3 Essentials for Cross-Cultural Ministry

Every July 13, in part because our denomination is now connected with the Lutherans, we remember a Lutheran named Conrad Weiser. And Conrad Weiser was an 18th-century diplomat and active Christian who worked in connection with Benjamin Franklin in Pennsylvania. What particularly marked him was the fact that he was able to work with the Iroquois as well as the Anglos to find a way to work out peace and reconciliation between them. And he was deeply revered among the Native American people as well as by Benjamin Franklin and others.

Adopt a New Point of View

We can use Weiner’s example to encourage us to think about how to make an impact in a culture different from our own for the sake of the gospel. In other words, how do we engage in cross-cultural work? 

The apostle Paul gives us the sine qua non verse for anyone trying to think about bringing the gospel into a different culture: “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view, even though we once knew Christ in that way” (2 Cor. 5:16). In other words, the goal is to be able to see another life from culture and people, not through my Anglo eyes, or even through, in Weiser’s case, an Iroquois’ eyes, but actually through God’s eyes. And of course, Paul is writing this cross-culturally, as a Jewish rabbi to the pagan Corinthians, who are new converts.

 What that means is, I need to ask God to show me how he regards me. In other words, gaining this new perspective starts by learning how to see myself not from my point of view but from God’s. Any of us will admit that the way we view ourselves has much to do with the way others have viewed us and how we have grown up and responded to that. Parents, teachers, other authority figures, good or bad experiences that we’ve had with friends and peers—those have all had some kind of impact on us that causes us to see ourselves from a very particular point of view. And, particularly if you’re a child, you accept that point of view without question. 

And so one of the things I’m asking God to help me with is that I see myself through the lens of a male Anglo Southerner, educated on the East Coast of the United States. Each of those, you see, is a very particular human point of view, to use Paul’s language, that may or may not look anything like how Jesus sees me, sees my world or sees as well as challenges my assumptions about myself, about life and even about God. 

Allow Scripture to Shape Us

And how that begins is with me looking at the Bible, which represents God’s point of view. What about my point of view does not line up with God’s Word? As someone famously said, it’s not so much that we exegete the Scripture as that we say yes to the Scripture exegeting us.

In other words, it’s not a body of material to be mastered; it’s a body of material that we’re allowing to master us. And that’s a whole different way, in fact, to read the Bible. The first way is, “I’m trying to get what I need so I can do a better job of getting through the day (if I have my quiet time before my day begins, which may or may not happen).” 

The other is to actually submit to Scripture as a student, or really, more accurately, someone who is being discipled by God through the authors of this book, so that no part of my life goes unchallenged or unaffirmed. Only God can bring revelation to me in a way that shapes my perceptions of myself, of other people and of a culture. 

So to actually engage in any kind of cross-cultural ministry begins by, in essence, saying to God, “I need you to know me. And help me to see my life, my culture, my assumptions, all of who I am, from your point of view.” That puts me in a position of gratitude as well as teachability. 

Become Agents of Reconciliation

So it really starts with God. And learning from him who I am and what he has called me to be. He is forming me in such a way that I might be, to continue this passage, an agent of what he calls “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18b). Otherwise all I am is an agent to my point of view, which the Scripture always sees as less than God’s. But to be humbly submitted to the Lord to use me as he chooses to see fit, to be called into that place of servanthood, to understand that anything in my life is up for grabs that can and should be challenged and/or affirmed by the Holy Spirit himself, through the teaching of his Word, puts me in a position to be able to see people differently than I might. 

And being an agent of reconciliation creates a new capacity to listen, a new capacity to perceive, so that when I share the message, again from this passage, “be reconciled to God” (1 Cor. 5:20b), it’s clear that I’m inviting other people to be reconciled with God, not with my own point of view.

Because in the end, what we’re calling people to is not a theological proposition, but to Jesus. And therefore it’s the overflow of our relationship with him that allows this to happen. So that Jesus, in essence, manifests himself, not just my point of view, through me.

So to engage in the cross-cultural work to which we are commended, through the example of Conrad Weiser, is not a small thing. It’s a commitment to life change, to servanthood in being available for God to challenge and affirm all that is inside us, that Jesus might manifest himself through us—more fully and completely, quite frankly, than anything we could ever ask or imagine.

How has God used you or someone you know in cross-cultural ministry? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer. 

(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on July 13, 2017, in the Bishop’s Oratory of the Diocesan Office, Orlando.) 

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.