Title: Communicating Faith Across Culture
1Communicating Faith Across Culture
2Our Ultimate Goal In Medical Missions
- Life change in the individual
- in the community
- through health
- by faith in Jesus
3Factors in Mission Trips
- Skills of the team
- Advance planning
- Culture
- Sustainability
4Culture distinctive characteristics of a
peoples way of life
- According to Sherwood Lingenfelter in Ministering
Cross-Culturally, culture is used to - Help people order their lives
- Interpret their experiences
- Evaluate the behavior of others
5Blunders in Culture
- Costa Rican evangelism
- Guatemalan housing
- Peruvian demands
6Communication in Culture
- Requires the use of contextual cues
- Each culture has thousands
- Inability to understand the meaning of cultural
cues leads to misunderstandings and potentially
conflict - Initiating conversation
- Ending conversation
7Personal Culture
- Our personal culture is unique and is a
combination of - Cultural heritage - Things learned when young and
accepted from parents - Enculturation - Acquired culture from the
community around you and their feedback - Our synthesis of adopting or rejecting these
influences
8Shared Culture
- We share a common set of beliefs, values, and
ways of life with those in the larger community - These commonalities are reinforced by
interactions and trained into children - We choose to live with those who are similar and
reject those whose values differ
9Shared Culture
- Allows behavior within our culture to be
predictable to a certain extent - Brews a level of ignorance to culture we are not
familiar with - Culminates in concept that our culture is the
correct way of doing things and disregards
possibilities of alternative ways
10Conflict in Culture
- Conflict is also created from regard of personal
culture as moral authority and that others are
not just different but flawed, rebellious, or
immoral. - Incomprehensible to set aside social standing,
church identity, or idea of being American - Equated almost with godliness
11Incarnational Model
- When it was time for the ministry of Jesus, how
did He complete the work? Is there something for
us to learn in ministry? - Why come as a baby?
- Why grow up with parents?
- Why learn in the temple complexes?
- Why not appear as king or ruler?
12Incarnational Model
- she gave birth to her firstborn Son, and she
wrapped Him snugly in cloth.. Luke 27 HCSB - ..they found Him in the temple complex sitting
among the teachers, listening to them and asking
them questions. Luke 246 HCSB - And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and
in favor with God and with people Luke 252 HCSB
13Incarnatinal Model
- Incarnation the willingness to learn as if we
were helpless infants Lingenfelter - Idea of incarnation crucial due to cultural
ignorance - Enter into cultures as a child, learning the
simplest relational processes again - Allow self to be taught so you can teach them the
ways of the Savior
14Incarnational Model
- Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,
who, existing in the form of God, did not
consider equality with God as something to be
used for His own advantage. Instead He emptied
Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking
on the likeness of men. Philippians 25-7 HCSB
15Incarnational Model
- To the weak, I became weak, in order to win the
weak. I have become all things to all people, so
that I may by all means save some. Now I do all
this because of the Gospel, that I may become a
partner in its benefits. 1 Corinthians 922-23
HCSB
16Model of Basic Values
- Proposed by Marvin Mayers in Christianity
Confronts Culture - Consists of twelve characteristics grouped into
six pairs - Each pair at the end of a spectrum
- While an oversimplification and doesnt take into
account individual personalities, is helpful as
an explanatory model
17Time vs. Event Orientation
- Concern punctuality and schedule
- Allocate time to achieve the maximum
- Goal-directed
- Rewards for efficient time utilization
- Emphasizes dates and history
- Concern details regardless of time
- Consider problem until resolved
- Let come what may
- Reward is completion of the event
- Emphasizes present experience
18Time vs. Event Orientation
- Jewish culture seems event oriented
- American culture mostly time oriented
- Working with others at the opposite end can be
very frustrating - We must adapt to those we are serving
- Time is a gift from God, and that His priorities
can always be fulfilled in the amount of time we
have been given William McConnell
19Dichotomistic vs. Holistic Thinking
- Black white, right wrong criteria used to
evaluate others - Security in feeling right and fitting in a role
or societal category - Organized details sorted and ordered for clear
pattern
- Open-ended whole person and all circumstances
used - Security in many societal interactions insecure
if confined to roles or categories - Seems disorganized events and pictures are
complete points
20Dichotomistic vs. Holistic Thinking
- OT prophets used historical events or pictures to
convey message - Pauls teaching rational and abstract thinking
typical of Greek culture - Jesuss teaching used analogies (salt and light,
yeast), parables (sowing seed, wheat and weeds),
issues (Sabbath, law, marriage) , and personal
lessons (leper)
21Dichotomistic vs. Holistic Thinking
- Our challenge is to recognize and adapt to the
general line of thinking where we serve - One culture may judge with tight, legalistic
standards while another the total person - Danger is our thinking influences how we judge
people and we often reject those whose thinking
is not like ours
22Crisis vs. Non-Crisis Orientation
- Expects crises
- Plans for events
- Quick decisions
- Follows established, authoritative, planned
procedures - Looks for advice from experts
- Minimizes crises
- Experiences dictate
- Decisions delayed
- Looks at available options to make decisions
- Advice of experts not trusted
23Crisis vs. Non-crisis Orientation
- Jesus responds both ways with parables and
questions that raise issues and not hurrying in
ministry vs. firm decisions - We error in thinking our style is best
- Proclaim the message persist in it whether
convenient or not rebuke, correct, and encourage
with great patience and teaching 2 Timothy 42
24Task vs. Person Orientation
- Principle oriented
- Goal achievement brings satisfaction
- People with similar goals sought out
- Achievements pursued with loneliness as
consequence
- Relationship oriented
- Personal interactions bring satisfaction
- People with group focus sought out
- Personal achievements put off for group
interaction, loneliness shunned
25Task vs. Person Orientation
- Suggest that the most productive people may not
be the best missionaries in person oriented
cultures - Productive nationals may not make the best
leaders depending on culture - Missionaries that do not appreciate cultures
where interaction in work is entwined can reject
those they serve
26Task vs. Person Orientation
- Example of Jesuss priorities in Mark 6
- Starts with attempt to debrief in secluded place,
seek Father, and eat with disciples - Had compassion on crowd, taught, even fed them
later got to tasks of day - We need to modify our modes and expectations to
those we will serve
27Status vs. Achievement Focus
- Birth and rank identity
- Level of attention fixed despite any flaws or
mistakes - Expected to play role goal is higher rank
- Relationships with social equals
- Achievement identity
- Level of attention varies with success failure
performance - Sacrifices made to achieve more
- Relationships with those with similar achievements
28Status vs. Achievement Focus
- Repeated in Bible long genealogies
- Pharisees received status with heritage, societal
memberships, and family rule - Many remarks about Jesus associating with the
outcasts of society - Both camps have dangers superiority or judgment
of other school of thought
29Status vs. Achievement Focus
- Jesus seems to favor neither group
- Encourages those that honor to be humble
- Calls those who hate family and own life
- Martha and rich, young ruler
- Our self-worth must be found in our relationship
with God - We must respect and acknowledge the practices
where we serve
30Concealing vs. Exposing Vulnerability
- Protect self-image avoid failure
- Emphasis quality
- No unknowns
- Hide weakness by lack of participation
- Criticism and alternate ways difficult
- Personal life vague
- Error and failure accepted
- Emphasis complete
- Enters unknowns
- Admits weaknesses and shortcomings
- Criticism and alternates accepted
- Personal life open
31Concealing vs. Exposing Vulnerability
- Jesus teaches support for both views
- Building tower and going to war in Luke 14
- Paul teaches weakness as Gods strength
- Conceal - righteous expose condescend
- We must realize personal, cultural, and
individual view of vulnerability otherwise
arrogance and conceit may result
32Summary
- Goal is not to move others from their cultural
prison into our own - Goal is to make Christ known and life change to
occur through Him - Attempts at incarnational adaptation can lead to
guilt over leaving current cultural practices or
inability to master new ones
33Summary
- Realize who we are in our culture
- Seek out the values and behaviors of those we
serve - Recognize conflicting values
- Submit and adapt to our new surroundings
- If all else fails, remember Philippians 25-7 and
1 Corinthians 9 22-23.