Key Point 13
American’s are not the only ones who can give the gospel and plant churches. “Do we pray, plan and encourage cross culturally empowering others to carry the message where we can’t?”
Many American’s have a subconscious response that questions the ability of people from another culture to properly give out the Gospel. I know we quickly affirm that others can be effective within their culture BUT the question is, “Do we pray, plan and empower others to carry the message where we can’t?” It is so common to us that the Bible is in English and some may doubt the ability of one in another language to teach the truth to others. Be patient with me on this.
My proposition for E-tem is that we should seek to win the people from other nations, especially the immigrants, and disciple them so they can give the gospel in areas where America’s are rejected or disliked.
I believe, “You can reach the nations without leaving home.”
AN EXAMPLE: A friend told me about his work with Mexican immigrants, mostly illegal. Churches in Mexico give him names of those who move to his area. He then has led several to accept Christ as Savior. Some of these have returned home by choice or by deportation and have helped to strengthen the church in Mexico.
AN OPINION, OBSERVATION:
Americans commonly have more education, money and organization. It is easy to look at the people of another nation and assume that we know best how to teach the Bible and organize church planting efforts. After all, how could they understand our methods since they are not as educated in this culture which is superior? (This is sarcasm to emphasize point.)
On the other hand many people from other nations tend to think of themselves as less qualified because they don’t know our ways. This may true if they are new believers. Even so it does not make them inferior.
Here is the problem! American’s tend to think the ethnic person is not ready and the ethnic person tends to think he is unqualified. Too often we may try to maintain control and he may not accept responsibility.
The result is that we sometimes limit effectiveness. An ethnic person is more readily accepted by his culture because he knows the language, the culture, and the false religion. Let’s ask ourselves if we truly trust God’s promise, “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit.” If so, we will give more effort to assisting, encouraging and maybe pushing the convert to take leadership up to his level of learning. In my camp leadership days I often said, “Help a camper learn/discover a new thing and he will have a desire to learn more.”
Let’s, disciple U S ethnic people to evangelize the ethnic people groups worldwide.
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Eldon Brock, Eldon26@gmail.com.
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1 comment:
Thank you for another insightful and provocative(in a positive way)post. From an immigrant perspective, I agree with your statements and would only add that the cultural gap is one of the contributing factors in the misconceptions. For example,at least from where I come from, modesty/humility hinders a lot of people to assert their capabilities and may yield to the opinion that assertiveness is equivalent of knowledge and capability. As a result, we may believe that Americans are more capable of reaching people of ethnic background more than we do. Another minor issue we may deal with is the familiarity breeding contempt-remember that even Jesus' siblings were not enthusiastic about his ministries until he ascended to heaven...that one always baffles me. But in the end,love for God remains the most powerful tool if we,American and ethnic people, hope to reach the lost in other cultures. Do we love God enough to seek his guidance in finding ways to bridge the cultural gaps and change our misconceptions of others? That's my prayer! Thanks and may God grant us wisdom to care for the lost.
In Christ
Jean B Manirakiza
Alexandria,VA
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