Peoples on the Move. Anthony F. Casey

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ and respect and give tremendous insight into life in that culture.

      My main platform in Malaysia was teaching anthropology at a Malaysian university. I worked with colleagues and had students who were Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist, atheist, and Christian. It was natural for me to tell people on the train and in my neighborhood that I was a local professor. My job made it natural to ask people about their own culture and faith. People were not suspicious of me because they understood why I was there. I was paid in the local currency, which was not doing well. I had to work the same long hours as other Malaysians. I made one-third of the salary I would have made in the United States, and as a result could not afford a car or to travel extensively. However, I had something more important—credibility and the respect of non-Christians around me. People looked to where I found my hope as the currency devalued. People asked what I did over the holidays when I could not afford to leave town. While not always the ideal situation, working a job alongside those to whom I ministered proved to be a great vehicle for effective ministry.

      Paul did not advocate “tent-making” or bivocational ministry over support-based ministry but used either as the need arose. Whatever his job, Paul sought to learn about the communities and worldviews of those to whom he ministered. He lived incarnationally and contextualized the gospel in order to be biblically faithful and culturally understandable. When necessary, Paul appealed to his status as a Roman citizen. Other times, he gave up the rights of a Roman and an Apostle. Similarly, we may be in situations where appealing to American citizenship is helpful. But, like Paul, we need Holy Spirit guidance to discern the best path. Paul is our model as he submitted to the authority of Scripture and sought to become all things to all men so that he might win some for the sake of the gospel. He was a learner and a lover of people and God blessed his approach.

      The 150 Percent Missionary

We have seen many examples in Scripture where the people of God made a great effort to learn the local culture and language in order to serve God faithfully. As missionaries and cross-cultural workers, we enter cultures very different from our own. We learn all we can about the local culture, but like Daniel, we place limits on how far we go to live as the people. This approach is what Sherwood Lingenfelter calls becoming the 150 percent missionary.9 The idea flows from the model of Jesus being the 200 percent person—fully man and fully God (Phil 2:5–8). He was born and grew up in a local culture (Luke 2:46). He was fully recognizable as a local Jewish man. Yet, he was without sin. He was fully God.

      Similarly, we are all born into a culture and one-hundred percent fully acquire that culture growing up. We know by heart the language, customs, family systems, food preferences, and cultural roles common to our area. We like grits, or clams, or lutefisk, or fried chicken. We say y’all or you’se guys. This process is called enculturation and it happens naturally and almost subconsciously. Our culture forms our worldview and shapes our values. We know what it means to be on time, late, or early. We are familiar with our expressions of church.

      Then one day, in response to God’s prompting, we attempt to minister in a different cultural context. In order to simply communicate we must begin making changes, learning a new language and a new culture. However, it is impossible to fully give up who we were. At the same time, we can never fully take on all aspects of the new culture. We must adjust, giving up some of our old ways and taking on some of the new ways. We become bicultural, a 150 percent person with maybe 75 percent of our old culture and 75 percent of our new culture. This process of cultural acquisition and learning in order to have a more effective ministry is where the rest of this book goes. Such learning does not always come naturally, and certainly comes at times with great frustration and difficulty. But it is possible for those who make the effort. As we have seen, taking incarnational living and cultural learning seriously is not something we have the luxury of avoiding. If we truly want to follow the biblical pattern, we will, like Paul, seek to learn all we can about the people to whom we minister so that we might win as many as we can for the sake of the gospel.

      9. Lingenfelter, Ministering Cross-Culturally, 24.

      Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

      Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

      Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

      Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.

/9j/4Rq2RXhpZgAATU0AKgAAAAgABwESAAMAAAABAAEAAAEaAAUAAAABAAAAYgEbAAUAAAABAAAA agEoAAMAAAABAAIAAAExAAIAAAAhAAAAcgEyAAIAAAAUAAAAk4dpAAQAAAABAAAAqAAAANQAHoSA AAAnEAAehIAAACcQQWRvYmUgUGhvdG9zaG9wIDIxLjIgKE1hY2ludG9zaCkAMjAyMDowODoxMSAx MTo1NjozMAAAAAOgAQADAAAAAQABAACgAgAEAAAAAQAABXigAwAEAAAAAQAACDQAAAAAAAAABgED AAMAAAABAAYAAAEaAAUAAAABAAABIgEbAAUAAAABAAABKgEoAAMAAAABAAIAAAIBAAQAAAABAAAB MgICAAQAAAABAAAZfAAAAAAAAABIAAAAAQAAAEgAAAAB/9j/7QAMQWRvYmVfQ00AAf/uAA5BZG9i ZQBkgAAAAAH/2wCEAAwICAgJCAwJCQwRCwoLERUPDAwPFRgTExUTExgRDAwMDAwMEQwMDA

СКАЧАТЬ