WHEN YOU CROSS CULTURES - World Evangelical Alliance

206 WHEN YOU CROSS CULTURES
Brethren missionaries. When my parents married in Singapore, they were
already members of the Brethren Assembly. The churches that were founded
followed the patterns of church governance and liturgical practices of the
Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian or Brethren from England or America.
At an early age, I responded to the Gospel through New Zealander
J Oswald Sanders who spoke at my church. I loved my Bible, which was the
Authorized King James Version, the Bible used by all congregations. The many
Scripture verses I memorized were in the King James. Our leaders prayed using
“Thee, Thou and Thy” and we were taught that this was the reverential way to
address God. The hymns and choruses we sang were also in “old English.” They
remain meaningful to me – to this day.
Many Singaporeans, former “Buddhists” (though more accurately,
practicing a mixture of Chinese religions) and “freethinkers” (a favourite
expression of those who considered themselves broadminded) turned to
Christianity as their new “religion”. Conversion was commonly viewed as
changing religions – often through the rite of baptism when one would
sometimes be given a Christian name. Some Christian leaders would scarcely
know the difference between true conversion, or the difference between
converting to Christianity as a religion and entering the kingdom of God.
Christianity in Asia, then and now, is generally viewed as a Western religion.
Paul Johnson made the piercing statement that “though Christianity was born
in Asia, when it was re-exported there from the sixteenth century onwards it
failed to acquire an Asian face”. 4 He explained, “It was the inability of Christianity
to…de-Europeanise itself, which caused it to miss its opportunities.”
Christianity came to Singapore with British colonization. Colonialism, however,
was a political issue and not a religious one. I don’t ever remember Christians
speaking of “cultural imperialism”.
The People’s Republic of China was proclaimed on 1 October 1949. China
began to expel missionaries and in the early 1950s, the China Inland Mission,
later renamed Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) set up its headquarters
in Singapore. Churches were to benefit from the presence of many OMF
missionaries. “Para-church” organizations such as Scripture Union, Youth for
Christ and The Navigators also came to Singapore. These groups influenced
our churches in Bible reading, in teaching, in evangelism and discipleship.
Theological seminaries were founded and also had evangelical teachers.
Being English-speaking, I had limited contact with Chinese-speaking
congregations. In some Chinese services I attended, the worship patterns and
hymn tunes were (except for language) similar to English-speaking churches.
4 Paul Johnson, A History of Christianity, New York: Atheneum, 1976, page 410