Key Talking Point # 8 Ethnic people have the best insight into how to communicate the message to their own ethnic group.
It was very humbling to me when I first met the Kachin believers in Burma. They had no contact with American missionaries for 35 years but when I met them they had formed a new Bible based association and opened a Bible College. They were doing things that surprised this American but then I realized they had Bible and submitted to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their own culture.
Often you detect an attitude, at least subconsciously, that if it is to be done right American’s have to do it or instruct the national. I realized that any believer who has the Bible and the Holy Spirit can:
a. see the spiritual challenge,
b. determine a way to meet the challenge
c. and experience personal blessing because they allowed God to do it through them.
Internationals that bring their native culture to America:
· Know the language
· Know the culture
· Are aware of the economic standards
· Understand the religion and opposition
· Can discover ways to communicate with the homeland
We who accept the call of foreign missions work hard to adapt to all of this but think how natural it is for some one who comes from that culture.
If you invest your passion into this gold mine you would allow God to demonstrate His grace on the nations. We need to recognize the “gold mine” that God opened; that is people from other cultures locating in our land. This is an opportunity to win them to Christ and allow them to find ways to send or take the Gospel to people of their homeland.
Recognize the opportunity. Allow God to help you mine the gold and give freedom for the “gold” to cast its influence on the world.
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1 comment:
The wonderful reality is that, as you have stated, God is bringing so many diverse people groups to North America. The key is to establish a priority of outreach and integration to these peoples. Once they know the Lord, are settled in a church home, and feel loved and a part of the family of God in their local church, they will eagerly work with the church body to reach their homeland in ways we could never imagine. The great challenge in this is then to allow our Global strategy to be reflexive and adaptive as well as focussed more on partnership ministry than just missions ministry in the traditional sense of that word.
The greatest aspect of intentional engagement with other people groups landing on our shores is PRAYER - to pray that God woill lead us to them, them to us, and that they will find a safe haven within our churches.
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