AEC2000

Assistant Professor of Missions and Evangelism, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana

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What else does it take for a church to faithfully and effectively communicate the gospel cross-culturally?

Love is the context for all mission. The job of the church, then, is not primarily to launch new programs but to form new faith communities. That is why the current emphasis on creating cell groups and cell churches is, I think, a healthy one.

So, if you are on the leadership team of an Anglo church in San Antonio, and the team decides that the congregation’s ethnic focus has been too narrow, the thing to do is not to immediately launch Spanish classes and add a shelf in the church library for books on understanding Mexicanos.

Or if your church is near Gerrard Street in Toronto, and the area called "Little India," the appropriate response is not to make sure that your members all know who Ganesh is, and that they all learn to like rogan gosht and masala sabzi.

However, you will certainly want to find ways for your members to personally get to know their racially and culturally different neighbors on their turf (in their, not your, comfort zone) . . . or, minimally, you will create the kind of atmosphere in your church activities that fosters the building of cross-cultural relationships.

This, too, has biblical precedent. When Jesus met up with Zacchaeus, he immediately invited himself to Zacchaeus’ home in Jericho. Likewise, when Jesus sent out the seventy-two, they were to stay in strangers homes. When, after the stoning of Stephen, the primitive church was scattered, its members, no doubt, had to do the same—they were forced to accept the hospitality of others.

From a bit different angle, if your church is close, for instance, to a Hispanic community, it may well be helpful to read up on Hispanic culture in America, but it will be much more helpful to learn firsthand what kind of Hispanic culture your neighbors represent. Understanding a culture or religion in an archetypal way is important, but it is never sufficient. For one thing, no individual fully fits the archetype. In New York, Latin life tends to have a Carribean flavor, due to the Puerto Rican and Dominican influence. In the Southwest, it has a Mexican flavor. In the Southeast, on the other hand, Cuban influence tends to dominate. Yet, in Miami, you have, not just Cubans, but all kinds of Hispanics.

Furthermore, each person, though a product of, and participant in, a particular culture, is a human being. Each has his own story. Thus, we learn that Philip didn’t just reach out to Samaritans in a generic sense, he reached out to Simon and to other individuals like him. And Peter did not reach out to a bunch of anonymous Romans but to Cornelius and his household.

So, it is vital that a church think of itself as essentially relational, not programmatic. That is not to deny the place of programs but, rather, to put the emphasis where it should be.

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Continue to Point 4 - A Clear-Eyed Look at the Church's Own Cultural Assumptions and Attitudes

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Taken from A New Humanity: Anabaptist Ministry Among Many Peoples (© 2000 New Life Ministries). Permission to reproduce for local church use only is granted. Provided by New Life Ministries, 6404 S Calhoun St, Fort Wayne, IN 46807, through its web site at www.NewLifeMinistries-NLM.org

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