At first I would like to acknowledge the author of this
book entitled Cultural Difference and the communication of the Gospel ‘’ who is
Paul G. Hiebert he is the Chairman of the Department of the Mission and
Evangelism Divinity School.
And he is an author also, one of his book is ‘’
cultural anthropology and Anthropological Insight of Missionaries and case
studies in mission. With his loving wives Frances H. Hierbert I really
appreciate Him as he wrote this document that inspired me to Go, and preach the
word of God. As I am reading this document I’ve learned many things about
Mission according to the author “you were excited when you are accepted to be a
missionary” but the truth is it is not easy to land on a stage country, why?
Because when you are going to another country especially if you bring the
Gospel, you must learned their culture, and how can you learned their culture?
You must observe first their behavior and their patterns for behavior,
especially the way they Great each other, the way they eat, the way they manage
their time so we must be careful and be watchful in every land that we landed.
And its true that not all our ideas reflect the reality of the external world,
for our minds creates many things used to bring order and meaning to our experience.
And according to the author “we can create as many categories we want and we
can organize them into Larger system for describing and explaining human
experience in every people they have their own map, it is people mental map of
our world and this is not just a map of our physical world, but also a map of
determining actions and it provides to us with a guide for our own decision and
our behavior”. What I’ve said at first that as we go to another land we must
learned their culture first. And according to the author there are three hearts
of a culture which is one of them is “
shared beliefs “ as I’ve learned its
talks about the nature of reality that makes communicate and makes community
life possible beliefs also tells people what exist and what does not the second
is what we called “feelings” it is an important part in human relationships in
our motions of etiquette and fellowship by our facial expression, tore voices
and gesture we already communicative
hate scorn and a hundred others attitudes.
The last one is “values” it is
the heart of culture which people judge the experience by their own lives, and
our values determines evil what is right and wrong, what is good and evil in
our culture. And as usual as we go to the other land there would be a
misunderstanding especially in culture. But the good thing is that we can solve
the solution if we learn how the other culture works we will become a student
of their ways, in order to understand them and preach the gospel to them. But
then one thing I learned the most is that the cultural differences affects the
Gospel in a way that the messenger “mustcommunicate in the language the people
understand” and the second way is that “new believers must learn how to deal
with their old cultural way”, and the third one is that, “if the church is to
function well, church buildings forms of worship and leadership styles must be
adapted the local cultural practices”. And last one in way evangelistic methods
must be chosen that fit the culture.
And I really appreciate the most as the
author quoted “we must not underestimate or never overlook the fact that God is
at works through his spirit in the hearts of the people opening their Blind
eyes,(their spiritual eyes) and their depth ears, (their spiritual ears) in order
to accept the word of God and applied in their lives. Even though sometimes we
felt we are imperfect and we feelWe are unskilled to bring the gospel of our
lord Jesus Christ and preach and teach it to them, still God uses it in order
to transform the lives of people. And as Christian, communication must always
be accompanied by prayer and obedience to the Gospel guidance and work of the
Holy spirit. “Remember don’t be discourage if you see people are not changing
especially when you already preach to them, remember this“ God says Go and
preach my Gospel, not to go and change people, because actually you did your
part and so allow God to do his part.”
Pastor Jeremy Jithro Alesna
International Teams
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