My Theology and Experience of Cross Cultural Ministry
Is reality distinguishable by the Truth or by the people we live for and with. I see culture as an entity that becomes shared between people of no relation or creed, only the possession of a reality. American history was changed in 2001 on September 11th. At a time of national crisis, no one was from the north or the south, from the right or the left, or from moral or immoral standing. The country was hurting from a place that could only be felt by the people that inhabited it. That precisely is culture to me and I think it is vital in the assumption, intrusion, and assimilation to the places and people we enter life with in cultures foreign to our own. So, for those of us that believe Jesus Christ as the risen Savior and only True Hope in the world, what changes?
Everything for us changes. The question of why is answered when people are given distinctions that reach far past the usual intrusion of distress. People are no longer just people, they are broken vessels that need the Salvation of Jesus Christ and the dwelling of the Holy Spirit. People are orphans without a father, partners in the mistress of relationships, and voiceless without a defender or king. The Gospel has written out a story of redemption from who we are, not from the circumstances, experiences, and memories that seem to plague us. The question of why causes us to look into our own lives and wrestle with the addiction of sin and distress in the unsatisfactory desire for it. We can no longer look at the people we go to other cultures as mere preferences of color and tastes in ethnicity, but suppressed from the Truth, which is Christ Jesus.
Those people I have seen and grown to experience deeply. In my time in Guatemala, Thailand, and Myanmar, I am reminded of Anthony. He is similar in age to myself and lives in the biggest city of Myanmar, Yangon. I had the opportunity to sit across from him in English class and then again at different coffee and tea shops. He was out of school and was living with his older sister and his Dad, one of the highest ranking police officers in Yangon. As I began to hear these things, I started to find some similarities between Anthony and I. We started to find similar tastes in enjoying music, singing, traveling, and hanging out with friends. One night, Anthony and some of the other students went to a late night worship together and He said, “This makes me happy.” The charismatic movement of the worship had his hands in the air, praising a Savior he didn’t even know.
The more time I sat with Anthony, the more of a pattern I began to see in his life. His dad, even though providing greatly for his family, wasn’t home much and didn’t live in the house with his kids but at the police station. For fun, him and his friends would race around Yangon, smoke weed, go to clubs, and concerts together. On the last day I was able to spend time with him and he spoke briefly that his mother had died four years ago. Suddenly, Anthony and my own life began to differ dramatically. And what struck me through all of this was that in a country, thousands of miles away in a place that is far from western dominance, life wasn’t that different. The culture was astoundingly far off from the thoughts and religions of America, but the reality in it all was the same. Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist country ran under a military regime that has performed multiple genocides. Myanmar is bordered by the countries of India, China, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Laos, hosting multiple ethnic groups. A place such as this, differing from my own home and freedoms as a freely practicing Christian in America, gave Anthony a life of desire no different than the people I know back home. We must see the people.
For me, there no longer is a question about how to see a culture or the people in it. “No one is righteous, no not one (Romans 3:10-12)” and, “…God gave them over to their depraved minds… (Romans 1:28).” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) We were all once there, lost in the dark until the marvelous came to us and reconciled our souls to the Father. The answer here is Jesus and it always will be. But we have to understand that the people of Africa will struggle with the same sin that I struggle with while on the race. In return, I am reminded and again humbled by the stories and the people I meet. I am stepping into the lives of people that the principalities of darkness have worked night and day to kill, steal, and destroy. The physical manifestations are vital to seeing the true heart that lays within a person’s body.
There is nothing left to win here than simply that. We are commissioned to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and the son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). I believe culture is distinguished by the truth of the Gospel and fleshed out through the experiences people live out. Yes, we are called to the tribes in Africa and the Buddhists of Asia. More simply put, we are called to people. When the priority of mission can be on the heart and soul of the people we meet and minister to, discipleship and the Gospel reaches an eternal value. I am not advocating for cultural ignorance or bombardment of values, rather, a focus of the soul of a human as the object of our mission. Cultures change and demographics shift, but the desire for the dark never does. Only Jesus Christ can bring salvation and souls into His delightful relationship.
