Contextualizing does not mean that your church needs to look like Northpoint (Atlanta) or Mosaic (LA). It may mean something very different, and a culturally relevant church in your community may look very different from culturally relevant churches in other communities. Yet, many of us miss that. Why? Because too many leaders pastor their churches in their heads and not in their communities. But the truth is, if you can’t pastor the people God has given you (not the ones He’s given Andy Stanley or Erwin McManus), then you don’t love them. John Knox said, “Give me Scotland or I die.” He had a passion for the people of Scotland. We need to have the same passion for the people where we are, and to love them and their culture.

Why say that bold part, iMonk? And why then ignore it?

Isn’t Dr. Stetzer saying frankly that “missional” does not mean “just like X” but “in the way the locals will receive it”?

So in that, why do you chide anyone for making that exact same point about what Dr. Stetzer says “many of us miss that”.