[4] Kraft, 401
[5] Flemming, 119
[6] Kwast, 397
[7] Hiebert, 36
[8] Kwast, 398
[9] Kwast calls them theoretical and operating
[10] N.T. Wright, quoted in Lovejoy, 262
