WHEN YOU CROSS CULTURES - World Evangelical Alliance

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CHAPTER THREE THE CROSS-CULTURAL MESSENGER THE EXAMPLE OF PAUL Paul was constantly ministering contextually. Each of his messages was carefully communicated so that it was relevant to the recipients in their local context and culture. For example, his sermon to the Jews in Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13:14-41 was appropriate for that context. That sermon was very different from his message to the Gentile members of the Areopagus in Acts 17:22-31. During this latter encounter at Athens, Paul’s approach was different from his usual synagogue encounters. The Athenian “worldview” needed to be taken into account and addressed. F.F. Bruce comments that “when the gospel was presented even to the most cultured pagans, it was necessary to begin with a statement about the one living and true God” 1 This was what Paul did. He had already seen that the city was full of idols and he was greatly distressed. In his message, he made the observation that they were “very religious”. This was neither a criticism nor a compliment (since flattery was not acceptable to these Athenians), but a statement of fact of what he observed. Paul drew their attention to an altar with the inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. He proceeds to proclaim who God is, the Creator, the Lord of heaven and earth who does not live in man-made temples. God is the Giver of all life. God determines the exact places where peoples should live. God did this so people would seek Him and perhaps find Him. To build a bridge to the truth of God, Paul quotes two of their poets (Acts 17:28). The first quotation, “In him we live and move and have our being” is by Epimenedes, a 6th century B.C. Cretan poet, whom Paul also quotes in Titus 1:12. The second quote “We are his offspring” is by Aratus, a Cilician in the 5th line of his poetic work entitled Phaenomena in 315 B.C. Both these poems were about Zeus! In citing a truth from their context, Paul communicates the larger truth of the God he proclaimed. He emphasized God’s character as Creator and Judge which is very different from the pantheistic Zeus. The response was mixed when he spoke of the resurrection. A few believed including one of the members of the Areopagus. 1 F.F. Bruce (1990), The Acts of the Apostles, Greek Text with Introduction and Commentary, Third Revised and Enlarged Edition, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, pages 379-380. 17
18 WHEN YOU CROSS CULTURES Paul was sensitive to culture. He would have understood that peoples were culture-bound and shaped by their cultural backgrounds when he wrote 1 Corinthians 9. The context relates to his surrender of his rights as an apostle. He then makes the amazing statement “Though I am free ... I make myself a slave to everyone to win as many as possible” (1 Corinthians 9:19). He further says “To the Jews I became like the Jew to win the Jews ... to those not having the law (Gentiles), I became like one not having the law...” Please note and meditate on the word “like”. Paul was willing to become “all things to all men” in order to save some of them. In the book of Galatians, Paul recognises that there is only one Gospel. But this one Gospel would have different manifestations to the Jewish and the Gentile believers. Therefore in bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles, Jews must not impose their Jewish forms on the Gentiles, because these forms are not essential to the Gospel. This would mean tampering with the truth of the Gospel. CULTURAL PRECONCEPTIONS Some cross-cultural workers have preconceived views of what constitutes their ministry. Not only do they have their own cultural patterns which they find difficult to change, but they bring with them their “Christian subculture”. For example, a missionary engaged in church planting may already have a particular kind of building in mind. Such a mindset could hinder the spread of the Gospel. Worse still, people in the host culture will observe new Christian forms and think they must accept or practise these forms in order to become Christians. No wonder many Asians regard Christianity as a Western religion. In reviewing the history of Christianity from 1500 to 1910 in Asia, Paul Johnson makes this piercing comment: “it was the inability of Christianity to change, and above all to de-Europeanise itself, which caused it to miss its opportunities. Far too often, the Christian churches presented themselves as the extensions of European social and intellectual concepts, rather than embodiments of universal truths. . . . Though Christianity was born in Asia, when it was re-exported there from the sixteenth century onwards, it failed to acquire an Asian face.” 2 Many Western missionaries in the past were unwilling to identify with their host culture because of the stresses and strains they would face in attempting to do so. Now that Asians are also involved in cross-cultural ministries, this same mentality must be abandoned. We can be guilty of violating biblical principles of mission. Christians have been guilty of judging non-Christian cultures saying they are all perverse, fallen and pagan. A “Christian” culture, if there is such a thing, 2 Paul J ohnson (1976), A History of Christianity, Atheneum, New York, pages 409, 410.
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WHEN YOU CROSS CULTURES - World Evangelical Alliance

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