SQJ Taipei

No… not the Toyota Supra… which was a great car by the way. I used to work at a Toyota dealership while attending classes at Ozark Christian College. Well… I didn’t work there at the *same time* as I was attending classes…. I’d go to class in the morning and then work at the Toyota dealership in the afternoon. Yeah. I *loved* getting to drive all the different makes and models… not just Toyotas… but of all kinds of cars. The Supra was a great car… very fun to drive. Here’s the 1992 model… sure is a pretty color ain’t it?

But no… the SUPRA I’m talking about is the prefix “supra-” and it comes from latin and it simply means: above or transcending.

It isn’t one of the most popular prefixes… not that anyone is making that list… in fact I can’t think of a single word that we’d hear regularly that starts with “supra-”.

But there is this really cool word I’ve been seeing a lot in “Elders and Leaders” by Gene Getz… it is this…

SUPRACULTURAL

So… we’d use this word to describe things that *transcend* culture. I love this word and I’ll have to be careful not to use it too much.

Here’s the definition of supracultural principles from Getz:

Doctrinal guidelines that grow out of biblical functions and directives and which can be applied in any culture of the world and at any moment in history.

Of course… his working definition emphasizes the biblical nature of such principles, but the term itself need not be tied to the bible.

The reason this term is so interesting to me is that discovering and implementing supracultural principles is perhaps the church planter’s most important task. It is tempting to look at success in one place… an area of the country or the world or across the street… and think that in order to see the same success that we just have to *copy* what they did. This may result in *some* success… but generally won’t work as well as hoped. Many books that have come out the last 20 years about church planting and evangelism and a host of other topics promote a certain “method” or a “kind” of church or ministry… and people spend *big* bucks to get the resources and start copying…. and sometimes with some success and sometimes not any at all. The degree of success using someone else’s specific model will generally depend on how similar the culture you are implementing it in is to the one you are copying from.

Wouldn’t it be best to always seek to find supracultural principles? These can be applied: “in any culture of the world and at any moment in history.”

If I read about a specific model… I think it is wise to view it all through a historical and cultural lens (the wise author would write that into his/her publication) and seek to find supracultural principles.

I think we’ve done fairly well discovering several (dozens) supracultural church planting principles… but I feel like I’ve had a tough time finding supracultural principles relating to the subject of this book I’m reading by Getz… “Elders and Leaders”.

I’ve read just over 50 pages… and this book has all the signs of being one of those books that really helps a person *focus* on how to look at and/or teach some topic. With all the resources available to us these days, I find it hard to hear because of the many voices. This book makes me ignore the rest… for now anyway. I’m not too good at book reviews… but I might post again about this book when I finish. For now… I can confidently say that any church planter needs to get this book now. I’m not saying that I’ll agree with it all - and neither will you - but I’m liking the way it is making me think.

Amazon.com link - Elders and Leaders by Gene A. Getz