Today they say there is water on the moon.
Then where are the signs of evolution?
Intrigued.
Why don’t watches grow on trees?
Complexity doth not conceive of its own creation.
Intrigued.
Yesterday my bride and I walked by a forest.
Effortlessly it boasted color and texture.
Life.
Parts were dying, so others could live.
All in synchronization.
Intrigued.
Not even hubris grows on trees.Hearts are required for that.
Pope Francis I, A Past Bible Expositor for Lausanne Global Leadership
Taken from the Mission America Newsletter April 2013
At Lausanne global leadership meetings in Buenos Aires in 2008, one of the Bible expositors was Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, now named Pope Francis I. Doug Birdsall, honorary chair of the Lausanne Movement recalls, “He spoke from John 21:15-19, Jesus’ encounter with Peter, ‘Do you love me? Feed my sheep.’ Â At the time, I remember thinking to myself what a godly, brilliant and humble servant of Christ this is.”
Birdsall met the archbishop a year before in Argentina. “We had a wonderful meeting as we talked about the Church and about the priority of evangelism….He is brilliant, prayerful, and pastoral, and he also was living a simple lifestyle in a modest office and apartment… In the course of our conversation he said, ‘Fifty years ago, I would have thought of you as an adversary.  Today, I welcome you as my brothers.'”
Birdsall urges evangelicals to pray for Pope Francis I, the most visible Christian leader in the world. “He takes the office at a time…when many in the western world are treating the church and the papacy with contempt….He is aware of the great challenge to re-evangelize Europe….There are fresh winds blowing in the Catholic Church and there is a new pope who I believe represents great promise for the witness of the gospel and the mission of the church in the 21st century.”
In spite of theological differences between evangelicals and Catholic Church, Birdsall says, “I believe that at this time in history when we deal with the challenges of secularism, pluralism and hedonism, our common lot as Trinitarian Christians should provide the occasion for us to pray for this man who came and shared God’s Word and who came to enjoy fellowship with us in Buenos Aires.”
MAC chairman Paul Cedar agrees with Birdsall’s call for prayer. “I have been touched by [the new Pope’s] humble spirit and by his compassion — especially for the poor and the marginalized. We certainly want to be praying for him,” Cedar says. “He could be used of God to bring significant changes to the Catholic Church and beyond in this generation.”
If you are ministering in a city, anywhere in the world, you should be aware that you are preaching to an audience that brings many different worldviews. The challenge is, you as a preacher have one worldview. It is your lens through which you view everything. So it is your task to try to understand something of the various worldviews in your audience and attempt to commu
nicate clearly to them.
The Scriptures are written exclusively by writers from eastern worldviews. They were Middle Easterners. As such their worldview contrasts significantly from the western worldview. The eastern worldview cannot be generalized for there are many variations within it. Yet, in contrast to a more western worldview, we can say that easterners have a more cyclical than linear perspective. When a preacher or teacher from a western worldview expounds the Bible, he will try to put events in a chronological line-up from beginning to end; he will tend to put things in an outline format. But the eastern mind is more cyclical and holistic. Events come and go in iterations. Everything is in play. This is especially significant in interpretation of prophecy. But that is a huge subject when one talks of hermeneutics as it relates to the worldview of the interpreter versus that of the human author.
A practical consideration regarding preaching is that of methodology. Some of your listeners (in a multicultural context) are oral learners while you may be of a literate/reading culture. If you are seminary trained you most certainly received a literate education and learned a literate preaching style using an outline. You tend to lead with the main point and then develop it with textual material and illustrations. This is the method I learned and as a westerner find most convenient.
However, some of your audience is oral, i.e. they learn better through stories and concrete examples or objects. They do not find it easy to think in the abstract. The preacher who wants to communicate clearly to them will seek to use story often. When he gives illustrations, they will not be abstract but concrete. For example, the oral/concrete learner envisions a round shape and thinks of its practical use, such as a pot or a floor mat. If an abstract-think describes a circle as representative of all humanity, or of the sphere of influence, he will not be connecting with the oral learners in his audience.
The best way to proceed is to have some conversations with attenders from African, Middle Eastern, and some (south) Asian countries and ask what aspects of your preaching they find most helpful. You could be brave and ask what aspects of your preaching do not communicate so clearly.
One of my good friends in this intercultural journey, and one I have leaned a lot from, is Ken Baker, who served for 25 or so years in West Africa planting churches, and now serves in the USA with Culture ConneXions. Out of a retreat of the Ethnic America Network, and discussion group carried on an email exchange dialoging whether multi-ethnic churches are mandated by Jesus and the Scriptures, or are recommended. In this post, Ken argues (if I may summarize) that if we really believe we need each other in the body of Christ, then we will not consider it normative nor acceptable to fellowship in isolation over the long term. This is, in my opinion, a brilliant summation of why we truly need each other in the body of Christ. Here’s Ken….
“I believe the best starting point is to focus upon shaping our understanding of ‘kingdom character’ and its implications. The foundation of ‘kingdom character’ is “love one another.†This is a restoration narrative as the body of Christ lives into the character which God intended for humanity from the outset…joining a restoration of all things which culminates in God’s stated goal to “bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.†(Eph 1:10) In Christ, we are not only new creatures, but also a new type of humanity. (Eph 2:15) We are not the same as we once were. We have a new identity, a new role. Just as Christ is the 2nd/last Adam, the realization of what a human was to be, we, in and through Christ’s body, collectively, represent true human community as it was intended to be. What does it mean, then, to “love one another?†Are there any limitations to this mandate? Any who are not included? What is the rationale for not pursuing relationship with each other in Christ? (too hard, impractical, wastes time, too idealistic, we prefer not to, etc.—deep down, we know these are not sufficient responses) The bottom line is that our prayed that we would be one, that we would be together. Thus, unless we are continually moving toward each other, then we are falling short of that which God intended for us. But, why? The whole point of the metaphor of the body is to emphasize how much we need each other…not just our functions as edifying contributions, but our personness as well. All that we each embody (personality, ethnicity, culture, age, gifting, history, joys, sufferings, etc.) is part of this contribution; and each culture has the contributive role as well, for the edification of the entire body. In my observation and experience, this is the fundamental disconnect—realizing and embracing the biblical reality that we need each other, that we are incomplete without each other. This disconnect is driven by human nature. We don’t naturally believe that we need those who are unlike us (however we would define this). The progressive among us can be curious, appreciating the mosaic of diversity, kind, welcoming, polite and accommodating of difference…but still not believe that we need what people from other cultures (ethnicities, generations, gender, economic status, etc.) can contribute. It is why ‘inclusion’ is not enough… the new humanity in Christ is about kenosis, (Gk., for emptying) ourselves, submitting one to another, confessing our sins one to another… that is, living in full mutuality—the image of the Father, Son and Spirit. Given this reality, what are the implications? How is this new type of humanity in Christ supposed to live in this diverse, fractured, antagonistic, selfishly sinful, lost-without-Christ world? In such a way that “all men will know†that we are his disciples, that “the world will know†that Jesus is from God… that’s all. We are to be living out a divine, restoration narrative to the glory of God. What do this look like? Perhaps it is better to ask, what does it feel like? I would propose this… when there is no longer a “them,†just an “us.†…when we can gaze upon our co-followers of Christ, and all our humankind ‘neighbors’, as our Lord does, gushing with compassion, love and humility, saying, “what do you want me to do for you?†We are on a journey to understand and apply that which God has revealed and entrusted to us. We are sinful and imperfect, thus, our models are flawed and compromised, but we press on. I fully realize that much of what I have shared is rather ethereal. But, I defend it as a way of clarifying biblical outcomes. If our understanding of outcome is incomplete, by default, the process will also be incomplete. We tend to be limited by what we believe to be possible. Since most of us, if not all, have issued from Christian churches and contexts that were (are?) primarily homogenous, we often do not have a track record of experience which provides an alternative perspective of what is possible. An example: when we first went to Niger as church planters we had already had twelve years of church planting on two other fields in W. Africa. In our experience, we had enjoyed good, edifying relationships between mission and church. However, upon arrival in Niger, we discovered that relations between church and mission were chronically strained and tense. Hence, discussions among the missionaries were negative and generally hopeless as far as the church was concerned. The vast majority of these colleagues had never lived and worked on any other field, so their experience was shading their conception of what was possible… What if intercultural mutuality was the normative experience of every believer? How would the Christian landscape be different? Such has been my experience… of the five churches that I have had the privilege to see born, in five different cultural contexts, each one has been a diverse community of multiple tribal identities coming together in Christ. For me, this became normal. I didn’t start out that way… I had to learn it. They taught me. They lived it. Were they perfect pictures of grace and harmony? No, but they were trying to navigate this new humanity in a hostile environment. (Three of these churches were in Islamic contexts.) I am trying to communicate in the North American context what I have seen and experienced here, in Europe and in Africa…
If you care about your church, here is a tip from the church at Antioch as to how you should pray. An excerpt from THE AMAZING POTENTIAL OF ONE SURRENDERED CHURCH (p.31).
One of the most beautiful aspects of every church is the way God skillfully prepares and uses simple people to fill vital roles at precisely the time they are needed. If you think about it, you’ll discover that God has done this in your church. In one way or another, God provided someone to encourage your church the way Barnabas did Antioch. These people of faith and grace share certain qualities, no matter when they live.
First, an Encourager gains trust. As Barnabas had proven his reliability in Jerusalem, anyone who provides an essential link in a church’s life has prepared him or herself by being dependable. When the critical moment comes, he is able to encourage because he has established himself as one having sound judgment and godly character.
Second, an Encourager possesses and conveys spiritual optimism. The clearest description of Barnabas’ character is: “for he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith†(Acts 11:24). These few words will describe any man or woman God uses to provide timely encouragement for one of His churches. They are “goodâ€â€”not self-seeking or manipulative. They are “full of the Holy Spiritâ€â€”deeply spiritual and attuned to God, relying on God’s perspective more than their own. And they are full of “faithâ€â€”able to believe in God to be at work as only He can.
Third, an Encourager emphasizes grace. “Then when he had come and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced†(Acts 11:23). Barnabas surely saw much in the chaotic multi-cultural assembly that needed improvement. Others might have judged their practices as inappropriate. But an Encourager looks through the lens of God’s grace, asking whether or not God’s hand is at work.
FOR DISCUSSION
- What encouragers has God used in your church?
- What are the obstacles you face in encouraging new and different things the Lord does around you?