Translation, and Going Local

"If we take the Incarnation seriously, mission becomes more like translation than ideological, territorial, or even spiritual conquest. God models translation by pouring out the divine self into human form; as Walls puts it, 'The Incarnation is God's perfect translation.' God is an unapologetic locavore, using local means (human biology, local customs and languages, and cultural institutions like families and religious communities) to translate the good news of salvation into human form. And then, Christ sends us into the world as translations of God's love as well--'lesser translations, to be sure,' says Walls--but translations nonetheless."

-pg 97, Almost Christian: What the Faith of Our Teenagers is Telling the American Church, by Kendra Creasy Dean