Many simple church networks in Europe are
engaged in cross-cultural church planting. But how do you do that? How do you
present Jesus in another culture? David L. Watson shares that it is important
not to impose your cultural views of Jesus and the church on the people you are
reaching. Doctrines are not wrong, but only fit in a specific culture. In
cross-cultural ministry we need to learn the people to obey Christ within their
specific culture and context. Instead of providing all the answers when reading
the bible, we ask questions so they can discover how to obey Jesus in their
culture. E.g. God commands us to pray, but how do you want to pray? Or, how
would you teach God’s Word? How would you lead a church? Read on to learn more.
When I was a kindergarten-aged Sunday school
student, I can remember my teacher handing me a piece of paper and some crayons
and asking me to draw a picture of Jesus. My church was not one to have images
of Jesus hanging or standing around, though I am sure I must have seen some
renditions of images of Jesus in books, Bibles or hanging on the walls around
my community. When I finished my assignment to the best of my young and
untrained abilities, my Jesus looked exactly like me in the ways that count. He
had white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. I loved Jesus, and was proud of how
I had drawn him.
As a college student I was involved in the
missions program of my student union. I was assigned to work among a group of
African Americans in my community. It was my first cross-cultural experience.
At one point in the ministry I had a group of young students.
One day I exhausted all my materials before
the time was up. I grabbed some paper, color pencils, and crayons and passed
them out. I instructed the children to draw a picture of Jesus. I was surprised
when the pictures depicted a Jesus with dark skin and African features.
Since those early days in my ministry I have
been fascinated with how various cultures depict Jesus. I have worked with
Hispanics, American Indians, East Asians, South Asians, Southeast Asians, and
Africans. Children from each culture will render Jesus as looking like
themselves unless taught to do differently. This is natural, and I think it is
a part of God’s plan for reaching the nations. Jesus is no longer flesh and
blood, as we know it. He is different from us. At this point in time we meet
him as the Holy Spirit represents him to us. He has no color, no ethnic
heritage, and no cultural distinctions except the holiness and righteousness of
God.
One of the challenges of being a
cross-cultural witness is presented Jesus in the same way the Holy Spirit
would. Jesus’ cultural heritage is the family of God. As the Creator, He made
all of us, regardless of our cultural identity, in His own image. As His
adopted children we have a responsibility to become like Him. We should not
introduce Jesus as looking or being like ourselves. He is not. And to represent
him as something He is not is a lie, first to ourselves, and then to those to
whom we wish to introduce Him.
Since 1977 I have given my life to the
ministry of cross-cultural witness on the behalf of Jesus. In the early days I
was trained to contextualize my witness to my host culture. As I understood
contextualization, this was basically to make Jesus acceptable to them by
dressing him up to look like them. Add a little makeup, change the clothes, use
a different language, and voilá, a Jesus they certainly couldn’t refuse.
But with time, the makeup I applied began to
run. The clothes wore out. And the language was always something short of
perfect. Jesus, as I understood Him, would ultimately show up, confusing and
sometimes offending my hosts.
Regardless of how hard I tried, I could never
make Jesus look just right to another culture. Even though I had had some
success in presenting my made-up Jesus to my hosts, it was extremely difficult
and tiring to keep the make-up fresh, the clothes new, and the language just
right. No matter how diligently I studied and researched culture, and built
relationships, I could not know my host culture well enough to present Jesus in
a perfectly contextualized manner. My clothes, food choices, language; or
adopted cultural forms of family relations, community involvement, or worship
were always slightly off at best, disastrous at worst.
I began to question contextualization. Perhaps
I just wasn’t cut out to be a cross-cultural witness for Jesus. I began to pray
that God would show me how to represent Him to others. And slowly, as all good
teachers do, God began to teach me through the experiences of others, my own
experiences, and object lessons that will never be forgotten.
Since 1985 I have been working in World A. I
have had to work in secret, and I have had to keep my identity well hidden.
Anything less could have resulted in the loss of access to the peoples to whom
God sent me, and/or the death of those who accepted Christ as a result of my
witness. A dressed-up Jesus was not an option. I was non-residential much of
the time, and didn’t have the time, or the inclination to keep the makeup
straight, the clothes new, and the language perfect. I had to learn another
way.
My first learning experience came when I had
the unique opportunity to witness to member of my host community. He was an old
shopkeeper who was well liked and had no problems with me as a foreigner. We
conversed almost daily. I liked him, and I think he liked me. I did not hide
the fact that I was a Christian. Everyone assumed I was anyway, since I had
white skin. He did not hide the fact that he was a Hindu. One day our
conversation strayed to religion. As a trained witness I was thrilled with the
opportunity. But, as it turned out, the opportunity was one for me to learn,
not to lead another person into the Kingdom of God.
The old man told me that he just did not
understand Christianity. There was no way he could give up his religion, which
was so much a part of his daily life, to accept a new religion which from his
perspective was so much NOT a part of the daily lives of the Christians he
knew. He began every day with meditations, offerings and prayers to his god. As
the day went on he would stop for more prayer and meditation. Each business
transaction was blessed in prayer, and each dollar made thankfully offered to
his god.
Everyone knew his devotion, and that devotion
was as obvious at home and in private as it was in public. The questions he
presented to me shoved me into some long and deep thought and prayer.
* “Why would I want to give up the god I can
see for one that I cannot see?”
* “Why would I want to worship only one day a week when now I worship several
times every day?”
* “Why would I want to do business without the presence of my god to oversee it
and bless it?”
* “Why would I want to try to convince others of my holiness with words, when
they can see my devotion to my god?”
* “Why would I want to let only words teach my children, rather than my life?”
This old man had a limited and distorted view
of a committed Christian’s life, but the form of secret or private worship that
was the norm for most Christians he knew or observed was certainly contributing
to his misunderstanding. I realized this had to change. I asked God to give me
a local cultural informant who could take Jesus as I know him and present the
essence of who Jesus is in a meaningful way to his culture.
As I prayed for this person I realized that I
had to find a way to minimize my cultural representation of Jesus. This is
quite different from dressing Jesus up in a way that would be acceptable to
another culture. How can I ever know another culture well enough to dress Jesus
up to meet their expectations, wants, or needs? I cannot. But I do know my own
culture, and if I am honest with Scripture, and critical in my thinking and
planning, I can present Jesus in a near a-cultural way that can be assimilated
and transformed into a cultural model by the ones God has chosen and prepared
to do so. I have learned that God has prepared men and women in every culture
who can meet those who love Jesus from another culture, learn to love Jesus
from them, strip away the cultural baggage attached (which we can minimize),
and present Jesus to their own culture in a loving and caring way which results
in lives changed and the Kingdom enlarged.
The most obvious areas where I needed to strip
away my own culture and cultural expectations were in my styles of worship,
both private and public. As I taught my new friends worship, I taught the
elements of worship, not style or form. This was not easy. What was natural for
me was foreign for them. I learned to ask questions as I taught.
When I introduce prayer, I asked them how they
would pray. The Bible teaches we are to pray. They began to pray in a way that
was familiar to them and directed toward the God we all knew and loved. When I
introduced singing, I asked them what songs they would sing. They had none. I
gave them none. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write their own. It
sounded like their music, and it gave glory and honor to God.
When I introduced teaching, I asked them how
they would teach God’s word. The style was different from mine, but normal for
their culture. When I introduced preaching, I asked them how they would exhort
others to follow the teachings of Christ. The resulting form of preaching was
different from what I was used to, but it met their needs and was acceptable to
their culture. When I introduce church leadership, I asked them how they would
lead a group in their community. The results were different from the
congregational approach I would have taken, but it fit them and their way of
doing things.
For my new friends, worship and church were a
daily and daylong life style that was apparent and obvious to their community.
It was despised by some and spoken against by others, but was much more
acceptable to the community than anything I could have presented to them or
lived out before them. It had impact.
Regardless of how careful one is to
deculturalize one’s message, there are teachings in the Bible that are simply
against cultural norms. For instance, in a culture where the norm is multiple
wives, the teaching of one wife for life is difficult to accept. In these
situations one must teach God’s word, but more importantly teach that all of us
are to obey God’s word. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) includes the
admonition that we are to teach others to obey everything Christ has commanded.
I have learned that teaching doctrine and teaching obedience are two very
different things.
I went overseas with all kinds of doctrinal
material to present to the new believers. I discovered that doctrine was
another area where cultural baggage can be found. Doctrine is basically my
church or denomination’s teachings on what they believe the Bible says and how
it is to be lived out (in my own culture). Doctrine often includes forms and
traditions that are outside the biblical context, though acceptable within the
biblical and cultural context under which the doctrine was developed. Church polity,
church staff, ordinations, the practices of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the
teachings regarding clergy and laity, and more can carry significant cultural
baggage that may be extra-biblical without being disobedient to the Scripture
in a given culture. The cross-cultural witness must be able to identify the
cultural areas and eliminate them from his or her teachings. The best way to do
this is to use only Scripture for curricula, and allow local people to answer
questions about Scripture, not listen to our answers. We have to learn to teach
by asking a minimal number of questions, not by giving the answers to every
question or have an expressed opinion about everything.
The focus in discipleship has become obedience
to the Gospel, not adherence to a doctrine. With a doctrine-centered
discipleship program one must teach everything to assure a person has the
knowledge to be obedient. With an obedience-centered discipleship program the
emphasis is how we can be obedient to Christ in every area of our lives and in
every circumstance. When a new disciple asks a question, my answer is always
the same – what must you do to be obedient to Christ? I may have to help them
to find the appropriate passages in the Bible to answer the question, but the
question always remains the same. In this form of teaching, faith is defined as
being obedient to the commands of Christ in every situation or circumstance,
regardless of the consequences.
During one baptism it was observed that the
village leader was agitated. He and his family were to be baptized, but as the
time approached, he became more agitated and angry. He was overheard mumbling
that “this is wrong” and “this is evil.” He was referring to the baptism. A
wise worker allowed him to voice his feelings and then asked him to explain
what it was about the baptism that was wrong or evil. The village leader
explained that it was wrong for a man from outside the family to touch the
women in his family. The doctrinal teaching was that an ordained minister
should administer baptism. The worker was quick to ask himself the question,
“in this how can I be obedient to the teaching of Christ.” He quickly asked the
leader if would be appropriate for him to baptize the leader, and then the
leader could baptize the rest of the new converts. A change was made, and the
baptism continued.
We learned that the form of baptism we had
been practicing was a hindrance to the spread of the Gospel. Many women were
refusing to be baptized because a man other than a family member would be
touching them. Baptism by ordained ministers was not a requirement of the
Bible, but was simply a tradition of the church. With a simple change in form,
baptisms increased from a few each month to tens if not hundreds each week.
What’s more, the leadership transferred to the village was significant. Many
who may have stayed on the fringe of the work became key leaders as they
accepted the spiritual responsibility of baptizing their families, and went on
to become the true spiritual leaders in their homes and villages.
As you may have discerned, baptism is
primarily of family groups. The Gospel is presented to families, much the same
as the pattern found in Acts. This avoids extraction evangelism, and
conversions usually result in a church being established. A child or a woman
may be the door into the family, but the head of the household usually leads
the whole family into the decision to follow Christ. This is different than
found in some cultures, but if the traditional, individual conversion approach
had been maintained, then the growth of the church would have been hampered.
There are more examples of how form and
practice from one culture may have a negative or neutral impact on another
culture. You probably have many examples from your own ministry. Part of the job
of the cross-cultural witness is to eliminate the cultural aspects of his or
her own understanding of doctrine and practice, and to help those in the host
culture discover Biblically acceptable ways of expressing their own love,
devotion, and worship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So the question remains. What color is Jesus?
For the cross-cultural witness the color is always neutral. When Christ is in
the culture He will look just like the members of that culture. He will
represent God and His righteousness to the culture. He will become the
measuring stick by which everyone in the culture is measured. His Word will be
obeyed and their love will be made complete.
The role of the cross-cultural worker is to
deculturalize the Gospel – presenting the Gospel without commentary, but with
the question, “How will we obey what God has said?” If it’s not in the Bible,
we don’t introduce it to the culture.
The role of the cultural worker is to
contextualize the Gospel – presenting the Gospel and asking, “What must we change
in our lives and culture in order to be obedient to all the commands of
Christ?”
