“The Christ who is presented in Scripture for our believing is Lord over all cultures, and His purpose is to unite all of every culture to Himself in a unity which transcends without negating the diversities of culture.” –Lesslie Newbigin
As someone who wants to go into cross-cultural ministry of some sort, this idea has plagued me for quite some time. It is the idea that, as we relate to people of other cultures (whether that means the homeless in our city or residents of an African mud hut village) we must embrace the differences between cultures, while not allowing one culture to dominate. It seems to me that whatever you do while ministering to people cross-culturally, one culture is always going to take precedence over the other.
The Native Americans discovered this the hard way when the Europeans came and “Christian-ized” them, making them wear European clothes and learn English and go to European-style schools and thereby forbidding them from learning tribal customs and connecting with their natural heritage.
It can go the other way, too, though. In trying to meet people where they are, it is far too easy to go too far and simply become one of the people you are trying to reach, forgetting why you came in the first place.
I guess my question is, What is the happy balance between taking over and being taken over? And how do you find it? How do you reach people with the Gospel of Christ without taking away their identities?
-Diana
Diana – that is the question, isn’t it?
That is the loaded question isn’t it? I’ve thought a lot about this recently too. I took Roger’s Intro to the Global Christian Movement course last fall, and we read continuously about missionaries who worked overseas in very diverse environments. I think the answer is simple and hard. It’s simple because our answer is in Scripture, it’s hard because sometimes we don’t know how to interpret. We have to spend some real time exegeting our own culture and deciding what we believe comes from God and what we believe comes from the West.
I know that isn’t much of an answer, but know that I’m scratching my head with you. This is kind of where I’m starting too!