CULTURE, CULTS & CULTIVATION: THE DUTY & DANGER OF SHARING THE GOSPEL IN A DIFFERENT WORLD, PART 1

WE MUST BE AWARE OF CULTURE
(1 CORINTHIANS 9:19-22)

Cultures are developed within societies out of people’s tastes and traditions—out of their lifestyles—out of their values—out of who they are/who they perceive themselves to be. Cultures are contexts in which like-minded people bind themselves together in their commonalities. There are sub-cultures within cultures and sub-cultures within sub-cultures. Each home is a sub-culture within a neighborhood. Each neighborhood is a sub-culture within a town/city. Each town/city is a sub-culture within a county within a state within the nation.

In sharing the Gospel, we must understand that we face unique realities within the culture of each group of people we walk into, to reach out to—from the culture of each person we step over to, to reach out to. Their unique realities affect how they hear us and how they see us. Their definitions of words and interpretations of phrases affect how they filter what we are saying to them. Their perspectives on appearances and interpretations of attitudes and actions affect how they filter what we are projecting at them. This is true for families and nations.

So, we must not think that cultural considerations in sharing our faith are only for the missionaries going abroad. Especially in facing the increasing diversification and pluralization of America, we must realize that a different world is right outside our front doors. In facing rampant relativism and insistent individualism, we must realize that similarities in thinking and speaking cannot be taken as for granted as they once were. We, the American Church, no longer have the luxury of treating the United States like our backyard. In God’s providence, the foreign mission field has moved right into our front yard, and we can either fence ourselves off, or, be faithful in witnessing within this challenging reality. To be faithful witnesses, we must think joyfully and seriously about the duty and the danger of sharing our faith in this different world. We must be aware of the differing elements within each culture, which must affect our methods without changing our message.

The Issue of Attitude (1 Corinthians 9:19)

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant [literally I have enslaved myself] to all, that I might win more of them.

The Apostle Paul had the attitude of servitude. He was bound to nobody, but he enslaved himself to everybody, so that he could win somebody—as many somebodies as possible.

A lot of somebodies are winning nobody, because their attitude is, “I’m not going out of my way for anybody.”

Life is busy. The pace is hectic. Our plates are full. Our trunks are packed. Our shoulders can’t shoulder anymore.

Or life is busy enough. The pace is steady—comfortable—right where we want to keep it. Work and play are pretty well balanced—business and pleasure are fairly evenly mixed into our lives. We don’t want to tip the scales.

We need to adopt Paul’s attitude. He approached ministry in such a way so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:18). Paul went out of his way for people, giving up his own right to his own way. He had a servant’s heart, and we need to remember where he got it:

Matthew 20
25 But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

As disciples—witnesses of Christ, we cannot think of people as nuisances—interruptions—inconveniences—and expect to be used by God to reach and win them. (And I hate to say it, but a lot of Christians don’t expect to be used by God to reach and win anybody.) We all have our zones, but we must be willing to live beyond them. In our lives, whether too busy or just busy enough, we must make room for reaching out to those that are perishing.

The Issue of Adaptability (1 Corinthians 9:20-22)

20To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

Paul stepped into a place and studied the people. He stepped into their culture and studied their customs and conditions. He looked at people and into people.

We are not going to reach and win people if we are not willing to see people. Like Paul, we must be willing to see people beyond where and what they are. We must see who they are and how they are. However, we must be willing to do more than step up to them and study them—we must be willing to come alongside them.

Paul didn’t just step up to people’s lives—he stepped into people’s lives. He joined them in their lives. He became one of them—who they were, he became—how they were, he became. He adapted his own identity to reach them as one of them. (Paul did not adapt his ideals, though: though not being myself under the law; not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ {vv. 20-21}. His own preferences were flexible, but Christ’s preferences never were. He mingled without mixing. He lived like them in their circumstances, but not in their sins.)

We must realize that we handicap our outreach if we are too hung up on our own ways. We must be available and adaptable, in order to be useable. Rigid people don’t reach people.

Several years ago, I took my family on a mission trip to Mexico with Way of the Cross Ministries in Harlingen, Texas. As part of getting us ready for our first run and the rest of our time there, Ben, the ministry director, gave us all “flexi-cookies” (just cereal). He made his point clear: We couldn’t be used if we wouldn’t adapt. We had to be adaptable to the different situations we would find ourselves in and adaptable to the different people we would find in those situations. One day we were walking on dry roads in sunshine. Another day we were wading through water and mud in the rain (that day I preached in mud boots, work jeans, a white t-shirt and a camouflage Indiana Jones-type hat). One day we were talking to residents in their homes. Another day we were talking to the homeless in the Squatters’ Camp. One day we were witnessing in the middle of a fairly nice town. Another day we were witnessing in the middle of a dump. In one area, we had decent restrooms. In another area, we only had outhouses with holes in the ground. And we adapted.

The Sum of True Worship

In being called by God to step out and reach out beyond ourselves, we must be aware of the different world we find ahead of us. God has given us a mission in which we must cross the yard, cross the street, and cross the lines of differences that divide us from other people who don’t know Him and are perishing apart from Him. And we must humble ourselves to get over ourselves and our own ways. We must check our spirits to see how attached we really are to what we have going on in this world, so that we can gauge how ready we are to lead others into the next world. We must realize that the truth we have been told we now hold to tell to others, not to keep to ourselves. If our attitudes are right, and our adaptability is ready, God will use us to win many to Himself. Next time we will look at how.