The first of four sessions by Margunn Serigstad Dahle of

1. Popular Culture as a
Global Missiological
Challenge
Margunn Serigstad Dahle,Tony Watkins
and Lars Dahle

2. media awareness
media presence
media ministries

3. Many media messages challenge our claim
that Jesus is Lord, but asking key questions
about media is an extremely effective way
of provoking interest in that claim.

4. Popular culture

5. movies

6. music

7. books

8. cartoons

9. computer
games

10. our cultural context
reflecting
shaping
}

11. Popular Culture reflects the
society it helps to create.
William Romanowski

12. serious missiological challenge

13. locally and globally

14. The GlobalVillage
Marshal McLuhan

15. audio-visual tapestry

16. stories

18. Finland – Peru

19. No story exists neutrally as
raw entertainment without
reference to cultural beliefs
and values.
Brian Godawa

20. Surface
Middle
Deep
see it as entertainment
realise that there is a
message
realise traces of
worldviews

21. the story behind the story

22. identified and critiqued

23. We don’t see it
because we see with it
Os Guinness

24. worldview

25. double listening

26. develop a Christian mind

27. relate the Word to the world

28. double refusal

29. escapism and conformity

30. double listening

31. listening to the word

32. listening to the world

33. How can we develop a Christian mind,
which is both shaped by the truths of
historic, biblical Christianity, and acquainted
with the realities of the contemporary
world? How can we relate the Word to
the world, understanding the world in the
light of the Word, and even understanding
the Word in the light of the world? . . .

34. We have to begin with a double refusal.
We refuse to become either so absorbed
in the Word, that we escape into it and fail
to let it confront the world, or so
absorbed in the world, that we conform
to it and fail to subject it to the judgement
of the Word. Escapism and conformity are
opposite mistakes, but neither is a
Christian option.

35. In place of this double refusal we are
called to double listening, listening both to
the Word and to the world. . . .We listen
to the Word with humble reverence,
anxious to understand it, and resolved to
believe and obey what we come to
understand.

36. We listen to the world with critical
alertness, anxious to understand it too,
and resolved not necessarily to believe
and obey it, but to sympathise with it and
to seek grace to discover how the gospel
relates to it. . . .

37. 'Double listening', however, contains no
element of self-contradiction. . . .These
voices will often contradict one another,
but our purpose in listening to them both
is to discover how they relate to each
other. Double listening is indispensable to
Christian discipleship and Christian
mission.
John Stott
The Contemporary Christian, pp. 27–29

38. The Damaris Approach

39. 39
Humans are God’s
image-bearers
Humans are rebels
against God
Culture is
wonderful!
CULTURE ISTERRIBL

40. 40
Maintaining holiness Engaging with culture

41. 41
No single piece of our
mental world is to be
hermetically sealed off
from the rest, and there
is not a square inch in
the whole domain of
our human existence
over which Christ, who
is Sovereign over all,
does not cry:‘Mine!’
–Abraham Kuyper

42. Biblical Study

43. Damaris has great respect for the Bible
and believes that it is God’s word.
Damaris engages in rigorous study of
the Bible’s content and context in order
to understand and respond to it with
integrity.
Damaris has great respect for the Bible
and believes that it is God’s word.
Damaris engages in rigorous study of
the Bible’s content and context in order
to understand and respond to it with
integrity.
Damaris has great respect for the Bible
and believes that it is God’s word.
Damaris engages in rigorous study of
the Bible’s content and context in order
to understand and respond to it with
integrity.
Damaris has great respect for the Bible
and believes that it is God’s word.
Damaris engages in rigorous study of
the Bible’s content and context in order
to understand and respond to it with
integrity.

44. Cultural Study

45. Damaris has great respect for contemp-
orary popular culture and believes that it
is an expression of people’s search for
answers to fundamental questions.
Damaris engages in rigorous study of its
content and context in order to identify,
understand and respond to the
underlying worldviews with integrity.
Damaris has great respect for contemp-
orary popular culture and believes that it
is an expression of people’s search for
answers to fundamental questions.
Damaris engages in rigorous study of its
content and context in order to identify,
understand and respond to the
underlying worldviews with integrity.
Damaris has great respect for contemp-
orary popular culture and believes that it
is an expression of people’s search for
answers to fundamental questions.
Damaris engages in rigorous study of its
content and context in order to identify,
understand and respond to the
underlying worldviews with integrity.
Damaris has great respect for contemp-
orary popular culture and believes that it
is an expression of people’s search for
answers to fundamental questions.
Damaris engages in rigorous study of its
content and context in order to identify,
understand and respond to the
underlying worldviews with integrity.
Damaris has great respect for contemp-
orary popular culture and believes that it
is an expression of people’s search for
answers to fundamental questions.
Damaris engages in rigorous study of its
content and context in order to identify,
understand and respond to the
underlying worldviews with integrity.

46. Biblical Communication

47. Damaris has great respect for people and
their freedom, and acts as a humble guide
to the Bible. Damaris invites people to
consider and respond to the message of
the Bible, including the answers it
provides to questions raised by popular
culture.
Damaris has great respect for people and
their freedom, and acts as a humble guide
to the Bible. Damaris invites people to
consider and respond to the message of
the Bible, including the answers it
provides to questions raised by popular
culture.
Damaris has great respect for people and
their freedom, and acts as a humble guide
to the Bible. Damaris invites people to
consider and respond to the message of
the Bible, including the answers it
provides to questions raised by popular
culture.
Damaris has great respect for people and
their freedom, and acts as a humble guide
to the Bible. Damaris invites people to
consider and respond to the message of
the Bible, including the answers it
provides to questions raised by popular
culture.
Damaris has great respect for people and
their freedom, and acts as a humble guide
to the Bible. Damaris invites people to
consider and respond to the message of
the Bible, including the answers it
provides to questions raised by popular
culture.

48. Cultural
Communication

49. Damaris has great respect for people and
their freedom, and acts as a humble guide
to contemporary popular culture.
Damaris invites people to evaluate and
respond to the underlying worldviews.
Damaris has great respect for people and
their freedom, and acts as a humble guide
to contemporary popular culture.
Damaris invites people to evaluate and
respond to the underlying worldviews.
Damaris has great respect for people and
their freedom, and acts as a humble guide
to contemporary popular culture.
Damaris invites people to evaluate and
respond to the underlying worldviews.
Damaris has great respect for people and
their freedom, and acts as a humble guide
to contemporary popular culture.
Damaris invites people to evaluate and
respond to the underlying worldviews.

50. truth

51. grace

52. integrity

53. humility

54. © Steve9091, 2007. Used under a Creative Commons licence

55. making connections

56. From now on, to be holy means to cross
boundaries, to connect with others and to
welcome the very people who had
previously been ‘outside the door’. In the
eyes of Jesus of Nazareth, the greatest sin
is not to be connected to those whom
the Father loves, on whose misery he has
compassion, and to whom he wants to
grant access to his presence.
Michael Herbst

57. shared starting point

58. shared language

59. positive interaction

60. The way to deal with the challenge of the
media is to be better at understanding it
than anyone else, and to be able to relate
it God’s word.

61. ?
How do we understand Christian mission in
relationship to popular culture?
What is the role of popular culture in shaping
and reflecting our various cultural contexts?
What kind of missiological approaches to
popular culture do we need to develop in
our own cultural context?

62. www.engagingmedia.info
www.damaris.org / www.damaris.no
www.culturewatch.org
www.tonywatkins.org
twitter.com/tonywatkins_
facebook.com/tonywatkinspage