I've been working on a new presentation on Cultivating Christlike Intercultural Relational Competency: A Christ-Centered TEAM Approach. Of course, if it is Christ-Centered, then it is going to be everywhere in the Bible, right?
Is it?
For sure!
Consider just a few examples of how central intercultural ministry is to the eternal plan of God.
1. Intercultural Ministry Is a God Thing: James 2:1-13; Romans 2:4-11. For God so loved the world. God is no respecter of persons. He is calling people from all nations to His forever family. He calls us to godly living that shows no favoritism.
2. Intercultural Ministry Is a Christ Thing: Matthew 28:19-20; John 4:1-42. Christ calls us to make disciples of all nations. Christ models intercultural ministry in breaking social barriers to witness to the Samaritan women, resulting in the people proclaiming that He is indeed the Savior of the world.
3. Intercultural Ministry Is a Spirit Thing: 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. We are all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks. The Spirit purposefully combined the diverse members into one Body so that there would be no division.
4. Intercultural Ministry Is a Salvation Thing: Ephesians 2:11-22; Revelation 5:9. Christ's salvation purpose is to reconcile, make peace, and create in Himself one new people who have full and equal access to the Father by the Spirit, making us all fellow citizens and joint members of God's household. The Lamb purchased for God people from every tribe, language, people, and nation.
5. Intercultural Minsitry Is a Church Thing: Acts 2:14-47; Acts 10:1-48. The first Church and the Church throughout Acts integrated believers from diverse cultures.
6. Intercultural Ministry Is a Sanctification Thing: Colossians 3:1-11. As we put off the old and put on the new person in Christ we are renewed not only individually, but also corporately where there is no Greek or Jew, barbarian or Scythian, but Christ is all and is in all.
7. Intercultural Minsitry Is an Eternal Thing: Revelation 7:9-10. As John peers into eternity, he witnesses a great multitude that no one can count from every nation, tribe, people, and language worshipping God together forever.
Is intercultural ministry biblical?
I think so!
Join in again tomorrow when we address the question, "So just what is intercultural ministry?"
4 comments:
I think you are going to have to define what you mean by multi-culturalism. You seem to be calling presenting the Gospel to all, and not just one group as being multicultural.
Multiculturalism, as I understand it, attempts to make the argument that all cultures are equally valid. This has nothing to do with the Gospel. The Gospel is above culture, stating that all cultures are equally corrupt and the members of those cultures equally in need of salvation.
Jesus insists that we ignore culture, not make it an issue.
I suggest the Gospel is a-cultural, not multicultural as I have defined it.
Of course, until you give your definition of "multicultural" I can't really answer your question.
M. H. You are certainly correct that defining terms is central. The purpose of this first part of a two-part mini-series was to demonstrate how saturated the Bible is with intercultural/multicultural relationships and focus.
I personal use the terms intercultural relating, cross-cultural ministry, and multicultural(ism) interchangeably.
In actuality, not everyone who writes on multiculturalism is saying all cultures are equally valid. I suppose that might be considered a post-modern multiculturalism. Even much secular multiculrualism is simply saying that people from every color, class, and culture need to be respected as equal--the key is on "people" not necessarily the specifics of the cultural beliefs.
For me, Christian multiculturalism is not simply presenting the Gospel to all. It is refusing to be a respecter of persons, it is refusing to judge people on the basis of color, class, or culture. It is choosing to work toward shalom (peace, unity) and reconciliation between people of various cultural backgrounds. And, it is the admission that every culture is impacted by the Fall and therefore no one culture has it "right."
It is also the recognition that I look at life through my cultural background and therefore I need to be humble enough to recognize that I bring a bias to all my interpretations.
I'll provide more of a definition in part two. But again, my intent in a blog post is not to be quite as technical as in a classroom settng.
Doc K: How would you apply inter culturalism on the mission field? The reason I ask is that I am a short term missionary in Cambodia for 7 months. In Cambodia there are various people groups such as the Vietmese, Khmer, Chinese, Korean, Nigerians, and Ex-pats to name a few. However, many the missionaries are only targeting specific groups to start their churches due to immense barriers between the races and the classes. The irony is I am African-American ministering primarily to Cambodian American Deportees who have an inner city disopositon and attitude toward life and I minister to the poor Khmer in the slums of Phnom Penh. -- Demetrius Walton
Demetrius, That's a great question. While the ultimate goal of heaven and thus our ultimate goal on earth is intercultural worship, it seems that wisdom could still dictate an approach like you describe in your ministry. Since you are working to evangelize the unsaved, we cannot expect the unregenerate to act regenerate until they are regenerated! That being said, a major part of the discipleship process then should include intercultural reconciliation. What a testimony and witness it would be for the entire region if/when Vietmese, Khmer, Chinese, Korean, Nigerians, and Ex-pats began forgiving one another, reconciling with one another, etc.
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