The Challenge of Cross-Cultural Missions
Ten years after the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, the Massachusetts Bay Colony founded the town of Boston in 1630. The first seal of the Colony showed an American Indian holding in his hand an arrow pointed down, and a scroll came out over his mouth with the words, "Come over and help us." Building on the Apostle Paul’s dream of the Macedonian who uttered the same cry (Acts 16:9), the original settlers of Boston thought of themselves as bringing the redeeming message of salvation to the Native Americans. One of the more committed and effective leaders in this movement was John Eliot.
John Eliot was a Puritan preacher who took seriously the calling to share the Gospel with the native inhabitants (the Algonquin peoples) of the land. He took the time to learn their language, translated portions of the Bible, and even printed up an English-Algonquin dictionary. The first Bible published in America is Eliot’s Algonquin Bible. And, many of the peoples responded to his message, becoming Christians. In many ways, Eliot helped communicate the Gospel in powerful and meaningful ways.
However, in retrospect, Eliot promoted many practices which would be deemed ethnocentric and insensitive from today’s perspective. To be baptized into the church (to be officially recognized as a Christian), Eliot demanded that the Native Americans live in English-style towns, give up a nomadic lifestyle and pursue farming, wear a certain style of clothing, and even cut their hair according to Puritan customs. All these practices, as well as many others, were seen as a necessary part of a vibrant Christian faith. Eliot and his Puritan friends could not separate their English-Puritan culture from their faith.
This is a great challenge to anyone seeking to share the Gospel message—how to identify the key teachings of Christ from our own cultural expression. We want to communicate the Good News, not the “good news as I live and understand it.” Every person is a product of their culture. We are impacted more than we know, and our cultural heritage is revealed subconsciously all the time. But, the Gospel transcends culture, it is universal and timeless. Somehow, we must speak of Christ and His redemption in ways that are meaningful to the people we are sharing with.
The sin of pride leads us all, to some extent, to be egocentric, to be so absorbed in our own experiences that we fail to appreciate the way those experiences cause us to be arrogant, short-sighted, and limited. We are products of our society and culture, and those experiences wrap around us and flow out in many ways. But, the Gospel is not bound! It is not limited to just me and/or people who are willing to act and think like me. The Gospel crosses cultural boundaries; the Gospel is for all peoples, all cultures, all nations.
Recognizing the limitations of our own experiences and self-centeredness is not easy. God has made us to be culturally-bound people, products of our society. And, that’s not a bad thing, but it does make believing in, and proclaiming, the global nature of the Gospel message that much more difficult. We have to always discern where we are speaking the universal truths of salvation, and where our own perspective leaks in and limits what is unlimited—the grace of the cross of Jesus Christ.
The Church has struggled with these false limitations since its inception. Paul tackles this question in his first epistle to Timothy—and we are going to follow his thoughts this week in worship. To prepare, read 1 Timothy 2:1-7.
1. Verse 1: “First of all…” implies a “second.” Can you find/follow Paul’s thought here?
2. Paul lists four different things that he urges—supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings. What is the difference between them? Why list these four?
3. Why do you think Paul specified the kings and those in high positions for special prayer? What would that look like for us today?
4. Paul gives a reason at the end of verse 2 and into verse 3 for the prayers we are to offer. What do you think of the reason(s) Paul gives?
5. What traits of God does Paul stress in verse 4? How do these address the command Paul gives to pray?
6. How does verse 5 explain Paul’s comment in verse 4? God desires… for there is one God…?
7. What does it mean that Jesus gave himself as a ransom (vs. 6)? Can you think of a good picture or image of this?
