Books on culture - Part 1

I just finished reading a terrific book, the latest in a series by professor and missionary Sherwood Lingenfelter. He has spent his life studying cultures and the ways, for better or worse, in which missionaries approach them. I have read two of his other books, and it is interesting to watch the progression. In "Ministering Cross-Culturally" (1986) and "Transforming Culture" (1998), lays out a grid for understanding how differently people see the world, and what a missionary might need to do in order to hear and be heard in a new culture. For this latest work, "Teaching Cross-Culturally" (2003), he shares the writing with his wife, Judith, applying concepts from the previous works to the classroom.

Throughout the books, I really have been stretched by the perspective they bring - the necessity of what is called incarnational ministry. This means that Christ did not accomplish His ministry from afar, but came to be with us, feeling and suffering as we do. He left a comfortable place and was incarnate, taking the very nature of a servant. In our case, it is the comfort of our cultural norms we are called to abandon, or at least evaluate. Even many "Christian" norms are just cultural biases that need to be scrutinized and brought under the correction of scripture and the heart of Christ. When we are building any cross-cultural relationship, we must become learners of a new perspective when it comes to areas like work, property, authority, time, gifts, etc. Each culture addresses these things differently, and each has good contributions but is still flawed. As we serve, our challenge is to examine where we are truly bringing Christ, and where we are merely trying to import our American cultural notions. This is true whether we are headed to a remote jungle village or to an underserved ethnic group in our city.
Stay tuned....