Go to the people, Live among them
Learn from them, Love them
Start with what they know
Build on what they have
This is an ancient Chinese poem, dated about 300 years before Christ was born. That alone makes this poem outstanding & amazing. But there is much more than a date that makes this poem as significant as it is becoming to me.
Its as if I am having a sage pour incalculable amounts of wisdom into my mind, heart, & life. It is written to me, in that it is a poem of instruction, as if spoken for my enlightenment. But the subject is not me at all. It is them, the wonderful people I might go & live among! The Chinese got this right! For me, it is becoming a cornerstone to my personal model for missions.
When speaking of "cross-cultural" missions, one of the predominant themes must, by necessity, be CULTURE! Culture is a huge factor for the effectiveness & efficacy of mission efforts. If we do not learn how to live in a culture, we might as well never have gone to that culture because we will never be able to advance the Gospel.
Culture is basically any human made environment (D. Whiteman), composed of ideas & behaviors. The ideas result in behaviors, which produce material products & non-material products (language, manners, form or worship, etc). Then, these same results influence & reinforce the ideas from which they came. You can see, it is a circular cycle.
But what if culture is primarily learned in the first 3 to 5 years of one's life? It is. What then have we to say for a would-be cross-cultural missionary entering into a foreign land with an entirely different culture than that in his home country?
He must enter into that land, country, people group, & culture as a baby, as a learner. He must never enter as a teacher, or all respect & potential gospel progress will be totally lost. He must enter a culture as a learner! That is to say, I must recognize that my culture is not the only culture, & that my culture, in & of itself, is not right nor wrong. Their's is the same. WHAT THEN? In one land or location one may be more appropriate, one may be right, making the other irrelevant & wrong. If I take my culture to another land, then it is wrong, because in that land, their culture is what is appropriate & ... right.
Thus, I must learn their culture, what is appropriate & inappropriate, what is acceptable & unacceptable, when to laugh or not, when to joke or not, how to greet someone, how to worship, how to SPEAK their LANGUAGE!
I must become INCARNATE in their culture!
Do you know anyone who has become incarnational in the culture of the world? I do. His name is Jesus, our ultimate model of incarnational ministry. Philippians 2:1-11 states,
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interest, but also for the interest of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Christ came, & He came as a babe. He grew up in Jewish culture, & as He grew, I am thoroughly convinced He learned it. I don't think He was born knowing everything, if so, that makes Him more God than man and He was 100% both. He was found at the temple learning. He lived, worked, & was a learner for 30 years before He ever began teaching. You get my point.
I think we can follow His model & wait a while before we decide to be the "
Great White Teacher," with our fancy educations, our advanced technologies, & our affluence. My fancy education, my advanced technologies, & my affluence. I am not calling out "you" or anyone in particular. I am speaking to all of us, myself included. And I, of all people, am liable to think too highly of myself my education. The reality is that my education is meaningless if I cannot be a
learner, because I can guarantee a Nicaraguan farmer of several decades know infinitely more than I about farming. His experience will always trump my education.
Does that mean my education is then made obsolete? I feel a little like Paul, BY NO MEANS! In fact, it validates my education. When I can become a learner and be incarnate in another culture, I will gain the respect of people of that culture. People love to be teachers, even if they don't know it. Go to another country & begin to ask questions. Simply make an attempt to learn their language & watch their faces light up with pride as they see the sincerity of desire to learn about them on your face. They will be more than willing to teach you or me, the learner! Thus they become a teacher!
Once I take the required time to earn respect by growing incarnate in a foreign culture, by making my utmost effort to learn their culture, then I can teach. Then my God given gift of education & and the gracious gift of my skill set in agriculture is then validated, as I get to share what God has given me.
How I go about being a teacher? Well, thats something I guess I will have to learn in due time. By God's grace it will be a well received impartation of knowledge and love, for God's glory.
