Jesus is universal. That is a key concept we have to understand before we go out and try to do cross culture ministry. Jesus is independent of culture. Cross cultural missions is often mistaken as people forcing religion on people groups. Rather, it can be highly beneficial when approached with humility and a desire to partner along side the existing culture to further the gospel.
Cross cultural ministry is a very fine line of good and bad. When ministering to different cultures respect has to to be one the highest values. When going into someone else’s culture you have to make sure then when you bring the gospel you bring the honest simple gospel. We need to stop bring the American church in with Christianity. It is time for us to stop contaminating the gospel with culture.
Defiantly in the American culture we can come with pride and entitlement to developing communities. We think that our way is the best way and everyone should do the same. The thing we really need to learn is how to be with people. Jesus came down in a weird place with people so unlike Him, so she could relate to us. He didn’t just yell down from heaven but came down and walked with the lowest of the low. The theologian, Henri Nouwen says it very simply, “Compassion is not bending toward the underprivileged from a privileged position; it is not a teaching out from on high to those who re less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy or pity for those who fail to make it in the upward pull. On the contrary, compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there.” In Bob Goffs book, Everybody Always, he talk so often about loving people that are different then us. And it is simple if we live life with them just like Jesus did.
When we come to minister to different cultures we really have to be cautious of not being a stumbling block to the gospel.
For the last three months I have been living at a compound with 45 other 18-21 year old and around 30 orphans. We brought our American preferences and culture these kids in a some bad ways. When we found out there was a lice epidemic coming through the squad and then we started checking some of the kids. Obviously the kids had raging lice. Some people over exaggerated highly and said things like, “we can’t have movie night with the kids anymore because the have lice.” Then some made a big deal about it to leadership and asked if all the kids could shave there heads while we were gone on our week vacation.
When we came back we came to a lot of bald kids and the older kids figured out that they has to shave their heads because of us. One kid wouldn’t even talk to us for a while because he was so upset that we made all the kids do that. Obviously lice is a serious medical issue and it needed to be handled but we handled very poorly. We thought of ourselves so much higher then the kids.
We also tried to do a VBS. You know just your traditional American stations of fun. It worked for a day but these kids just don’t work like American kids. They got really mad because we switched times on them and then the rule changed and they couldn’t come into our house anymore. They all stormed off marching in unison. They locked themselves in one of there houses and started chanting, “NO PROGRAM! NO PROGRAM!” They reacted really harshly to the fun thing we had planned for them because we were just bringing our culture not theirs. They didn’t want to talk to us or hangout with us they were so upset. We thought that we were fighting apathy with programs and schedules but that is not how Ethiopia works.
Cross Cultural ministry is defiantly biblical and needed. In Revelation 7:9 it says, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” Every tribe and tongue are only going to praise the Lord if they are reached with the gospel.
