Our family is hanging out in Maui this week.  We rode bikes down Haleakala yesterday and a couple things struck me as really out of place – churches.  They just didn’t look like they belonged on Maui.

They might not have looked so odd, except Mandee and I had a chance to visit a little church in Lahaina a few years ago that looked so much like Maui we just had to check it out – the walls open so you feel like you’re sitting outside.

All of which reminded me of my summer reading in missiology, contextualization and what it means to start a church “out of the culture.”  When people who follow Jesus create a church for people who don’t, it’s not surprising that you get gothic revival in the tropics. When people follow Jesus and form a church out of their faith and their culture, you get a church that looks like it belongs.  That’s intriguing and inviting.

Which kind of church are you starting?