Empowering Transformation: Transferable Principles for Intercultural Planting of Spiritually-Healthy Churches (Regnum Studies in Mission) 1506475647, 9781506475646

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Empowering Transformation Transferable Principles for Intercultural Planting of Spiritually-Healthy Churches

Vee J. D-Davidson

Mission studies cannot be written effectively without the authenticity that comes from actual involvement in the work of sharing the Gospel. Vee J.D-Davidson writes from the perspective of long experience of rural and remote urban missions in South West, Central, and North West provinces of China. Her passion for effective cross-cultural communication of the transformative Christian message shines through every page of this book. Brian Stanley, PhD. Professor of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh. Dr Vee J.D-Davidson is a cross-cultural mission activist, scholar and trainer. She draws on her experience of holistic ministry combining dentistry with church planting in rural China to reflect on the extensive literature on contextualisation and inculturation of the gospel. She offers discussion questions for students and others engaged in moving beyond their natural social grouping with faithful biblical witness to Jesus Christ. This unique work will resource mission activists, scholars and trainers alike. Canon Dr Chris Sugden PhD. Secretary, Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life V.J.D-Davidson has a way with words that paint pictures in our minds and make missiological concepts very tangible. Her vast experience in both rural and remote urban China give contexts that might be unfamiliar to many. This is a treasure trove of insights into Mission and missions that a world Christian must not miss. It is spiritually enriching to savor reading this brilliant book. Teresa Chai, PhD, Academic Dean, Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, Philippines; Member of the Joint Consultative Group of the World Council of Churches; Vice-Chair of the Asia Pacific Theological Association Board

REGNUM STUDIES IN MISSION

Empowering Transformation Transferable Principles for Intercultural Planting of Spiritually Healthy Churches Based on Two Decades of Involvement in Rural and Remote Urban China

Series Preface Regnum Studies in Mission are born from the lived experience of Christians and Christian communities in mission, especially but not solely in the fast-growing churches among the poor of the world. These churches have more to tell than stories of growth. They are making significant impacts on their cultures in the cause of Christ. They are producing ‘cultural products’ which express the reality of Christian faith, hope and love in their societies. Regnum Studies in Mission are the fruit often of rigorous research to the highest international standards and always of authentic Christian engagement in the transformation of people and societies. And these are for the world. The formation of Christian theology, missiology and practice in the twenty-first century will depend to a great extent on the active participation of growing churches contributing biblical and culturally appropriate expressions of Christian practice to inform World Christianity.

Series Editor Paul Woods

Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Oxford, UK

A full listing of titles in this series appears on the Regnum website

REGNUM STUDIES IN MISSION

Empowering Transformation Transferable Principles for Intercultural Planting of Spiritually Healthy Churches Based on Two Decades of Involvement in Rural and Remote Urban China

Vee J. D-Davidson

Copyright © Vee J. D-Davidson 2018 First published 2018 by Regnum Books International Regnum is an imprint of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies St. Philip and St. James Church Woodstock Road Oxford, OX2 6HR, UK www.ocms.ac.uk/regnum 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The right of Vee J. D-Davidson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or a license permitting restricted copying. In the UK such licenses are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-506475-64-6 © Cover image of a painting by Moyra Trimby, Rainbow’s Rest Studio, Gloucestershire Typeset by Words by Design Printed and bound in Great Britain Distributed by 1517 Media in the US and Canada

Dedicated to Julie (Jewels) because without your enduring and caring friendship, unclouded pursuit of deepening intimacy with our Lord Jesus, unflinching self-sacrifice for God’s highest and best purposes, and peer-mentor model of Holy perseverance and trust in those many times in China when we were “between the army and the sea”, none of the “Empowering Transformation” illustrations could have happened quite as they did. Glory to God, and may His joy in and through you continue to be your fruit-bearing strength.   
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Contents

Acknowledgements Foreword Preface

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Understanding the Different Approaches to Missions Culture and Awareness of Cultural Differences Dark Days in Intercultural Ministry Outreach as a Process Contextualisation of Outreach Approach in Light of Situational Cultural Specifics Contextualised Church Establishing the Contextualised Church and Handing Over

Appendices: 1 Personality Analysis Tool 2 Tools for Discovering Spiritual Gifts 3 Discipleship Topics and Preaching Texts According to Genre 4 Tool for Monitoring Spiritual Change 5 Tools for Understanding the Bible Bibliography Index

xi xiii xv

1 27 57 83 109 135 157

185 187 191 195 199 231 241

Acknowledgements

None of the teaching opportunities were likely to have come about if it hadn’t been for the insightful suggestion by one of my cherished mentors, Rev Dr Hugh Osgood, that I take up Doctoral studies. Equally, the PhD topic and setting needed to be fleshed out by Chinese villagers who became very precious friends. The sheer joy of being able to chronicle parts of the entire two decades-plus of ministry in China as illustrations of principles in the book has only come about due to God’s great grace and graciousness in having my Filipina dear friend, co-labourer, and peer-mentor, Dr Co, and I minister together all these years. Dr Wonsuk Ma’s on-going sweet persuasion finally got me reshaping the relevant and most useful parts of the PhD thesis, and students’ questions and interactions from my many block course classes in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Singapore have added to the fun and challenging melting pot from which the manuscript has emerged. Sincere thanks to my precious sister, Mia Young, for checking some of my sources from afar – with the unchanged parts of a decade-old teaching notes incorporated into the book, I may have missed acknowledging some sources. I very much hope this is not the case, but if it is, profuse apologies. Finally, profound thanks, once again, to a long-time good friend and sister in Christ, Moyra Trimby, for very kindly persevering through initial proofreading and offering invaluable advice and comments.

Foreword

Empowering Transformation provides generalisable principles for academics and practitioners, and is a unique missiology book for a number of important reasons. First, I would characterise the book as written ‘on foot’. Theory, practice, and reflection inform the content of the book, and they are intricately interwoven. Theory informs the practice, while the practice and reflection on practice validates or challenges theory and offers modifications. The significant value of practice-based knowledge cannot be more pronounced than in mission literature. The book is a worthy addition to this research genre. Second, the book reflects the continuing process of learning. The author, who originally trained to be an engineer, came out to Asia following a BA in theology and two years as a short-term missionary in Pakistan. She fine-tuned the depths of her theological study alongside her missionary work in China. The author’s life and work serves as a model for the growing number of missioners with a variety of gifts, but who are either not trained theologically or who resist deeper theological training. I find this book to be delightful reading, as my imagination follows the process of learning in the same way that Dr Vee did her missiological learning. She learned to live and work adaptively with missionaries from other cultures, and specifically with an Asian co-labourer, Dr Co, to be fully integrated with the people whom they are called to serve; to bring the witness of the Gospel to the communities through their valuable service; to negotiate with local socio-political structures including members of political entities with an entirely different agenda than these women missionaries. In a real sense, like the lives and communities touched, the book continues to be an unfinished work and ministry, and her and our missiological learning never stops. Third, for a practical reason, one might say the book has two authors since the missions principles presented are illustrated by the fruit of two people’s lives: Dr Co, an Asian dentist missionary, and the author, a European theologian, spending decades together in three different sociocultural contexts in China. They have complemented each other in more than one way, including the East-West collaboration, and their experiences are continually compared before conclusions are drawn. When I read the cross-cultural chapter, for example, I could envision them living in a village environment where basic privacy is not provided, and working

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where very primary sanitation is not secured, so that the two single women must have had to make their own cultural adjustments. Just as every believer is called and empowered to be a witness to the saving work of Christ, the author also brought her live experiences in rigorous interaction to produce a fine PhD dissertation. Thus, this book is not a collection of testimonies with proof texts of scholars. Rather, specific experiences in various concrete socio-cultural contexts went through an academic process so that the practice-based knowledge is now offered to provide illustrations of generalisable missions principles. For many reasons, thus, this is a unique and insightful missiological text. Wonsuk Ma, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Global Christianity Graduate School of Theology and Ministry, Oral Roberts University, USA

Preface

It has always been a matter of joy and wonder to me how ministry opens up in new ways as we pour out all our Lord Jesus gives us to be and do. Putting the manuscript for this book together has finally come about as God has cued up the timing to combine different strands of my life, growth and ministry challenges from the past 20 plus years. While living and working in China I was also completing a PhD in Theology of mission and education and glad to finish it in 2009. A year earlier I had begun teaching Perspectives in Missions for MA-level students from all over Asia, at Asia Pacific Theological Seminary in the Philippines. This was followed by teaching Cross-cultural Communications, and then these two courses and also Spirituality and Spiritual Growth at Ecclesia Theological Seminary in Hong Kong and ACTS in Singapore. The intercultural nature of the teaching and learning environments has always been a curiosity-inspiring and joy-filled challenge along with all the years of teaching in Chinese in China, and I have long used the church-planting and teaching ministry in China to provide illustrations for textbook principles. Over the years I’ve revised my teaching notes many times to best fit each specific body of students and emerging new material, but found myself returning to certain portions of my own notes again and again because I wanted to address issues in a different way than that of the standard textbooks, and introduce modifications and/or alternative perspectives. This book is a combination of classic textbooks’ concepts, my own teaching notes, and other materials already published related to my PhD thesis and wider. I aim to use the book as a textbook for Missions courses and Cross-cultural Communications courses, particularly in Asia, but hope it might provide interesting, challenging, and inspiring reading worldwide regardless of the reader’s motives for reading. May God’s Holy Spirit touch and inspire you despite my weaknesses as one of His vessels still in the making.

Chapter 1 Understanding the Different Approaches to Missions

Introduction

There are a great many different approaches to missions activity. How can you identify which particular approach is right for you or those whom you send out into missionary activity? Which approach or approaches might be most appropriate for the unreached, especially throughout Asia? This chapter aims to unravel some common misunderstandings related to mission, missions, and the multiple assorted perspectives related to Christian missionary activity; show how one’s personal theology of missions inevitably influences one’s approach; and identify the rationale for the range of approaches used by Christians and others in order to get the message across. This is particularly important for those seeking to reach out among the multiple ‘unreached people groups’ in Asia where there are often political and/or ‘religious’ restrictions in what can be done and how it might be carried out. These settings have their own unique situational particularities and are often referred to as limited access or creative access settings. Understanding the different approaches to missions can not only help us to make appropriate choices and decisions in preparation for missions work but also help prevent future on-field conflict.1 We need to start by asking why do we still do missions? Does China, for instance, still need missionaries now, given there’s a huge number of Christians in the country? It’s perhaps not unreasonable to say that wherever there are unreached people that national Christians are unable to reach or do not appear to be reaching out to, there is still a role for missionaries or ‘those sent’ from other places.2 In parts of Asia a great many unreached people, including those of unreached people groups, are not being reached out to by national Christians, particularly in countries where Christian expression is restricted for either political or ‘religious’ reasons.

1

Much of this chapter uses material from D-Davidson. 2016. ‘Sending and/or Going? Understanding Different Approaches to Asian Missions’, which first appeared in Journal of Asian Mission. Vol.17 No. 1 June (3–18). Used with permission. 2 As first appears in D-Davidson. 2012. ‘Mission and Education in Rural China: Birthing a Community-Oriented Mission-Minded Body of Christian Believers’, in Evangelical Missions Quarterly 48(2) April (226–231). This and other excerpts used with permission.

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Some Important Initial Questions What is the Difference Between the Terms ‘Mission’ and ‘Missions’? These terms tend to get used interchangeably in both classic and contemporary textbooks and articles concerned with intercultural issues. I prefer to define the singular term ‘mission’ as the big-picture concept: God’s overall universal plan for His creation and created ones which works out through the incarnation of Jesus and includes what Christ sent us out to be and do as His disciples. In contrast, the plural term ‘missions’ better describes how our part of the big-picture concept is actually carried out, and how we might bring the Gospel to the vast unreached groups in Asia and worldwide in a way that is thoughtfully and prayerfully relevant to the local context. The missions that we do should always be missio Dei, i.e. God’s mission, and not our own ideas or plans, or ways of fulfilling our personal agendas. The idea of missio Dei, or the mission of God,3 became a familiar missiological term following the 1952 ecumenical International Missionary Conference in Willingen. Of the Willingen conference, Bosch (1991:390-1) writes: Mission was understood as being derived from the very nature of God. It was thus put in the context of the doctrine of the Trinity, not of ecclesiology or soteriology. The classical doctrine on the missio Dei as God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit was expanded to include yet another ‘movement’: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sending the church into the world…Willingen’s image of mission was mission as participating in the sending of God…Since Willingen, the understanding of mission as mission Dei has been embraced by virtually all Christian persuasion… [Moreover,] since God’s concern is for the entire world, this should also be the scope of missio Dei. It affects all people in all aspects of their existence.

The mission of God flows directly from the nature of who He is – love, community (Trinitarian), equality, diversity, mercy, compassion, and justice. Missio Dei involves the rule or reign of God but the term has been used since to advance all kinds of missiological agendas both legitimate and less so (Kirk 2000:28). Asia presents a huge range of spiritual, physical and social needs for which we can bring His answer as we seek what is most appropriate according to His way and timing in different settings.

•

3

What is the Difference Between Missions and Evangelism? Bosch (1991:420) notes that the concept of evangelism has been interpreted over the years in multiple different ways but prefers to “summarize evangelism as that dimension and activity of the church’s

Note that McIntosh defines missio Dei as ‘the sending of God’ (2000:631).

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mission which, by word and deed and in the light of particular conditions and a particular context, offers every person and community, everywhere, a valid opportunity to be challenged to a radical orientation of their lives…which involves such things as deliverance from slavery to the world and its powers; embracing Christ as Savior and Lord; becoming a living member of his community, the church; being enlisted into his service of reconciliation, peace, and justice on earth; and being committed to God’s purpose of placing all things under the rule of Christ”. • ευαγγελιον, the Greek New Testament term we associate with evangelism, means the good news, and, rather than referring to the one bringing the message, it refers to the actual message. So we can certainly say it refers to what we share, not how we share it. • Kirk (2000:57) urges that “Missions is not synonymous with evangelism. If evangelism [sharing the good news] is made to bear the full weight of the entire missions calling of the Church, its sharp characteristic will disappear…however there can be no authentic evangelism apart from a living testimony to the transforming power of the Gospel in action.” Our role then, is to discern our specific part and way in mission’s bigger picture whether working among those from resistant religious backgrounds such as Buddhists in Thailand, China, Bhutan, or Nepal; or Buddhists in Chinese communities in Cambodia or Indonesia or Europe; or in Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, or Muslim communities in countries such as China, Thailand, Malaysia, or even Europe, etc. etc. or in the midst of other resistant or limited access societies, but so that ultimately God’s mission aims are completely fulfilled as transformation comes about. As we do missions in these diverse settings we need discernment in how to present God’s mission message in a way that is most appropriate for the setting. We also need to play our part in God’s mission in a way that not only brings transformation but also facilitates empowerment of local people so that they become agents of on-going spiritual and physical transformation. What is Modernity? The term modernity is associated with the quest for knowledge and scientific proof that began in the seventeenth century with René Descartes’ equating of mental creative activity as proof of physical existence and being, i.e. cogito, ergo sum ‘I think, therefore I am’. This affected missions because Western education and knowledge was sought in Africa and Asia, and missionaries brought that knowledge with them. But missionaries sailed with trading ships representing Western countries and colonies were set up with the Western countries in control. The ways missionaries did missions were not well thought through and objectionable, too, was the

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often paternalistic attitude that accompanied their activities. They helpfully set up churches and schools and hospitals to provide education and healthcare but wanted the nationals to do everything in the same way that the missionaries modeled from the missionaries’ backgrounds rather than in ways that would be more culturally appropriate.4 In his 1912 ‘Missionary Methods; St Paul’s or Ours?’, Roland Allen (1912/1962) famously criticised that approach, which had missions depending on ways of man according to the missionaries’ cultural and socioeconomic background, and preventing the Holy Spirit from working in the planted churches. More than a century later, this is still an important book for contemporary missions and missionaries. In Asia and in missions activities worldwide we should be alert to whether the churches being planted merely reflect the churchmanship of the missionaries or whether the churchmanship is on local peoples’ terms and according to what they perceive as culturally appropriate. Roland Allen’s challenge remains: Are we trusting the Holy Spirit to work in the local believers’ lives so that they can grow and also grow the work, or are the missionaries still directing all the work? Letting go also needs missionaries to recognise that the local people will have a better perspective on how to reach out appropriately so that missionary ‘teachers’ also become interactive ‘learners’. What is Postmodernity? Sampson, Samuel, and Sugden (1994:7) give us a helpful definition for postmodernity in relation to modernity: “Modernity is the intellectual and cultural heritage of the Enlightenment project – namely the rejection of traditional and religious sources of authority in favour of reason and knowledge as the road to human emancipation. From this point of view, postmodernity refers to the progressive loss of confidence in, if not failure of, the enlightenment project since 1945.” Why do Sampson, Samuel, and Sugden suggest postmodernity began in 1945? Carter (2006:54) writes: The optimistic, humanistic liberalism of the nineteenth century had been savaged by the tragic events of the first half of the twentieth century: two world wars, the Depression, the Holocaust, the development and use of the atomic bomb, racism, eugenics, increased barbarism in war, the rise of Communist totalitarianism in the Soviet Union. These horrific events had shaken the twin doctrines of the Enlightenment: the doctrine of progress through science, technology, education, and democracy and the doctrine of the perfectibility of humanity.

So, by 1945 the optimism of modernists was undermined worldwide and the age of postmodernism began. Stetzer (2003:120) specifically offers that 4

See for instance Stanley (1990).

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“Postmodernism is based on the denial of personal objectivity, the uncertainty of knowledge, the death of any all-inclusive explanation, the denial of the inherent goodness of knowledge, the rejection of progress, the supremacy of community-based knowledge, and the disbelief in objective enquiry.”5 In summary we can say that postmodernism and postmodernists are marked by: • CYNICISM, because expectations of global improvement were undermined; • RELATIVISM, which promotes there being no ultimate standards for truth and the belief that what’s true for one person isn’t necessarily true for everyone else; and • TOLERANCE, which urges that everyone can believe whatever they like but they may not insist that everyone else should believe it too. How Does Postmodernity Affect the Presentation of the Message of Missions? Postmodernism inevitably affects one’s view of missions and the message presented since postmodernists challenge the right of Christians to say that Christ is the only way to salvation! They criticise missionaries for wanting to tell Buddhists, Hindus, communists, etc. that Christ is the one Way to forgiveness, freedom, and eternal life. The postmodernist relativistic approach to truth sees missionary labours as potentially offensive and the message of Christ presented as an irrelevant message since they believe people are entitled to their own beliefs, religious or otherwise.6 For missionaries to present a message throughout Asia and the world that will be received by unreached peoples it will need to be perceived as both timely and relevant. But to avoid misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication we need to be sure we are communicating a message that is neither confusing nor conflicts with how we are seen to live the message out. Most Evangelicals say Christ is the only way to salvation whereas liberals are often happy to say otherwise. It’s down to the message aspect of our personal theology of missions.

5

Cited after Erickson (1998:19). Writing from the perspective of church-planting in the USA, Stetzer (2003:113) urges that “The church wants to reach and should reach postmoderns. But the church must not adopt postmodernism [because] its basic presuppositions are actually antithetical to the gospel at times. We cannot ‘move with the times’ and embrace postmodernity without strong discernment…the church cannot become postmodern.” He continues (116): “Many evangelicals have not engaged postmoderns because they do not want to have contact with the value systems of the postmodern world. It is much easier to deny its power than to acknowledge its influence.” 6

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Theology of Mission[s]

Kirk (2000:237) provides a definition which describes Theology of mission as being “concerned with the basic presuppositions and underlying principles which determine, from the standpoint of Christian faith, the motives, message, strategy, and goals of the Christian World mission”. So, Theology of Missions is concerned with the principles behind the ‘why, what, how and aims’ of the task of missions and, from the standpoint of Christian faith, those principles will be based on Biblical principles as found in the scriptures. For instance, concerning strategy, in application and also from a pragmatic point of view we might ask: if we are reaching out to Buddhists in China how might the approach need to be different to approaches used for reaching Buddhists in Thailand? Or, what can we do in Indonesia that perhaps we can’t do in Vietnam? Being aware of what we believe about the ‘why, what, how and aims’ of missions and the scriptures that fuel them, will help us be and do missions in ways that keep us true to our calling in Christ and also avoid confusion for those we are reaching out to. Key Mission Texts in the New Testament and Associated Scriptural Missions Principles 1. Mathew 28:19-20 “Go…” The command in Mathew’s Gospel is to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (NIV). Theology of missions as seen in Mathew 28:16-20: Underlying principle determining the motives for missions is obedience - Jesus Christ said ‘Go!’ so GO! Underlying principle determining the message of missions - Jesus Christ said, ‘In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’. This is a Trinitarian message about God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit who is the presence of Christ within those who believe in Him. Underlying principle determining goals of missions is multiplication – Jesus Christ said, ‘disciple, baptise and teach them to obey’. 2. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world…” Theology of missions as seen in John 3:16: Underlying principles determining the message of missions – first, God’s love is vast and never exhausted; and second, that He sent His Son Jesus as the means for those who believe in Jesus to be graced with eternal life.

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Underlying principle determining goals of missions - that we might be those who live in God’s unconditional love and attract others into that same love-based relationship with Him through Jesus. 3. Romans 5:8 “…God demonstrates His love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Underlying principles determining the message of missions - first, God’s compassion and mercy are undeservedly immense; and second, Christ died for our sins before we were even aware of it. Underlying principle determining goals of missions - that we might be those who demonstrate God’s compassion and mercy and, through doing so, communicate the truth of forgiveness through Christ’s death on the cross. 4. Luke 4:16-21 “…The Spirit of the Lord is on me…” Luke is believed to have been a Gentile writing for Christians who were largely from a Gentile background. Jesus is seen to deliberately attend to those on the edge of society and his ministry is one of compassion and deliverance. Compared to the other Gospel writers, Luke appears to emphasise the role and power of the Holy Spirit associated with Jesus’ teaching and ministry. If we compare Mathew 28:16-20 with Luke 4:16-21, we see that Mathew gives a command whereas Luke presents facts and a promise with the promise repeated in Acts 1:8 (his follow-on book), i.e. in Acts 1:8 Jesus does not command the disciples to ‘be my witnesses’ but gives the encouragement that ‘you will be my witnesses’. Here we see not a command to be obeyed but a promise to be trusted. Theology of missions as seen in Luke 4:16-21: Underlying principle determining the motives for missions - Christians are given the Holy Spirit to do what Christ did in freeing people, so let’s walk in step with the Holy Spirit and be sensitive to His leading. Underlying principle determining the message of missions - deliverance is in and through Christ. Underlying principle determining the strategy of missions - touch lives at the point of need whether physical, spiritual, or emotional. 5. John 20:21 “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” How was Christ sent? How does he send his disciples? He sends them with authority and power and a servant-hearted joyfully sacrificial outlook, with Holy Spirit presence and the potential for fullness of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So we can also be likewise sent. Theology of missions as seen in John 20:21:

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Underlying principle determining the motives for missions - we’re also sent with authority and power, and with Holy Spirit presence and the potential for fullness of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Underlying principle determining the message of missions - live out the reality of God’s love and power as present in Christ, and Christ in us, with a servant-hearted joyfully sacrificial outlook. Underlying principle determining goals of missions - exercise the demonstrable authority and power that we are sent out with so that others might come into the love and knowledge of God and our Lord and saviour Jesus. These are a few key texts which might inform many a Christian or Christian missionary organisation’s theology of missions. Organisations may well have other scriptures which are the basis for their motives, message, strategy, and goals of missions activity. Whether personally engaged in missions or not, it is well worth taking some time to think through and write down one’s theology of missions and the principles related to the scriptures which have fuelled that theology of missions. When considering whether to join a particular organisation (or not) or send someone to that organisation (or not), it can help avoid facing huge frustrations later if you have identified the organisation’s theology of missions to see if there are any non-negotiable values, ideals, or hopes that might be undermined by working with that organisation. Different Strategies in Missions – The Missions Approaches Spectrum

We can see a range of different approaches to actually doing missions – from handing out scripture tracts in marketplaces in the Philippines to running sewing classes for Muslim ladies in Pakistan. Hesselgrave (2005:119-122) describes how different approaches (or missions strategies in relation to underlying theology and/or philosophy of missions) sit on a continuum or spectrum that includes liberationist approaches – revisionist holist approaches – restrained holist approaches – prioritist approaches, with liberationism and prioritism at the extreme ends of the spectrum. We can break the spectrum down into the different parts, but first we will take a look at the history and rationale of Liberationist approaches and Liberation theology. Liberationist Approaches and Liberation Theology Attention had been paid to human rights since 1789 and this was widely accepted in many nations. The Rights of Man of the French declaration are taken as based on Christian beliefs as seen in the teachings of Christ. The implementation of the beliefs has not been universally agreed or acted on. Following the Second World War, ‘development’ came to the fore in the 1960s and 70s as a way of helping rebuild war-damaged countries and also

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helping ‘underdeveloped’ countries. Development came to mean providing poorer nations with necessities for health and growth such as were already available in the West, e.g. clean water, sanitation, roads, mother and children’s education, sustainable food supplies such as through improved agricultural practices, etc. So, for instance, where Western soldiers reported poverty and lack of clean water supplies on islands such as Guam, organisations went back to Guam to meet these needs. But along with developments, the social and cultural values that had governed the Western countries since the enlightenment and which the Western developers brought with them, also threatened to replace the social and cultural values of the underdeveloped countries. Importantly, from the late 1960s onward, the concept of the strong offering help to the weak began to be replaced by the concept of approaches that might enable the weak and powerless to become aware of their own situation and enabled to organise themselves to solve their own problems and liberate themselves from the oppression that caused poverty in the first place.7 As a result, reaching out to the poor, whether in Manila, or downtown Tokyo, or those in remote villages in China or Cambodia, became an exercise in not merely problem-solving but in empowering locals to identify the roots of problems and also find ways of resolving them in culturally appropriate ways. Liberationist approaches have their roots in Liberation theology. Liberation theology believes that love and justice are distinct concepts related to God and how He is working in the world, but where justice is denied so is love. In the Old Testament liberation theologians saw the primary model of salvation in the exodus from Egypt and this was also taken to by God’s supreme saving action. For liberation theologians God is on the side of the slaves and the oppressors are God’s enemies. Latin American liberation theologians saw their situation in these terms.8 God’s cause is the cause of the exploited peasants. The landowners who exploit the peasants for profit are God’s enemies. Salvation in the Old Testament is taken as actions and situations that occurred in history so that, for the Latin Americans, salvation came to be seen as action taken in the here and now to free the people from oppression. Building a just society required liberation so that historical political liberating events, particularly in relation to “the struggle of the poor and oppressed seeking justice”, were seen by liberationists as salvific (Hesselgrave 2005:120). 7

See for instance Shaffer (1993) and Pretty, Guijt, Scoones, and Thompson (1995). Gustavo Gutierrez, the Peruvian Roman Catholic priest who largely developed liberation theology, is probably also the most famous of action-promoting liberation theologians. 8

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Why is liberation theology no longer so fully championed? The facts of sin and death affecting the world were dealt with too simplistically. With freedom and liberation gained through bloodshed, this completely undermined Christian values of peace and goodwill towards enemies. Hermeneutics were questioned: how can the Exodus ever be taken to be a normative event with modern-day application? Similarly, what place does intentional aggression have in the gospel of peace? Theology of Missions Strategy with Respect to the Principles Underlying Liberationism, Holist Approaches, and Prioritist Approaches9 1. Liberationism/Liberationist Approaches Underlying principle - the activity “is to promote justice in society and establish Shalom (peace) on earth” (Hesselgrave 2005:122). This tends to be done through meeting purely physical needs such as through providing schools, healthcare facilities, and livelihood projects. At the extreme end of the spectrum, liberationist approaches see no need for a spiritual message. Where there is only minimal or nominal attention given to spiritual needs, it’s what has classically been called ‘social gospel’ as it attends to social and society developmental needs only. An instance of ‘social gospel’ is seen where schools were set up in India with the hope of producing good Christian scholars and the assumption was that this would automatically happen, but although many excellent scholars emerged, they certainly did not all live Christian lives or inculcate Christian values into succeeding generations. 2. Holist Approaches10 A) REVISIONIST HOLISM

Underlying principle – the activity is “to minister to individuals and society without dichotomizing between the physical and spiritual (or the body and soul/spirit)” (ibid). Ministry to both is equally valid and needed. Neither may have priority over the other. This is often seen in mission approaches among poor and undeveloped societies such as in parts of China, Indonesia, Nepal, Cambodia, etc. B) RESTRAINED HOLISM

Underlying principle - the activity is to minister to individuals and society in social terms as well as spiritually. Meeting social needs is seen as 9

All four terms and descriptions come from Hesselgrave 2005:119 –22. These may also be found referred to in missions literature as integral mission or outreach, which includes both evangelism and attention to social responsibility. 10

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important but, ultimately, ministering to society’s spiritual needs is the more important of the two, and hence evangelism is given more of a priority. This is also often seen in mission approaches among poor and underdeveloped societies such as in parts of the Philippines, China, Indonesia, Cambodia, etc. 3. Prioritism Underlying principle - the message is purely a spiritual message that is presented to meet spiritual needs only. Other Christian ministries are, at best, “secondary and supportive” (Hesselgrave 2005:122), and/but at worst waste time and resources which could be used for preaching the Gospel. Prioritist approaches are often seen in parts of Asia where there are no major restrictions on sharing the Gospel such as in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, etc. Hopefully we can see that missions operating at either the extreme end of liberationism or the extreme end of prioritism will present a message that does not do full justice to the Gospel message of Christ. Extreme liberationism denies the need for a spiritual message, whilst the extreme end of prioritism denies the fullness of the Gospel that in Christ we have the potential to be made new emotionally, mentally, and physically with spiritual rebirth, and also bring about spiritual and social transformation to the society in which we live.11 Liberationist approaches can usually be seen carried out by people and organisations at the theologically liberal end of the spectrum where the ultimate aim is community transformation in terms of health, education, and a universally accepted moral order. So, for instance, setting up an orphanage in Thailand or a night school cooking class for making friends with ladies in Pakistan can certainly help improve the physical situation of the orphans or skills of the Pakistani ladies, but without Christian spiritual input too, any changes are unlikely to bring forth eternal results. Without a change of the selfish motives and desires of the heart, meeting physical and social needs so as to get a mere outer transformation will not be enough to bring about long-term transformation. Why not? Because a spiritual message is needed too! Relief and Development Work

We must stress here, too, that meeting physical needs is certainly a necessary part of relief work in times of disaster such as an earthquake, flood, war, etc., and/but relief work may well not have the opportunity to concurrently bring a spiritual message. But this is not the same as a liberationist approach to missions whose underlying philosophy denies the 11

See for instance Sider, Olson, and Unruh (2002).

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need for a spiritual message, rather, the Christian involved in relief work can see the short-term activity as one where they live out the love of Christ by supplying the ‘cup of cold water’ relief goods.12 It is also very important to understand that relief work should not be a long-term involvement. Relief is exactly that – immediate relief. Long-term relief can easily create dependency, which denies and even destroys the dignity of the receivers. Maintaining the recipients’ dignity should be a standard principle in any form of outreach and so that colonialist paternalistic ways are not returned to. Along with the shorter-term relief work, a process for development work should also eventually start to unfold, preferably headed up by local people following an initial start-up from the development workers who came from outside the area. The relief and development phases will more than likely be by different teams of people and may also be by different organisations, but communication is essential for a smooth change from the relief to development stages of help. Although there may have been little opportunity for meeting spiritual needs in the relief work, the development work can include a holist approach so that communities can be brought into healing and greater wholeness even than before the original crisis. For instance, Roy Shaffer was the forerunner of the well-known and widely used Community Health Evangelism (CHE) program13 which combines a series of talks on health issues along with a Bible story and message. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

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Principles to Bear in Mind When Engaged in Development Work14 Don’t go with a superior attitude. Don’t do or say anything that could negate the local people’s dignity or sense of self-worth. Identify the needs from the local people’s perspective. Tentatively prioritize the needs. Help the local people to recognize and own the priority needs while being careful not to impose what is merely your own agenda. Deal with the root causes of needs, rather than merely treating symptoms. Help the local people see beyond meeting the immediate needs towards long-term solutions. Help local people identify currently available and potentially available local resources.

See for instance Wright (2008). CHE is also known as Community Health Education in closed countries and is based on the previously cited Shaffer text. 14 Although my colleague and I drew up these principles to address development in terms of physical needs, they can also be reworked as guideline principles for church planting and/or church development in any setting. 13

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Plan for sustainability: Ensure that projects are sustainable according to local terms and conditions. Don’t ever promise what you cannot deliver. Don’t impose alternative views; rather present them in a way that they will be seen as relevant. Involve the local people in projects at every stage. Look to be empowering local people who can also multiply by empowering others. Absolutely do not create dependency (particularly in terms of finance and/or longer-term project management).

Development Work: Integrity and Financial Dealings One of the major difficulties of development work is the potential for less well-off local people to see the outsiders who come to help promote development as an endless source of finance. A ‘them and us’ mentality projected from either side can also unhelpfully fuel a sense of unquestionable entitlement on the part of the receivers. It is of utmost importance that relationships are built as friendships which, from the beginning promote dignity, and, at least eventually, promote trust and integrity. Dealing with finances, especially in the early stages, can be a catalyst for major issues related to integrity and planning concerning appropriate use of funds. For example, the first area of China that I lived and worked in as a missionary was a remote Chinese minority group village of about 600 people among a group of villages in a mountainous location.15 My colleague, Dr Co,16 was invited to open a dental clinic as part of a cooperative medical healthcare facility.17 A retired local doctor, Dr Y, was the administrative head of the facility. For the first five years the medical and dental sections functioned adequately, using rooms in the same ancient courtyard. Within the first year, an American team leader had provided funds to pipe in running water to the clinic rooms from a mountain spring and have a basic toilet facility built. Aside from a crude facility in the Tang dynasty temple, bodily excrement was collected for fertilizing the crops in the field, so the clinic toilet was the first purpose-built squat toilet and, contrary to the proposed design, also had hatches so that excrement could 15 Reference to the village community involved is first presented in D-Davidson (2009a). 16 Dr Co is part Chinese and part Filipina. 17 Cooperative clinics ( ) not only provided inexpensive healthcare (albeit at a quite primitive level) to villagers who chose to pay a small fee each year but also the villagers would be entitled to a share of any profits. The doctors were a collection of Chinese personnel at different levels of training as well as ‘village doctors’ who were able to do little more than provide intravenous solutions of antibiotics and/or glucose.

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be collected. The foreign presence associated with the dental department, which eventually attracted patients from even further afield than the local villages, meant it had far greater income than the medical facility. Eventually Dr Y proposed that building a new and bigger hospital facility from scratch would be a good idea. His plans included some 38 rooms in a wall-enclosed two-storey building with multiple rooms for consulting, in-patients, a pharmacy, an operating theatre, several toilet and shower facilities, administrative rooms, and a kitchen. A committee was put together from the different household groups but, from the start, they were not particularly willing to be involved and even insisted on payment for attending meetings. Dr Y appeared to be the driving force behind the plans and with an insistent, yet engaging personality, convinced the American that a hospital facility of this size and complexity really was needed. The American, who had no previous experience in development work or community health projects, took on the project and raised the massive finances needed through supporters in North America. Two young men from the village were also sent to the provincial capital and funded to train as doctors with the understanding that, upon completion of their studies, they would return and work at the village hospital. Within a matter of years of the building’s completion in 2003, the dental section had a full quota of patients each day, more dental trainees in on-the-job training, and was functioning very effectively with five of the upper floor rooms. The medical section, in contrast, had far fewer patients and was draining the pooled income resources because salaries needed paying. Because there were multiple empty rooms, four of them were used to provide on-site accommodation for several of the dental trainees and another for one of the trainee doctors and his wife. There was only an occasional overnight medical in-patient and use of the operating theatre was highly impractical in the village setting.18 There were also tertiary hospital facilities in the town 7km away and accessible now that a tarmac road was built. As a result, the committee members began suggesting that a better use of the facility would be to open a hotel to accommodate tourists visiting the 18

Apart from needing staff such as a qualified anesthesiologist, animal and human excrement was rife in the fields and on village pathways, and so was tracked into the hospital facility. During harvest seasons the air would also be thick with airborne grain, dried excrement, and dirt particles so that maintaining antiseptic conditions, as needed for an operating theatre, was nigh on impossible. Patients entering the dental clinic rooms were required to leave their shoes outside the rooms and step into rubber slippers, as well as remove their outer coats (in winter) and wear a white dust-coat of which there were a variety of sizes available to wear over their own clothes. Each dental chair was meticulously scrubbed with bleach to maintain hygiene after each patient, and the floors were wiped with bleach after the clinic closed in the evening.

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village temple, etc.19 Despite the American who had provided the funding politely offering objections throughout the following years, and reminding the committee members that an agreement had been signed as to the use of the facility for medical purposes, the American eventually left the area and the committee members finally got their way. In November 2012 the question of turning the facility into a hotel was officially raised in a village meeting so that the hospital was closed from December until the following May and, once the facility had been turned into a hotel, in May 2013 a mere eight of the original rooms on the edge of the facility, where the kitchen had been, were walled off to provide a small area for the medical and dental clinic work. What can we learn from this development work project? There was certainly a need for improved facilities beyond the initial ancient courtyard setting, but what the local doctor insisted was the way forward was an overly ambitious and far more expensive project than was actually needed, and more importantly, was not owned from the start by the local people communitywide. As a respected leader due to his successful administrative medical work in the town, Dr Y’s proposals and directives were rarely questioned or opposed. Raising the funds and completing the hospital project was a vision and dream of the American, the local doctor, and a retired military leader who actually lived 600km away in the provincial capital city,20 but the rest of the villagers seemed to have never really caught the dream and so did not own the project. The committee was put together after the hospital project was already in the planning stage and their involvement as committee members (in order to ensure a degree of communal accountability) was somewhat coerced as they insisted on being paid for their involvement rather than willingly, and voluntarily, owning responsibility. It was hardly surprising that several years later, the goals for which the facility was built (i.e. to provide inexpensive and improved healthcare for the villagers and wider village community) were undermined and the larger part of the facility became a hotel. Before then, the village and wider area 19

The Tang dynasty temple was initially a big attraction for Chinese tourists, as was the natural spring pool alongside it, which was the source for the river through the village and the hospital piped water supply. Later, the entire village location was remodeled to become a tourist area for both Chinese and Western tourists and, although the dental section of the hospital continued to see patients, the medical section still did not improve. 20 This gentleman also had funds provided to remodel his family courtyard from scratch and rented out to Dr Co and myself several of his rooms, which were very near the new hospital site so that we could live near the facility rather than inside the same facility, as was Dr Co’s original housing. Living in the original clinic’s courtyard rooms meant she could not rest when the clinic was closed as potential patients would still come into the courtyard at all hours and ask for treatment.

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had been in the process of being remodelled to attract both Chinese and Western tourists and although the dental section of the hospital continued to see patients, the medical section still did not improve – hence the committee members’ suggestion to turn the facility into a hotel which would be a far more profitable venture. But, inevitably, this was at the expense of drastically reducing the clinic space and facilities for treating both dental patients and patients needing medical treatment. In summary, analysing the possible reasons for the limited success of this development project, we can see that firstly, it was not sufficiently owned by the community in the early stages, and secondly, magnitude and complexity-wise, it was inappropriate in terms of local needs. A third unhelpful factor was also seen in the American’s need to use an interpreter for negotiations with the local doctor and village leaders in Mandarin Chinese. In addition, the interpreter was from a distant part of China, so apart from not being conversant in the local minority language, he was also unfamiliar with the particularities of the culture of the local villagers. Despite the respect garnered by their positions of authority, it is possible that both were largely seen and received in terms of rather business-like relationships with the majority of the village leaders. Another Important Aspect of Integrity in Development Work Relates to Distribution of Funds Another example from China: in the second area of ministry we were involved in development work in central Southern China in remote villages with malnourished children. Diarrhea and vomiting were prevalent due to the unclean water supply, so that children were not able to sustain and maintain normal growth development. Water tanks were requested in five different locations21 to provide clean water from distant mountain springs to the clusters of scattered households. The springs could be up to three kilometres away from the household clusters, so smaller holding tanks were also needed close to each water source and then piping run to the main households’ tank. We agreed to look into completing one project at a time and laid conditions that, although overseas donors would fund the cost of materials according to a specific budget, all manpower would be provided by locals from each household cluster. This meant the locals would provide all the labour for collecting and transporting the materials, digging the ground to lay and overlay piping, building the concrete tanks with steel support girders and a reinforced-concrete structure, and running hardwearing rubber piping from the main tank to each household.

21

An analysis of the geography of the area and the distribution of the sites of clusters of households confirmed this was a valid need.

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Costing for the various materials needed for the first project of main tank, holding tank, and distant piping was tendered by the villages’ communist party leader (CPL). The costing far exceeded the budget available, and which we had been warned was likely to be the case. In God’s perfect timing, the first village member to become a Christian, who was also one of the committee members, was the village doctor who served both villages. We met with him for prayer and discipleship and also showed him the costings we’d been presented with. He volunteered and advised of his own accord that the prices presented by the CPL were unnecessarily high. He then showed us building receipts which used similar local supplies of gravel, sand, and cement with the prices paid per kilo and which were all lower. For piping costs, he advised that smaller pipes would adequately do what was needed so that for a two or three kilometre stretch of piping, the costs were significantly reduced. At our next meeting with the CPL we presented the new costings and got his immediate agreement with the face-saving suggestion that there must be a local building material supplier whose prices were lower than the one he had consulted. Other questionable tactics concerning a lack of integrity included a water tank project that the CPL insisted needed a much bigger budget than the previous tanks. The reasoning was not convincing and we left him with the polite advice that if the finance available was not sufficient to complete the project, there was probably another community that would welcome the available finance and be able to get on with a project before the rainy season, and/but if he could find any way of staying within the budget he should let us know as soon as possible. Before the week was over he called and said, yes, he had found a way to complete the project within the budget. Another project request in this same setting was for a bridge over a river that became impassable in the rainy season and which made it dangerous, especially for the children. The project would have been quite feasible until the plan was drawn up and shown to us: the amount of building supplies was demanded for a bridge that could support heavy-duty trucks rather than the originally requested footbridge. In the end the project was dropped in favour of providing the next clean water tank and piping system, particularly as other committee members acknowledged that there was no way a truck could even get to that part of the mountainside! To be fair, one might say that the request for the heavy-duty bridge anticipated a time in the future when roads would have been built throughout the villages and into the mountains, but realistically, attention to current needs was deemed by the majority of the committee members to take priority over preparing for future hypothetical scenarios. Dr Co and I were both relieved and gratified to see that the community leaders were taking responsibility for evaluating proposals, making sensible decisions, and rejecting the ones that they deemed inappropriate.

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The examples show that one needs to be aware of what is actually involved with specific development projects and not go in with naivety – my engineering background meant I had been accustomed to interacting with men since my earlier working days, so I was well prepared to be considered unknowledgeable with people expecting I could be easily fooled or manipulated. Discovering that I had sufficient knowledge to interact with building materials and engineering drawings was quite a surprise to some of the villagers. It resulted in a new respect being afforded me and opened up opportunities with both men and women for discussion about other aspects of life in my background culture and implications for living in China. The bottom line for me was to constantly point to God as the source of my strength and motivation, and His Holy Spirit as the One who brings me inspiration and comfort in both good times and difficult times. The Missions Approaches Spectrum and Pragmatic Concerns

Returning to the spectrum of missions approaches: apart from the far extremes of prioritism (which can also present themselves in an obnoxiously fanatic way), prioritist approaches are also well-used ways for helping people to journey into a relationship with God through Christ, and there are still many parts of the world for which more prioritist-oriented approaches are a viable option, e.g. through open-air evangelistic meetings, handing out of scripture tracts, etc. The nineteenth- and twentieth-century ‘faith’ missions had tended to view medical work, and indeed any kind of Christian ‘social’ activity, in a lesser light than time actively spent in evangelising and discipling Christian converts. But, importantly, structures of ‘social gospel’ such as schools and medical facilities were subsequently introduced because the point of need was invariably recognized as the place where openness to the Gospel begins. Hence, a purely prioritist approach was found to be far less successful than holist-oriented approaches. Moreover, the majority of unreached people and unreached people groups in Asia now are in countries or areas where prioritist approaches are either not well received or are prohibited – for instance, communist countries such as China and Vietnam; militant and even peaceful Muslim settings throughout Asia; deeply entrenched Buddhist and Hindu societies; and places such as Tibet and Bhutan where visa opportunities for outsiders are limited and/or granted for short periods of time only and often at great financial cost. In this case, in order to bring a message that will be seen as relevant to the so-far unreached people, a holistic approach which seeks to meet locally owned felt needs will be a means to building credibility and trust from which, eventually in God’s timing, a spiritual message can be brought.

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In restricted access settings, tent-making approaches can also be a valuable means of engaging with local people as professional skills and knowledge provide a valid platform for outreach. The term tent-making borrows from Paul’s missionary strategy in the New Testament whereby he used his skills to not only finance his life and ministry so that he was not dependent on those he was reaching out to but also to “build credibility…identify with working classes…and to set an example that establishes a pattern for lay evangelism” (Siemens 2009:760). It is important, too, to recognise that any means of meeting physical and social needs, e.g. through tent-making or voluntarily providing education, healthcare, etc. are carried out with the utmost professionalism and not with any motivation to manipulate responses and reactions. Meeting physical needs as a means of manipulation would merely be a prioritist approach trying to wear a holist disguise, but this kind of approach lacks integrity and the deceitfulness will eventually undermine the message it is trying to propagate. We can consider the range of approaches as a spectrum with the extreme liberationist approach at one end, the extreme prioritist approach at the other, and the revisionist holist and restrained holist approaches in between. But rather than seeing them as fixed points on a line, we should bear in mind that, for instance, some organisations follow holist approaches which are further towards the liberationist end of the spectrum, whereas others perhaps follow approaches which are more towards the prioritist end. No two organisations are likely to follow exactly the same approach or have exactly the same motives, message, and/or ultimate goals. Similarly, it is important to recognise that no two settings are ever exactly the same. Methods and strategies that worked in one setting may well not be appropriate in another. The principles we follow won’t necessarily change but the way we apply them may have to. We need to be careful to see each community and setting as unique and individual in its own right, and that the missions’ task is ultimately and effectively about the people that God has us working among. Friendship evangelism is often the only way to build relationships in settings that are resistant to the Gospel. Just as no two settings are geographically exactly the same, neither will the combination of people and personalities. We will constantly need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and asking what is the best way, from God’s perspective, to build relationships so as to touch and change lives, and so as to bring transformation that the local people can be empowered to further build on in each different setting. Ultimately it may well be that we have to put aside what we want to do in a particular setting with its limitations and restrictions, and focus on what God opens the door for us to be able to do. As we are faithful to what He allows us to do, then we can be sure He will open further doors if not for us, then for those who will follow us in the future and hopefully, even,

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locals, inspired by our example of faithfulness. It then becomes all the more obvious why empowerment of local people is so vital and that they will have sensed the importance of their own dignity being heightened so that they can multiply into the lives of others and see widening and deepening of the transformation already begun. The Importance of Affirming the Dignity of Those Being Reached Out To With the Gospel

With the colonial era of Western domination long gone22 and the mistakes associated with imperialist missions and nationalism 23 – a lesson from which to learn and not lose - the importance of preserving, honoring, and even heightening the dignity of those being reached out to comes to the fore. For instance, from the Catholic perspective, Pernia (2001:19) writes of the need for missionaries to ‘approach mission from a position of powerlessness and humility’,24 whilst Anderson (2004:248) writes of the end of colonialism which ‘gave rise to a new continentalism that emphasizes human dignity’, albeit this is purely from the Pentecostal perspective. There have been assumptions for quite some time that it is understood that the missions’ attitudes associated with the days of colonialism and imperialism should be dispensed with,25 but the time is ripe for discussion 22

“The height of Western colonialism’s activity and vigour was towards the end of the nineteenth century after which the end of the British Empire and imperialist ways was inevitable. Lands and people would no longer be subject to domination and control but equally, missionaries would no longer be able to take for granted access to these far flung lands” (Neill 1964:322). 23 Hastings (2003:18–21) writes: “Perhaps the most pervasive and damaging form of missionary nationalism in the post-World War 1 period, however, was its ingrained hostility to any local sentiment of nationalism or to the promotion of indigenous priests to positions of authority. It had become in fact an ‘anti-nationalism’, manifested very notably in suspicion of the local clergy. This was for long more noticeable in Asia than in Africa because there were both more indigenous nationalism in the former and also a more numerous local clergy. It was, moreover, a nationalism (if we still call it so) shared, with few exceptions, by missionaries of almost all national backgrounds, involving an often aggressive shared contempt for the non-European. It could even pervade the lives of people who had given themselves entirely to serving the non-European world, but in [sic] their own terms, not those of the locals… Almost every Protestant missionary body had a strongly national character and base…Apart from American-British faith missions, Protestant missionary activity at the beginning of the twentieth century was as intensely national as it was denominational.” 24 Cited after Phan (2008:198). 25 Although as Kenneth Scott Latourette noted (1929:825–25), whilst Western missionaries in the colonial age tended to be domineering and unshakably convinced of the superiority of the West, they nevertheless went about the missionary task with unquenchable enthusiasm and heroic faith.

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on approaches to missions which consciously and deliberately dispense with such attitudes, both in philosophy and practice, regardless of the current-day missionaries’ background culture or theological leaning. This has potential to open new fields of understanding concerning both ecumenical and intercultural relations and more importantly, reinstate attention to dignity where this has formerly been lacking. A potentially unhelpful tendency among contemporary Asian missionaries can be to attempt to avoid the colonialist inappropriate attitude and behaviour issues by completely ignoring Western missions history and ‘doing our own thing.’ But just wearing a different cultural ‘hat’ doesn’t solve the problem, let alone prevent it occurring again. A helpful starting point is the discussion begun through challenging material such as the two-volume work of the Comaroffs (1991:1997): In their “anthropology of the colonial encounter in South Africa” (1991, xiii), Protestant Christian missionaries are lambasted for bringing Protestant ideology, and because their “assault was driven by a universalizing ethos whose prime object was to engage the Africans in a web of symbolic and material transactions that would bind them ever more securely to the colonizing culture” (310), the “most persuasive force lying…in the hegemonic forms” associated with colonialism (314). However, the Comaroffs appear to completely disregard the African agents of Christianity wherein the nationals had their own initiatives and, using Christianity productively, reshaped it for their own ends so that those whom the Comaroffs depict as victims of missionary imperialism may well not own the terminology for themselves. Despite the Comaroffs’ rather unreasonable underrating of the Christian Africans’ initiatives, the colonialist perspective and attitudes that the Comaroffs address and which, for them, negates the Africans’ dignity to make their own choices, reinforces the call for discussion on approaches to mission that do not return to imperialist-like and paternalistic ways through any of Western or Asian mission agencies’ personnel. Fanon’s (1963) epoch-making anti-colonial tirade perhaps provided the catalyst for the Comaroffs’ work, along with Pannikar (1959), whose voice was also intense. He was insistent that Christianity spread through Western missionaries would just cave in on itself within decades, but his views are belied since Christianity has unquestionably continued in Asia and throughout the world in differing and contextualized forms. Despite missions activity previously being carried out and displayed in the midst of the baggage of colonialism, in the interests of promoting and upholding human dignity, missions activity should no longer continue to hold on to contemporary versions of the earlier ways or reintroduce them in alternative cultural garb due to ignorance of Western missions history.

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The Place of Compassion and Humility Compassion and humility are two important characteristics modeled by Christ for bringing about transformation and all the more so for holistic missions. How can we identify with those we are reaching out to? Not necessarily through identical experience but certainly through a humility that sensitises us to the voice and leading of the Holy Spirit for specific people and settings and so that letting go of control and empowering others is sheer joy. Through, and for, every circumstance, God knows what we need so that we can be His vehicle for empowering transformation in and through others in a way that impacts and transforms communities and their wider societies. Further Examples of Holistic Missions Principles as Worked Out in China

As mentioned above, the first area of ministry was in a remote Chinese minority group village among a group of villages in a mountainous location. My colleague Dr Co and I both follow a restrained-holist approach to missions with a prioritist leaning. Dr Co initially provided dental healthcare treatment to hundreds of needy villagers who had never visited a dentist. After six months I began helping her but before that Dr Co had been provided with a village doctor level assistant. Dr Co modelled dental skills to her assistant before agreeing to take on other village doctor level trainees so that they could be trained in dentistry. Living and working in the village setting was highly conducive to making friends, and the first assistant soon became a Christian, and later her husband-to-be and members of both their families. In the clinic setting the other trainees also became Christians and were also taught Christian ministry skills so that not only was the potential realised for transformation in the local village network and a heightening of dignity through empowering the local people but also for the villages, some hundreds of miles away, that other trainees had come from. The second area of ministry, as mentioned above, was a remote urban setting in a mountainous area of isolated villages inhabited by another Chinese minority group, although Han Chinese were very evident in the government institutions of the town. There were some 300,000 villagers scattered in clusters of households in mountainside villages with loose gravel roads running only to the outer edges of the town and no readily available public transportation. In two such villages the Community Health Evangelism approach was used because malnutrition was presented as a major problem. A team of community health workers was made up of volunteers from each housing area and lack of clean water was identified by the local people as a root problem along with inadequate nourishment. A talk was given on the

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causes and treatment of diarrhoea, along with the parable of the good Samaritan bringing out Jesus’ emphasis that members of society must care for one another; another talk was given on keeping water sources clean along with the parable of the prodigal son, emphasizing that there is forgiveness and a second chance for family members who have let them down. Over the months and following two years, talks were given on a variety of relevant topics including agricultural issues and accompanied by scriptural principles. In this way physical and social concerns were addressed with talks that addressed both physical and spiritual issues so as to combine both the temporal and eternal in the outreach process. Throughout the outreach process we aimed to build caring and trusting relationships and sought to share both our strengths and weaknesses with transparency and without being condescending, so that the local people’s dignity was preserved and honoured. Sensitivity to how God would have us reach out to communities and touch lives is paramount for avoiding the if-only/what-if kind of doubts that can easily engender discouragement concerning what has happened that seemed to go wrong or what might happen based on current difficulties. Holding on to a sense of His leading and recognition of His sovereignty can keep us encouraged in the most demanding of circumstances. Trusting that He can bring the best out of the seeming worst as we stay close to Him provides the much-needed hope that all is not lost even when circumstances appear to be dictating otherwise. When the situation or circumstances seemed to make no sense I learned to make my response become a prayerful question: ‘Lord, what do you want to teach me or show me through this?’ An Example of How God Knows What We Need and When, So That We are Best Prepared for His Purposes In my first two years in China when learning Mandarin Chinese, I arrived with quite minimal funding. The budget I had raised for language school, accommodation, and food was insufficient as costs had since risen. By the second year I was eating less, and less often, and with postal communication taking a minimum of three months had no way of knowing what funds were still available. I eventually discovered that one really does faint for lack of food and, in the three times my vision went black, I became accustomed to being careful to sit down or lie down immediately. On returning to the UK to itinerate and raise support, I also attended a required medical check-up. I had also been berating myself for a sense of unexplainable apathy and put it down to selfishness and being lazy, only to discover I had quite major anaemia due to lack of good and regular nutrition. I returned to China on a much better budget and when we moved to the second area and started development

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work, realised that I had a compassion and empathy for the malnourished children that was provoked by my own, albeit limited, experience. An Example of Successfully Heightening Dignity In the second ministry area, quite early on, we needed to address the problem of community members being assigned to the health committee but not attending the health lecture sessions for health workers on a regular basis. If they didn’t come, they would send alternative representatives instead. We put to the communist party leader (who attended all the sessions) that we recognised his desire for all the smaller communities in the villages to develop and that we also recognised that he was a truly caring and active member of the wider community. We owned with transparency the difficulty of not having known any of the committee members for very long, whereas he had grown up amongst them and knew them all so very deeply and personally. We also appealed to his sense of pride in seeing development come about through the empowering of the committee members as health workers, and his obvious delight in seeing the potential for health improvements in the children, in which case he was well-placed to encourage the committee members to commit wholeheartedly to what he believed was for the greater good of the wider community. As a result, and agreeing with our affirmation of his worth, he agreed to mediate in heightening motivation so that we were able to successfully complete health-worker training for a consistent group of committee members. Once the village doctor who served both villages had become a Christian we were able to begin discipleship and pray together about longer-term spiritual goals for the work. Not long after, we rejoiced when his wife also became a believer. As of the first example, empowering the local people provided the means for them to continue the transformation process. Conclusions

If you aim to join an organisation or are in a position to send others, it will reduce stress later if you can be reasonably sure that motives, message, outreach strategy, and goals are not in conflict with those of your own theology of missions and/or, if there are opposing factors, that these will not compromise or undermine any of your non-negotiable personal values, ideals, and/or long-term aims. Getting the right balance of a pragmatic approach to what is allowable and maintaining integrity concerning our personal theology of missions provides a good recipe for faithfulness and potential fruitfulness in the unfinished task of evangelizing Asia and beyond.

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Discussion Questions 1.

2. 3.

If you haven’t already done so, construct your own theology of missions. Consider which scriptures determine your missions motives, missions message, missions strategy, and missions goals, and identify the principles in those scriptures which give vital substance to your personal theology of missions. Consider missions activities that you have been or hope to be involved with in Asia or elsewhere. Can you identify where they fit on the approaches spectrum? Have you previously experienced difficulties in missions activity that you can now see were due to different rationale concerning any of the why, what, how, or ultimate goals of the work? In hindsight, how might you have responded or how might you now advise someone else to respond in a similar situation?

Chapter 2 Culture and Awareness of Cultural Differences

Introduction

This chapter looks to identify commonalities and differences between cultures and people-groups. This should help us be able to bring the Gospel to people of other cultures with tools to help avoid potential clashes or misunderstandings as we build cross-cultural relationships and do missions interculturally. The chapter begins by defining key terms and then describes various facets of culture as found in the literature. It also points out some of the limitations of classic contributions established in the literature and offers updates or modifications. Examples from more than 20 years of missionary ministry in China are provided to illustrate principles expounded. Culture

We will start by asking what we mean by the term ‘culture’ and look at the definition and associated factors from The Willowbank Report: Consultation on Gospel and Culture 1 of the 1978 Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization: Culture implies a measure of homogeneity…if the unit is larger than the clan or small tribe, a culture will include within itself a number of subcultures [with the potential to manifest] wide variety and diversity … Culture holds people together over a span of time. It is received from the past, but … has to be learned afresh by each generation. This takes place broadly by a process of absorption from the social environment, especially in the home. In many societies certain elements of the culture are communicated directly in rites of initiation, and by many other forms of deliberate instruction. Action in accordance with the culture is generally at the subconscious level…This means that an accepted culture covers everything in human life…At its centre is a world-view, that is, a general understanding of the nature of the universe and of one’s place in it. This may be “religious” (concerning God, or gods and spirits, and of our relation to them), or it may express a “secular” concept of reality, as in a Marxist society… [In summary:] Culture is an integrated system of beliefs (about God or reality or ultimate meaning), values (about what is true, good, beautiful, normative), of customs (how to behave, relate to others, talk, pray, dress, work, play, trade, farm eat etc), and of institutions which express these beliefs, values and customs 1

Available at https://www.lausanne.org/content/lop/lop-2. Accessed May 5, 2017.

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Empowering Transformation (government, law courts, temples or churches, family, schools, hospitals, factories, shops, unions, clubs etc), which binds a society together and gives it a sense of identity, security, and continuity.

We can shorten the definition to: Culture is an integrated system of beliefs, values, and customs, and institutions that express these beliefs, values, and customs, which binds a society together and gives it a sense of identity, security, and continuity. In line with the Willowbank report definition, Hesselgrave (1991:100) describes culture as something we learn,2 and something that is shared, integrated, and also changes. We can expand this to recognise that all people experience the influence of a surrounding culture as they grow up, and learn the expectations of that culture within the environment they grow up in; the expectations of appropriate attitudes and behaviour are shared and owned by those within that environment or setting; all of the culture’s varying value-driven customs, outlooks, and behaviours exist together in harmony to benefit and maintain the community or society; despite the criticisms of anthropologists who deride Christian missionaries for changing cultures, culture does change as either members of society create new ways of being and doing, or problems arise within the setting that need new answers. When influences from other societies and cultures are seen as beneficial they are received into the culture, particularly as a means for the community to maintain security and/or continuity. Kirk’s Patterns of Culture Kirk (2000:86) lists the concerns that cultures usually have in common as follows: Rites of passage and cultural practices appropriate to life stages; ways of categorizing differences between humans which justify acceptable and non-acceptable ways of engagement; acknowledgement of different kinds of suffering; recognition of success and failure; questions and answers about the meaning and purpose of life from which coping mechanisms and behaviors have evolved and are practiced; and standards for acceptable and non-acceptable behavior and thinking, particularly in terms of moral issues.

2 Edward Hall (1959) is particularly famous for his groundbreaking work The Silent Language in which he proposed that non-verbal language permeates cultures, that much of culture is learned at the non-verbal informal level by imitating models, and, importantly, we are largely unaware of this learning. See, too, Knapp, Hall, and Horgan (2013), and Argyle (2013), which is the most recently updated edition of Argyle’s 1975 classic Bodily Communication on non-verbal communication.

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Worldview and Its Relation to Culture We saw the concept of worldview included in the Willowbank report’s definition of culture. What do we mean by the term worldview? Hesselgrave (1991:202) boils the characteristics of worldviews down to people’s basic understandings with respect to supernature (God/gods and the supernatural), nature, man, and time.3 Hiebert (2008:15) offers that the concept of worldview encompasses the “fundamental cognitive, affective, and evaluative presuppositions a group of people make about the nature of things, and which they use to order their lives”. Practically, we can say that a worldview is the set of non-visible rules that are informed by deeply ingrained beliefs and values. It influences the choices people make concerning their behaviour, and so that their actions and lifestyle follow the expected norms and standards of the culture. This will include following customs modelled to them since childhood because, as far as they are able to comprehend, such customs are believed to be right and appropriate. Lingenfelter and Mayers advise us that personal judgments shared by many (because it is a cultural custom, value, or worldview belief) become the judgment of that particular society, and societies tend to coerce individuals to follow its value system (2003:114). In this way, societies can maintain identity, security, and continuity. Kwarst (2009:398) offers that “values describe what is good or best, beliefs describe what is considered to be true or false, [whereas] behaviour is what is actually done”. Behaviour is preferred which acts out in a way that coheres with the society or community’s beliefs and values, but, as Kwarst points out, this is not always the case because people can express similar behaviour and hold similar values but profess totally different beliefs about them. He further defines “two different kinds of beliefs that exist within cultures: operating beliefs that affect values and behaviour, and theoretical beliefs which have little practical impact on values and behaviour (because they are merely a system of creeds)”. So, when we observe other cultures’ ways of behaving we are seeing the result of worldview beliefs and values in operation. To describe how culture relates to worldview, we might describe it as like looking at a tree: the visible foliage (on the branches) represents culture and cultural behaviour, whereas the hidden roots system, trunk, and branches represent the worldview which provides the philosophical, psychological, and emotional structure for the culture’s customs, behaviour patterns, and observable ways of responding to life’s contingencies. As Kwarst also points out, we must be careful not to make assumptions about why people 3

For further reading see Kraft (1989) who, more comprehensively, gives a succinct but detailed overview of seven worldview functions and five universal worldview categories in his Appendices A and B respectively.

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behave or respond as they do in terms of belief, but rather build relationships with people from other cultures so we can inquire first-hand about their particular rationale behind customs and habits (or forms of behaviour) and from that draw conclusions about differing beliefs that might be in play in terms of function behind the behaviour. It is generally the case that where individuals do not follow societal expectations they tend to be ostracised by that society. It has often been the case in missions history that the first converts to Christianity have been those on these edges of society, and they have come to Christ because their own society rejected them whereas Christ welcomes everyone. Examples of Worldview Beliefs and Values as Expressed Through Cultural Behavior Example from the Chinese culture: In my culture obedience to my parents is highly valued, so the invisible rule is that I never show them disrespect. I believe that showing them respect is the appropriate way to behave. Example from American culture: In my culture being on time for meetings and other events is highly valued, so the invisible rule is that I make sure I am never late for a meeting. I believe that being punctual is the appropriate way to behave in my culture. Example from middle-class British culture: In my middle-class culture humour is not considered appropriate in conversation when meeting a potential employer for the first time, so the invisible rule is that I am careful to keep my words formal and relatively serious. I believe that this is the appropriate way to behave if I hope to get accepted for the job.

Hesselgrave (1991:102) reminds us that everyone is born into a culture and takes on board the associated beliefs and behaviors, and that how people think, express their emotions, and choose to behave is more influenced by their immediate underlying worldview beliefs and cultural background ways than by their racial origin, wider national distinctives, or biological sexual orientation. Returning to the definition of culture above: Culture is an integrated system of beliefs, values, and customs, and institutions that express these beliefs, values, and customs, which binds a society together and gives it a sense of identity, security, and continuity. We can see many groups mentioned in the Old Testament who had their own cultural ways but did not continue, such as the Ammonites, Amalekites, Hittites, Philistines, etc. They had their own recognised boundaries and worshipped gods associated with the locality. When other nations invaded their territory they would fight to maintain their security and preserve their identity, but many were wiped out, particularly in the

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process of the Israelites conquering the land of Canaan as promised to them in covenant with Almighty God, Yahweh. Another way of destroying identity and continuity can be seen in the way that the Assyrians moved the people of conquered nations into other conquered territories so that identity of the larger group of assimilated defeated people became a melting pot of cultures with individual cultural ways and beliefs watered down or lost. For instance, 2 Kings 17:24-27 describes how the Assyrian leaders noted that the various people exiled to Samaria did not know how to appease what were considered to be the local gods so that problems were occurring there. In order to reduce the disharmony and potential threat to the Assyrian control, an Israelite priest was brought back to show the newly arrived captives how to engage with the local god appropriately. (This was actually Almighty God, Yahweh, and more than merely a local god!) As a longer-term result, we can see that the Jews of Jesus’ day looked down on the Samaritans since their ancestral background could not have maintained the purity of Israelite bloodline required by the law because of the intrusion and assimilation of non-Israelites into the community. Wherever a same-culture group of people is threatened with division, perpetuation of that division results in new and different facets of identity and a threat to overall security that, if not resisted or subjected to some form of compromise, will eventually undermine continuity. When the Babylonians later exiled the Southern Kingdom nations to Babylon, they attempted to assimilate some of the intelligent young men of the higher level of society into leadership-level positions. This would seem to be a wise move since then the captives would be less threatened by being led by their own people, albeit ultimately under the control of the Babylonians. However, Daniel’s preference and request to maintain his own cultural way of eating and praying not only undermined the Babylonian authorities’ desire for the assimilation of him and his friends but it also became a witness to them that the Babylonian way was not necessarily the only and best way. In seeking to maintain their cultural identity, Daniel and his friends also witnessed to the reality and power of God’s presence. It can be a great encouragement to recognise that of the many cultural ways and named people in the Old Testament, people of the Jewish culture have maintained their identity, security, and continuity in a vast range of geographical settings despite multiple threats throughout the centuries. Named gods in the Bible such as of Baal, Ashtoreth, and Dagon are no longer worshipped and major invading nations that arose and that are mentioned in the Old Testament such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians had their day but did not continue. Being part of something bigger and feeling safe within it are very important aspects of a person’s self-identity, which is why suggesting that

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people change aspects of their beliefs, values, and/or customs can bring a major psychological challenge. Even those subjected to captivity and effectively forced to change their ways will often have done so for merely pragmatic reasons. Equally key is recognizing that we can never entirely replace a person’s original worldview with a completely different one. Digging up all the roots of a tree will merely kill the tree. Similarly, cutting off some of the branches won’t stop them eventually growing back. Something new needs to be grafted into the roots in order to grow a different kind of fruit in the foliage. This is why unbiblical worldview beliefs need to be addressed and not merely the urging of changes of behaviour. Moreover, deep-rooted long-time-held beliefs are not initially easily or willingly displaced by new beliefs, so, hopefully, we can see the value of inculcating Christian beliefs and values from a young age. Seeds of ideas that are sown into young minds may well not bring immediate fruit but, even if lying dormant for years, there is still potential for future fruition when input from one or more new sources becomes the catalyst for growing, watering and eventual harvesting of seeds sown. Differing Facets of Culture

The text by Lingenfelter and Mayers, Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships, was a cutting-edge text when it appeared in 1986. It provided a breakthrough text to help Western missionaries better understand cross-cultural settings and/or prepare themselves for cross-cultural ministry. The revised and updated second edition version of 2003 cited below, and throughout this chapter, like the original, is still used in Bible institutes and ministry training centres in both Western and Asian settings to help students better understand and/or prepare for cross-cultural ministry.4 Lingenfelter’s experience in engaging with the Micronesian Yap people as part of an anthropological doctoral study was coupled with Mayers’ facets-of-culture analysis tool. Insights from the fields of anthropology were coupled with real-life cross-cultural experience, replete with relevant examples of potential cross-cultural communication hazards. Mayers’ analytical tool described aspects of cultures in terms of the following polar opposites: time or event orientation (37), dichotomistic or holistic thinking (51), crisis or non-crisis orientation (65), task or people orientation (77), and willingness to expose vulnerability or preference to 4

For instance, on September 8, 2016 when the classic Missions textbook by Winters and Hawthorne, ‘Perspectives on the World Christian Movement’, was last searched for on Amazon.com, the Lingenfelter and Mayers text appears as one of the books ‘Other readers also looked at’.

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conceal vulnerability (101). Moreover, he suggested that different cultures sit at different positions along the spectrum of one particular side of each category pair. Lingenfelter included a shortened version of Mayers’ original questionnaire for students to analyse their own cultural profile as well as providing a tool for future use in cross-cultural settings. The following section of this chapter takes a critical look at Lingenfelter and Mayers’ Ministering Cross-Culturally big-picture cultural categories, and modifies and points out some limitations of the original material. For instance, a major limitation of the first edition, which is reproduced in the second edition, is the inattention paid to other facets of life and lifestyle which can influence an individual’s position on any or all of the category spectrums. The following section works through each of the category pairs with observations that seek to widen understanding of the issues in light of the limitations, as well as modify some of the original related perceptions. Another limitation comes across through Lingenfelter’s concern to show his readers that not all cultures think the ‘North American’ way. His engagement with the Yap people began in 1967 and seeks to highlight the huge differences between Yap culture and that of his North American background culture. As a result, descriptions related to some sides of the category pairs tend to make the North American way come off in a distinctly lesser light, as though the opposite side were superior or better even though, elsewhere, Lingenfelter does concede that neither side is better or worse. To balance this, I have tried to reduce the seeming negativity of the original content as well as include some drawbacks of the other side of the spectrum in the charts for each category pair below. Importantly, in order to meet this lack in both the first and second editions, chapter 3 also provides some transferable keys for actually dealing with issues resulting from differences in cultural orientations. Factors that Affect the Behavior Profile of Different Cultures

Lingenfelter and Mayers’ first ‘big picture’ cultural difference attends to the degree of priority given by a specific cultural grouping to the issue of time in relation to the actuality and progression of events or activities. The contents of the second edition of the book are reproduced in the charts and text below with some minor modifications.5

5

Sherwood. G. Lingenfelter and Marvin. K. Mayers, 2003, Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships 2nd edition, Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, ©2003, Used by permission.

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1. Time Orientation versus Event Orientation (Modification of Table 2, 2003:41) Time-Orientation (monochronism) 1. “Concern for punctuality and amount of time expended.” Avoiding wasting time is very important. 2. “Careful allocation of time to achieve the maximum within set limits.” Again, no time wasting! 3. “Tightly scheduled goal-directed activities” but which can mean missing out on the joy and freedom of spontaneity. 4. “Emphasis on dates”, time, and timing of activities.

Event-Orientation (polychronism) 1. “Concern for details of the event regardless of the time required.” 2 “Exhaustive consideration of a problem until it is resolved.” 3. An outlook not tied to any precise schedule but which can also present an unreliable or non-committed front. 4. Emphasis on present experience, undistracted by what hasn’t happened yet.

Lingenfelter is a North American who, as previously mentioned, was writing to help better equip current and potential future North American missionaries for cross-cultural ministry. Lingenfelter suggested that largely time-oriented North Americans would tend to find non-time oriented people difficult to deal with, at least initially. In an effort to acclimatise his North American readers to other cultures with a different priority, he helpfully labors on the aspects that he senses his fellow nationals would find most difficult, pointing out for instance that (40-42): • “Western cultures tend to be time-oriented and place a high value on punctuality.” • “Time-oriented people typically have specific goals which they hope to meet within certain time-limits. Extremely time-oriented people have very little time for spur of the moment activities.” • “Event-oriented people are more concerned with the details of an event than when it begins and ends. If something unexpected or spontaneous happens it doesn’t bother them.” Acknowledging that some cultures place more emphasis on attention to careful use of time and others less so because their emphasis is on quality of events, Lingenfelter (2003:49-50) advises that rather than questioning which approach is more godly, we need to acknowledge that God’s approach to time is quite different from any of ours and no culture is able to get it completely right in terms of priorities or emphasis. So, I suggest that somehow, with God, the outworking of time and unfolding of activities harmonise perfectly, and it is our responsibility to adapt appropriately and walk sensitively in step with His Holy Spirit leading. My observations: The time versus event poles are very much a reality in other cultures but the orientation taken by an individual can very much also

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be a factor related to the individual’s personality rather than merely being culture-driven. For example, I had a Japanese student in a Cross-cultural Communications class in the Philippines who was delighted and relieved to discover that although her Japanese culture is extremely time-oriented, because of her personality, she was event-oriented. She happily reported to the multicultural class that this new discovery explained to her why she had never felt entirely comfortable with life in Japan and/but now had ways of dealing with the discomfort. In the second edition, towards the close of the book the personality factor is only very briefly mentioned: “Individual Yapese vary in their personalities and degree to which they conform to these orientations” (118). But I prefer to suggest that the choices an individual makes relating to time/event orientation are not merely also a factor of personality, they can equally be a factor of adult maturity development as well as development in spiritual maturity. Psychology of human development shows that priorities change as one advances in age6 – for instance, the importance of being on time and finishing on time can easily give way to new joys of lingering beyond the official finish of a scheduled event. Equally, event-oriented people are likely to discover at some point in the adult development process that ‘being on time’ as an earlier pragmatic necessity can eventually become a joyful priority to get even more out of the event and interactions. Mulholland (1993:54) (albeit in the context of personality preferences and ultimately in the interests of spiritual maturity) suggests that the spiritual maturity that comes with “Human wholeness [is the living out of a] mature and discriminating ability to function with whichever side [of any of the orientation pairs] is best suited to the situation at hand.” The implication is that as we are sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, so we will also make God-pleasing choices. Not unlike Lingenfelter’s specific time/event pairing, Hall earlier proposed two approaches related to time which he called polychronic and monochronic time (1973:153). Monochronism, or having a single-focus approach to time, sees time in terms of a linear progression of increments. Monochronists make definite plans so as to measure out how they intend to use those increments of time, and experience discomfort if interruptions prevent them using time in the way they had planned. In contrast, polychronism, or having a multi-faceted approach to time, is far less concerned with time as a measurement and more concerned with time as the means by which multiple aspects of life, engagement with the world, and involvement in relationships all play out together. What to the monochronist is an interruption and potential waste of time becomes, for the polychronist, just another aspect of life coming into play with no negative associations. Time is not a series of linear increments to 6

See for instance Levinson (1978) and Fowler (1981).

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be guarded for best use but, rather, a collection of limitless opportunities to play one’s part in the world regardless of how and when the way opens up. Moreau, Campbell, and Greener (2014:148-49) advise that “This does not mean that polychronic people do not plan. However, their planning takes place on the macro level (planting, weeding, harvesting) rather than the micro level [where, for instance, plans are made for something to occur on a certain date at a specific time], and plans are seen as fluid and flexible rather than rigid and fixed.” Like the time-oriented person or culture which looks forward and plans ahead, the monochronist functions most comfortably alongside other monochronists with this same outlook concerning time. Similarly, as with event-oriented people and cultures which live in the moment and are unperturbed by unexpected things happening, polychronists function most comfortably among other polychronists. 2. Dichotomistic Thinking versus Holistic Thinking (Modification of Table 3, 2003:54) Dichotomistic Thinking 1. “Judgements are black/white, right/wrong.” Prefers decisions to be made as soon as possible rather than left unmade. Finds it easier to deal with either/or than both/and issues. 2. Prefers categories with well-defined and clear boundaries. “Information and experiences are systematically organized; details are sorted and ordered to form a clear pattern.”

3. Prefers rules and principles with universal application. 4. “Security comes from the feeling that one is right and fits into a particular role or category in society.”

Holistic Thinking 1. Is not bothered by decisions being left unmade. Sees most issues as gray and open for debate, so that “Judgments are open-ended. The whole person and all circumstances are taken into consideration.” 2. “Information”, categories, “and experiences are seemingly disorganized” but not to the holist thinker; “details (e.g. narratives, events, portraits) stand [incoherently] as independent points complete in themselves.” This wide range of information is needed by the holistic thinker to make sense of individual situations and events. 3. Believes that each situation is unique and is “uncomfortable with standardized procedures and rigidly applied rules”. 4. Resists being pinned down to a particular position on an issue or to a particular social role. Can come across as unreliable and/or unwilling to make a commitment.

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Lingenfelter describes how “dichotomistic thinking divides the object of thought into segments and considers situations or matters according to its individual parts. The particulars of a situation are considered and very often there is a tendency to reduce each option or aspect as right or wrong, or, good or bad” (53). The details of the situation are sorted out and ordered into groups of ‘this kind’ or ‘that kind.’ My observations: Like the time-event orientation the preferred orientation and degree of orientation to one or other end of the spectrum is also likely to be a factor of personality as well as culture. In addition, both adult maturity and development of spiritual maturity can also come into play. As for the time/event orientation, advance in age sees new priorities substituted for earlier priorities so that, for instance, always ‘being right’ becomes less important. Similarly, with spiritual development and increasing Christ-likeness, one can anticipate developing a heightened sense of discernment concerning attitudes and behaviours that best please God7 and so ‘grow out’ of unhealthy dichotomistic judgmentalism. At the other end of the spectrum, becoming more responsible in decision making can reflect increasing adult maturity. Similarly, actually committing oneself to a position that pleases God but which does not reflect the expected cultural norm can be evidence of growth in spiritual maturity in the journey of life.8 When teaching, I actually prefer to replace the term ‘holistic’ with the term ‘comprehensive’ since this not only gives a clearer understanding of meaning but also reduces the bias that inevitably 9 interprets the term holistic (and hence, holistic cultures) to be positive or better in contrast to the term dichotomistic. Elmer (2002:146) brings up another, more specifically focused, aspect of cultural difference in contrast to dichotomistic thinking but uses the slightly different term of categorical-and-holistic thinking. He attends to the Western concept of personal ownership in contrast to cultures where categorical-and-holistic thinking enjoys that “things are freely shared or given away…People feel free to ask of the one who has more… Categorical lines of yours and mine are not firmly drawn [which] cause Westerners frustration…Local people may ask for favours, money or objects not being used”. So if the local person asks to borrow something, the Westerner will see it as a loan and expect to get it back but “when a loan does not get repaid or an object returned, disappointment and 7

See Fowler (2000) and Oser and Gmünder (1991). See Misar (2010). 9 Ethnocentricism that says “my way is better than your way” can also be seemingly expressed in a reverse manner in the interests of political correctness, i.e. being seen to comply with the concept that “everyone’s way should be accepted as valid”, despite the opinion owner’s actual inner tendency remaining to the contrary! 8

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resentment may fester and disrupt the relationship”. Cultural awareness in relation to self-awareness is key as with each of the orientation pairs. 3. Crisis-Preventative Orientation versus Non-Crisis Orientation (Modification of Table 5, 2003:71) Crisis-Preventative Orientation 1. “Anticipates crisis” but can come across as obsessive. 2. “Emphasizes planning” to prevent or reduce potential future difficulties 3. “Seeks quick resolution of problem” to prevent worse things happening. 4. “Has pre-planned strategies” for dealing with particular kinds of crisis. 5. “Seeks best expert advice.”

Non-Crisis Orientation 1. “Downplays possibility of crisis” but can come across as irresponsible. 2. “Focuses on” current and “actual experiences”. 3. “Avoids taking action” until crisis actually takes place. 4. Pragmatic response in “seeking of a solution from multiple available options”. 5. “Distrusts expert advice” as not necessarily relevant for the local situation. Prefers to make own decision anyway.

My observations: Crisis-preventative versus non-crisis orientation can also be a factor of personality, and the degree of orientation is also likely to change with both adult maturity and spiritual development. The originally crisis-oriented person might eventually recognise that worst-case scenarios have rarely actually occurred over the course of their years and so attention can be less meticulous in preparing for all unwelcome possibilities. On the other end of the spectrum, adult maturity will also recognise the benefits, for not just oneself but also for others, when one is a little more prepared for the unexpected. 4. Task Orientation versus People Orientation (Modification of Table 6, 2003:80) Task-Oriented People 1. “Prioritise tasks and focus on tasks and principles” but, in the extreme, can appear uncaring. 2. “Find satisfaction in the achievement of goals.” 3. “Seek friends with similar” aims and “goals”. 4. “Accept loneliness and social deprivation for the sake of personal achievements” since social interaction is not the priority. 5. Tend to let their thinking rule. 6. Often control or downplay their emotions. 7. Feel best when achieving a task.

People-Oriented People 1. “Prioritise relationships and focus on people and relationships” but, in the extreme, can appear unreliable. 2. Find satisfaction in interaction with people. 3. “Seek friends who are also peopleoriented.” 4. “Deplore loneliness”; have no difficulty “sacrificing personal achievements for group interaction”. 5. Tend to let their feelings rule. 6. Easily express their emotions. 7. Feel best when interacting with others.

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By the time we had got this far through Lingenfelter’s material in a cross-cultural communications multicultural class session, a young Asian man offered: “But isn’t it obvious that all the Western countries are time-oriented, dichotomistic thinkers, crisis-oriented, and task-oriented, and Asians are all the opposite?” The student was perhaps not expecting the answer he got, i.e. a gracious response that said, no, that is certainly not the case. For instance, Japanese students have frequently volunteered that their wider culture is definitely time-oriented. This opens up discussion on differences of degree of orientations between cultures and the potential for conflict due to lack of knowledge or misunderstandings, e.g. which of Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong is more time-oriented? How many minutes late for a meeting is acceptable or, like Singapore, is arrival ahead of time more the norm? Korean students have offered that, even though their culture is people-oriented, the wider culture very much has a dichotomistic outlook so that, for instance, issues of acceptable behaviour are often seen in terms of black and white. With a beautifully relevant example that recognises the perceived difference between teachers and students, and which we will later see described as the concept of large power distance, one Korean student said: “In Korea, we would normally not make any statements to challenge a teacher because it would not be considered the right way to behave.” He then continued with a smile: “But I think it’s OK here because we’re doing Masters level study; but we should always be very, very polite.” A Samoan student expressed that he had become more crisis-oriented since starting studies at the seminary even though the island he grew up on didn’t even have that term in their vocabulary. This comment opened the way for a discussion on the difference between pragmatic responses necessary to meet demands, and actual lifestyle changes due to changes in worldview beliefs. My observations: as with the other category pairs, one’s degree of orientation to a particular side of the spectrum can also be influenced by all of one’s personality, degree of adult maturity, and degree of spiritual maturity. Making God-pleasing choices can’t help but draw task-oriented people towards being aware of times when caring for others should be the priority. Equally, people-oriented people will eventually come to a place in their adult maturity development when they realise that certain tasks must be completed in order to be able to best help and care for others. Aside from Lingenfelter’s attention to whether specific cultures are more task-oriented or people-oriented, we must also recognise that even the most task-oriented societies will also have beliefs, values, and customs related to social interaction and decision making. Here we have another differentiation that plays out according to whether the society is Individualist or Collectivist.

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Individualism versus Collectivism

Moreau et al (2014:154) describe how individualism and collectivism are different vehicles for describing the self so that “In collectivist societies, the interests of the group are more important than those of the individual [whereas] individualistic societies give priority to the interests of individuals.” However (155): Rarely is a society a simple collectivist setting; this is almost impossible except in isolated settings. At the same time, the truly independent individualist is rarely totally free from group relationships that shape him or her in a more collectivist direction. A key difference is related to self-construal or an individual’s self-perception and self-evaluation. Thus, in the most individualistic countries, there is an interest in ‘self-image, self-reliance, self-awareness, self-actualization, and self-determination,’ while collectivists see themselves as members of a group and share its goals. (Klopf 2001:80-81; Fujino 2009).

We might add that, conversely, even for people living in the most extreme degree of collectivism, there will inevitably be situations and occasions when individuals will make decisions for themselves with little or no need to observe collectivist principles, e.g. as an extreme example, no authority, collectivist or otherwise, can determine or dictate any individual’s choice of inner thoughts or emotions. This can have important ramifications for decision making and, particularly, when choices are to be made in response to a Gospel message that is perceived to be both relevant and compelling. Decision Making From a Cultural Perspective

Hesselgrave (1991) makes some key points related to the issue of decision making from a cultural perspective: i. “Some cultures place great value on decisiveness and making up one’s mind. Any decision is better than no decision. Deliberation is expected to end in closure. Indecisiveness is seen as a character flaw. Other cultures place a high value on the ability to live with indecisiveness…[When options are not clear or the situation isn’t seen as needing a fast decision,] it will seem better to make no decision than to risk making the wrong decision. Decisions may be [held off and deliberations left open-ended.]… Tentativeness and open-endedness are aspects of wisdom” (613-14). As we will see in chapter 3, differing cultural approaches to decision making can be a major cause of cross-cultural conflict, particularly in the international business world.

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ii. Group versus individual decision making. 10 Group conversions to Christ as a result of cultural preferences can be a means of longer-lasting fruit than multiple individual conversions in a culture that frowns on individuals making decisions. Hesselgrave (616) urges us to be aware of the way in which decisions are made in different societies and who is qualified (according to societal understanding) to make the decisions. Individualist societies encourage members of society to make decisions for themselves, and/but, ideally, in the interest of the wider good. Collectivist societies make decisions as a group entirely for the good of the group. Certain individuals will be looked to as the voice or voices of authority and their decisions will be seen as binding, but communally recognized as decisions that belong to the group and are welcomed by the group for the good of the group. We do well to identify those qualified to make decisions as well as to be sensitive to identify those whom the Lord has prepared to champion our cause and support us regardless of their initial underlying motives. We continue with Lingenfelter’s next category pair. 5. Concealment of Vulnerability versus Willingness to Expose Vulnerability (Modification of Table 9, Lingenfelter and Mayers 2003:104) Concealment of Vulnerability 1. “Protection of self-image at all cost” – unwilling to be seen to fail. 2. “Emphasis on the quality of performance” regardless of whether completion is achieved or not. 3. “Reluctance to go beyond one’s known limits” to prevent failure. 4. “Denial of culpability; withdrawal from activities in order to hide weaknesses or shortcomings.” 5. Uncomfortable with and so withdraws from “alternative views and/or criticism.” 6. “Vague when asked to talk about personal life” to prevent exposure of weaknesses.

Willingness to Expose Vulnerability 1. “Relative unconcern about error or failure.” 2. “Emphasis on completion of event” rather than quality of engagement. 3. “Willingness to try and push beyond one’s known limits.” 4. “Ready admission of culpability, weaknesses and shortcomings.” 5. Is consistently “Open to alternative views and criticism.” 6. “Willing to talk freely about personal life” but may also lack discretion in disclosure.

10 See Donald. A. McGavran (1980) Understanding Church Growth revised ed., chapters 16–17, where he champions the mass movement of people groups to Christ, particularly among people groups where the culture leans towards collectivism rather than individualism, and this very much in the context of unreached people groups. McGavran’s focus on church growth in terms of increasing numbers is not without its critics, including the remonstrance that questions aiming for a church with a large number of members but lacking spiritual depth. Bosch (1991:383) also suggests that conversion in large numbers in a particular community may just be a subtle means of escaping from engaging with unwanted “dominant social issues”.

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My observations: Lingenfelter gives examples of the orientations by describing North Americans as being willing to expose vulnerability in comparison to the Yap people, who he perceives as being unwilling. Again, I would suggest that whether it is a cultural tendency or not, one’s personality and other factors including level of adult maturity and degree of spiritual maturity may also come into play. Preventing shame through loss of face is seen as very important in many Asian cultures, and although mentioned below, will be more deeply addressed in chapter 3, but adult maturity development, and spiritual growth can also affect the choices one makes concerning exposure or concealment of vulnerability. This is particularly so in those times and situations when concealing vulnerability will not please God, as well as other times when exposing vulnerability will not be appropriate for the good of others. Cultural Behavior Rationale and Benedict’s Guilt/Shame Spectrum

In 1946, Ruth Benedict’s anthropological studies in Asia resulted in her differentiation of cultures in which guilt brings stress in comparison to cultures in which shame brings distress. The Oxford English Dictionary11 describes guilt as “the fact of having committed an offence or crime” and/or “a feeling of having done wrong or failed in an obligation”, and shame as “a feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behaviour; [and/or with respect to dishonor:] a person or thing bringing dishonour”. Hesselgrave (1991:596) interprets Benedict as seeing guilt being concerned with each individual act in an additive process so that feelings of guilt increase as more transgressions of expected standards occur. It is suggested that guilt can be displaced by stopping the wrong behaviours and substituting them with approved ones. In contrast, shame is a result of falling short of cultural ideals and/or failing to meet expected standards. Shame affects the whole self in terms of identity, self-worth, and self-esteem, unlike guilt, which tends to bring discomfort in relation to only specifically related aspects of self-identity. Advances in the literature somewhat dichotomistically linked guilt with Western cultures and shame with Asian cultures. As mentioned above, shame is very much associated with the concept of losing face, common in Asian cultures, and so causes discomfort to more than merely the individual who has lost face. More recent literature broadens the range and links guilt with Western cultures and shame with African, Asian, and South American

11

Concise Oxford English Dictionary (2004, 11th ed.) CD-ROM.

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cultures, i.e. guilt with the global north and shame with the global south.12 Labelling individual cultures as either a guilt culture or a shame culture (which often happens in the literature) does not do sufficient justice to differing behaviour rationales. It is probably more helpful to recognise that all cultures have a place for both guilt and shame but that each culture may have a greater tendency towards either the guilt or shame end of the spectrum. Understanding the cultural rationale behind certain behaviours and the different cultural contexts in which such behaviours are played out may help discern whether guilt or shame is a defining issue, but equally, one may not have enough understanding of the underlying hidden cultural agendas (let alone the specifics of the personality or degree of adult maturity of the person or people in question) to be able to decide correctly. In which case, rather than trying to engage with one or other sides of the polarity, addressing areas where regret has arisen might be more helpful for resolving areas of cross-cultural misunderstanding, contention, or conflict. Ascribed Prestige (Status Focus) versus Attained Prestige (Achievement Focus)

Lingenfelter’s final category pair addresses the issue of identity and self-worth. He suggests that “some cultures link an individual’s identity with the status assigned them by their society whereas others link an individual’s identity with their personal achievements” (Lingenfelter and Mayers, 2003:93). The former have the status assigned them on the basis of unchangeable social rank so that, for instance, only the son of the king or the son of the head of the tribe may become the king or the next head of the tribe. In this same kind of culture, all other positions in society are similarly filled whether it is the ‘teacher’ role, the ‘medicine man/witch doctor’ figure, or the ‘military chief’, etc. These roles are hereditary and people of similar social rank associate only with their own. They find their identity and their self-worth in living out the ascribed role with both its benefits and disadvantages. Lingenfelter contrasts this with “status and prestige assigned to individuals on the basis of their personal achievements. Here, identity and self worth are linked to the individual’s personal performance” (94). Those who have advanced themselves sufficiently in terms of education or experience, or who have fulfilled whatever other prerequisite the society considers important, may take on the role of teacher/doctor/lawyer/ president, etc.

12

For more on the concept of the global south and issues particularly associated with the growth and development of Christianity, see Jenkins (2006; 2006).

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Lingenfelter cautions his readers that the missionary should “recognize that self-worth comes through neither ascribed nor achieved prestige and that one must be a servant in the pattern set by Christ” (99). My observations: I thoroughly agree with Lingenfelter’s caution but tend not to overly refer to this category pair when teaching. In 1967-69, Lingenfelter and his family engaged with the Yap culture of Micronesia and which he later realised (after studying Mayers’ analytical tool) ascribed prestige in terms of hereditary social rank rather than there being a place for recognition of individual achievement. Nearly half a century later, as of the Moreau et al (2014:154) refutation of the likelihood of existence of purely collectivistic societies, I would question to what extent social groupings that rigidly follow this dichotomistic approach to every aspect of community social placing do actually still exist. To maintain its status quo, such a society would need to be in an extreme degree of isolation from the rest of the world. Without underplaying the existence of oppressive regimes, which do assign status and role on their own terms, the existence of societies for which every cultural and social role is filled according to hereditary prerequisites must now be questionable. Interaction with other communities, let alone other nations, can’t help but see the importation of different values and provocations to social change. Similarly, opportunities for advanced education and self-study to further individual ambitions, whether through electronic or traditional media, abound. On this basis, although different levels of importance are attached to achieved versus ascribed levels of status in some specific contexts in different cultures (and missionaries do need to be aware of these), I no longer see the category pair as having the same degree of urgency that Lingenfelter originally suggested. Other aspects to be aware of related to role and status in different societies include awareness of gender issues and awareness of what constitutes appropriate behaviour in relation to gender. Gender and Islamic settings

Activities for reaching out to Muslims in Islamic settings and Muslims in non-Islamic settings both need to pay serious attention to worldview rules concerning gender difference. In rural, more fundamentalist Islamic settings, in light of legal requirements men reach out to men and women to women and children. Where a Christian couple seeks to reach out to families, the woman might befriend the Muslim wife so the husband is then introduced to the non-Muslim husband. But even then that does not guarantee that they will get together as a foursome or as two families and children. In deeply fundamentalist settings Muslim women are often not allowed to venture outside without being accompanied by a male family

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member, but an unmarried non-Muslim woman may well not be subject to that restriction since she does not have a husband to object or feel shamed by her behavior.13 In a rural Pakistan church setting, Christian men and women will sit separately according to gender. Muslim converts may or may not join the church congregation but certainly the Christian church practice would be less intimidating for them. Similarly, Bible studies are likely to be segregated in rural settings, although in the cities where people are often more open to customs from other nations, especially the richer and better educated, segregation may be less strictly followed. Bible studies for converts and evangelism-oriented Bible studies that follow an informal discussion approach (particularly in relation to Bible stories and the morals they project) work well to reduce the intimidation that a directed teaching approach might engender. In the rarer settings where even informal meetings are held with mixed groups of converts, gender rules would still project it to be highly inappropriate for a woman to lead the meeting, service, or discussion. Other Cultural Issues

Continuing with role and status cultural issues, we also need to be aware of subcultures present in the community (e.g. elderly people, physically handicapped people, migrant or minority groups etc.) as well as the rules for appropriate interaction with people at different levels of social status. Along with these, appropriate behavior related to touching and physical gestures, as well as preference for space and/or what makes for appropriate interpersonal distance, also need to be understood and followed both in relation to role and status, and in general. However, we must also be careful to get the right balance of observance of cultural ways without undermining Biblical principles of morality, justice, and integrity. Looking to affirm dignity in the face of cultural ways that run to the contrary may very well be the means of demonstrating the love of Christ in a uniquely receivable way. Role and Status in Relation to Power Distance and Social Power In every society or communal grouping there are liable to be some members who are richer and are able to take advantage of opportunities that are not available to those who are poorer. The power that access to such advantage brings is also a means of control. As members of the society recognise this inequality they may either choose to rebel and face rejection or follow the social protocols expected of people at different levels within 13

As remarked to me during a conversation with a British single lady believer who was returning from some 15 years largely spent as a professional in a rural part of Pakistan.

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recognised institutions and community subgroups, as well as within the family unit or extended family. An associated and important facet of a society’s rules of social engagement and interaction involves what Hofstede (1991:46) termed power distance. He defines it as “the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organizations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally”. Moreau et al (2014:166) further elucidate on Hofstede’s two ends of the spectrum termed small (or low) power distance and large (or high) power distance: Broadly speaking, people of cultures of larger power distance believe in a social order in which each person has a rightful and protected place, in a hierarchy presuming existential inequalities, and that the legitimacy of the purposes desired by the power holders is irrelevant…people in power are to be respected because they are the authorities. Therefore it is important to use titles to indicate power (such as pastor, reverend, or doctor), and to speak respectfully [without contradicting or challenging the authority voice…Particularly in the learning context, where students are accepted as having less power than the ones titled teacher, the students will] prefer to be taught by lecture.14

Clearly, in another culture, we need to be able to recognise where power and authority are perceived to lie, as well as where they actually lie, along with degrees of social distance in play, as these also have implications for where and how decisions are made that affect the community. In contrast (167): Again, broadly speaking, cultures with small power distance believe in minimizing social or class inequalities, reducing organizational hierarchical structures, and using power only for legitimate purposes…They value showing respect for [those in authority but they also expect respect to be reciprocated so that this mutual respect] is based on ideals of equality rather than titles or social distance…[They also] prefer to maintain their independence, which allows them to pursue (and utilize) truth that applies to all rather than blindly following the personal [dictates and agendas of those in authority, as associated with and] valued in large power-distance settings…[so decisions come through] negotiation rather than decree and they prefer to learn through discussion rather than lecture.15

Power distance not only differentiates between those with more power and those with less power, and sets the understood rules for interaction, but it also affects the social distance between members of a society and so also dictates the rules of social interaction. The greater the power distance of a culture, the less likely are members to interact casually in social settings 14

i.e. so as to minimize interaction between the teacher and students. i.e. so that, unlike the large power distance preference, there can be a good deal of interaction and discussion between the teacher and students. 15

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with those who are considered to be at the opposite end of the power spectrum. In small power distance settings, casual interaction with superiors is considered the norm, and casual interaction with subordinates is expected to be devoid of condescension or paternalism. However, different cultures will have their own perspectives on what constitutes appropriate behaviour and attitudes towards members of older generations, as well as in relation to whether such members are relatives or not. A typical example of mismanagement of power distance in China involves young people coming from small power distance localities outside China to teach English to high school or college/university students. As of Confucianism’s strict recognition of hierarchy of roles in society, China’s approach to education has long valued large power distance so that when these small power distance teachers aim for a relaxed classroom atmosphere by dressing in casual clothes, sitting on the desk or table top, or trying to instil a ‘let me be your friend’ approach (all supposedly to enhance learning), the students find it not only confusing but also highly detractive from learning. Teachers not coming across in the way they are expected to be and behave means students are liable to lose respect for the teacher as the cultural expectations are being so badly abused. In this way, the teacher’s performance acts as ‘noise’16 which, in this case, drastically reduces any potential for effectiveness in teaching. In line with the rules of large power distance settings, the students will likely not be willing, or perhaps even able, to articulate the problem to the teacher. As China has become more open to the West and individuals have access to other cultures’ standards via global social media, it is possible that a new generation of Chinese students may be emerging in some metropolis settings who are or will become, perhaps, more open to a reduced power distance in the teaching and learning setting. To what extent this might be permitted or even encouraged in the longer term remains to be seen.17 16

Communication theory describes anything that detracts from successful communication as noise. It can include any of: true noise due to unhelpful background sounds, physical discomfort in the setting due to excessive heat, cold, humidity, etc., and unusual or inappropriate clothing, speech, and/or body language. Noise can affect either of the communicator or message receivers, and is anything that brings distraction so that communication becomes more difficult or reception of what is communicated is negatively affected. Being sensitive about what is acting as noise in a particular setting, as well as any other potential sources of noise, is important so that the influences may be reduced as much as possible and success of communication increased. (Cf. Hesselgrave 1991:52). 17 A long-time colleague of 20 years, also in China, commented in personal communication that she had come from a relatively high power distance teaching and learning setting in the USA, and in order to maintain consistent class discipline when teaching English in China, had in no way changed her classroom approach since beginning teaching in China two decades ago. She had maintained the formalities of

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Trying to project small power distance values into a large power distance setting and vice versa is a recipe for cross-cultural disaster. However, even in large power distance settings, it is still possible and, perhaps, all the more important to interact with those in subordinate positions (or with less power) in a way that acknowledges and affirms their dignity. This could be what makes the difference between the missionary, as an outsider, being recognised and received in a positive way, and so consequently stimulate an openness to what else the missionary has to bring and to say. Patron-Client Relationships Moreau et al (2014:170-71) also describe the concept of social power and how power can be considered to be: a type of capital that is used as an exchange mechanism within a society…just as people are attracted to money and try to accumulate it, they are also attracted to social power and try to accumulate it. People who have social power and can control distribution of it in some way (granting favours, naming people to positions of social power)…are referred to as patrons. Those who come under their power are called clients, resulting in what is called a patron-client system.

Apart from the assured patron-client relationship that can be inevitable with familial ties, people with lower social power can seek to establish a patron-client relationship with someone of higher social power. As with the building of any functional relationships, the potential client will likely have some kind of underlying agenda and the potential patron will likely also first weigh up the potential value of permitting such a relationship. An established patron-client relationship brings with it mutually understood obligations and responsibilities so that Tino (2008:322) describes it as a “friendship with strings [attached]”. Moreau et al (2014:171) describe how “The patron offers protection; access to resources or information; group identity; opportunities for [various kinds of] advancement; and gifts or other favors. The client brings labor, income…public acclaim (which increases the patron’s status), [allegiance in various forms], and support against the patron’s enemies.” They also suggest how the patron-client relationship might be established by the potential client initiating the possibility through a planned encounter. The potential patron may then welcome the possibility or respond in a way that

classroom interaction with and by students, and enjoyed consistently acceptable academic results. The cross-cultural teaching and learning aspect that had most surprised her on arriving in China was discovering that, as a teacher, she was also expected to provide a caring parent-like role for each student and this while concurrently maintaining the bounds of the high power distance relationship.

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will be understood as refusal. As the one with the higher level of social power, the potential patron can refuse without causing cultural offence. The potential client may also bring or have brought a gift that shows something is being sought in response. If the patron accepts the gift and responds at some point with a more valuable gift, e.g. in terms of how the patron is willing and able to use their social power to the benefit of the client, then, there will be an understanding that further or on-going interaction and mutual paying out of obligations are expected due to the ‘strings attached’ to this relationship. Moreau et al also note, however, that “this relationship is always negotiable, and either may pull away or seek to revise the relationship”, but this will always be done in a way that preserves honour. As of the potential patron’s choice to receive or refuse the potential client’s relationship-building initiative, any such communications, whether through words or actions, will have been communicated in a way that provides a clear meaning for both parties in their cultural context. Hopefully we can see how necessary it is for cross-cultural missionaries to be able to understand and correctly interpret such behavioural cues. Ultimately, the patron-client relationship affects social functioning in the wider community because (273) “People in honour-oriented societies value connecting primarily with their patron or their in-group. Ultimate allegiance is owed the patron, and to be without a patron is to be unprotected… it is through in-group relations that honour-oriented people define themselves.” One of the cross-cultural missionary’s goals must be to be able to identify the implications and underlying rationale of the relationships they both see played out and those into which they are invited. Contexting: High-Context and Low-Context Cultural Interactions In relation to communication between people of different cultures, Moreau et al. (129) remind us that “Certain cultures and situations within cultures (e.g., negotiations) demand that more attention be paid to the context [of the communication event], whilst other cultures (and situations) require more attention to the actual words rather than their context (e.g., computer programs).” They see the term ‘contexting’ as referring “to a strategy of choosing the appropriate mix of verbal and extra verbal communication to get a message across” and cite notable earlier and later sources in the literature including Kraft (1983:183-84), Hall and Hall (1990:6-10), and Hall (1991:85-116). As polar opposites: a low-context communication is one in which the meaning of what is being communicated lies in the explicit words used in the communication process…[so that] In low-context cultures, direct, verbal skills are valued, for the ability to give detailed, exacting information. By contrast, in high-context cultures, indirect,

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Empowering Transformation non-verbal skills are valued; direct verbal skills may even be regarded with suspicion…It is also important to notice the relative position on the contexting scale for people as individuals. Even within a single culture, some people will be higher-context communicators than the average person in that culture and some will be lower-context communicators (Moreau et al, 2014:129-31).

Essentially, what is at stake are the shared assumptions concerning how communications ought to be understood in any particular culture. As seen, low-context cultures will assume a common understanding of specific terms and their relation to specific ways of interacting. High- or higher-context cultures will assume a common understanding beyond actual words used, and in terms of a more comprehensive understanding of the range of facets related to behaviour and commonly accepted interaction among people of that culture. So, for instance, when a low-context communicator from a low-level context culture says yes, the affirmative response and resulting behaviour will reflect that, but when a high-context communicator from a high-context culture says yes, there is far less guarantee that the resulting behaviour will reflect it. A wider understanding of the rationale behind their saying yes may reveal a desire not to offend the person receiving the positive response. In which case, in a high-level context culture, yes might mean any of ‘perhaps’, or ‘I’ll consider it’, or ‘I might get round to it eventually’, or even ‘Actually I can’t do what you’re asking but there’s no way I’m going to tell you that because it will bring discomfort and/or shame and loss of face’…So what is at stake is not the actual meaning of the words of the response but what they might be expected to indicate in the wider picture of the individual (or group) cultural behaviour and beliefs.18 We will return to this issue in chapter 3. Cognitive Approaches to Reality and the Effect on Intercultural Communication Another cultural difference, misunderstanding of which can undermine intercultural communications, concerns differing perceptions pertaining to reality in relation to worldview. We start by asking how do we acquire our perceptions of what we believe to be real and true? Kraft (1989:18-19) suggests: 1. Our perceptions of truth and reality come to us via our upbringing – inculcated by our parents and teachers according to the norms of our culture so that we “largely see what we are taught to see”.

18 Note that even in high-level context cultures, low-level contexting approaches to communication will also be found particularly in institutional settings e.g. when registering as a hospital patient, for buying and using air tickets, or when applying to take up further studies.

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2.

Appropriate views and outlook on life are modeled by our parents, teachers, and society so that we take a selective interest in what we think about, do, and yearn after. 3. We tend to accept what agrees with what we have been taught to believe. 4. Despite our quest for knowledge, 1 Cor. 13:12 is true of everyone: we can see only a partial and dim view of reality. Kraft (19) believes that our view of reality is much smaller than existent reality because our perception of the fullness of reality is subject to a series of filters which limit our perception. These filters, in succession, are: All that happens – what we believe is possible – what we experience – what we actually analyse. What is left after the filtering process is our personal view of reality, and it is much smaller than true reality.19 Hence, Kraft suggests that our perception of reality is influenced by our knowledge of what truth and reality (and meanings associated with them) are in existence, but that our perception is also conditional upon what we believe is possible and what we’re willing to analyse. “Factors influencing our view of reality” include: 1. The norms we’ve grown up with due to our culture and worldview; 2. “the limitations of our experience… our personality or temperament…degree of openness to new ideas”. People are particularly open to new ideas when vulnerable and/or in a crisis; 3. Our willingness to put aside own understandings and preferences. This takes humility and courage; 4. Sin distorting one’s view of reality – whether manifest in the form of rebellion, unholiness, lacking in love, truth, or righteousness; and 5. “our will…we choose to view any given thing either as we have been taught or to view it differently…the place of the will is very important in maintaining or changing one’s worldview”. From our own perspective of reality, we need to examine ourselves and ask how willing are we to receive new ideas rather than just defend our own positions? It can help to remember that walking by faith is an act of will, and it’s a choice too. Knowledge through God-given faith is different again. In the words often accredited to Thomas Aquinas: “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”20 That is why in evangelism and God’s work there is always hope where there is also faith. There is no place for hope if we only depend on proven knowledge as the basis for what is possible. Hesselgrave (1991:298-99) addresses culture and epistemology by pointing to views in the literature concerning how Eastern and Western 19 On the same page (19), Kraft provides this information in the form of a diagram as a visual aid to show how the view of reality decreases as it passes through each filter layer. 20 Possibly a loose paraphrase of Summa Theologiae II-II, Q. 1, Art. 5, reply obj. 1).

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ways of thinking appear to follow different cognitive processes. He starts by referring back to Gulick’s bisystemic perception expounded in his classic text The East and the West,21, 22 which considered Western thinking to be theoretical with hypotheses drawn up and tested to explain reality, whereas Eastern thinking was considered to be “mythological, emotional and artistic” (Gulick 1962:128). Hesselgrave (1991:300) then describes how Northrop’s bisystemic approach of 1953 disagreed with the Western interpretation of Eastern thinking as being largely speculative, and (301) preferred that Eastern thinking was more a case of intuiting the reality of what is immediately concrete through its aesthetic characteristics. In summary, for Northrop, engaging with both theoretical and aesthetic components of phenomena at hand, complementary as they are, would be key for his quest (and title of his book) of the meeting of East and West. Hesselgrave continues on (301-302) to relate how the literature evolved with reference to Perry (1958), who cites F.H. Smith’s trisystemic approach in which he saw that, of Eastern nations and cultures, Indian ways of thinking differed quite considerably from that of Chinese people. He described three different starting points for thinking as Western: whose thinking begins with and progresses from hypothesised and proven theoretical concepts; Chinese: whose thinking tends to be concrete-relational (i.e. engaging with the immediate and concrete, and by implication, a preference for concrete rather than abstract ideas, along with importance placed on how the ideas work out in experience – particularly on how they will either benefit or impinge on interpersonal relationships); and Indian: whose thinking is through intuitional or psychical perceptions that validate ideas on the basis of a confirmatory or intuitional experience from within oneself. Smith advised that all three types of thinking are likely to be used in the different cultures but one will have a bigger priority. As to the priority starting point for thinking by each of the people-types, Smith had people of the West starting from postulated and proven theoretical concepts, with a lesser priority on concrete-relational thinking, and an even lesser attention to psychical experience or intuitional thinking. Chinese people were understood to begin from concrete-relational thinking, followed by intuition, and lastly postulated concepts. Indian people were believed to begin from psychical experience, followed by concrete-relational thinking, and lastly hypothesised and proven concepts. Hesselgrave (303) reproduces this in diagram form but for Chinese thinking follows Perry’s (1958) approach, 23 which saw Chinese people begin from concrete-relational 21

Published posthumously in 1962. See also Gulick (1914). NB: Gulick included the Near East as part of the West. 23 NB: Perry followed E.R. Hughes in this respect. 22

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thinking, followed by proven concepts, and intuition or psychical experience coming last.24 Hesselgrave (302) acknowledges Smith’s suggestion that all people use all three ways of thinking and that one of the three ways of thinking will be dominant in every culture with the other two operative to different degrees. The reasoning processes of different people differ for more reasons than we can probably reasonably ever be fully aware, but one factor is very likely because, as suggested by Nida (1960:89), they begin from different starting points. What’s important for us as cross-cultural missionaries is to be aware of which aspect might be the key starting-point priority for the people being reached out to. Hesselgrave (1991:340) also warns us of the limitations of the different kinds of thinking. For instance, a Western excessive attention to what can be proved or reasoned vastly overrates its potential to be able to truly describe reality. To this I would add that it also unreasonably downplays the potential to learn and grow through experience of the unexplainable. By this, I include the place of living by faith (2 Cor. 5:7) and the joy of delighting in the mystery and wonder of God’s hand clearly at work in unexpected details of our lives. Of the Indians’ intuitional thinking, Hesselgrave warns that what is intuited is likely to be perceived as from a divine source, and hence also the words of wise teachers as though they are actually prophets. But without testing of the word, let alone practical application, it is likely that the experience becomes revered rather than the word. I would add that what is needed is revelation from the truly Divine Source communicated in a way that the eyes of the intuitional thinker are opened in a new way for all time. Of the Chinese starting point of concrete-relational thinking, Hesselgrave warns of the potential for idolatry, as symbols used to represent concrete ideas can easily become mistaken as being the reality of what they are merely supposed to be representing. The concrete-relational thinker can easily succumb to mistaking the world, nature, and relationship that he walks through and lives with as though these are the One who created them. I suggest that what is needed is a means of bridging the concrete and the invisible, communicated in such a way that the concrete-relational thinker is able to perceive (or believe in) the invisible reality as reality in its own right in contrast to the object or symbol being used to represent it. This is very much about helping them to cross the bridge by faith at some point in our conversations and interactions concerning Gospel truths and biblical principles. Hesselgrave’s presentation of three different starting points for cognitive perception has referred to what was cutting-edge thought in post-Second World War academic endeavour to show that one cannot assume there is a 24

See Hesselgrave (1991:303), figure 18.

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single universal way of thinking (let alone that one’s own way is the best or only way). To follow up with contemporary contributions to the literature is rather beyond the scope of this text, but hopefully an awareness of the phenomena will help us avoid making inappropriate assumptions when attempting to communicate about truth and reality from the biblical perspective with those of other cultures. However, here we also face the potential for making big-picture (and possibly highly inappropriate) assumptions about cultural ways of thinking. It would not be unreasonable to suggest that although the Chinese tendency is to start from concrete-relational aspects,25 whether intuition or proven concepts (or even something else) comes next could well be a factor of whether the students are from a setting more conducive to inculcation of functioning with a more intuitional worldview (such as a remote village alive with myth, magic, and superstitious practices26), or whether they grew up in a highly developed city setting and had more encouragement towards further education along with greater access to a wider range of materials and mentally stimulating ideas than their villager compatriots.27 For limitations on the trisystemic approach, in cross-cultural class sessions I point out, for instance, that although, from a big-picture perspective, mainland Chinese do indeed tend to appear to be concrete-relational, other cultures may begin from the relational frame too but not necessarily be dichotomistically predisposed towards reality in concrete form, as opposed to abstract.28 I also encourage small group discussion looking to answer questions such as: from where might the thinking of the Old Testament Israelites have started, and how about New Testament Jews? What influences do we see in different genres of Bible text? What might have been the preference of the Greco-Roman world and what influence might that have had on people of the territories that had been invaded? 25

Having taught in Chinese a variety of Christian study subjects as well as secular subjects to students from backgrounds ranging from MA level to non-high school graduate, and in multiple geographical settings, the preference for concrete examples and visual aids over theoretical abstract concepts has been for the former throughout; Similarly, of the phenomena of relational implications taking priority over intuition and postulated concepts. 26 Hence intuition next. 27 Hence proven concepts next 28 Just as Northrop’s East and West perception evolved into Smith’s differentiation of West and East but East with respect to Indian and Chinese ways of thinking, we do well to go beyond the very much Western dichotomistic categorisation that is manifested throughout this development process. Consider, for instance, the realm of creativity associated with the sub-culture of romantic artists, and poets or philosophers of any culture, for whom the realms of relational and abstract (whether in terms of perception or expression) are certainly not mutually incompatible.

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Conclusions

The reader will hopefully by now have been able to recognise the potential for diversity inherent in multiple cultures due to the range of potential differences between cultures that have been addressed. There can be a tendency to describe cultures with broad brushstrokes, but personality factors, degree of adult maturity, and advancement in spiritual maturity may well influence the degree to which individuals function (or not) as expected by their culture. This is very much because personality, adult maturity development, and growth in spiritual maturity can also influence decisions made concerning responses and behavior choices in the face of varying contingencies. It is also important to recognise that, despite the tendency, we should be wary of making general statements about specific cultures, e.g. Americans tend to be overweight; Chinese people talk too loudly and too much and/but take a long time to get to the point. Although many Americans are indeed overweight, it might be unreasonable to suggest that the majority of Americans can be categorised this way. In addition, the population of North America includes people from a great many other cultures such as of Spanish, Mexican, and Irish background, along with migrants and immigrants from all over Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, each with their own worldviews and cultural ways. Mainland China provides another example of enormous diversity within its vast population. For example, when Dr Co and I moved from the first ministry setting to start up again in the central southern province of Guangxi, we were advised by the hospital head that we should not think they were like the Chinese people in Yunnan, because whereas Yunnan Chinese people take a long time to get to the point, in Guangxi they prefer to get straight to the point and hone in on specifics. Whether that is because we were engaging with people of Guangxi’s Zhuang minority was not discussed, just (by implication) that we should speak straight to key issues rather than talk around them. I found myself wondering whether this might have had anything to do with the climate, which was very much more humid and hotter than Yunnan. Certainly, we frequently encountered people with a low tolerance level who expressed anger loudly and seemed to pay far less attention to the face-saving niceties we’d encountered in Yunnan. These differences were not just experienced by we two non-Chinese ‘foreigners’ but also by one of my mainland Chinese students, as will be seen in the next chapter when we turn to the issues of cross-cultural dislocation and intercultural conflict.

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Discussion Questions 1.

2.

3. 4.

Consider your own background and upbringing in relation to the different facets of culture described in the chapter. First, identify your own ‘Lingenfelter cultural profile’ orientation preferences. How do they compare with the bigger-picture orientation of your background culture? Of the other facets of culture described in the chapter, decide which approaches your background culture follows concerning individualism versus collectivism, degree of power distance and how social power is allocated, whether communications are expected to be understood in a high-level or low-level context, and, as far as you can, which of the cognitive approaches to reality does your home culture and worldview start from. How have each of these facets of culture and worldview affected and influenced the being, doing, and life expectations of the person you are today? Which facets of culture and worldview beliefs that are different to your own background and upbringing have caused you tension or difficulty so far? Considering the benefits and advantages of the different approaches concerning facets of culture, in which aspects of your own background culture can you now see there are disadvantages? How will this affect your behavior and outlook from now on?

Chapter 3 Dark Days in Intercultural Ministry: Cultural Dislocation and Cross-cultural Conflicts

Introduction

Missions in any setting inevitably brings the potential for dark and discouraging days, and even more so in a cross-cultural setting. Two major areas are those of cultural dislocation and when we find ourselves facing cross-cultural conflicts. Cultural Dislocation

Cultural dislocation, or culture shock, is the psychological discomfort that is experienced when someone engages with a culture that is different from their own. It can be due to physical, mental, and/or emotional stress due to any or all of the physical differences, environmental differences, or cultural differences. We break these down as follows: • Physical differences might include climate that is hotter or colder or more humid than what the person is used to; food that is different and even causes stomach upsets; water contaminated with bacteria or other pollutants; air that lacks oxygen due to the altitude or is contaminated with industrial pollutants; facilities for one’s hygiene needs that require different muscles for balancing and/or appear very unhygienic; and washing facilities that are erratic in function and/or devoid of privacy. • Environmental differences might include the condition of roads and/or differences in driving customs; the use of money and different ways of making purchases in shops and markets, e.g. through electronic processing or haggling or bartering; and incomprehension concerning what goods are actually on offer and/or lack of availability of sought after essential products, e.g. kimchi for Koreans or good quality chocolate for Westerners. • Cultural differences might include language and/or reading and writing style; habits and etiquette based on local beliefs and customs; and non-verbal body language and/or behavior patterns. People are generally not very tolerant of those who are different from them! To live and survive in another culture a person needs to be aware of the differences between their own worldview and that of the new culture, and adjust how they act out their philosophy of living in a way that fits with the new culture. If the newcomer to a different culture is not prepared mentally, emotionally, and, of course, spiritually, culture shock can set in within

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weeks or months of coming into the new culture. The results can vary from minor and treatable to completely disastrous and requiring the person to leave. Burnout and depression can also come from culture shock problems that are unattended. Examples from China

My initial exposure to cross-cultural life came through a two-year short-term missions engagement in Pakistan in the 1980s. Expecting to return there long term after Bible college and Seminary, I actually ended up going to China. In comparison to Pakistan’s Muslim culture and lesser view of single women, not having to take an oppressive subservient role in China and faced with an enormous choice of interesting and tasty dishes to eat (I don’t like and never have liked curry, which was the staple in Pakistan), I found China to be an absolute delight. Yes, the language was far harder to learn than Urdu, but life itself was a good deal easier. Fast forward to the first area of ministry and church planting in the remote villages, and culture shock came in when I discovered the frustrations of sharing village accommodation with Chinese people and the difficulty (for me coming from a Western upbringing) of lack of privacy with washing and toilet facilities. Eventually, to cope with the lack of privacy, I set up a cotton sheet on the wooden balcony outside my tiny room and washed from a bucket of cold water. For toilet facilities I used empty 2 litre soft drink bottles with a funnel and/or a pan for a chamber pot, all of which would later be emptied into the common toilet facility. The landlord and his wife lived in the city but came to stay for several months each year, at which time major changes would have to be made to our lifestyle. We would no longer have access to cooking facilities, the hot water solar shower was only accessible through the shared eating area, and the landlord’s wife would regularly run off all the hot water through her daily food preparation and meal clean-ups. We had to politely request that she consider reducing use of the hot water on Saturdays so that we could have a once weekly evening shower after the week’s dental clinic work was finished. Meetings with the villagers who had come to know Christ could not be held in our accommodation because the landlord was a high-level communist party member and it was made known to us via a third party that we should not cause him any embarrassment. To reduce any possible problems, whichever day the meetings happened to be, we would have to go straight from working and eating in the dental clinic to the meetings, and then return to the accommodation late in the evening to avoid any awkward questions. This sense of very restricted freedom was very oppressive and brought with it feelings of being inescapably trapped in a box.

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As of any causes of culture shock or discomfort because of the perceived limits of a cultural setting, the way forward is to hold onto one’s sense of calling and that through God’s sovereignty He has placed us in the best place, from His perspective, and for His highest and best purposes to be worked out in us and through us. The cruciality of maintaining one’s personal relationship with God in such times cannot be underestimated. As Oswald Chambers (Lambert, 1970:85) encouraged: 1 Making personal choices that bring us into uncomfortable places is quite different from God bringing us into them for His purposes. In the latter case He will provide all we need to sustain us. If we seek for Jesus Christ to become manifest in the circumstances, it will be all the more a means for Him to personally display to us His Holy purity and unlimited perfection. When we delight to let Him demonstrate His love and power in and through us we can even find ourselves (like Paul in 2 Cor. 12:10) delighting in the difficult circumstances. Bearing with the difficulties imposed on us when the landlord and his wife were on-site was also very much a means of witness to the local believers that God’s grace is, indeed, sufficient day by day and moment by moment. On one very special and unusual occasion when the landlord was away visiting friends in a distant village, his wife even joined us for a time of prayer with a few of the believers and spoke out her own prayer. Culture shock is not just a phenomenon experienced by those of other nationalities. The landlord’s wife was Chinese but was neither from the minority group of the village nor from a village background, and she rarely left the courtyard when they came to stay as she did not mix with the villagers. By now she had got used to this separate lifestyle, but one can only imagine how difficult it must have been for her in the early days of their marriage. Similarly, one of my Masters-level missions class Chinese students asked if he could do his ministry placement in China under my direction, and having come from a village background asked “to be sent to the hardest place”. So we had him stay with the village doctor and wife who had become Christians in the second ministry area village setting where we were doing community health work. My student spent two nights there before sending me a text to the effect that he didn’t think he should stay there. When asked why, he replied that his host didn’t seem very communicative and was giving him horrible food to eat such as pig entrails. I pointed out that any kind of meat was a special treat for these village people who lived in relative poverty and he was being honoured by being given such a delicacy. As for not communicating, I pointed out that the doctor is an introvert and possibly feeling a little overwhelmed by having a

1

This is my paraphrase of the original.

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highly educated Chinese man staying, and whose background was the extremely prestigious area of Beijing. Basically, the student was experiencing culture shock in his home country because he had assumed he would immediately fit in with the standards and norms of another part of China. A Positive Side of Culture Shock The potential for culture shock is present whenever someone goes from their own culture to another, or even into a sub-culture of their own wider culture. Elmer (2002:45) introduces a helpful positive perception in that culture shock: can be a means of knowing God better… [because] God reveals himself2 through all the cultures of the world and all the peoples within those cultures. When we see the differences of others, we may well be seeing more of God. He cannot be contained in or explained from only one cultural perspective. Thus, culture shock may be a means whereby we see God more clearly in all his glorious diversity.

Bennett’s Stages in Attaining Intercultural Competence

Bennett’s (2004) Intercultural Development Inventory, which came from his Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennett, 1986,1993; Bennett and Castiglioni 2004), gives a helpful tool for recognizing the changes that come with, initially difficult but hopefully eventually successful, interaction and engagement with another culture. He lists the progression towards successful engagement with another culture in six stages that follow the journey from (62) “ethnocentricism to ethnorelativism” with the first three being more ethnocentric and the second three being more ethnorelative: 1. Denial: Cultural differences are denied or their importance is minimised. I would add that the importance of cultural differences may be being minimised either in the ‘honeymoon’ stage of interaction in a new culture, or as one begins subconsciously trying to develop coping mechanisms for dealing with the differences. 2. Defence: One’s own cultural tendencies are defended as being a better way than those of other cultures. I would suggest that this might be an early coping mechanism coming into play and, at this point, much support and encouragement is needed. Another manifestation at this stage is “reversal” or thoroughly throwing one’s self into the new culture to the extent of completely rejecting one’s own background culture, of which Bennett writes (66): “However, the positive experience of the other culture is at an unsophisticated 2

I would want to add at this point: ‘in different ways and to different degrees’.

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stereotypical level, and the criticism of one’s own culture is usually an internalisation of others’ negative stereotypes.” 3. Minimisation: “Elements of one’s own cultural worldview are experienced as universal [so that] the threat associated with cultural differences…is neutralised by subsuming the differences into familiar categories.” However, the outsider’s perceptions are still very much experienced from the vantage point of their own culture and “one’s own cultural patterns are [still seen] as central to an assumed universal reality”. At this stage, to continue moving forward, Bennett (2004:67-68) advises that the development of cultural self-awareness is very important. I would add to this that an honest awareness of one’s own limitations and a means of accountability will be important for further developing intercultural competence. 4. Acceptance: Cultural differences are accepted as being real and valid to those of the associated culture as one becomes [comfortably] aware that the beliefs and practices of one’s own culture and worldview are just one set from a much larger domain of differing cultures and worldviews. A major issue to be resolved is that of non-ethnocentric value relativity, i.e. accepting that different cultures have different and competing value systems, while remaining ethically committed to the values of one’s own culture and being neither judgmental nor ethnocentric concerning the values of others. Acceptance of another culture’s beliefs and practices does not necessarily include agreement with them. I would add that in our role as Christians from the Worldwide Body of Christ looking to share biblical truths and values among our friends in other cultures, it is important that we are able to identify the values we hold that are culturally influenced so that we do not impose our own background or church background cultural values on others. Equally, a spiritually healthy awareness is needed so that unbiblical beliefs, values, and practices in both our own and/or other cultures are not condoned in a manner that results in syncretism.3 5. Adaptation: “The experience of another culture yields perception and behaviour appropriate to that culture. One’s worldview is expanded to include relevant constructs from other cultural worldviews…This shift is not merely cognitive [but also] includes [lived out] behaviour” (70). Bennett proposes that adaptation is the necessary step towards becoming bicultural or multicultural. He offers (71) that “the major issue to be resolved at Adaptation is that of authenticity. [i.e.] How is it possible to perceive and behave in culturally different ways and still ‘be yourself’? The answer seems to lie in defining yourself more broadly – in expanding the repertoire of perception and behaviour that is ‘yours’”. I would add that, at this stage, it will be helpful if one’s goal continues to be seeking greater

3

We will return to the concept of syncretism in chapters 5 and 6.

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intimacy in relationship with God, and hence growing in awareness of what He is calling us to be and do. 6. Integration: Bennett (72) describes integration of cultural difference as “the state in which one’s experience of self is expanded to include the movement in and out of different cultural worldviews. Here, people are dealing with issues related to their own ‘cultural marginality’; they construe their identities at the margins of two or more cultures and central to none”. At this stage of fullness of cultural competence by Bennett’s standards, I would propose that now we are likely to be acutely and joyfully aware that we will never be fully at home in the world or in any of its many cultures since we are merely pilgrims on our way to an eternal heavenly Home. Bennett’s stages provide a helpful tool for subjective analysis of our own degree of cultural competence as well as having potential for objectively analysing the progress of others for whom we are responsible. When cultural dislocation occurs, in the midst of the frustration it can be helpful to remember: “Whenever a culture ‘makes no sense’ to us, we must assume that the problem is ours, because the people’s behaviour makes sense to them” (Hiebert, 1999:378). Owning our problems related to cultural differences and taking them prayerfully to the cross can be a comforting, refreshing means of once again finding our identity and sense of self-worth in being God’s precious children. From this can also come the means to rise again, owning our need of the Holy Spirit to work in and through us, and with revived hope that we can and will overcome the cultural difficulties as we, moment by moment, make our home in Christ. Cross-Cultural Conflict

When living and working interculturally, cross-cultural conflict is inevitable if we hope to engage with local people beyond a merely superficial level. Conflict is not merely limited to engagements with local people, it can and does also occur among missionaries and fellow workers.4 It is good to remind ourselves that unity and Godly relationships are important for personal growth and spiritual witness (John 17:20-23). Similarly, Romans 12:9-18 tells us that “love must be sincere (authentic)… be devoted to one another in brotherly love, honour one another above yourselves… rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn (empathy). Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud but be

4

There can be an extent to which missionaries (or non-locals) seem to project a greater tolerance for difficulties with those they are reaching out to in contrast to far higher expectations of what makes for ‘reasonable behaviour’ from their colleagues. New missionaries beware! See Turney (2013) for thoughts on increasing missionary longevity, albeit written from his North American perspective.

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willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. …If it possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone”. In relation to cross-cultural conflict we also need to recognize culture is concerned with the standard of moral issues for what could be regarded as adequate and inadequate thinking and behaviour (Kirk, 2000:86). However, every culture has sins or weaknesses in comparison with the values encouraged in the Bible because every culture has common sinful aspects as well as culture-specific different sinful aspects compared with the core values of the Kingdom of God. Psychology of Conflict and How Discomfort Manifests

Conflict often occurs because one or both parties feel insecure. Discomfort manifests as either: • Anger actively expressed (due to any of: fear; blocked goals; sense of self-worth or personal values and priorities being undermined…); or • Passive aggression (for instance through withdrawal or lack of cooperation). With any conflict, whether intercultural or not, a good deal of unnecessary further trauma can be prevented if we look to deal with the roots of problems and not merely just deal with symptoms. In chapter 2 we referred to Lingenfelter and Mayers’ Ministering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships and saw the following differences in priorities that separate one culture from another. All of these have potential for causing conflict when each party has a different priority: • Time orientation versus Event orientation • Crisis preventative versus non-crisis preventative • Dichotomistic thinking (prefers black/white options; order; completion) versus Comprehensive thinking (sees many issues as gray; comfortable with open-endedness) • Task orientation versus People orientation • Willing to express vulnerability versus unwilling to express vulnerability (especially in shame cultures) Elmer (2002:180) advises that: Differences are not the problem when working cross-culturally. The way these differences are expressed is the problem. For example, everyone values and uses time. However, the confusion arises when some cultures demonstrate their use of time differently. Everyone wants and deserves respect (status), but some cultures display it differently. If you show me respect in a way I am not accustomed to or not expecting, I will consider you disrespectful. The misunderstanding comes not from the value itself but in how it is demonstrated in day-to-day living.

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In light of this, I now offer some transferable keys for actually dealing with conflict-potentiating issues that may be provoked by the different cultural orientations.5 Keys for Addressing Difficulties with Differing Cultural Orientations Time Orientation versus Event Orientation Jesus was event-oriented in his personal life and ministry as of the Jewish culture He was incarnated into, yet was also time oriented as appropriate for the fulfillment of God’s plans – He did as, what, and when He heard the Father tell Him. As people aiming to witness to the love and life-changing potential of Jesus, and also wanting to continually develop in Christ’s likeness, it is good to bear this in mind, regardless of our orientation preference. 1. “In time-oriented cultures, efficiency is often rewarded” (Lingenfelter and Mayers, 2003:40). I suggest that for non-time-oriented people, an appropriate means of motivation at a sufficient level will help them to meet time demands. For pragmatic reasons, people will arrive at an airport on time for their flight – similarly, to avoid unwanted consequences, non-time-oriented people can become motivated to make the choices that will see them follow time demands. 2. “For event-oriented people, playing the game is more important than winning, problems will be exhaustively considered with all issues being heard and deliberated over until a unanimous verdict is reached regardless of how long it takes” (42). It can be helpful to have them bear in mind that God (or even their community) could have other equally important events for them to be involved in today as well as this one. 3. To get time-oriented people into events, give them appropriate motivation, e.g. who they can meet there and what might come of that, get them talking/thinking about the benefits of attending the event (and while attending) to take their mind off how else they might be using the time! Holistic (or Comprehensive) Thinking versus Dichotomistic Thinking Dichotomists tend to see things and perceive things in black and white, and judge their opposites as lacking principles and being inconsistent (55), whereas holistic (or comprehensive) thinkers tend to see issues in terms of gray with no completely right or wrong response, and their opposites as legalistic and callous (63).

5

These are an expansion of, but largely my own supplement to, Lingenfelter and Mayers’ text.

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1. Beware of judging the person on the basis of what you see. Get to know the person then form your opinion with graciousness and love in mind. 2. “Left brain analyticism and right brain creativity were designed to function together” (56). So can we as members of the body of Christ. Crisis-preventative Orientation versus Non-crisis Orientation 1. Crisis-preventative-oriented people need to weigh up whether the time, cost, and emotional energy put into preventivity is justified for every single activity their orientation has them sow into. Can some areas be a little less rigidly attended to and/or balanced out by greater trust in God’s sovereignty? 2. Non-crisis-oriented people need to ask whether their lack of attention to preventing potential problems is causing others anxiety. Love looks to bear burdens together in an appropriate attitude of mutual responsibility. 3. Soar in the freedom of the Spirit as the Holy Spirit leads us in things of God but also be prepared in and out of season (2 Tim. 4:2) as we touch lives in all that God has prepared for us to be and do. Task Orientation versus People Orientation Jesus was both people and task-oriented in that He did what His Father gave Him to do and these tasks were for the most part people-centred and ultimately for the good of all mankind. 1. “For those who are people-oriented, failure to accomplish a task is less critical than a gain in the quality of personal relationships” (79). They may need to see from God’s perspective that achieving certain tasks at key times is important for opening doors or maintaining the means of service to Him, which then is able to more richly impact people, both the saved and unsaved. 2. “The social life of the task-oriented is often merely an extension of work activities” (79). It will do them good to periodically do something with no goals at all – just for fun! 3. Task-oriented people need to see the task in getting involved with people as a spiritually and emotionally healthy option, and see that people are in the task, or are impacted by the task, as Jesus did. Concealment of Vulnerability versus Willingness to Expose Vulnerability “Jesus teaches (Luke 14: 28-32) that there is wisdom in guarding one’s weaknesses: i.e. counting the cost of attempting a task and weighing one’s vulnerability. To fail to consider one’s weakness is foolish and opens one to public ridicule and error.” However in (Luke 14:8-11), Jesus also “challenges His disciples to follow the path of humility which ultimately leads to honour... Paul writes (2 Cor. 12:7-10) that recognition of one’s weaknesses results in dependence on God and His power… To accept one’s

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vulnerability is to be open to the strength and support of others. [But we must also be careful not to promote] a casual and careless attitude concerning failure of one’s self and others. Whereas accepting one’s weaknesses should lead to dependence on the power of God, it may, if one focuses on self rather than on God, result in a casual attitude to sin!” (104-106) 1. Exposing the weaknesses of others in a loving and gentle way is usually only possible within the context of a deeply loving and trusting relationship but as Elmer (2002:88) reminds us that: “openness, acceptance and trust, which are important qualities in every culture, may be expressed differently in different parts of the world”. 2. Whether or not and when to expose one’s weaknesses as a leader needs careful attention: will it cause members of the congregation to lose confidence in the ability of the leader to lead so that they stumble in their own faith? Will the inevitable shock of publicly confessed sin or weakness cause members of the congregation to lose confidence in their perception of the leader as a man or woman of God so that the results are judgmentalism and division? As we grow in intimacy in relationship with God through Christ Jesus, we will eventually discover that certain aspects of our old sinful nature can only be dealt with as we engage with a few prayerfully selected members of the Body of Christ. Particularly for leaders, having a few trusted peers or mentors, to whom we expose our vulnerable areas and to whom we are accountable, can be the difference between on-going stumbling and victory. 3. We must remember that God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). Humility opens the way for God to do His work both in and through us. Being aware that our orientation preferences, along with other cultural differences, can cause conflict without us even realizing is fuel for prayer in any setting so that we might have wisdom when relationships seem to go sour. Moreau et al (2014:273) alert us to difficulties that can arise when we misunderstand the rules about how the members of a different society are expected to relate to one another: The rules a society uses for connecting are embedded in the local cultural values. Most honor-oriented cultures are collectivist and high context. They tend to value large power distance and utilize patron-client systems of relationships. As a result, in many honour-oriented societies, social debt can act as a type of glue holding the society together, and the rules of connecting are extensions of social debt.

In a different culture we need to be aware, for instance, of what the implications are if we are invited for a meal or given a gift. We saw in

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chapter 2 that in patron-client honour-based cultures some appropriate response is expected and awaited. The meal or gift could be an attempt to initiate a patron-client relationship or come with an expectation that a mutually understood form of reciprocity is anticipated. Moreau et al (274) advise that those from non-collectivist cultures and non-honour based cultures prefer not to accumulate social debt in the first place and so may well just respond in a way that cancels out the social debt by, for instance, returning the invitation. But this may merely return the gift-giver to the figurative starting block and completely undermine what the gift-giver was trying to achieve or initiate. This can then incorrectly communicate to the gift-giver that the receiver has no desire or intention to enter a patron-client relationship and/or worse, that the receiver has no desire to further the relationship connection. When the gift-giver then cools off any deepening of the relationship, the non-enlightened missionary is left to wonder what went wrong following such promising beginnings. At this point the missionary would do best to seek advice about the situation from another local and/or more experienced missionary. We saw in chapter 2 that aside from our home culture’s orientations, our personal tendencies are also affected by: personality, degree of adult maturity, and degree of spiritual maturity so that self-awareness is important to help identify the root causes of conflict issues. The potential for conflict can often be reduced when we are aware of the differences in play concerning our personality, level of adult maturity, and level of spiritual maturity. Conflict Due to Personality Difference and Associated Differences in Priorities

It is generally considered that an individual’s personal style of behaviour results from the combination of a God-given social style (an individual basic social style inherited at birth), plus family and society input and reinforcement, plus personal experience and developed habit patterns. The idea that there are possibly four major personality types or basic social styles goes back to Hippocrates in fifth-century Greece and has since been further refined and developed with social and psychological studies confirming the hypothesis. 6 The four major types are termed Choleric, Melancholic, Phlegmatic, and Sanguine. 6

For readers familiar with the Myers–Briggs assessment and analysis tool (Myers, 1962), I suggest that the four major personality types are largely covered by the I/E (Introversion/Extraversion) and T/F categories (with F equating to people-orientation and T to task-orientation), whilst the N/S pair (ways of processing information) might be seen to be rather more related to cognitive perceptions of reality than personality per se, but I do also recognize that there is additional sophistication offered by the J/P pair wherein J might be described as denoting desire for order and closure, whereas P runs to

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A number of authors have published materials relating to this proposal of four basic personality or temperament types but in the analysis process used different terms to present what are essentially the same concepts and personality attributes, e.g. Brinkman and Kirschener (1994; 2002:14-15), who differentiate the four types in terms of combinations of level of assertiveness (either passive or aggressive), with focus of attention (either task focus or people focus); Phillips (1989), writing of social styles, differentiates in terms of people being either askers or tellers and for which he provides a helpful chart (33) in combination with task orientation or relationship orientation accompanied by another helpfully comparative chart (39). He describes the resulting four types (48-56) as Drivers: the control specialists; Analyticals: the technique specialists; Amiables: the support specialists; and Expressives: the social specialists. In relation to the four major types these would be Choleric, Melancholic, Phlegmatic, and Sanguine respectively. The same basic four types are clearly seen in the evolvement of the DiSC model, which is used in secular management training as a leadership and teambuilding tool. It has its foundations in Marston’s 1928 book Emotions of Normal People, in which he proposes the four behavioural the contrary. Using Smalley’s animals schema, further described below, I suggest that Lions would very likely cover the extrovert J, introvert J could be a subset of Beavers, extrovert P could be an Otters subset, with introvert P as a subset of Dogs. Hence the four types can be applied to the vast majority of people, with the Myers–Briggs schema offering the extra sophistication needed for those who nonetheless don’t quite fit the basic four, e.g. they would, perhaps, be covered by any of introvert or extrovert TP or FJ. This could also be where the N/S distinction might come to the fore. Certainly, a literature review will show that the 16 Myers–Briggs pairings, based on Jungian psychology, can be found represented in studies of multiple Western and non-Western cultures, thus suggesting the degree of universality of personality attributes proposed by Jung. NB: This negates the view of Bennett (2004:67) who proposes that the assumption that personality factors are universal is merely an aspect of the minimisation stage of attaining intercultural competence. My preference to stay with the less sophisticated basic four major/minor personality types schema, and this in conjunction with Smalley’s animals approach, is largely due to the ease with which the tool can be explained, memorably received, and applied. I acknowledge that the ‘Big Five’ personalities schema, developed since the 1960s, appears to have met with much success (see McCrae and John (1992) for a helpful review) but suggest that some of the aspects, such as agreeableness, neuroticism, and openness to experience, do not necessarily sufficiently allow for the change in outlook that comes with increasing adult maturity, let alone increasing spiritual maturity. Further, although the Big Five schema has been successfully applied in a number of cross-cultural settings, McCrae and John (1992:185) cite Yang and Bond’s study (1990) wherein five personality factors as found and tested via Chinese lexicographical studies “do not show a one-to-one correspondence to those found in English”. In addition, Yu et al (2009) actually found a seven-factor structure for personality-related Chinese adjectives.

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ways of interacting with one’s environment: Dominance (D), Inducement (I), Submission (S), and Compliance (C). The evolution continued via Clarke’s 1956 Activity Vector Analysis used in personnel selection and which labelled potential employees (via their own self-analyses) as either aggressive, sociable, stable, or avoidant. John Geier’s Personal Profile System (PPS) followed in the 1970s. This was to become the PPS2800 tool in 1994 and was the basis for Inscape Publishing’s DiSC Classic self-scoring and self-analysing system to show leadership/teamwork participation styles of either Dominance [Choleric], Influence [Sanguine], Steadiness [Phlegmatic], or Compliance [Melancholic].7 LaHaye (1993) emphasises the aspect of understanding the strengths and weakness associated with the four different personality types (of which one has a major and minor personality type) so as to achieve Christian Spiritual growth, whilst Smalley and Trent (1990)8 memorably present the four types in relation to the different animals: Lions [Choleric], Beavers [Melancholic], Dogs [Phlegmatic], and Otters [Sanguine] along with typical behaviours, strengths, and weaknesses. Each system comes with a means of assessing one’s own major personality or temperament type, and an analysis combined with assorted suggestions for helpful interaction with each type. Dr Co and I preferred to teach and use Smalley and Trent’s animals model when ministering in China because anything we were teaching was best received when accompanied by concrete examples. I have also found the animals model well received in cross-cultural outreach classes with students from multiple Asian countries as well as with Western students. It has also been an effective tool for interacting with young married couples as well as boyfriends with girlfriends, and couples preparing for marriage. The comparison of behaviours and strengths and weaknesses in the context of the different animal types provides a fun and interesting means of engaging with the topic. At the same time it also provides something of a psychological buffer against the less palatable aspects when discovering potential weaknesses associated with one’s personality type since, at the end of the day, we are not actually those animals but merely using them to glean potential representative attributes. In summary, combining material from the different systems, we describe Lions as Cholerics and natural leaders (D of the DiSC system); Beavers as 7

The DiSC Classic 2.0 Profile is the online DiSC assessment version of the original DiSC Classic Profile, Personal Profile System (PPS) 2800 Series first published in 1994. The hardcopy is available as “A Plan to Understand Yourself and Others” by Everything DiSC, a Wiley company (formerly Inscape Publishing and Carlson Learning). 8 The ‘Smalley Institute Personality Test’ is also available as Gary Smalley and Dr John Trent’s Personality Inventory from www.nacada.ksu.edu/Portals/0/CandlGDivision/ documents. Last accessed April 2, 2017.

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Melancholics who pay attention to details, and who may also have the creativity associated with an artist and/or genius, and are diligent workers (C of the DiSC system); Dogs as Phlegmatics who are loving, caring, and people pleasing (S of the DiSC system); and replace Otters with the animal Kittens9 who represent Sanguines and who light up the room in social settings to achieve their aim of being the centre of attention (I of the DiSC system). Along with these distinctions, Trent and Smalley particularly distinguish between introverts and extroverts, and task-oriented and people-oriented people so that Lions are seen as extrovert and task-oriented, Beavers are seen as introvert and task-oriented, Dogs as introvert and people-oriented, and Kittens as extrovert and people-oriented. Like LaHaye, they recommend that each person has a major type and minor type, with the latter possibly also being a combination of the remaining types. A personality assessment tool, which is a slight modification of Trent and Smalley’s descriptions, can be found in Appendix 1 of this book. Some other helpful differentiating aspects have been described by Brinkmann and Kirschener (2002:15). They describe the four different personality types in terms of four intentions [or desires]: Get it done (which would describe task-oriented Lions as leaders wanting to achieve multiple goals in as efficient a way as possible); Get it right (which would describe the Beaver’s desire for careful attention to detail; Get along with me (which describes the Dog’s desire to please others); and Appreciate me (which would be the motto of the Kitten who wants to be the centre of attention and needed by others). 9

The reason for replacing the Otter for the Kitten was partly because, in preparation for the very first personalities seminar (in Chinese) in rural China in 1998, I discovered ahead that, although locals had heard of lions and beavers, none of the villagers knew what an otter was and, in addition, I was also unable to find a picture as a visual teaching aid. With no internet access in those days, I merely had access to some old National Geographic magazines belonging to a Western friend for pictures of a lion, dog, and kitten, and had to hand draw a beaver. From a cross-cultural perspective, helpfully, cats were used for catching mice in the villages and recognized as playful and attention-catching when small kittens. Dogs were rarely seen in that particular village’s setting and were not part of the local diet even in the nearby town or further-away cities in that particular province. The picture I presented as a concrete example shows two Western children hugging a (certainly to Westerners) very cute, caring-looking Golden Retriever. The seminar group villagers reacted with a concerted ‘aaaah, how cute and caring’ kind of response on seeing the picture, so I decided it was appropriate. Equally, although this might have been expected to fail due to cultural perceptions of dogs in the wider Chinese context, seminar attendees seemed quite happy to verbally own the Dog personality after completing the assessment material and this was also the case in succeeding seminars. Perhaps, in this case, being able to relate to the idea of a non-Chinese variety of dog superseded any potential ethnocentric disapproval of being associated with the animal.

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To avoid unnecessary stress in relationships, they further offer that (16) “Priority of these intents can shift moment to moment…[moreover] (21-22) Behaviour changes according to intent, based on the top priority in any moment of time. We all have the ability to operate out of all four intents. To communicate effectively with other people, you must have some understanding of what matters most to them.” Preventing Unnecessary Conflict and/or Dealing with Conflict Due to Personality Differences

For preventing or reducing unnecessary conflict, Phillips (1989:36-37) offers that we be aware: “Task oriented people: • tend to let their thinking rule • control their emotions • feel best when achieving a task • prioritise task ahead of relationships BUT, if you are so involved with tasks that people can’t get to know you or people don’t like you, you create TENSION, mistrust and conflict. Others will see you as non-caring. People (relationship) oriented people: • tend to let their feelings rule • they easily express their emotions • feel best when accepted by others • prioritise relationships ahead of task BUT, if you are so involved with people that you don’t accomplish any tasks, you may well be seen as shallow, not serious, and even as just plain lazy!” By now we should be able to see why personality differences can so easily cause stress and conflict. When one person’s priorities are not recognised or ignored by another the result is tension and insecurity. Phillips (1989:87-88) describes how we are likely to respond at the height of such tensions in his section on “Back against the wall responses.” “When the pressures of interpersonal conflicts come, we feel like our backs are against the wall. • We tend to shift from the positive side of our behaviour patterns to the negative side. • We become more extreme and even rigid. • We move into non-negotiable stances. • Our interaction with others becomes counter-productive.” Effectively, the Lions will tend to dominate, Beavers will tend to withdraw, Dogs will tend to give in, and Kittens will tend to attack emotionally.

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Along similar lines, Brinkman and Kirschener (1994:24-30) describe what they call the difficult behaviours that tend to emerge: 1. “The ‘Get the task done’ [Lion] becomes more controlling – as they try to take over & push ahead. (They become TANKS, SNIPERS, and KNOW-IT-ALLs.) 2. The ‘Get the task right’ [Beavers] becomes more perfectionist – finding every flaw & potential error. (They become WHINERS, NO PEOPLE and NOTHING PEOPLE.) 3. The ‘Get along with people’ [Dog] becomes more approval seeking, sacrificing their personal needs to please others. (They become YES PEOPLE, MAYBE PEOPLE and NOTHING PEOPLE.) 4. The ‘Get appreciation from people’ [Kitten] becomes more attention getting, forcing others to notice them. (They become GRENADES, SNIPERS, and THINK-THEY-KNOW-IT-ALLS.)” We can combine material from Phillips (1989:97ff.) and Brinkman and Kirschener (1994:60-153) to look at how to interact with people when they come under pressure and act out these difficult behaviours: Lions will tend to dominate but will respect those who stand up to them; when they are acting as tanks that will impersonally roll over and crush anything in their way, don’t just back down, command respect by facing up to them. When they are in Know-It-All mode, and try to dominate through lengthy well-vocalized arguments, you must talk facts and be assertive but not aggressive. As Snipers, Lions will try to control you through embarrassing and humiliating you. Snipers, like rifle-wielding single-shot marksmen in hiding, purposefully make unreasonable statements and sarcastic remarks in the moments when they recognise that you are most vulnerable. To counter this behaviour, shift the discussion so as to get their underlying grievances to the surface and offer receivable alternatives for resolving whatever issue is at stake. Brinkman and Kirschener (68) also urge that if you made a mistake, and that has been the catalyst for the Lion’s dominating behaviour, “admit the mistake, say what you’ve learned and what you’ll do different next time – but absolutely don’t grovel!” Beavers will tend to withdraw; give them space and time to think through the issues and gather the information they need so that they can make informed decisions with a degree of confidence. Communicate respect and, even if it seems superfluous to you, be prepared to fully discuss details. When they act as Whiners and/or No people encourage them to change perspective and become problem solvers and affirm they can because they naturally have high standards. Through the affirmation they can be helped to feel useful and motivated to get involved. When they become Nothing people it is likely to be the impossible desire for what is actually unachievable perfectionism that stops them from being willing to produce, so they won’t do anything. In this case

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acknowledge that there’s no perfect decisions and that mistakes are helpful if we learn from them; in the face of extreme refusal to get involved, show them the negative consequences that will inevitably come about if they don’t or won’t engage. Dogs will tend to just give in but may also follow a passive-aggressive tack by appearing to agree and/or saying “yes” but never actually delivering. Affirm them for who they are and gently encourage that their views are important and disagreement doesn’t equal dislike. When they become Yes people help them plan and commit to a specific task or a series of small, manageable tasks. When they become Maybe people acknowledge there are no perfect decisions and mistakes can be the helpful means of everyone learning; help them also see the benefits of thinking and acting decisively. With Nothing people, persuade them to talk by asking open-ended questions; if they don’t or won’t, as also for Yes and Maybe people, show them the potential negative consequences and especially how these will inevitably negatively affect their relationships too. Kittens will tend to attack emotionally. When they become Grenades, i.e. suddenly exploding with an attention-catching outpouring of emotion-loaded words and accusations, absolutely don’t react to their emotions. Wait for them to cool down if necessary so that you don’t get drawn into an emotionally draining and fruitless argument. When they become Snipers, they’ll come across as seeming to make funny, laughter-provoking remarks, but the remarks are aiming to bring down the adversary by causing embarrassment or humiliation and to get the kitten back into the centre of attention. When this happens ask questions such as ‘How is what you said relevant? What do you really mean?’ Try to bring their underlying grievances to the surface so these can be addressed. When they become Think-They-Know-It-Alls show reality: ‘But I heard/read/saw that…’ Be sure to clearly affirm them for the contributions they have made and that they can still make. Cultural Approaches to Conflict Combined with Personality Influence

Elmer (1993:34-43) cites Thomas and Kilmann 10 who identified the following five ways that Westerners tend to handle conflict: Having a win/lose mindset; avoidance; giving in; compromising; care fronting.

Elmer indicates that Thomas and Kilmann suggested these approaches to conflict are used by Westerners, but as we build increasingly deep relationships with local people, we will come to realise that people from 10

Kenneth W. Thomas and Ralph H. Kilmann, 1974, Thomas–Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument. Tuxedo NY: Xicom.

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other cultures also use these approaches, and particularly in relation to their individual personality or temperament. For instance, those with a Lion, task-oriented personality will often tend to have a win/lose mind-set because their aim is to complete the task; non-communicator/avoidance approaches can especially be seen with Beaver personalities who need time to analyse issues before they are ready to commit, whereas Dog personalities prefer not to engage in conflict at all so they will avoid communicating; people with Dog personalities will also tend to just give in because they don’t want to displease anyone; Lion, Dog, and Kitten personalities are more likely to be willing to compromise, whereas the tendency for perfectionism associated with Beaver personalities may tend to make them less willing to compromise on details. Elmer gives some suggestions for handling these approaches and which I modify for coherency with the four animals personality schema: a) Win/lose mind-set (1993:35) – the Lions will likely believe their view is the right one, so ask the locals for their opinion, and present views as a group. It will be harder for a Lion to dominate and crush a group in opposition. Aim for a resolution in which both sides win. If something affecting the wider community is at stake but they are not for you, then you’ve missed the point somewhere! As for negotiating with Lion personalities, be assertive but not aggressive and pick your battles carefully. b) Avoidance mind-set (36) – avoiding conflict is not usually a good long-term solution to a current problem. If emotions are running high, strategic withdrawal may be the best short-term move. Avoiding conflict if the potential consequences are dangerous is very wise (38) – in the face of irrational behaviour and the potential for physical violence there may be little point in arguing. Avoiding conflict can be a sign of wisdom and maturity but it can also be a sign of immaturity through unwillingness to discuss important issues or unwillingness to take responsibility in aspects of important issues. It also results in superficial relationships. Get a third-party local to come alongside and try to find out why the person is avoiding communicating with you. The issue may be something completely different than the one you want to get resolved! c) Giving in (38) – this may be seen as a way of resolving the conflict and preserving relationships (which certainly for Dogs are usually more important than the details of the conflict issue), but it can also mean the forfeiting of personal values and goals. It can also be a sign of adult immaturity with an unwillingness to develop or own one’s own opinions. Communicate that disagreement does not inevitably cause dislike. Aim to build relationships where mutual trust frees the other up to own and express personal values and opinions. Again, choose your battles carefully – if you give in on this one, perhaps you can have the last word on the next one…

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d) Compromise (41) – beneficial or a subterfuge for further conflict? Compromise is often seen in workforce-management, political, and global economic negotiations. (42) It goes for a win-win result but always at some cost to one or both parties. Although the dispute appears to be solved, one or both parties walk away with some aspect of goals, values, and/or ideals undermined. Relationships may have been subtly damaged and a hidden desire for vengeance provoked. I would add that, when it comes to compromise, we must know what aspects of our values, beliefs, and ideals are open to negotiation but hold on firmly to those which are non-negotiable. Elmer presents Thomas and Kilmann’s fifth approach, carefronting, much in terms of the conditions necessary for Westerners to resolve conflict but, apart from the directness involved, many of the values in play might also be held by non-Western cultures. “Carefronting means directly approaching the other person in a caring way so that achieving a win/win solution is most likely (42)” so that, with my slight modification in italics, the necessary conditions for a win/win result to conflict include that (43): 1. Both parties [are willing to] come together, meet face to face and talk honestly. 2. They make a commitment to preserving the relationship and then explain non-emotively the values/goals that each party wishes to protect or achieve. 3. They [are willing to] look for a solution in which both parties win, with neither having to unwillingly give up anything of value. 4. They can do this with reason [and courtesy], keeping emotions under control. 5. They are both able to separate the person from the issue and speak objectively to the issue. 6. Neither will be satisfied with a solution until the other is also completely at peace with it.

Carefronting is often seen as biblically justified because of Matthew 18:15-17. Elmer (43-44) suggests that “The text seems clear that direct, face-to face confrontation in a caring, loving way is the biblical approach to conflict. What is not so clear is whether this is intended to be the only approach to conflict or whether it [only] represents one good approach. We must also ask whether this approach is, at least to some extent, more acceptable in some cultures than in others. Cultural variables may dictate how to approach conflict and help us see some scriptures in a new light.” As Elmer points out (46-56), non-Western cultures may not prefer this carefronting approach because directness in conflict might be seen as rude and offensive. Directness, in some cultures, may only be appropriate for group insiders. The active voice may be seen as blaming people or assigning blame so that the passive voice may be preferred along with indirectness because criticizing behaviour is also seen as criticizing the person, and this criticism also brings shame. Similarly, in other cultures the

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Western preference for majority rule is not preferred because then being in the minority brings loss of face. As Elmer rightly acknowledges, we need to be aware where there are cultural values in play of shame, honour, and face-saving. I would add that we also need to be aware of other cultures’ perceptions concerning culpability. However, in contrast to Elmer, I suggest that we must also recognise that Jesus introduced some ways of behaviour and societal interaction that were highly counter-cultural, including that we should love our enemies (Matthew 5:38-46), that the weak and marginalised should be understood to be in as much a position to be blessed by God as was supposed were the rich, accomplished, and powerful (Matthew 5:3-11), and that those respected as spiritual leaders and teachers should not necessarily be held in such high esteem (Matthew 23:1-7; 13-33). Taken from this angle, it is not unreasonable to suggest that Jesus may have been urging counter-culturally that a better way to deal with conflict is through face-to-face encounter rather than continuing with indirect approaches. This can be further validated by the same principle having already been taught in the context of an offender directly engaging with someone he has offended in order to bring about reconciliation (Matthew 5:23-24). Other Cultural Considerations in Conflicts Offered by Elmer (1993)11

1. Elmer (54) prefers that preventing shame, 12 preserving honour, and maintaining face get first priority for both short and long-term results. In a later text, Elmer (2002:176-78) expands on the practicalities and causes of shame. In addition to shame being caused by not living up to certain goals, or being shamed by the actions of another family member, he lists “some ways in which we may unintentionally cause people to lose face or feel shame and ways to help prevent it”. These might include: -through directly or indirectly assigning blame, to which Elmer suggests just don’t do it; “pointing out shortcomings or failures – if you must, then do it in 11

This is a summary of Elmer’s (1993:33–133) points and which I engage with further in the chapter 12 Note that Moreau et al (2014:273) write: “For people in [honor-oriented] cultures, learning that Christ endured shame can be a hurdle. To acknowledge that God allowed such a person as Christ to suffer shame may contradict their idea of Christ as a patron deserving glory and honor. The idea that Christ achieved great honor by means of bearing shame does not fit their worldview. However, making this connection cognitively, affectively, and volitionally will be crucial for them so that they can connect to Christ’s enduring the shame for the sake of obedience to God.” In chapter 7 we will return to obedience to God in relation to personal spiritual growth.

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private [and enthuse about] how you value the relationship and want to preserve it”. -making direct accusations of error – don’t do it, let the matter go because “we don’t need to correct everything [and] we are trying to build relationships”. -making requests that would be “difficult, costly, or impossible” for the other person to fulfill – take an indirect approach: “it would be nice to…” or “Someday I’d like to…I have heard that…” This way, they can either follow it up or not lose face if they can’t and don’t. - making blatant comparisons or contrasts between the other’s culture and your own – culture shock symptoms might be in play here or if locals ask you to make comparisons, be modest about your own country.13 - refusing to help with a request made of you – rather than giving an outright refusal, say something like “I’d like to help you but I don’t think I can right now. If things change, I’ll let you know.”

2. (46) Reprimanding a group to reprimand an individual. 3. (49) Criticizing an issue/action/idea may also be seen as criticizing the person. Moreau et al (2014:336) offer that “People from low-context settings14 tend to believe that conflict is best dealt with directly and as soon as it arises… conflict most likely arises because expectations are not communicated adequately or behavioural norms are not sufficiently understood [and these issues can and would be expected to be directly addressed]. …People from high-context cultures prefer to use indirect strategies to let another person know that a cultural norm has been violated or that there is tension in the relationship. Because the person and the problem cannot be separated, high-context societies desire to preserve the relationship [by avoiding the loss of face that goes with assigning blame].” For those from low-context cultures indirectness can be seen as anything from a waste of time to irresponsible, non-committal behaviour. But, as points 2 and 5, indirectness also has its advantages in both high-context and low-context settings. 4. (Elmer 19933:47-48) Don’t use the active voice but, rather, use the passive voice. 5. (50) Use of non-judgmental indirectness is less offensive than direct confrontation, e.g. telling a story or parable (106-107) (as the prophet Nathan did to King David, 2 Sam. 12:1-9). 6. (76) Using a third-party mediator. 13

One ploy I personally follow is to point out that all countries and cultures have both strong points and weaker points. 14 If necessary, refer to chapter 2 for low-context and high-context differentiation.

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7. Taking a one-down position. Elmer (80-98) describes this approach as projecting a degree of vulnerability to the other party so that it looks like you are the one facing all the difficulty. The aim is to elicit a mixture of sympathy or even empathy, and concern from the other party so that they will take action to help resolve the dilemma. One way of using the approach is to indirectly advise that if some particular scenario happens (or doesn’t happen), you, yourself, are liable to lose face, e.g. with your spouse/boss/colleagues, etc. Some Conflict Resolution Practical Pointers Related to These Cultural Considerations

1. Aim to build caring and trusting relationships and learn to recognise low-context and high-context ways of being and doing regardless of the setting, e.g. in China’s high-context communication setting, it can initially come as a surprise to outsiders to learn that a gift or service needs to be offered at least three times before polite refusals will turn into a response of acceptance. The initial response of “no” has the person waiting for at least two more repeats of the offer before the recipient will say “yes”. Low-context communicator Westerners can find this practice unnerving, especially when faced with an offer that they don’t want to potentially lose by saying no. Equally, when Westerners say “no” because they mean “no”, it can easily be misunderstood as a high-context “no” so that the Chinese person, who hopes for the Westerner to say “yes”, might keep plying the gift or service well beyond the cultural three times. In this case, in the interest of building caring relationships, the Westerner would do well to seriously consider putting aside their own preference and actually eventually say “yes”. 2. As far as you can, Elmer (1993:54) suggests prevent shame, preserve honour, and prevent unnecessary loss of face, but I would suggest that there may come a time when causing loss of face and loss of honour can be a positive catalyst for growth in adult maturity and/or spiritual growth. An Example from the Village Setting This occurred after a telephone was installed in the village clinic in 1998. Before then, there were no landline telephones in the villages and rarely in private dwellings in town apart from stores, which had a telephone installed and available for public use as a means of income. One of the dental trainees was recently married and her husband went to the city some 600km away to study to become a doctor. We discovered that she was using the clinic phone to make private calls to him and this was running up a big bill. Dr Co confronted her and made it clear that such use of the phone was unacceptable as it was for clinic use only.

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The trainee, who was a young Christian, wept and shouted and attracted much attention from others in the clinic but to no avail. She sulked for some days but eventually her icy attitude melted. Dr Co had explained that the principle at stake concerned ethics: even if the trainee offered to pay for the calls (which she didn’t), it would still be unethical to let some villagers but not others have private access to the telephone, which was specifically set up for clinic administration use and, particularly, for communication with patients. The trainee later acknowledged that it hadn’t been easy to respect the rules in place but she realised they were not unfair. The conflict had been a means of Dr Co showing that boundaries are boundaries and no amount of attempted emotional manipulation would change that. As an introvert with a minor Dog personality, Dr Co garnered a new level of respect through the conflict and a deeper relationship with the trainee who later became a very dear and close friend. 3. When addressing a group to reprimand an individual be careful not to sound aggressive or overly judgmental. Remember you are likely to be addressing the full range of personalities or combinations of major and minor personality types. 4. Prevent on-going or future concern by setting boundaries as soon as behavioural issues arise. An Example of Badly Set Boundaries in the Village Setting This also occurred while we were in the village setting. An American, who was teaching English at the vocational college 7km away, had one of the village girls working as a house-help. She was a young Christian and had been working with the teacher for 18 months before the teacher complained to me that she was washing her own clothes in the teacher’s washing machine. The teacher wanted me to speak with the villager and tell her not to use the washing machine. I politely refused since I felt it was not appropriate for me to address the issue, and might unnecessarily tarnish our relationship, since the lady was linked with the small churches network. Had the teacher set boundaries from the start, she would not have had to face the embarrassment of dealing with the matter. She also didn’t want to tarnish relationships but didn’t seem to have thought beyond either the short-term or long-term possible consequences of the issue. I heard no more and assume that she must have eventually addressed the issue as she had already clearly been feeling bitterness and resentment towards the villager. 5. A way of communicating that you are criticizing an issue/action/idea and not criticizing the person, especially in high-context cultures where the person and their actions are often not seen as separate, can be by expressing first-person feelings so as to disarm hostility or defensiveness from the other party: ‘I felt x when y happened.’ Your response to what happened

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may seem strange to the other person but your feelings cannot be denied or dismissed, and you are not directly accusing them. 6. Use non-judgmental indirectness by talking generally rather than honing in on specifics, e.g. “Foreigners don’t like/are uncomfortable when people stare at them”; “some people prefer not to lend expensive personal items such as their camera or communications devices.” 7. Criteria for choosing a suitable third-party mediator can include factors such as someone who is trusted and respected by both the offender and the offended party and is not likely to gossip. In the case above, the teacher could have chosen from several different people to help resolve the washing machine problem, e.g. the villager’s mother, administrative staff at the school, or even a more mature and respected Chinese Christian. 8. An example of taking a one-down position occurred when one of my UK leaders came on a project visit and had booked a China domestic air ticket in the UK via a travel agent, which needed collecting once in China. We went to the airline office but I was told a ticket couldn’t be issued because the booking name did not exactly match his passport name. I expressed my deep concern that my leader had come all this way to report on the progress of a government-recognised village development project and how awkward it would be for me to have to tell him he couldn’t complete the trip, and was there anything that could be done? The clerk said she would enquire and came back within minutes and said, yes, a way had been found. I received the ticket with profuse thanks. My leader later told me he noticed there seemed to be some problem and if he had had to wait any longer he would have come to the counter and loudly expressed his objections. Needless to say, in the China context, that certainly would not have helped so I was extremely glad for the clerk’s speedy and positive resolution in response to my one-down approach. 9. Ting-Toomey and Chung (2012:199-203) advise that flexibility in cross-cultural conflict requires bringing several important skills into operation. These include awareness of the need to prevent loss of face, and how and when to maintain face; comprehensive attention to the other party’s communication through “attending mindfully with our ears, eyes, and a focused heart” (199), cultural empathy by listening to the other party with “cultural ears” (201) so that one seeks to engage as best as possible as though standing in the cultural shoes of the other; mindful reframing or “using language to change the way each person defines or thinks about experiences and views the conflict situation (201),” which, by implication, is not unlike a verbal variation on Brinkman and Kirshener’s redirecting approach (2002:36), i.e. “redirecting is any behaviour by which you use the rapport to change the trajectory of that interaction”. Ting-Toomey and Chung also urge adopting Molinsky’s cross-cultural code-switching, which Molinsky (2007:264) describes as “the act of purposefully modifying one’s

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behaviour in an interaction in a foreign setting in order to accommodate different cultural norms for appropriate behaviour”. Conclusion

There will inevitably be dark days in any ministry, not just cross-cultural ministry. At these times it is all the more crucial to hold onto the truth of God’s sovereignty and the power of the Holy Spirit within us to rise us above the discouragements and trials that God is allowing to refine and mature us. In any interpersonal conflicts, whether with fellow missionaries or those we are reaching out to, aim for deep relationships with a strong element of trust. It will take time to build credibility and this kind of relationship. Lean on Christ but don’t be what you are not because in stress what you really are will inevitably come out. • Remember it’s not worth winning the argument but losing the relationship! • Being gracious now might have a better long-term result than being right now. • Don’t be tempted to avoid conflict but pick your battles carefully: Ask what’s worth dying for? What’s really crucial? What has eternal significance? • True relationships will always involve conflict and when we can resolve conflicts in a healthy way the relationship will deepen. As Christians our standards for Godly beliefs, values, and customs should be Biblically based and our attitudes towards others should always be coloured by Christ’s humility and unconditional, self-sacrificial love. Sounds impossible? Galatians 2:20 reminds and encourages us that Christ in us is and has all we need. Hopefully the reader studying about, preparing for, or engaged in cross-cultural ministry will now have a more comprehensive set of tools for understanding and engaging fruitfully with those of other cultures in both the good times and dark times. In the next chapter we will move on to the practicalities and critical factors and stages of the cross-cultural outreach process. Discussion Questions 1.

Be aware of the cultural values, beliefs, and customs that are associated with your worldview. What is taken for granted in your background culture that is different from other cultures? For example, communal use of goods versus individually owned goods, ways and means of entertaining and being entertained, issues such as privacy, etc.

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2. 3.

4.

5.

Analyse your own culture’s beliefs concerning varying standards of right and wrong: What makes for politeness? What makes for honesty? Now compare your own understandings with those of other cultures. Imagine that you work for a multicultural company at management level in a country with a culture quite different from your own, e.g. each of the Lingenfelter orientations are opposite to your own. After being away for one month you return to discover that one of your employees received the monthly wage but, in fact, had not come to work for that whole month. Consider in detail how you might deal with this situation and with whom you would need to communicate. What issues would be important for communicating and resolving this conflict in that host culture in relation to their values, beliefs, and customs? Using the Personality assessment material in Appendix 1, locate the major and minor aspects of your personality or temperament. Note, too, the weaknesses you have identified for yourself as well as other potential weaknesses that you may not be aware of manifesting. If you are married, compare with your spouse and note where conflict might easily occur. Pray and talk through ways of lightening the potential for conflict as well as ways for resolving specific conflicts. If you are not married, do the same with a close friend. Consider the cross-cultural conflict issues you have already experienced (or if not, where there might be potential for cross-cultural conflict based on your worldview values and resulting cultural behaviour). Identify the root of the problem/s. To what extent might your personality have affected the degree of conflict? Consider how you might adjust your attitude and/or responses (whether related to personality and/or background culture) to bring about conflict resolution. Be sure to differentiate between values, beliefs, and ideals which are negotiable and those which are definitely non-negotiable for you.

Chapter 4 Outreach as a Process

Introduction

This chapter attends to the process of reaching out or looking to share the Gospel in a cross-cultural setting and starts by identifying the degree of potential difficulty for the missionary or missionaries in light of their own backgrounds. Next comes finding appropriate ways of communicating, then identifying needs so as to be able to present a relevant message. Stages in the outreach process need to be thought out and then timeframes planned in terms of realistic, sustainable goals. The chapter refers to the ministry amongst Mainland Chinese villages, in which village-based people were taught to become dentists and/or church planters, in order to illustrate the concept of outreach as a process along with the stages involved. Degree of Potential Difficulty in Outreach E-Scale Ways and means of communicating so as to eventually share the message of the Gospel will depend very much on the outreach approach chosen, and which may well be dictated by what is permitted or possible in the outreach setting. We must also be aware of the degree of cultural difference and/or linguistic distance between ourselves and those we are reaching out to. This can be represented by the E-Scale, a tool presented by Winter which, in its simplest form (1999:341), labels three different degrees of difficulty in communicating the Gospel as E1, E2, and E3. A slightly more sophisticated form (Winter and Koch, 1999:510-11) lists four levels in which the “E-Scale helps compare the cultural distances that Christians need to move in order to communicate the gospel with others. E0 refers to evangelism of church-going Christians. E1 extends to the very same culture through one barrier, that of ‘church culture’. E2 evangelism presses into a close, but still different culture. E3 evangelism pushes to very different cultures”. To interpret the scale it might be more helpful to consider E0 as having evangelists, specifically within the context of the church, reaching out to bring revival or spiritual renewal to what Winter and Koch call church-going Christians, and/or also, as yet, non-Christian church-goers of the same background culture and language as the evangelists. So, in

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addition to evangelistic church services, this might also include sowing into the lives of children and/or adults attending Sunday school classes, or encouraging those who haven’t yet decided for Christ via social or information-sharing activities held on church premises. E1 has evangelists reaching out to those of their own background culture and language who are not Christians or church-goers. E2 sees evangelists reaching out either to those of a different culture but with a similar language to the evangelist, or reaching out to those with a culture similar to their own but speaking a different language. E3 sees evangelists reaching out to people with a completely different culture and language to the evangelists. Examples of E1 outreach could include Filipino non-tribal Christians reaching out to non-Christian non-tribal Filipinos in the Philippines (same language, same background culture); or Filipino Christians reaching out to Filipino care workers in Israel (same language, same background culture). Examples of E2 outreach could include Spanish Christians reaching out to Mexicans (same or similar language, different culture); Mainland Han Chinese Christians from a Northern province reaching out to Han Chinese non-Christians in a Southern province of China (same or similar language, regional differences in culture); Singaporean Chinese Christians reaching out to Mainland Chinese (same or similar language, markedly different culture), and notice that this would be a much bigger cultural difference than for the evangelism of the previous example; Muslim converts from Dubai reaching out to Muslims in the United Arab Emirates (same or similar language, regional differences in culture); and Muslim converts from Dubai reaching out to blind children in Dubai (same language, some important differences in culture due to the blind children belonging to a distinct subculture). E3 examples include myself as British and my colleague as a Chinese-Filipina reaching out to Mainland Chinese. Other examples might include Filipino non-tribal Christians from Manila reaching out to non-Christian tribal Filipinos in Mindoro or Isabella, Philippines (different language, different culture); German students reaching out to Malaysian students in Malaysia (different language, different culture); Malaysian Chinese Christians reaching out to elderly Malaysian Indian neighbours in Kuala Lumpur (different heart language, different culture); Hong Kong Chinese reaching out to Malaysian Chinese in Kuala Lumpur (different language, different culture); French evangelists reaching out to deaf mute adults in Paris (different language, some important differences in culture due to this being a subculture); and Muslim converts from Indonesia reaching out to Egyptian government officials in order to reach out to Sahara desert nomads (different languages, different cultures).

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P-Scale In addition to the E-Scale for evangelism, Winter and Koch (1999:510-11) also describe the P-Scale, which “helps compare the different cultural distances that potential converts need to move in order to join the nearest church…P0: People participating in a local, culturally relevant church; P1: A people whose culture contains a local church; P2: People without a church whose culture is similar to people with a church; P3: People without a church whose culture is very different from that of the nearest group with a church”. Winter and Koch further describe P0 and P1 people as reached with E0 and E1 (monocultural) outreach described as evangelism, and E2 and E3 (cross-cultural) outreach described as regular mission. They further describe outreach amongst P2 and P3 people, where greater difficulties are presented and where church-planting is required, as frontier mission. It is well understood and long documented that communicating in the heart language of the people is liable to have a deeper spiritual result than communicating in another language. Outreach and Language

An important goal to aid long-term fruitfulness through cross-cultural mission is “to work to make the good news understood by every people in its own language and culture. Communication is our work: to minimise the difficulty any people has in understanding God’s message…No mother tongue should be left unlearned or untranslated if it will mean that God’s Word will fail to gain a heart-hearing” (Hawthorne, 1999:125). Although we cannot underestimate all that God is able to bring about through our willing efforts to learn another language, regardless of which language is used, it is worth remembering too, that people with a more thinking-focused temperament, as opposed to a more feeling-oriented temperament, may well come to the place of making heart choices based on mental choices because the mind underwent a process of examination, analysis, and rationalisation of new ideas presented – and this may well have been done in a second language. Conversely, choices made based purely on feelings and emotional response may well be less long-lived when faced with the opposing reality of expected practices associated with traditional mentally held beliefs. Bearing this in mind, we can see that there is still plenty to be gained by ministering or reaching out through a second language. Teaching English is a very obvious platform that is welcomed in settings all over Asia for both children and adults. Less so, but still possible platforms, are opportunities to teach other languages. The danger, of course, is that in speaking and reaching out in one’s mother language, one cannot help but slip back into one’s own cultural patterns and associated worldview expectations. In this

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respect, one has to be all the more aware of one’s cultural prejudices and biases and be careful not to import these consciously or subconsciously. The potential exists, too, in a teaching role, to project a superiority that can undermine the dignity of the recipients. Particularly in teaching one’s own language, one must be careful not to make the unhealthy ethnocentric mistake of projecting that it is a ‘better’ language than that of the recipients. Platforms for Relevant Outreach

When looking for platforms for outreach, particularly in a restricted setting or a setting effectively ‘closed to the Gospel’, a key principle is to identify the local needs so that the outreach platform might be received as relevant and useful. Also important is to respond to locally owned needs and/or encourage local people to consider what the local community and/or wider community needs actually are. This presumes that we have already prayerfully taken time to start building relationships with local people within their setting. Hughes (1998:280) encourages us that “Sharing a person’s context enables you to see things as they see them and to begin to think as they do. When you demonstrate that you understand their thinking, you become more credible in their eyes. What you then go on to say takes on much more importance and meaning.”1 Having identified a possible outreach approach that will be seen as relevant to local needs, aspects of planning will involve identifying stages in the process and planning timeframes in terms of realistic, sustainable goals. Although results can rarely be predicted in minutiae since every setting will have its own variables and limitations, at least having a structure to work from will avoid the aimlessness of merely being tossed about by uncontrollable and unpredictable circumstances, or continually reacting to maintain survival of the project or platform. Instead, having a thought-out prayed-about structure to work from provides a framework that can be modified in terms of its initial plan of stages and timeframes in order for it to thrive and multiply. As the stages unfold and different local people engage with and own what you are projecting from the platform, heightening local people’s dignity ultimately comes through the process of their discovering their own ways to meet needs and being empowered to do so.

1

Excerpt from Terry, John Mark, ed., Smith, Ebbie, ed., Anderson, Justice, ed. Missiology. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 1998. This, and subsequent excerpts, used by permission, all rights reserved.

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Example from China of Identifying Needs So As to Be Able to Present a Relevant Message2

How was my colleague Dr Co’s opening of a village dental clinic justified as a valid need? That the government provided all the necessary administrative paperwork for almost eight years is quite understandable given the history of healthcare and especially dental healthcare in China and the on-going need in the villages. For instance, Hook (1991:131) writes: “When the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, modern medical manpower resources (estimates vary between 10,000 and 40,000 physicians of widely differing qualifications) were quite inadequate to meet even the country’s most urgent needs.” However, according to Kaplan, Sobin, and Andors (1979:233-36): substantial priority was given to the establishment of an efficient health care system organized so as to cover the entire population…Four basic guidelines for the organization of medical care were enumerated at the PRC’s first National Health Congress in August 1950: 1. Health care should focus on serving the peasant and working population. 2. Preventative medicine must be given priority over curative medicine. 3. Close unity should be fostered between practitioners of Chinese traditional medicine and practitioners of Western medicine. 4. Health work should become a primary focus for mass movements…In line with the socialist transformation in the economic sector in the early 1950s, large and medium-sized hospitals and clinics were placed under direct state control, while smaller clinics were grouped into cooperatives.

More than two decades later, of financing health care in China, Währisch-Oblau (2001:93) writes from twelve years of experience:3 Previously, patients could receive relatively comprehensive, low-level health care at virtually no cost. These days, most Chinese have to pay out of their own pockets for medical treatment…Especially in rural areas, where village health stations and county hospitals have to function without any government subsidies, medical care is given at a very low level, but even so, is often too expensive for those who need it most.

Of dentistry in China, Yeweng, Huang, and Ren, of Wuhan University Dental School (2002, 63), describe how:

2

Much of this section of the chapter comes from D-Davidson (2011a) ‘Empowering Transformation: A Contemporary Medical Mission Case Study from Rural China’, in Transformation 28(2) April (138–148). ©London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd. Excerpts used by permission. 3 Footnoted (Wahrisch-Oblau 2001:87) Claudia Wahrisch-Oblau worked for the Amity Foundation of the China Christian Council from 1985–1997.

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Empowering Transformation In the past 50 years, Chinese dentistry mainly developed separately from other countries. Since the policy of opening in the early eighties, communication with other countries has become more frequent and as a result dentistry has developed dramatically…However, there are still not enough dentists in China with a dentist: population ratio of 1:40,000.

It can be seen that attention had been paid to providing at least a basic level of health care for those in rural areas but there remained a dearth of dental health care, and economic and/or geographical difficulties prevented the rural communities from availing of what dental health facilities there were in the county hospitals or private facilities in towns. Hence Dr Co had an unquestionably valid platform for outreach. Stages in the Outreach Process: Planning Timeframes

In light of this recognised need for dental health care, the local government welcomed Dr Co’s willingness to set up and run the rural medical training facility in the remote village setting. While living in the village and offering dental healthcare to villagers and dental healthcare training to village-level doctors, a theological training4 program was also initiated as the number of Christians in the village grew. These included the dental training participants. The aim of the training program was to aid the spiritual growth of these Christians, both as individuals and as a body, so as to bring an increasing Christian witness that engaged with the needs of the wider community and could be a vehicle for transformation. The longer-term aim of both the dental health care training and the theological training was to empower the local people so that the missionaries could move away leaving a self-governing, and self-financing dental facility along with a self-governing, self-financing, self-propagating, and self-contextualizing Christian presence that would function on the local people’s terms. This was largely achieved by the end of the first six years and monitored in a further four. The stages required to achieve the longer-term aim in relation to dentistry were identified and ordered as follows: Dental stages: • Set up the dental clinic with sufficient equipment to be able to give basic treatments in a hygienic manner. • Begin treatment of local patients so as to establish the reality of care being offered to meet local dental health care needs and with Dr Co 4 A particular aspect of theological training is being referred to throughout the book and it is that pertaining to ministerial spiritual formation and praxis in the context of Bible/ministry training. This aspect of the mission work also appears in greater detail in other publications, for instance D-Davidson (2009).

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assisted by a trainee who is a local village doctor to reduce the resistance to ‘outsiders’. • Plan the dental training program according to initial basics of theory and treatment area modules. • Expand the range of treatments available by acquiring appropriate equipment and materials. • Take on trainees from the immediate surrounding area and wider so as to both increase manpower to treat locals and widen the geographical range of returning trained personnel. • As training progresses and trainees increase in knowledge of dental theory and skills, so can more sophisticated treatment options be offered. • Training is completed when each trainee has sufficient skills and knowledge to be able to pass the first stage of the national dental examination and either return to their own villages to practice or relocate to another village area. • Move to a new area when there is a sufficiently trained team of local personnel to continue dental work and ministry through the clinic. Spiritual stages – These are described in greater detail in later chapters but include: • Discipling new believers and gathering them together for mutual growth and encouragement; • Helping them to discover how to live the new life in a way that pleases God by regularly engaging with the Bible both individually and corporately; • Helping them discover their spiritual gifts and arranging opportunities for development and use of the gifts; • Providing teaching on Biblical interpretation and key ministry skills along with opportunities for praxis; • Discerning and encouraging emerging leaders; and • Commissioning leaders, envisioning them, and handing over. Practicalities of the Stages as they were Worked Out Dr Co set up the clinic in a village with some 170 households. Very few of the villagers had experienced dental treatment beyond extractions carried out with pliers or other farming tools. She began with an inexpensive barber’s chair and her own hand tools and basic equipment. A compressor and disposable treatment items needed to be purchased initially, and by the end of the first year the funds for a basic dental chair and x-ray equipment were donated by a church outside the country. Dr Co oversaw the theoretical and practical aspects of the dental training as well as building up the reputation of the facility by initially treating patients whilst I attended to dental technology needs and took greater

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responsibility for preparing theological training materials, teaching, and preaching. We were to spend more than seven years in this rural setting in the dual role of dental health care and theological training facilitators, with the aim of the dental training being that the participants “acquire the knowledge and understanding, skills and attitudes that produce caring, knowledgeable, competent and skilful dentists” (GDC 2002, 10-11) so that they would be able to continue in dentistry after we had left the area or return to their own or other villages and use dentistry as an outreach platform. Formal training in dentistry was completed when the trainees had sufficient skills and knowledge to pass the first stage of the national dental examination, and a local team was in place to run the clinic. We then departed from the area in August 2004, but the theological training was continued up to February 2008 with longitudinal teaching and assessment visits made following our departure. Two dental clinic surveys were held to assess patients’ perceptions of the dental clinic: one whilst we were still on-site and the other after we had left the area. A comparison of the results of the two surveys showed that although patients were largely aware that foreigners were or had been involved with the clinic, this did not appear to have influenced clinic attendance. This boded well for the long-term stability of patient numbers in that our presence was no longer a factor in attracting patients to the clinic as it had been in the early days. The on-going high level of satisfaction expressed by the majority of the patients in both surveys speaks of an equally high degree of continuity and an achievement of one of the key goals of the rural China training wherein those trained would be enabled to continue the work after the departure of we foreigners. Identifying Needs and Stages in the Second Area of Ministry in China

In the second area we were invited by the provincial Medical Society to help recent dental graduates begin treating patients. This involved giving clinical practice lectures and, for Dr Co, overseeing them treating patients. We were soon to discover that the training they had received had no element of clinic practice so that the graduates had only merely observed dental treatments being given.5 Dr Co set them some initial exams to gauge their level of knowledge and, as a result, went back to basics of both theory and application. The entire first year was spent equipping them to correctly

5

This was, and still is, the case in dental training institutions throughout the country. The beginnings of hands-on experience is only gained after graduating from college or university in an intern capacity.

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diagnose and treat patients’ oral health problems and, at the same time, building relationships and living out life in Christ. At the end of the first year the trainees went into full-time clinic work and, as described in chapter 1, with the support of the local government health bureau we began community health education and development work in some remote villages outside the town.

•

•

•

• •

•

•

•

6

Second Area Development Work Stages Visit the area for development, meet the leaders on-site and cooperatively get official government sanctioning to begin development work. Establish a representative team of village members willing to be involved in the development work. In this case, the leaders of each of the clusters of houses spread throughout the mountains became development team members representing their housing cluster families. Begin needs assessment work. In this case we invited a development-needs assessment team to join us. As medical professionals, they first carried out a fully documented children’s health assessment. Next was a session with the development team members to encourage them to identify needs and then prioritise the needs. Dr Co and I then began teaching Community Health Education sessions once a month to the development team members and anyone else who wanted to attend. This was because the priority need had been identified as a clean water supply for each of the mountainous housing clusters since the children’s health assessment revealed the majority of village children were either malnourished or severely malnourished. Unclean water was identified as the cause of regular ill health, which was preventing normal body development.6 After six months of Community Health Education sessions the first of five clean water tanks was built with a holding tank at the source of a mountain spring and piping laid to a second holding tank in a housing cluster area. All manual labour and piping to each household in the cluster was done by members of the village community. An oral hygiene lesson had already been taught at the village school, so at Christmas we went back to give a history lesson on the origin and meaning of the Christmas festival held worldwide. Some of the young believers from our outreach in the town came to help out with the Christmas celebration lesson. With government permission, another medical team had also come to do a follow-up session with the schoolchildren, practical medical teaching

The problem of diarrhea and vomiting was not limited to the village children. Elderly members of the community were often unwell. The problems of lack of hygienic toilet facilities and growth of more nourishing foodstuffs were also eventually addressed.

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•

• •

•

for the village doctor (who became a Christian), and clinics for elderly villagers. Community Health Education sessions continued into the second and third year. By the end of the second year each development team member had been taught how to use a manual blood pressure measuring kit and issued with a kit to be used within their housing cluster. By the middle of the third year four more water tanks had been completed and the concept of bio-gas toilet facilities was introduced. By the time we left the area after three and a half years, beans seeds had also been gifted to each of the household families at our first Christmas on-site as an inexpensive form of protein that was suitable for growing in the villages’ agricultural environment. This provided a sustainable way to increase locally available nourishment for the community members. We returned at Christmas and the following Christmas for follow-up sessions including at the village school and to other village schools where we were invited to teach the Christmas story. Another special reason for the returns was to encourage the believers, including those ready for the sacrament of immersion into water. Planning Timeframes in Terms of Realistic, Sustainable Goals

The outreach process should be a prayerful combination of visionary planning and cooperation with the local people in terms of their own owned hopes and desires. Sustainable goals are those which can continue to be worked out by the local people without the missionary facilitators still being present. This is why empowering of local people is so important so that dependency is not created. At the same time the fruit of heightening of dignity that empowerment brings cannot be underestimated, particularly when those empowered have also discovered the sheer joy of the self-esteem that comes from being a child of God. The outreach process can only continue as far as both parties are willing to cooperate. It is inevitable that there will also be hidden, and perhaps unhealthy, agendas. This is where building honest, trusting relationships is so very important. Hidden agendas might include a quest for power or superiority, unethical financial gain, or manipulation of the situational conditions for one’s own ends. It is of utmost importance that missionary facilitators model the highest standards of moral and financial integrity, and healthy relationship ethics. In the village setting of our first ministry area, one of the initial goals was that the dental clinic be financially self-supporting as early as possible, and this was achieved within the second month of operation. The income from treating the multitude of patients, even for a very modest fee, brought

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in sufficient finance to cover the initial ‘disposables’ costs and living allowance for Dr Co and her first Chinese villager assistant. As the income built up each month it had to be handed over to a designated local who acted as accountant. The head of the entire cooperative venture (both medical and dental) was the retired Dr Y. Unhelpfully, on more than one occasion he requested some of the dental income be loaned to him before it was handed over. Due to the large power distance, the dental personnel felt unable to refuse the requests. Needless to say the loans were not paid back. As foreigners, to maintain financial integrity, we had no involvement in handling of funds. We were only able to put a stop to the inappropriate loans after eventually hearing about the issue and seeing the evidence of income records not matching the funds available. The issue was initially addressed by making it publicly known that personal loans may not be requested from dental income. By addressing the wider village group, the notice also addressed the doctor. This was the first of several hidden agenda issues that came to light concerning the local doctor. Building strong, trusting relationships as a result of establishing credibility and relevance is important in any outreach. In chapter 3 we saw how great the potential can be for misunderstanding and conflict where cultural priorities may not be the same. If we are going to get beyond merely superficial relations, we are very likely to face disagreements at some point. As mentioned in chapter 3 we must know what aspects of our values and goals are negotiable and which are not. Turning a blind eye to dishonesty may prevent conflict in the short term but will almost certainly cause longer-term problems that will be much more difficult to deal with by then. Compromise of integrity at any point is the first step on a slippery slope downwards as future protests are much harder, if not impossible, to make. For instance, giving in to demands for a low-level bribe leaves one vulnerable to demands for a much bigger bribe the next time. But just because there are inevitable cultural differences in priorities, expected actions, and reactions, does not mean that we, or others, should just lose ourselves into the ways of another culture in a way that destroys who we are or undermines our non-negotiable standards and values. Growth in relationships and mutual trust both increase as each party becomes aware of the differences between themselves and the other and becomes increasingly less distracted or uncomfortable with the differences. Acknowledging offence that one has given and asking for forgiveness, as well as extending forgiveness, are marks of relationships that have gone beyond the merely superficial in any culture. Similarly, sharing about one’s own cultural ways and values whilst also learning more about those of the differing one can’t help but widen the horizons of both parties so that there can be a mutual recognition that there are variations on ways of being and

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doing. This is a realistic goal in any cooperative venture. It can also help the other party to understand why you may have particular concerns about what appear to be inappropriate actions and responses. Equally, as the other party responds from their perspective, you may have your perspective widened and changed too. The doctor was aware that a major goal for Dr Co was that the dental clinic would become self-sustaining as soon as possible. By showing the records of income and outgoing costs needed to provide a small salary to the dental staff, an allowance to the increasing number of trainees as well to purchase replacement disposable items and purchase equipment, it was clear that money could not be freely loaned as well. The point was taken and the difficult behaviour stopped. The goal of being self-sustaining was quickly achieved and continued as more trainees were taken on and more dental chairs and equipment were needed. The results of the physical side of outreach went hand in hand with the spiritual side as, first the dental trainees became Christians, and then their friends and family members, many of whom had, at some point, also been dental patients. A timeframe for spiritual development is out of our hands but intentionally facilitating the means for it to occur must be part of outreach planning. However, for the dental side of the work, a timeframe was devised for providing dental training module by module with some participants achieving more in terms of being able to use new skills on patients faster than others. On the spiritual ministry front, a timeframe was developed for training in aspects of Christian discipleship, and later in ministry skills and churchmanship, again with some participants developing and multiplying faster than others. But, before any kind of discipleship training can come into being, we also need to consider the issue of the Gospel message and the process of decision making for Christ. The how and when, in the remote villages setting, varied very much from individual to individual and household to household. Although the villages might have been expected to be collectivistic communities, collectivism was far less evident in decision making apart from in the specifics of the agricultural lifestyle and community social activities such as communal dancing and wedding feasts. Individuals had a good deal of freedom to make their own decisions about how and where they spent their time when not engaged in agricultural or scheduled social activities, including choosing to attend the small gathering of believers. The Essentials of the Gospel Message

We have already seen that liberal theologians might tend to suggest that it should be expected and anticipated that the Gospel should change with

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different cultures and settings. As an evangelical I prefer to suggest that, although emphases related to application of the Gospel truths may differ, the essentials of the Gospel message should never change. The essentials of the Gospel message are: WHO Jesus is, WHAT Jesus Did, and WHY Jesus Did It

If we miss any of these three aspects, we will not have presented the full Gospel message. For instance: • If we omit the truth that Jesus is the Son of God, at the same time fully human and fully Divine, then He may be understood to merely be a very good, but human teacher who modelled the concept of love in light of the law with self-sacrificing excellence. In which case he would not be qualified to make atonement for sin. • If we omit what Jesus did (i.e. died on the cross to destroy the power of sin and the curse of death, and so that our sins could be atoned for), then salvation in Jesus’ name has little practical application with respect to a change of life and lifestyle with regard to sin. Equally: • If we omit why Jesus did what He did (i.e. so that we can be born again of the Spirit and come into a personal relationship with God with good works prepared for us each to do according to God’s glorious eternal purposes) then, although our lifestyle may reflect our dislike of sin, the path we choose, albeit a good one, may not be the best one for us that God had planned for His glory. In fact, rather than seeking the Holy Spirit to intuit to us God’s specific will, we may well end up doing all manner of good works through our own strength and not in step with the Holy Spirit In the outreach process we may well only share aspects of the Gospel message at different times, but by the time we sense the Holy Spirit’s leading to offer an evangelistic invitation, all three aspects need to have been communicated clearly during the outreach process. We need to be careful that there has been correct understanding since, if the offer is not taken up, it may well not be the Gospel that is being refused but rather a poorly communicated and misunderstood message. Let us consider the three essentials again since the message we communicate is so very important and absolutely crucial for eternal fruit: • If we do not fully communicate that Jesus is the Son of God, He may merely be understood to be just a good teacher and a profoundly impressive model of love in action. But in that case,

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lacking the perfection, Holiness, and sinless purity of a member of the Godhead, He would be ineligible to pay the price for sin that separates people from God. • If His death and resurrection are omitted, then so is the truth of His paying the price for the sin that separates us from God, along with the truth and hope it brings that He has thoroughly defeated sin and death. • If the reason why He died for us is omitted, then potential followers of Jesus will not be aware of the possibility of the fullness and richness of purpose in following Him, let alone the depth of reality of the possibility of God’s love working in and through those who come to Him through Jesus; nor the potential fruitfulness that not only transforms society but will also have results in the eternity that is both now and yet to come. So let us be sure we communicate fully the essentials of the Gospel, with sensitivity to the Holy Spirit concerning how much our listeners are ready to receive concerning who Jesus is, what He did, and why He did what He did. Communication of Biblical Truths in a Receivable Way

As we share and live out these truths that we believe, we must, of course, be sensitive so as to communicate the truths in ways that bring a relevant and receivable message. It means building relationships and being perceptive as to people’s needs so that, through looking to meet their needs, they can believe and know that we truly care about them. We want to get beyond a mere mental assent to the truths we live out and present, so that as we evangelise and share Biblical principles of love, righteousness, and truth through all of our attitudes, words, and actions, local people’s hearts, minds, and wills might be moved and transformed. We also need to be careful to use language that conveys Biblical truth with accuracy. For instance, a key concept in Chinese culture concerning relationships translates as guanxi (). However, when reaching out among both Christian and non-Christian Chinese people we must be aware of the facets of the term guanxi, which conflict with Biblical truth. Not unlike patron-client relationships, relationships as defined by guanxi carry baggage which presumes and expects certain mutual obligations to be met. As Christians, we understand that our obligations towards God are to love and obey Him but we may not and should not expect anything to be extended to us in response apart from love and grace. Guanxi, on the other hand, is a relationship system of mutual obligation with degree and extent of obligation relating to the depth of guanxi that has been built up. In this sense, obligation is owed in response to actions or attitudes expressed by one or the other party.

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In my earlier days of ministry in China, because I understood guanxi to mean relationship, I would talk about having guanxi with God through Jesus. The more I actually experienced both the positive and less positive aspects of being in guanxi with someone, the more I realised it was not necessarily a helpful term to use because of the potential for misunderstanding that it could engender (e.g. particularly in terms of unrealistic expectations of what I might be expected to provide to the other party). So instead of referring to having guanxi with God, I taught and shared about changing from knowing about God, to actually coming to know Him personally (qinzi de renshi Ta  !"). Then, instead of talking about deepening the guanxi (relationship with God), I would teach and talk about knowing Him with greater and increasing intimacy (duo qinmi de renshi Ta  !"). Similarly, but using inappropriate Western perspectives, the Western (Campus Crusade) approach to evangelism presents the Gospel through four spiritual laws: God has a plan for your life; you are separated from God because of your sin; Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for your sin so you can know God personally and discover His plan for your life; by believing in Jesus and asking Him into your life you can come into a personal relationship with God and live in God’s wonderful plan for your life. We should be able to recognise that this individualist approach of ’you have sinned’ appeals to those of a more guilt-oriented culture but may, unhelpfully, bring shame and resistance to those of more shame-oriented cultures. In particular, Moreau et al (2014:257) refer to Tsu-kung Chuang (1996) who “proposes an alternate version of the Four Spiritual Laws that would be more understandable to a non-Christian Chinese audience, because it incorporates local views of not hitting the mark (one of the Greek ideas of sin). Rather than stating that we are all sinful, as in the original version, he states that no one can become the ideal person, a point well known in Chinese culture. Further, he changes the statement about Christ being our provision for sin to Christ being the one who can restore our relationship with God. Finally, he removes the individualistic emphasis on receiving restoration with God”. This approach can be a helpful start for sharing the Gospel without immediately causing cultural offence. Elmer (2002:178) also urges us to beware of presenting the Gospel message in a way that is offensive in shame-sensitive cultures because our cultural insensitivity, for instance, wants to emphasise the Biblical truth of how the other person has fallen short of God’s standards. Elmer’s approach suggests “First, share your testimony including the sin that separated you from God. In this way, you put yourself in a position of shame by not being pleasing to God [but also show that this is not an insurmountable problem or problem to be resisted]. Second, use collective language – God says we

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are all sinners…so that everyone needs a saviour…The ultimate shame is [the foolishness] of putting one’s trust in the wrong place.” Elmer concludes with attention to Romans 10:9-11 (especially verses 9 and 10), Romans 9:30-33, and 1 Peter 2:6, to make the point that whoever puts their trust in Jesus will “never be put to shame…God has taken care of our shame. Jesus bore our shame on the cross (Hebrews 12:2) so that he may call us family, brothers (Hebrews 2:11)”. In this way, the Bible truth is not watered down or altered to be receivable but presented in an alternative way so that it can and does become receivable. Example from China Ministry

The power of God’s Word to bring conviction, as opposed to our comments and explanations of it, cannot be underestimated. For example, early on in the village of the first ministry setting, I befriended a lady who was working as household help for a family involved in Bible translation work and who were studying the local minority language in the vocational college some 7 km away. As a keen rock climber in my younger days, I had eyed the mountain range behind the village and had a couple of short-lived attempts at finding a way up to the top of the nearest hilly summit. Much enjoying being outside in the midst of God’s creation, I asked the lady if she knew of a way up to the hilltop. She replied, “of course”, because a variety of medicinal herbs grew naturally on the slopes and also many family graves were up there. She agreed to take me to the top on her next free day. We set out with me in hiking boots and the lady in simple slippers, and before long, due to the altitude I was getting breathless, whereas this local lady just kept easily picking her way up along the projecting tree roots and rocks. We eventually arrived at the summit and sat on a rocky ledge looking down on the village below and across the vast plain to distant hills. I was absolutely exhilarated by the journey and now the view, and couldn’t help but voice out my praises to God and thanks for the (literally) breath-taking experience of seeing His hand and glorious creation from a new perspective. As I talked with God and joyfully rejoiced in the way He’d led me into this wonderful experience through the kindness of my village friend, I could sense she was interested in what and how I was praying. I shared with her my experience of personally knowing God and the wonder of walking with Him. I brought out a pocket Chinese New Testament and invited her to read Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” She knew something of people who followed God through Jesus because her employers were doing Bible translation, but, no, she had never heard them mention this part of the Bible. She pondered out loud “so that means I must be a sinner too”. I then invited her to read Romans 6:23

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“The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life” followed by John 3:16. I asked her if she would like to come into the new life through Jesus, and she replied “of course”. I drew an illustration of the cross with Jesus bridging the gulf between dirty-hearted sinners and the pure, Holy, unconditionally loving God, and led her in a prayer. I have to admit that, at that stage, I hadn’t even thought about issues such as how do people understand concepts like sin in that culture, and merely simply (very much from my own perspective) described sin in terms of bad thoughts, bad words, and bad actions – but despite this, the Holy Spirit clearly brought about conviction through this dear lady being exposed to God’s Word and building on whatever else had been sown whether intentionally or unintentionally. The lady then joined the weekly gathering of the, by then, several believers, all of whom were already village friends and acquaintances. Perceptions of Sin Concerning communicating about sin, as Moreau et al (2014:256) point out, we need to be careful that we don’t just speak out “about things that we consider sin but the local culture does not”. Since different cultures have different moral standards, Dye (1976:38) urges that in a new culture we need to discover what those standards are and to determine what constitutes sin, particularly in terms of what brings discomfort to the conscience. He owns that (29) the Biblical standard of sin, as taught by Jesus yet which all people fall short of, is to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). But he also acknowledges that (30) even the Ten Commandments, whose principles give clear directives that are commonly held across cultures, are interpreted differently in relation to how different cultures decide what makes for appropriate application. In the context of scriptural principles, he suggests that (33) “A man must do what he believes pleases God or be condemned” and it is not for us to judge another person’s behaviour as we are each ultimately “answerable to God, not to others…[since] God might be leading [others] to obey in quite a different way”. So he urges us (38) after learning the ethical standards of the new culture to compare them with our own in light of the Biblical standard, and in order to steer clear of ethnocentrism, recognise that both cultures have their own strengths and weakness. He urges us to “learn to live a loving life by their cultural standards” but that we must be careful, too, to keep our own consciences clear. Rather than making assumptions about what will bring conviction to consciences, he advises (39) “Preach repentance for areas in which the Holy Spirit is already” bringing them conviction.

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Cultural Considerations and Church Culture Considerations in the Spiritual Harvest of Decision Making

Hesselgrave (1991:613) advises that for some cultures being decisive is much preferred to leaving situations open-ended and lacking closure. Indecisiveness is not appreciated and an uncooperative nature in this sense is perceived to reflect on the person’s character. Other cultures have no problems with decisions being left unmade, particularly if there’s any possibility that a wrong decision might be made. The waiting process and even failure to make a decision can even be a sign of wisdom. For instance, Northrop writes (1953:381)7: “The Chinese are encouraged to postpone as long as possible any decision regarding a future course of action [and even then, make decisions highly tentatively]. To the Chinese it is wise to keep one’s options open in case the situation changes. It is virtuous to change one’s mind if the situation does change!” In my own experience, Chinese people definitely mirrored Northrop’s opinion on multiple occasions and in multiple parts of the country. Conversion and Decision Making as a Point and Process Hesselgrave (1991:617) offers that some see the journey into a deepening relationship with God as a process on the back of the point of a single discernible decision, whereas others prefer that it is a process marked by a series of decisions and decreasingly immature choices, and certainly Christian growth is a process in which one must continue to choose appropriate responses to the challenges that come. In both individual and group conversions point and process are involved. If one can’t discern the point of conversion, it is all the more necessary to be aware of making provision for the different stages in the process of genuine conversion, and provide appropriate encouragement at the different stages.

• •

• •

7

Stages in the Conversion Process8 Discover – The person or people discover that Jesus was sent by God to pay the price for sin and restore relationship with God Deliberate – The person or people deliberate over whether or not to change from their current way of being and doing and follow this different way i.e. the way of a Christian, a follower of Jesus. Determine – The person or people decide that, yes, they do want this new way of life and so they choose to believe in Jesus. Dissonance – When trials and difficulties come they are challenged to decide whether to remain in the faith or just go back to the former way of life with the old cultural ways that kept them feeling secure. This is

Cited by Hesselgrave (1991:614). What follows is my modification of the stages that can be found in diagrammatic form in Hesselgrave (1991:618), figure 46. 8

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where the questions of Hiebert’s ‘Flaw of the Excluded Middle’ become pertinent and the flaw is examined further below. • Discipline – They purposefully choose to become part of a church and be that member of the Body of Christ that is their calling as a key factor in the decision to submit to the authority and Lordship of Christ. Hesselgrave (624) cites Hogbin9 concerning the cost of deciding for change, in that only if the reward anticipated is percieved to make paying the price required worthwhile will people tend to be willing to make the change or changes. So, essentially, the people we are reaching out to will weigh up what they understand of our message and, consciously or unconsciously, be thinking through the cost involved versus the potential rewards that might come of responding positively to the message. We dare not reduce the price to make the Gospel easier to accept and must also be on the lookout for unsound motives so that our outreach does not merely produce what has, in earlier times, been referred to as rice Christians.10 We must communicate the truth with love in a way that neither condemns, nor condones unsound motives, but points people to Christ who sees and knows the deepest motives of people’s hearts. For my village friend, it would seem that reading Romans 3:23 added to her discoveries thus far and brought completion that moved her into deliberation. She determined, yes, she would follow Christ and then joined the group of believers meeting in the village. When I advised her employer that the lady had prayed to come into a relationship with God through Jesus, the reaction was not what I was expecting. The employer said something along the lines of, “Well, I hope that hasn’t confused her because we don’t believe people need to pray but that as they are exposed to God’s Word, if it’s His will, they will come into a life of truth.” What did I learn from this encounter? Not least that I had a great naivety concerning other Christian denominations’ and Christian organisations’ perceptions of what makes for salvation and the nature of coming into a relationship with God. The point and process priniples are very much evident here. I became aware, too, that one of the foundational principles of the organisation by which my Chinese friend’s employers were sent is that local people (whether they are assisting in translation or not) are not to be proselytized or encouraged to come to faith in Christ through pastoral intervention.

9

Hogbin (1958:57). A term which historically refers to people who made decisions for Christ based on unsound ulterior motives such as to get food, medicine, or some other material benefit. Preston and Preston (2010:279) write of William Dampier’s views (circa 1689) of French Catholic missionary work among the Tonkin people: “In the first English use of the concept, Dampier believed that many of their converts were rice Christians [since] ‘alms of rice have converted more than their preaching’.” 10

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Different Parts of The Body of Christ Play a Different Role in the Outreach Process

It is very important that we recognise that we each play different parts in the outreach process and, with mutual respect, appreciate that God uses different members of the Body in different ways – as Paul encouraged in 1 Cor. 3:6, some sow, some water, but God brings growth. To quote a devotional classic, Oswald Chambers (Lambert 1970:83-84)11 urges us that Jesus poured himself out all the way to death and that is also the way that we can live our lives – even with the challenge that “God is at perfect liberty to waste us if he chooses.” In some seasons we may have the joy of bringing people to the point when their hearts and minds are ready to decide for Christ, whereas in other seaons very little seems to be happening in terms of fruitfulness. By way of illustration, my experience in the fourth area in China periodically felt very much like a waste of time and energy. To fulfill the requirements of our work visas, my colleague and I were pouring a great deal of time and energy into research for preparing up-to-date dental lecture materials (in Chinese) for weekly research lectures as well as spending many hours giving clinical teaching to lesser trained personnel. By the third year I was becoming quite tired and frankly frustrated at how little time we were able to spend in building relationships and move on in the process of discipling the few who had decided for Christ. What kept me persevering for some seven years was the absolute and unquestionable reality that only God could have opened the doors that allowed us to be living and working in such an unusual situation and setting. If I felt I was a resource for Him being wasted, then I also recognised that He had placed me there and was allowing it for His purposes. I have often quoted and remind myself of the scripture in James 1:2-4: “Consider it pure joy…when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything.” About two years before the visa contract was due to finish, circumstances made it very clear that we would have to leave and I sensed God’s leading that, just as He had engineered the circumstances to bring us and keep us there, so He also had engineered the circumstances to move us on. A prayer supporter, who was not aware of how frustrating the situation was, felt led by the Holy Spirit to encourage me to see the remaining time as a time to deepen my roots in Him and in prayer. Another scripture that brought me joy and encouragement at that point in the difficult season came when I was reading the Bible devotionally and read about Jacob 11

The beginning of the quote is my paraphrase.

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having to serve seven years before he could have Rachel as his wife, “but they only seemed like a few days to him because of his love for her” (Gen. 29:20). Aware that this was taking the verse well out of context, I sensed a devotional desire for my love for God to become so much deeper and stronger that, for me too, the remaining years would also just seem like a few days because of a growing depth of love for Him, before God brought about the next season. Thus the choices I was making were part of the ongoing spiritual growth and decision-making process in relation to developing intimacy with God in my own life. Hiebert’s ‘The Flaw of the Excluded Middle’

We saw above, in the stages of the conversion process, that new believers face a time of dissonance when they face trials after turning to Christ and then have to decide whether to keep following Him and His ways or return to their old ways and coping mechanisms. Here is where Hiebert’s (1994) ‘Flaw of the Excluded Middle’ can easily come into play. Hiebert (1994:193) suggests that all worldviews tend to have perceptions and beliefs related to the world available to one’s physical senses. Questions of cause and effect can be understood through natural law, scientific proof, rationalism, or similar. All worldviews also tend to have perceptions and beliefs related to the unseen world (with some cultures to a lesser degree and others to a fuller degree). Hiebert refers to these two areas of perceptions and beliefs as awareness of the Seen-Unseen Dimension or immanence and transcendence. There will usually also be perceptions relating to the mysteries of the ultimate questions of life and death. What Hiebert labels the ‘excluded middle’ is (196) the section between religion and science where things would be explained as due to gods’ or spirit forces in communities where the spirit world is taken seriously. Hiebert offers that the questions of the middle level are “the questions of the uncertainty of the future, the crises of present life, and the unknowns of the past (197)”. The West largely only has answers for things of religion (which deals with ultimate questions of life and death), and science (which deals with things that can be explained scientifically in the natural world or borne out by practical experience), but they won’t answer questions like ‘how can I be sure of a good crop? How can I ensure a healthy baby? etc. In the village setting in China, one could see (and smell) incense sticks burning outside courtyard entrances. On the hillsides, some families would have an affinity with ancient rocks and, as of animism, believe them to be the means of health and vitality for family members providing one lives according to prescribed actions and makes the required offerings. Others would look to rivers and water sources as the means of acquiring health and prosperity, and carry out ancient rituals to bring these benefits into being. Tempting as it may be to dismiss other cultures’ beliefs and coping

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mechanisms as simplistic, childish, groundless, irrational, or in the light of some other pejorative term, we absolutely may not just ignore the importance of these beliefs and ways to the local people. Hiebert’s point is that if missionaries don’t have answers for ‘middle’ questions, converts will just go back to whatever magic, superstitious practices, or coping mechanisms they engaged in previously, or to find whoever they used to go to for answers. We must be aware too that Hiebert’s thesis appears to be very much based on the assumption that the ‘excluded middle’ questions are largely the lot of what would have been called in earlier days, primitive or tribal people and particularly those whose lifestyle and/or livelihood were in close proximity to nature and dependent on the forces of nature to maintain security and continuity. But we need to recognise too that people at all levels of the socioeconomic spectrum grow up with cultural coping mechanisms to deal with whichever ‘middle questions’ are pertinent in their settings. As they progress through life, regardless of the changes of environment, in times of difficulty they are likely to return to engaging with the coping mechanisms with which they grew up. So, for instance, a villager who excels academically may manage to eventually work his way up to top-level management in a city setting but when difficulties come that he cannot resolve he may well go back to animistic practices of earlier days, even if in secret. Even if our top-level manager was not from such a low socioeconomic level, he will still have grown up with coping mechanisms for dealing with life’s contingencies. So if he used to go to a temple and follow certain rituals to help resolve issues, once he has become a Christian, if he is not given convincing answers as to how to deal with middle ground questions, he may well return to the temple ways and practices albeit, perhaps, secretly. Hiebert (200) sees two dangers in trying to deal with the problem of middle ground questions: “The first danger is secularism: i.e. deny[ing] the existence of the spiritual realm in events of human life and reduce[ing] the reality of this world to purely materialistic explanations. This is the answer offered by modern science. The second danger is to return to a Christianised form of animism in which spirits and magic are used to explain everything. In spiritism, the spirits dominate reality, and humans must constantly battle or appease them to survive. In magic, humans seek to control supernatural powers through rituals and formulas to achieve their own personal desires. Both spiritism and magic are human and ego-centred; [people believe that they] can gain what [they] want by manipulating the spirits and controlling the forces. Both reject a God-centred view of reality, and both reject worship, obedience and submission as the response to God’s will.” Hiebert suggests (200-201) that the third option for dealing with the excluded middle is to take scripture seriously since Scripture’s

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“worldview…is neither secular nor animistic. It takes spiritual realities very seriously…[in addition] the Bible…is the history of God and of humans, and their relationship to each other”. Humans choose to sin and sin has consequences. Hiebert suggests “we need to centre our theology on God and his acts and not, as modern secularism and animism do, on human beings and their desires…true answers to prayer are those that bring the greatest glory to God, not those that satisfy my immediate desires”. Hiebert further warns us against presenting “Christianity [as] a new magic in which we … can make God do our bidding”. Perhaps our best approach can come through modelling our trust in God’s sovereignty and helping new believers to grow in trust that God is in control and knows what’s best for all His children at all times; helping them to believe and know and experience, as we do, that He loves us so much He’ll only allow what is best for us. With new believers it is important to get at least a mental assent to God being sovereign from as early as possible – as the young believer grows in intimacy with God, through getting familiar with His Word and through an active relationship of prayer and conversation with Him throughout the day, the heart agreement will inevitably catch up along with experience. If and when things do seem to fall apart, it can be helpful (if possible) to get mature believers of the convert’s cultural background to share their experiences and encouragements too. In practical terms, the convert is used to doing something to answer the middle ground issues’ needs, e.g. assure good crops, guarantee a healthy baby or safe travel, etc. – what can we offer for them to do instead? The obvious and most sensible activity is to pray with them and acknowledge the activity of bringing the issue before God. In praying with them, it is very important to model appropriate prayer that isn’t looking to manipulate God but rather to cooperate with Him, and express the desire to be able to trust Him as sovereign whatever happens. It is also important that, rather than telling new believers what they should or shouldn’t do, we expose them to the truths in God’s Word and ask the Holy Spirit to inspire them and bring them conviction of what is appropriate to maintain a spiritually healthy and growing relationship with God. An Example of a Middle Ground Issue From the China Village Setting

During a seminar to help the young believers discover their God-given spiritual gifts, the different gifts on 1 Corinthians, Romans, and Ephesians were all looked at. When the gift of discerning of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10) was covered, I’d asked “When do you most sense non-Holy spirit spirits in the village?” The unanimous reply was during ‘qing ming jie (
)’, which is the festival for sweeping the ancestors’ graves and honouring the ancestors through various acts of appeasement-making worship, including

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food and drink offerings, and burning paper money, etc. The family members proceed together to the ancestral grave area, which would usually be higher in the hills, and then carry out together the traditional acts of worship. So I asked intentionally casually, “So what do you do on ‘qing ming jie’?” There was some uncomfortable shuffling and then one young man said, “What I do is I go up the hill with my family (mother and two elder brothers and sister) and I praise God out loud and thank Him for my ancestors, because if it wasn’t for my ancestors I wouldn’t have been born! I told my family I will honour the memory of the ancestors by sweeping the grave but I won’t worship them because I only worship God now who is alive and is my life and strength.” The other villagers sitting listening to this broke into smiles and decided, yes, they could all do that too. It was a marvellous example of what to do instead of the former unbiblical way, and with God-glorifying motivation.12 The young man had got to the place in his relationship with God where he acknowledged that God’s sovereignty was more compelling than any pressure to follow cultural norms. In time his mother, one elder brother, and sister all came to faith in Christ too. What we saw was a local Christian make a conscious choice to move away from old ways and take up new ways so as to still be part of his culture but not ensnared by unbiblical beliefs or customs in response to a ‘middle ground’ issue. This was a marvellous example of contextualisation and which is what we move on to in more detail in the next two chapters. Conclusions

In summary, outreach in any setting, whether cross-cultural or not, is a process that necessitates identifying appropriate ways of communicating, identifying needs so as to be able to present a relevant and receivable message, identifying stages or a structure for the outreach process, and, as far as is possible, planning timeframes in terms of realistic, sustainable goals. The importance of empowering those being reached out to cannot be underemphasised since this is a means of not only heightening the dignity of those being reached out to but also a vehicle for the ongoing sustainability of what we have, through sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, been able to begin in terms of community transformation.

12

Chapter 6 includes Hiebert’s (1985:183ff.) helpful steps for this self-contextualizing process so that it becomes neither relativistic nor subjective but truly comes up with solutions that are Biblical.

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Discussion Questions 1. 2. 3.

4.

5.

What other ways can you think of that might make a useful platform for outreach in a closed setting where there is resistance to the Gospel? What is the difference between needs and wants? If people you are reaching out to merely present you with a list of wants rather than actual needs, how would you respond? What middle ground issues with superstitious (or magic-like) coping mechanisms are you aware of in your own background culture? How did you come under a new conviction concerning this/these issues and what lifestyle change or changes did you make as a result? Consider the three essentials of the Gospel message referred to in the chapter. Which of the three would you start from if you were sharing the Gospel with a prison convict who is overcome by guilt? Which would you start from if you were sharing the Gospel with a communist whose aim is for an ordered, everyone-equal society? What steps need to be taken to ensure sustainability of, for instance, a missions platform project in which a short-term medical team comes to give free health checks and immediate treatment; a clinic is set up to rehabilitate drug addicts; or a care home is set up for unmarried mothers who have been rejected by their families? (Don’t forget to consider possible expectations of the people being reached out to and also long-term implications and needs.)

Chapter 5 Contextualisation of Outreach Approach in Light of Situational Cultural Specifics

Introduction

As mentioned in chapter 1, the Second World War brought a great many people into experiences of different cultures as they either fought in previously unvisited lands or became misplaced refugees. The reality of different cultures and different levels of physical needs as a result of the war was an eye-opener to many. Three decades later, in recognition of the difficulties and challenges faced by then-contemporary missionaries, Tippett wrote: The greatest methodological issue faced by the Christian mission in our day is how to carry out the Great Commission in a multi-cultural world with a gospel that is both truly Christian in content and culturally significant in form (Tippett 1975:116).

To present a relevant and receivable message, we need to consider both the cultural context of the people we are reaching out to and also the situational specifics of the local people and their setting. To plant and grow spiritually healthy churches we need to be aware of the local current beliefs and practices and be careful to avoid syncretism, i.e. assimilating an aspect of Christianity into the existing culture by letting it take on the non-biblical values of something in that culture. We also need to beware of importing into that culture new practices that the locals feel they are required to take hold of but which results in separation of their normal life from Christian life. Syncretism, i.e. unbiblical praxis mixed with Christian principles, can also happen if the message of the Gospel and what it means to be a Christian aren’t properly understood.1 This chapter looks at issues of cultural contextualisation, particularly with an eye to the situational specifics of the setting. As missiological studies have progressed, a number of terms have arisen relating to Biblically appropriate ways of church-planting, and these terms related to cultural contextualisation are often used interchangeably. The chapter begins by looking at the background of some of these terms and bringing out the differences and applications. It then turns to aspects of situational contextualisation and illustrates the concept in terms of a situational specific common to three different socioeconomic settings in China but 1

This will be attended to in detail in chapter 6.

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engaged with and worked out in different ways according to the needs of each setting. Cultural Contextualisation Terms Found in the Literature

Indigeneity (Protestant term) and accommodation (Roman Catholic term) describe the situation from the missionary’s point of view (Eitel 1998:302). Indigeneity is the noun form related to the agricultural term ‘indigenous’, which “describes a plant that thrives in a specific type of soil, in a given location or specific climate” (Tallman 1989:190). Just as seeds needs to be planted and nurtured in the way that is appropriate for the natural setting, so churches that are planted need to be tended to in ways that allow them to fit with the local cultural setting and grow in a culturally relevant way. That will then be an indigenous church. The Roman Catholic missionaries used the term ‘accommodation’ to describe similar aims by depicting the church in any culture as though it were a grain of wheat: the inside kernel represents the unchanging aspect of Christianity, whereas the outer husk represents the outer layer which reflects the culture and accommodates the resulting church to the culture in a way that prevents Christianity from appearing incongruous. As previously mentioned, be aware that liberal theologians are likely to suggest that the kernel, i.e. the truths of Christianity, should also, to a degree, change in a different culture, whereas evangelicals have come to the point where at least the kernel that the planters see might look different and function differently for the believers of that different culture. Hopefully we can appreciate that the evangelical view is not the same as the liberal view, which says the kernel doesn’t just look different in another culture, it is different. If we follow the liberal view, we might see, for example, how, unhelpfully, for Indian Christians, Christ and His deity might be interpreted as relating to the avatar concept,2 or, for Christians in Africa, have relation to long-gone ancestors with all the unbiblical baggage these worldview beliefs imply. It might be more helpful to suggest that in different cultures it is the emphases that might change in relation to scriptural truths rather than the actual meaning of those scriptural truths. An example of this comes from China and the first time I attempted to expound the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:3-9. I had no sooner read out loud, “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering [seed], some fell along the edge of the path” when a young man who was a relatively new believer cried out indignantly, “No one sows seed like that!” The other villagers tried to quiet him but he insisted all the more, “No! No

2

Hindus believe that an avatar is a manifestation of a deity or the released soul of a deceased person in bodily form on earth.

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one sows like that!” The other believers tried assuring him that if the Bible says it and the teacher believes it, then it must be so. I realised a situational priority was at stake here and altered my teaching plan to talk about the cultural agricultural differences between the people of the Bible era whom Jesus was addressing, and the way the young man and his fellow villagers were accustomed to sowing seeds. In the Bible era seed was scattered or cast broadly3 across the ground that had been ploughed in preparation for sowing. There was a common understanding held by Jesus’ listeners that in sowing seed by broad casting not all of it would land in the best-prepared parts of the field. 4 In contrast seed sown into ploughed ground in China is intentionally sown seed by seed into fully prepared ground. For the young farmer believer, wasting seed by broad casting did not fit with his worldview. So, having established that the Bible-era agricultural practice was indeed different to his own, the emphasis for him in the Parable of the Sower was more attuned to the need to be careful when sowing seeds of the Gospel so that what is sown will fall into good ground where it can come to fruition and result in a plentiful harvest. This was a wonderful truth to him and certainly valid when we look to the Holy Spirit to lead us with appropriate words and actions when sharing the Gospel with specific individuals and groups, but he did rather miss Jesus’ point that not all seed sown bears fruit and that some harvests are more plentiful than others because, in light of the context of the rest of the chapter, the growth of the Kingdom of God is God’s work, not ours as bearers of the seed.5 Continuing with terms found in the literature, Eitel (1998:305) provides two more often found terms and offers that contextualisation and enculturation describe realities internal to the planted church: The goal of indigenous church-planting is to plant culturally appropriate churches that can keep growing without being dependent on the missionary for finance, governance, or strategy for reaching out. 6 “The difference between the terms enculturation and contextualisation is one of emphasis. Both terms relate to how the Gospel message engages culture. Enculturation deals primarily with resolving the tension between Scripture and culture in general.” The local Christians should be analysing for themselves as they engage in self-theologizing: How can we resolve cultural issues that relate to unbiblical cultural beliefs? And, how can we introduce new beliefs 3

Hence the term broadcast as used for transmission of radio programs. Even if one were to take the stance that suggests ploughing sometimes happened after sowing, e.g. see Payne (1978), this still would not account for the point Jesus makes that not all the seed sown bore fruit. 5 Hagner (1993) Matthew 13:1-13 in Word Biblical Commentary (CD version). 6 This follows the ‘three-self’ principle championed by Rufus Anderson (1796–1880) in the US and Henry Venn (1796–1873) in the UK. This will be returned in the next chapter. 4

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which run contrary to current worldview beliefs without causing animosity or our having to become isolated from society? In addition and in contrast, Eitel (305) suggests that “Contextualisation is more specifically focused on the social issues and practices emerging from within the context.”7 So, the local Christians should also be deciding for themselves: How should we address cultural issues relating to unbiblical practices in our society? And, how can we introduce new practices which run contrary to current cultural practices in a way that presents Christianity as attractive to the wider community members? For our purposes we will use contextualisation as a term that also includes enculturation. Note that Kraft’s (2009:405) interaction with the difficulties of carrying out contextualisation includes thought related to both indigenisation and enculturation. I tend to define the term as follows: Contextualisation is letting the context guide how you preach the Gospel (your strategy), your reasons for what you preach (motives and message), and keep you looking forward to when the people from that context and culture will take over the work you started (your goal in any context). We must remember too that the Holy Spirit has the very best message, motive, and strategy and goals so that it is a case of paying attention to both the Holy Spirit and the context. Indeed, Kraft (2012, 86) urges that “Contextualiisation is to be seen as a process guided by the Holy Spirit that starts with a faith relationship around which is constructed a cultural system embodying many sub-ideal customs.Guided by the Holy Spirit, people are to grow, develop, and change that cultural system in every generation…towards greater approximation to scriptural ideals as a function of their growth in Christ-likeness.” Partnership

Unless we are pioneering in a completely unreached area, i.e. where there is no immediate national church presence, we should also be aware of the importance of partnership with people from the national church who understand their people and culture far better than we ever will! Partnering with nationals who are familiar with cultural ways makes for a far richer witness of God’s love at work through unity amidst cultural diversity. This is why when teaching Missions, and Cross-cultural Communications 7

See too Kraft (2012, 82) on contextualisation: “Contextualisation…is the approach recommended by the Apostle Paul in Acts 15 as not requiring that Gentiles be converted to Jewish customs in order to follow Jesus. Paul learned this approach by watching God give the Holy Spirit to Gentile converts on the basis of faith alone [i.e. not by] involv[ing] conversion to a set of Jewish religious forms…[so that]The culture in which Jesus met His followers was not to be the cultural norm for the expression of Christianity. The focus, then, was to be on the relationship between the converts and God, rather than on the cultural forms in terms of which that relationship is expressed.”

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principles and applications in multicultural classes I enjoy having my Filipina co-laborer, Dr Co, share stories, insights, and devotional pointers to illustrate missions principles and communication principles from the shared ministry in China. This also provides a beautifully realistic illustration of how we have lived and worked together cross-culturally, amongst Chinese as a third culture, and in association with the fourth culture of an American organisation. The Gospel and Culture

Hiebert (1999:381) writes: “It is not always easy to distinguish between the gospel and human cultures for the gospel, like any message, must be put into cultural forms to be understood and communicated by people.” As we saw in chapter 2, different cultures follow different thinking processes to arrive at understanding and, for effective communication, we need to be aware of the situational preference of those we are reaching out to. At this point we do well, too, to consider the relationship between Christ and culture in general. Sorting out our own stance can also increase the potential for effective outreach ministry with others when we are able to identify and work together even with differing perspectives. As for cross-cultural conflict, it is also important to be aware of which principles we are willing to compromise and which are non-negotiable. Niebuhr’s (1951) Christ and Culture has long been the classic text for examining the relationship and in which he offered the following types: • Christ against culture – but this type separates believers from the world in which they are to be salt and light • Christ of (or within) culture – but this type can either intentionally or inadvertently lessen the importance of Christ’s divinity so that the Gospel is reduced to self-reliant humanism • Christ above culture – but this type either intentionally or inadvertently downplays Christ’s humanity and also dismisses the reality of evil and sinfulness in the world • Christ and Culture in paradox (or tension) – but this type can’t help but bring a separation between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world although, unlike the Christ against culture type, the believer knows he cannot escape from the world • Christ the transformer of culture – this type sees culture transformed by the power and presence of Christ lived out in the world Carter (2006) questions Niebuhr’s typology and brings an alternative perspective. He urges that the situation in which Niebuhr wrote: presupposes both the existence and legitimacy of Christendom. However, both his criticism of Christ against culture type and his endorsement of the Christ transforming culture type lose their cogency in our post-Christendom context. Not

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only does he assume that the church should make the compromises necessary to retain influence within the culture, he also assumes that the wider culture is ready and willing to be transformed by Christians (111).

Carter makes some valid points since at the time that Niehbuhr wrote, the demise of Christendom was already being declared, and it accelerated rapidly from the 1960s.8 Further, Carter suggests that the church was always under cultural pressure to compromise Biblical principles and that “Niebuhr’s approach…leads to Christians accommodating themselves [by way of compromising Biblical principles]” to the surrounding society. Carter not unreasonably questions the assumption that the wider culture is ready and willing to be transformed and, on the contrary, suggests that the Christ against culture type has rather more been replaced by a culture against Christ outlook, and we can certainly see this in the rise of militant Islam atrocities worldwide. Carter (112) also suggests that the church in the days of Christendom has had no qualms about sponsoring violence to achieve its own ends in coercion with the state – from the church of the fourth century all the way through the colonialist era. As a result he looks to champion a resistance to such temptation and his non-Christendom typology reflects this. He rewrites three Christendom types (113) which, in line with his hypothesis, accept violent coercion. In contrast he then offers three Non-Christendom types which reject violent coercion. These are: Christ transforming culture – for all society but [unlike the Christendom version] should not be imposed by force, but preached by word and deed. Christ humanizing culture – for the church only, but motivates loving service to society. Christ separating from culture – for the church only.

Carter’s perspective ultimately boils the issues down to the ethics of violence (or not) in the name of the Gospel, particularly (185) “the use of violence in promoting Christianity”. As a result, Carter (196) prefers that Christians should not engage in modern war. He urges us that regardless of worldview ideology or cultural tendencies, even when we engage a resistant and hostile culture we should still aim to bring the Gospel in a peaceable manner. Carter’s work has certainly shaken the traditional ground broken by Niehbuhr but his distinction of Christendom types being marked by coercion to violence in contrast with his non-Christendom types is remarkably dichotomistic. It is surely unreasonable to suggest that a norm 8

See McLeod and Ustorf (2003).

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of violence marked the entire church-backed missionary effort from the fourth century through the colonial era and onward. Equally, to suggest that this is not so of post-Christendom missionary activity naively dismisses the potential for violence inherent in any activity founded on impure motives. Niebuhr’s analysis and typology are reliably descriptive and invite the reader to be aware of alternatives as he chooses his or her stance. In contrast Carter’s typology, notable for its attempt to move us on from Niebuhr’s classic text, is the vehicle for a very noble underlying polemic but which ultimately comes across as directive and with a rather shallow call to the field of ethics literature. Gospel and Culture: The Missionary’s Responsibilities

Returning to Hiebert (1999:381), “It is not always easy to distinguish between the gospel and human cultures for the gospel, like any message, must be put into cultural forms to be understood and communicated by people. We cannot think without conceptual categories and symbols to express them. But we can be careful to let the biblical message shape not only our beliefs, but also the categories and assumptions of our culture.” As missionaries, we need to let the Bible be our means of evaluating our own cultural assumptions first before we try to consider how to get the message across in another culture. Issues of how to keep going and growing independent of missionaries should eventually come from the maturing believers within the church itself as it examines its own cultural and situational context. What is at stake is the need to avoid and/or prevent syncretism. Syncretism describes the practice of amalgamating unbiblical cultural practices and/or beliefs with Christian principles and beliefs so that the result is actually neither truly Christian nor Biblical. For missionaries, letting go of leadership and direction may not be easy but is essential for the long-term spiritual health of the planted church. We quite rightly have come a long way since the notion of Western superiority as seen in Gustav Warneck’s understanding in 1903 that ‘The inferiority of a great part of the non-Christian humanity of today…does itself create a necessity for missionary superintendence even as a bulwark’.9 To continue growing a spiritually healthy church, sufficiently 10 spiritually mature national or local Christians should be encouraged to examine the beliefs and practices of their culture and prayerfully decide on what needs rejecting, modifying, or introducing so that the planted church can exist as a true part of the worldwide Body of Christ. Hiebert 9

Warneck (1903:349) cited by Eitel (1998:309). Chapter 7 gives considerations of how we might decide what makes for a sufficiently mature believer as well as what training might be useful to help towards this end. 10

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(1985:183ff.) describes helpful steps for this self-contextualizing process so that it becomes neither relativistic nor subjective but truly comes up with solutions that are Biblical.11 Regardless of the background of the missionaries in this day and age, letting go of leadership and control is also absolutely essential so that the dignity of local people is not merely cherished but even heightened by the necessity of their input being recognised and valued. Churches can only grow in a truly culturally relevant way by facilitating empowerment of local Christians so that they are enabled to be the agents of on-going spiritual and physical transformation in their own context. Situational Contextualisation

The first stage in appropriate contextualisation is becoming aware of the specifics of the culture, as already discussed. We need to be careful to not apply a ‘one size fits all’ approach to outreach strategy and method because what worked in one setting may well not be the best approach in another setting. By best approach, I mean discerning the Holy Spirit’s leading as to what is appropriate (and/or not appropriate) in different settings. Above all, we need to be sensitive to specifics of the setting that require us to modify or adapt strategies through which we can then present a relevant and receivable message. I refer to this as situational contextualisation. Evaluate the Need for Pre-evangelism To communicate new ideas in a receivable way in light of situational specifics, we do best to build upon ideas and understandings that are already accepted. So we need to start by finding out what spiritual beliefs and understandings are held by the local people. For instance, if the local people do not believe in God, and China’s schooling coloured by communism’s atheistic outlook automatically denies God’s existence, then there is little point in jumping straight in with news about Jesus the Son of God. Helping people into an understanding of God as real and present is part of the pre-evangelism that prepares them to eventually receive the Good News of Jesus, and that His death provides the means for us to come into a personal relationship with God. So, as we consider the immediate situation of the setting we need to discover whether pre-evangelism is necessary by asking questions such as: What spiritual understanding and beliefs are held by the local people? Are there any spiritual beliefs at all? Is there a belief in a single deity or multiple deities? How do the local people live out their lives in relation to 11

Hiebert’s steps for self-contextualizing are referred to in more depth in chapter 6.

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their beliefs? What beliefs and/or practices need rejecting as unbiblical, or modifying so as to prevent syncretism in the early stages of sharing the Gospel and church-planting? We should also be aware that even in communist or atheist societies which refute the notion of an existent God, people will have evolved coping skills for managing life’s contingencies and these coping skills will, not unlike superstition, be followed in a similar way to the following of a religion. In chapter 4 we saw the stages of the conversion process, which included a stage termed dissonance in which the new believer or believers ask, “Shall I/we resist the forces that draw me/us back to the old ways, and continue to follow Christ in spite of present difficulties that have come since believing in Christ? Or shall I/we just go back the old cultural ways that kept us feeling secure?” So we will need to examine and analyse the old cultural ways and coping skills, regardless of any spiritual significance or not, even in non-religious settings. As we prayerfully examine the situational specifics of the setting, we need to be asking the Holy Spirit to illumine to us how we can address the needs of the setting so as to present a relevant and receivable message. Equally, we also need to be asking the Holy Spirit to illumine to us what we can’t see in terms of hidden or disguised local agendas, or cultural beliefs, perceptions, and practices that we are not yet even aware of. Building caring, trusting relationships with local people as we reach out can also give us a means of discovering why local people do what they do (i.e. forms of speech, behaviour, etc.), as well as why they do it (i.e. the function of the speech, behaviour, etc.), and more importantly, what they believe about it (i.e. its place in the underlying worldview). Ultimately the cultural and situational contextualised approach will be aiming to affirm and heighten the local people’s dignity by facilitating their empowerment, so that as mentioned above they can become agents of on-going spiritual and physical transformation in their own context. Situational Contextualisation of Missions Methods in Light of Situational Cultural Specifics

To illustrate the concept of situational specifics and appropriate contextualisation within the culture, we will examine more deeply the outreach approach in the first (remote village) area. The approach addressed spiritual conditions through making a recognisable contribution to social conditions in a rural setting through the dental clinic.12 In this way, 12

Parts of this section of the chapter also come from D-Davidson (2011a) ‘Empowering Transformation: A Contemporary Medical Mission Case Study from Rural China’, in Transformation 28(2) April (138–148). ©London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd. Excerpts used by permission.

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the outreach through dental healthcare was welcomed by the People’s Republic of China because it promoted and engendered well-being for the people.13 In tandem with the medical facility, a theological training program was initiated as a number of locals became Christians. With the foreigners acting as facilitators,14 the aim of the training program was to aid their spiritual growth and, particularly, understanding of the Bible so as to be able to access and inculturate its truth for themselves and their context. As teacher-practitioners, Dr Co and I looked to empower local people in both dental and spiritual understanding and skills.15 At the same time, with an eye to the specifics of the context, the outreach approach also needed the development of a means of facilitating adult education through a method that would be received as culturally appropriate by, and for, those in the rural China setting. This was because a major situational issue that was common to all three settings in China related to the cultural approach to teaching and learning.16 From our own experience of Chinese teachers in language school, we were already aware of the tendency towards the lecturing/banking approach to teaching, and the expectations held by teachers that students should learn by rote. This is referred to as the banking method of education because it sees knowledge deposited by teachers into the minds of students. Friere (1970) led the attack on banking, which can steep education in oppression because the teachers or those in authority decide what knowledge should be passed on to students. In this way they oppress students by preventing them from being exposed to other diverse and competing ideas. Ecumenical and

13

In terms of dental education as a mission tool and outreach approach, the dental health care training provided the necessary platform for living and working in a Chinese rural community in that it was seen to provide a relevant service that benefited both the immediate and wider community. Appreciation of the service given provided the bridge for relationships to be built with community members and, as result, theological training could also be begun with the Chinese villagers who became Christians from that time onward. 14 In reference to developments in adult education theory the missionaries sought to facilitate learning. See for instance Ott (2001, 243), who, in the context of theological education, points to the importance of “teachers learning to play a new role as facilitators in an action-reflection process in which they are no longer the ones who know everything but become learners themselves”. 15 In the context of missionary education related to medical training, Browne (1956, 287) expresses that ‘service of greater ultimate value may be rendered to the Church by teaching others rather than by performing the task oneself’, a view with which Hofman (1982, 55) and this rural China outreach approach concur. 16 Much of this section comes from D-Davidson (2011b) ‘From Passive to Active Learning: A Worked Example of Theological Education in Rural China’, in Journal of Adult Theological Education 8(2) Dec (186–195). Originally © Equinox Publishing ltd 2012, currently © Taylor and Francis www.tandfonline.com Used by permission.

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evangelical theologians alike have acknowledged Friere’s contribution to the needs of the oppressed.17 Despite this, Chinese students’ tendency towards the banking method of teaching and the resulting passive approach to learning is documented in both Western and Chinese sources. Contemporary Western sources include Greenlee and Stück (2004:499) who report “the Confucian concept of education – a process based on memorizing endless books and then taking examinations over the contents…has created…passive Chinese students…with an incredible mastery of the memorisation process but without the richness of application, internalisation, or [the potential for] in-class dialogue”.18 Passive learning also can’t help but prevent the student from engaging in critical thinking. A notable Chinese source criticizing passive learning in China comes from  (2002) of China’s National Education Bureau.19 From the early days of both teaching the dental trainees as well as beginning the Bible/ministry theological training it became clear that the Chinese participants were neither willing nor appeared able to take initiative in the teaching and learning process. Cultural conditioning had accustomed them to being passive recipients of education, so that having met the problem, we necessarily sought a means of resolving this situation, but due to this prevailing passive learning tendency, we could not immediately dispense with teaching and learning methods centred on banking. The early days of the dental training saw the Chinese village doctor assist Dr Co and learn by observation but when more trainees arrived, theory needed teaching prior to them practicing dental treatments on patients. They also needed encouragement in developing critical thinking skills so as to be able to accurately diagnose the cause of patients’ oral 17

See for instance W. Padilla (1988:120); Newbigin (1995:93–94); Kinsler (1981:48–49). 18 See too Durkin (2008:17) who, in the context of Masters students from China in Western settings, points to the Chinese cultural reluctance to cause disharmony, lose face, or cause loss of face in others so that the Western learning practice of engaging in critical debate and expressing critical thinking presents cultural difficulties for these students. 19 Listed in the references under Zhu Muju. Chief ed., this volume, whose title may be translated as ‘Move into the New Curriculum: Dialogue with the Curriculum Implementer’, urges the reader (presupposed to be a teacher at primary school level) “that passive learning is an obstacle to the student’s learning progress because straight memorizing of text…stifles the student’s thinking and his intellect as well as results in the content not being properly understood. As a result the student cannot reach his full creative potential [and, further, that] Traditional [learning is criticized for] making the student a dependent receiver of knowledge rather than discoverer of knowledge. Both receiving knowledge and discovering knowledge have benefit but “traditional” learning is receiving and grasping of knowledge…rather than discovering and probing” (133).

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health problems as well as for evaluating which would be the best of differing potential treatments for each patient. 20 Similarly, for the Bible/ministry training, believers needed to move beyond a passive approach to learning and, in step with the Holy Spirit, take initiative in Spirit-led reaching out to the unsaved as well as in pastoral care and mutual encouragement. Since the situation of the village people saw them culturally accustomed to passive learning, they needed to be encouraged and empowered into an active style of learning and in taking initiative so as to be able to eventually practice dentistry and/or church planting without further input from the missionaries. Although not using the term, as missionaries, we aimed to present ourselves as learning-facilitators rather than as the ultimate-authority teacher figures common to the high-power distance Chinese education system. We shared the common goal of proclaiming Christ while seeking to develop a culturally appropriate training method for both the dental health care training and the theological training that could be further developed as necessary and used by the locals to continue empowering others without requiring the presence of the facilitators. The rural China dental training was made available for those immediately from a rural background who had qualified in some aspect of medical training or village-doctor level training. The curriculum followed a modular format, which began with oral anatomy, drawing, and carving of teeth, after which participants learned to clean teeth manually. Theory was taught lecture-style in the manner to which the participants were culturally accustomed. Then their progress was monitored visually and discussed one-on-one in the same mentoring-like cultural manner in which agricultural skills are taught in the rural setting. Training continued with theory that integrated the dental subject and its related basic science,21 followed immediately by practical application in the 20

As mentioned in chapter 4, the educational aim of the dental training, as of undergraduate dental education in the UK, was that the participants attain the knowledge and understanding, skills, and attitudes that produce “caring, knowledgeable, competent and skilful dentists” (GDC 2002, 10). As of the wider European understanding, the skills can be defined as either clinical skills or management skills (including attitudes). The former include information-gathering; diagnosis; treatment planning; treatment and prevention; evaluation of treatment. The latter include communication; administration; team issues; health and safety; ethics, appropriate attitudes, and legal concerns; reflective and critical thinking (cf. Plasschaert et al 2002, 34). Note the difficulty already mentioned associated with passive learning and critical thinking. See D-Davidson (2013) for an extended presentation concerning development of critical thinking skills in culturally non-conducive settings and/or where underdeveloped adult maturity prevails. 21 Since the participants already came with some background medical training, an integrated odontostomatological approach (cf. Gaengler 2003, 89) was taken such that,

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specific aspect of dentistry just taught. The lectures were given to all participants but with practical application at each trainee’s pace. Before treating patients, practical skills were taught in simulated situations.22 Thus participants could also be left to work at their own pace and time, and master each phase before moving on to the next stage in a particular process. Written and practical exams were given to assess knowledge and skills, and Dr Co oversaw the training participants’ involvement in treating patients. The training participants learnt the theory and practice of dentistry in a modular fashion and applied their learning immediately into a real-life setting in dental health care. As the trainees’ abilities increased, each was given increasing responsibility in terms of diagnostics and patient treatment, as well as opportunities to teach trainees with similar or less training than themselves and so drawing on the benefits of peer tutoring23 and mentoring. In addition, the training also involved one-on-one mentoring, which sought to ensure that each individual had gained understanding and could function appropriately with what was learnt. This mirrored the mentoring fashion in which agricultural skills were taught and learned in the rural setting as well as being a means to encourage dialogue, and empathise with participants on an individual basis as they were taught to perform the different dental procedures. As the number of Christians in the village grew, the theological (Bible/ministry) training program was initiated to aid their spiritual growth and, particularly, understanding of the Bible so as to be able to access and inculturate24 its truth for themselves and their context. The training program in tandem with its related dental subject area, reference to the basic sciences served as a reminder rather than needing to be taught from scratch. Subjects included anesthesia and extractions; dental materials, impression-taking, full arch, and removable-partial prosthodontics; cavity preparation, restorations, and crown and bridge work; endodontics; oral surgery; and basic orthodontics including design and fabrication of functional appliances. 22 For instance, cavity preparations were practiced on extracted teeth set as an arch in plaster of Paris; setting up of complete dentures was practiced by setting up pontics on the ridge from a redundant impression cast. 23 See Topping (1997) for definitions and practices related to peer-tutoring and who sees the benefits of peer-tutoring in adult education (117) as “at least as effective as traditional curriculum delivery through lectures”. In the case of its use in rural China, it served to build confidence in the training participants as their skills in dentistry and/or understanding the Bible and preaching increased. It also served to increasingly reduce dependency on Dr Co and me with respect to the local believers’ times together, as will be seen below. 24 See Volf (1997, 235) who urges that application of Christian principles into local contexts, ‘inculturation’ (which is a variant spelling of enculturation described earlier in the chapter), “is best done by the [local] faithful people of God

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began teaching basics of the Christian faith and moved on to principles of evangelical hermeneutics and Biblical interpretation. As new discipleship groups were begun, the young believers were given responsibility for the newer believers’ nurture and growth.25 In a similar fashion to the dental training approach, to counter the ingrained passive learning mentality of the Chinese villagers the theological training method also had the participants learn in a modular fashion and apply their learning immediately into a real life setting of Christian ministry. In addition, the one-to-one mentoring helped to ensure that each individual had gained understanding and could function appropriately with what was learnt. As an exercise in situational contextualisation, both the dental training and spiritual training were carried out in a culturally appropriate way since the training approach began where the participants were, i.e. accustomed to the lecture style of teaching, and the banking method of receiving information, before bringing the participants into a more interactive style of teaching and learning. Just as for the dental trainees, the rural Chinese Christians moved from passive into interactive learning with the help of mentoring.26 We took advantage of the fact that all the trainees had learned agricultural and other rural life skills in a one-on-one manner with successively difficult skills built on a foundation of easier ones.27 Being given the opportunity to express ideas, explore new ones, and reflect on ministry practice while away from the larger group provided the confidence which enabled first, peer teaching, and eventually teaching and pastoring of newer groups of Christians.

themselves…Inculturation takes place when people in their own contexts receive the one gospel of the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ and run with it, living out and expressing the Christian difference in their own terms and symbols and through their own practices”. 25 The spiritual training process is referred to in more detail in chapter 7. 26 The mentoring time was also a means to engage with and encourage each participant concerning aspects of their spiritual condition and/or involvement in ministerial responsibilities as they prepared for and reflected back on ministry involvement. Thus the training participants engaged in the action–reflection process urged by Kolb (1984) and which theological training has seen to benefit engagement in learning and praxis associated with theological training. See, for instance, Kinsler (1981:18) and Ott (2001:224–234). 27 The training method also followed the cumulative nature of this practice so that new learning and experience built on previous learning and experience. This reflects the perceptions of Rogers (1992:17) who relates a principle of adult education and learning: “[adults] learn more easily in those areas where the ‘distance’ between their experience and the new material is not great”.

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Before our departure in 2004, all the trainees were interviewed regarding their own perceptions of the training method, and all evaluated the training method positively. The records of their progress and breadth of experience in the practice of dentistry and/or Christian ministry served to give validity to the interview responses.28 So, although certain aspects of the culture’s situational ‘normal’ way of learning had presented problems, the training method was situationally contextualised and made use of both contemporary adult education theory as well as aspects of the cultural norms to help empower the dental trainees and local believers. As a result they were trained and enabled to train others including teaching them aspects of dentistry and/or to evangelize and teach others. Hence the cultural norms of teaching and learning were identified and harnessed in a beneficial way. Following the facilitators’ departure from the area in 2004, yearly longitudinal return visits provided opportunities to hear news of progress, difficulties encountered, and resolved in both the dental clinic arena and that of Christian ministry. Further Examples of Situational Contextualisation for Reaching Out and also Communicating Truths of the Bible and Gospel Message

As previously labored, any message or outreach needs to be presented in a way that presents it as relevant and attractive to the local people, and without causing disharmony in the immediate context of the setting. The situational contextualisation principle related to teaching and learning expounded above is now further illustrated in three different socioeconomic settings on Mainland China: Remote Rural Village Setting As previously described, having started the process of showing ourselves to be relevant to the village people through providing dental healthcare and training to meet oral healthcare needs, we concurrently looked to address spiritual issues. Despite China’s communist beliefs, in the village, as in towns and cities nationwide, there was certainly no lack of recognition of 28

i.e. the fact that the majority of the dental training participants had continued to use the same training method to teach others, as had all the Bible/ministry training participants, gives credibility to the suggestion that the training method had been sufficiently situationally culturally adapted for the training participants to be able to learn through its use and speak positively about it, as well as use it in training others. The ongoing results related to dentistry following the facilitators’ departure saw the trained local villager and the hygienist able to continue running the clinic, treat patients, and also train others in aspects of dentistry. The other training participants left to continue working elsewhere with further opportunities to train others in aspects of dentistry and preventative healthcare.

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spiritual beings. The grave-sweeping festival ‘qing ming jie ()’ referred to in Chapter 2 recognizes a perceived need to honour and/or placate the spirits of dead ancestors. The hardiest communist leaders will also be found engaging in traditional ways of honouring the ancestral spirits by burning paper money and/or laying out food items at the tomb site, etc. during this festival. The shift from acknowledging the existence of spirits to also recognizing God as supreme Spirit will largely come about via a mental assent followed by an emotional and/or experience-based agreement. As those who enjoy and delight in personal relationship with God through Christ, we can help them into both stages by modelling the reality of God’s presence and Spirit within us. As our delight and joy in being His children permeates our lifestyle, the stories we tell of our experience of God loving us and caring for us can’t help but overflow the reality of His presence into the lives of those listening and watching. And so in the village setting, where Dr Co had been invited to open a dental clinic to meet oral healthcare needs, we were initially received as outsiders and with some suspicion. I joined her part-time in the early months and later fulltime and it soon also became a dental training centre for village doctors from further away. Sharing the reality of God’s faithful supply, and enjoying contentment in the midst of simplicity, with His daily grace and strength to bear difficulties, and His comfort in our times of pain and disappointment, all brought out a powerful testimony. The village setting was cold in winter with only small charcoal brick fire pots for warmth, and lacked basic amenities with no toilet or washing facilities in the early days – we could only follow the locals and let body waste fertilise the crops in the fields. Water was drawn from the river for cooking and Dr Co, in those very early days, took simple sponge baths until water was later piped in from the river and a solar shower installed. Living out what we said we believed – trust in God whether in plenty or little - was a crucial key for modelling integrity, but even when we made mistakes and fell short of what pleases God, willingness to admit our faults and ask for forgiveness was an even more powerful testimony. This was particularly so since China’s wider culture tends more towards the shame-oriented side of the guilt/shame spectrum. It reflects an unwillingness to expose vulnerability through admitting weaknesses, let alone acknowledging culpability and asking for forgiveness.29 29

After leaving the village area in 2004 we maintained contact with many of the church and small group leaders and/but also endured a number of experiences of interpersonal conflict. We were eventually delighted to receive a communication in 2017 from one particular lady who said she was convicted by the Holy Spirit to communicate and apologize for the deliberately hurtful remarks and condemning comments that she had made to us some six years earlier. In reading her request for forgiveness, it was a joy to recognize her new level of spiritual maturity working out, and a sweet privilege to reply

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Ultimately, what we said and how we lived our lives as Christians may not have agreed with communist beliefs or even the animist beliefs often found in more rural settings, but those listening and watching, and whose suspicions turned to warm friendship, certainly could not disagree with our personal experience of the reality of God’s presence at work in and through us. In principle, as we build deep and trusting relationships and prayerfully ask God to break down barriers that cause unbelief, our belief and knowledge of God’s presence becomes the catalyst for the local person’s mental assent to this truth and eventually brings them into the place where they are willing to ‘try’ praying to God. As they become more comfortable with this, we can then introduce the truth that confidence and assurance in interacting with God comes through having a personal relationship with Him twenty-four hours a day/seven days a week. At that stage we can either introduce Jesus as the means to come into that personal relationship or build on what we have already shared by sharing more about our own experience of personal relationship with Him. Throughout our communications and interactions it is crucial to be asking the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what to share and how far to go; be open to His inspired thoughts and ideas, which will fit with where our local friends are at. God knows each of our friends inside and out, and what steps forward each are ready to take, and importantly, when that should be, and how we might be part of their journey to Life process. Small-town Rural Setting After leaving the village we moved to the small-town setting in central Southern China with a population of about 300,000, including those living in the many surrounding hillside villages. As mentioned earlier, we initially met a need presented by the town health bureau by providing theoretical and practical dental training for three newly appointed dental graduates. Since they were already graduates we had to be far more subtle in the teaching process, not just to preserve their dignity but because dental patients would not expect them to still need overseeing. To this end, in a mentoring style the dental graduates would report back to Dr Co the patient’s symptoms and Dr Co would help them think through possible causes and treatments. Then, they would draw up a treatment plan and discuss it with Dr Co, and when the plan was approved would begin treating the patient. At the same time, particularly when difficulties occurred we would pray with and for the dental graduates for divine inspiration and leading. Relationally, we would invite them to each of our birthday gatherings and explain that our practice as people who know and to her that in Christ we are all forgivers and forgiven because of our heavenly Father’s great grace and unconditional love.

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love God is to pray for the birthday celebrant. That way we could build on the idea of God as present in a very real way and relate Jesus to the Christmas story birthday celebrant featured in our small but vibrant Christmas gatherings. Having established credibility through diligently teaching and overseeing the trainees throughout the first year, we also offered our time and skills for community healthcare education. With the local health bureau’s agreement, one of the hospital’s administrative doctors brought us to the remote village he’d grown up in and introduced us to the communist party leader and heads of the household smaller communities who administered leadership of his village and another nearby village. The results of the school children’s health check showed that 70% of the children showed symptoms of malnourishment with 30% of these being severely malnourished. 30 The hard copy results provided undeniable evidence of the need for development. The health committee members all immediately wanted to know how their children fared, with other parents keen to know the results of their children’s conditions too. The concrete evidence provided a far greater motivation for change than merely discussing theory. Paying attention to the situational specifics of teaching and learning, we next had the team of Filipino doctors, along with community healthcare education volunteers give some talks on the principles of community development work illustrated by examples from other settings replete with pictures and other visual aids. The sessions were held in an informal manner with snacks and interaction with visual aids so that the concrete-relational villagers would not feel intimidated. During these sessions the local leaders identified lack of clean water as a priority need through engaging with the visual aids. After the team left, we began the series of monthly healthcare lectures, which included reference to both physical needs and spiritual needs, and the communist party leader, village doctor, and household community leaders who made up the committee attended the sessions. As mentioned in chapter 1, initially not all the committee members would attend but once the first clean water system was constructed and provided concrete evidence of community transformation coming about, motivation to be involved increased. A total of five smaller community tanks were completed in two years and in the process, as previously described, the village doctor was the first to become a Christian, followed by his wife. Having already built credibility in dentistry, the local health bureau also invited us to give dental healthcare and tooth-brushing lectures in a number 30

According to the documented results of a survey carried out by a medical team from the Philippines, and following World Health Organization standards for what constitutes malnutrition and severe malnutrition.

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of town and village schools. Following the dental lectures, as previously mentioned, we were also able to return at Christmas to give a history lesson at a number of schools about the true Christmas story. To make the principles relevant to the cultural situation, we would explain that Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus and Jesus shows us what God’s unconditional love is like. If and when the teachers looked uncomfortable with the terminology, we would then explain that when children have God’s unconditional love in their hearts and seek to please Him they are more easily able to show respect and care for others, obey their parents and teachers, and grow up to be people who are good for society. This would satisfy the teachers that we did, indeed, have the good of society at heart and provided many marvellous spontaneous Spirit-led opportunities to not only share the Christmas story but also the reason why Jesus came, what he did as an adult, and why He did it. A great many cross-shaped Gospel seeds were sown along with older children responding to the Gospel message invitation. In that setting, whether town schools or village schools, regular follow-up was not possible but these were priceless opportunities to build Gospel ideas and beliefs into the young children’s worldviews. These beliefs may long lie dormant but are nevertheless securely placed for potential future growth and fruitfulness. Chinese City Islamic Setting Cities provide different challenges to towns and villages, let alone when Islam is added into the cultural mix. With the society being a mix of Muslims and Buddhist Chinese under an overall communist administration, building relationships and finding ways to bring a relevant and receivable message called for new ways again. Our platform was through providing continuing professional education (CPE) lectures to dental practitioners. These ranged from not-yet qualified trainees to those undertaking Masters level studies, those who had completed Masters level studies, and those who were considered to be teachers in dental departments at three different hospitals in the city. There was a high turnover of the unqualified personnel each year and representatives from a range of minority groups as well as Han Chinese and Muslims. It was clear from quite early on, through observation, that the Muslim personnel did not willingly associate with non-Muslims. We had agreed to give both clinical lectures at each hospital and a research lecture each week. To address the situational difficulty of social segregation as well as the passive learning tendency of the Chinese educational system, we designed the clinical lectures to be highly interactive and hands-on, as well as inviting participants to present their patient diagnosis/case analysis/potential treatment plans, etc. to the rest of the group or in designated smaller groups. This provided an environment for the participants to learn and interact together and we did our best to play

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to the concrete-relational preference and make the sessions interesting, enjoyable, and even fun! Dental staff at different levels of seniority in the lecture sessions seemed quite happy to interact together in the sessions as the common ground of interest was learning of theory and skills that were not yet available in China. As far as we were able we would intentionally acknowledge the higher level and ability of the more senior participants. Inevitably, some personnel were unwilling to move into an active learning stance and dropped out, whereas others were simply not interested in CPE and only went to the required-attendance research lectures. We realized too that it took brave Muslims to join in and stay in, and our prayer was that God would bring the ones He wanted us to interact with. As a result we would end each year with a reduced number of regular unqualified participants but, by then, had been able to build differing levels of relationship with them and the permanent personnel, and tried to show that we cared for each one as an individual. As for the first two settings, each of our birthdays was an opportunity to invite a few of these people at a time to celebrate with us. Having multiple birthday celebrations each year meant more opportunities to expose these dental colleagues to more of the God we’d mentioned that we pray to whenever it was possible to sow in Gospel seeds in the lecture sessions. Similarly for Christmas celebrations – these inevitably began as history lessons about the origin and true meaning of Christmas with very mild evangelism. As the years went on and colleagues became believers we would have several different birthday and Christmas celebrations. These would occur at different times and include mild evangelism for non-believers, a richer focus on evangelism for those clearly on the way to believing, and/or a scripture focus for both those who had become believers and their still-unsaved family members or friends whom they wanted to bring along. Inviting People to Come to Christ in the Light of Personal Situational Specifics

As of the stages in the conversion process described in Chapter 4, as we are led by God’s Holy Spirit, we help our friend or friends to discover the truth of Jesus. They must then be given time to deliberate on the issue before deciding to move forward and actually take some step of faith. It is so very important that they are not pushed, crowded, or manipulated into making decisions. If it is not a personal act of mind, heart, and will, when difficulties come and the dissonance stage arises, they will be more likely to fall back into their old ways.

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Very often the most vulnerable times are when our local friends are going through a crisis or they are facing issues and difficulties that the current worldview and cultural practices cannot help resolve. Example from the Third Area of Ministry

A doctor in our third area of ministry, a Muslim setting in China, publicly urged one of his interns that “Chinese people need to read God’s Word because it gives us answers to life’s difficult questions and good ways of living life that China just doesn’t have.” He was particularly referring to the expectation that Chinese adults are married before they are 30 years old. He had faced a major crisis when, in his early thirties, he broke off his engagement just months before the wedding because he was uncomfortable with some aspects of the lady’s unusual (unwholesome) moral convictions. Withdrawing from the engagement took great courage and left him depressed and anxious, but was the crisis time in which we encouraged him to discover what actually fuelled his self-esteem. Prayerfully asking God’s Holy Spirit to speak through us, we helped him recognize the association of depression with loss, and discover a new source of self-esteem as a child of God in Christ. With input from the Word and a new sense of purpose for his life, he was speaking to his intern from his own experience. His heart, mind, and will worked together to provide a rich testimony of the reality of God’s presence and leading in his own life as he shared his story with the young intern under his professional influence. This young intern had his own crisis after failing the national medical exam. As of his mentor, his own efforts had not been enough to secure what he wanted to achieve, and in some respects pride had been his downfall. Embarrassed and feeling insecure because of what had happened, he made the first early steps of a faith walk, asking God to help him through each day. As of any people being led in a salvation-seeking prayer, we then ask what they thought happened by and through the prayer. This gives a helpful way of discovering what and/or how much the one being led in prayer has understood about the event. It also gives the immediate opportunity to provide clarifications where necessary. Where the answer suggests that people appear only to have made a decision for Christ and/or prayed just to please us, we must make it clear that the focus is on pleasing God and not us! When the answer shows there has been misunderstanding this is the time to gently clarify matters until the feedback confirms we have communicated sufficiently and lucidly. Where people prefer to say no to the opportunity to invite Christ into their life, we need to be sure they are not merely saying no to an inappropriately presented message or have misunderstood what we were trying to get across. In that case, they weren’t refusing God or Jesus but just

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a very poorly communicated message! Openness to God’s Holy Spirit for what to say, and how and when to say it, is of the utmost importance. Developing that openness and sensitivity to His voice comes as we continuously seek to grow in intimacy with our Lord and Saviour. Some of our most fruitful times can be when we seemingly spontaneously grasp the unexpected and unplanned moments to interact with those sent our way by God for His timely purposes. Example from the First Area of Ministry

In the first area village setting, we attended the wedding celebration of a villager and it was the typical ‘all day and into the evening’ event of village weddings. As dusk approached, several meal tables had become tables for groups to play mahjong or card games. We were lounging at a table with a villager who had some years earlier cooked our lunch and dinner meals so we wouldn’t need to unnecessarily stop work in the clinic to prepare meals. We had known her for seven years and she was now heavily pregnant. We were surprised that she was lingering in the wedding courtyard so long but then when the other few people at our table got up and left and we asked how she was with the baby so soon coming, she frankly replied ‘I’m scared’. It transpired that she had been waiting to talk with us about her fears. That was the evening, in the midst of raucous card game players and mahjong players, that the seeds about God and Jesus sown previously by ourselves, the village believers, and only God knows who else, at last came to fruition and she asked Jesus into her life as we prayed for her and the baby. God as a Personal God

This lady had known about God for many years due to the various selective-invitation evangelistic activities we had held, along with invitations from village believers but, for her, as for many of our friends who are “on the way to the Way”, the step of faith required a desire to know God personally, not just know about Him. Communicating the difference between knowing about God and knowing God personally, along with the difference that makes, is of great importance in any context. The renowned missionary to India, E. Stanley Jones (Jones 1942:371) strongly advises against presenting Biblical principles but omitting the truth of God as a Being with personal attributes and the potential for being known personally. He writes: “Why won’t principles do? Why do we need a personal God?” someone asks. Well, suppose you got to a child crying for its mother and say, “Don’t cry, little child; I’m giving to you the principle of motherhood.” Would the tears dry and

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the face light up? Hardly. The child would brush aside your principle of motherhood and cry for its mother. We all want, not a principle nor a picture, but a Person.

Example from the Third Area of Ministry

In the third area we had built a growing friendship with a lady doctor who was recognized as a teacher in the hospital. We prayed for her and her baby several times in between clinic lectures and even as she consulted with Dr Co about treatment plans. When we eventually asked if she would like to know God personally as we do, she replied no, she couldn’t because her mother had told her she should not believe in religious ideas. In the years following we maintained the friendship and invited her to birthday and Christmas events. When God’s ordained moment combined with her time of crisis she was ready to say, yes, she needed the hope that we’d told her the power and presence of Jesus in her life would bring. As she prayed to receive forgiveness and new life through Jesus the presence of God was tangible to her and she palpably radiated the glow and life of the Holy Spirit within. Her crisis situation was our opportunity to bring the, by then, deep friendship into a sisterhood before the great hope-restoring Heavenly Father God. The Power of Hope Example from the Second area of Ministry In the second area where we were involved in community health work, the village doctor came to a point where he was very discouraged by the inattentiveness of the household area members who had been designated to join the community health training. The training sessions were once a month and the doctor would take about an hour to hike across the rugged mountainous terrain from his home to the site of the communal meeting building that served both villages. As a doctor he was well aware that children had died because of sickness and malnutrition and elderly villagers were prone to infection and unnecessary illness due to very low body resistance. He thoroughly welcomed our encouragements towards transformation but other members of the community were not so willing to engage. On one of the first few occasions we arrived by hired minivan at the meeting place to discover no one else had arrived, whereas he had arrived early and was sleeping on a bench awaiting our arrival that morning. He told us of his bitterness towards these community members who couldn’t see beyond their own households let alone that what we were offering could make a big difference for their children and for themselves in their

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old age. We could see that the doctor was a man of vision and deeply frustrated, so we quietly asked God how we should respond. We shared our own life experiences of God’s presence, which comforts in the discouragements, and inner strength to follow His good ways at whatever the cost. We shared too that knowing that living our lives for His purposes means there is also hope, despite how gloomy or seemingly irresolvable the conditions appear. The doctor was very open to what we told him and said without any hesitation that he would like to try knowing God personally. We shared more about the place of Jesus in the relationship, led him in prayer, and then prayed together for the village community and its members, and for the community health project to be a means of transformation by God’s grace and inspiration.

Situational Contextualisation as a Vehicle for Transforming Communities Example from the Villages’ Ministry Setting The situationally contextualised training method promoted the contextual thinking and handling of knowledge (Baxter Magolda 1996), and constructive reflective thinking (King and Kitchener 1994), that are key for both appropriate diagnosis and treatment planning of dental patients as well as appropriate and sensitive action in ministry situations and handling of Bible/ministry-related issues in the local and wider context. As a result the community received holistic transformation and local people were empowered to continue that transformation. Witek (2001, 27) writes: “to what extent the Chinese Christians can learn about contributing to China’s welfare, and thus to its civic culture, is a topic that needs further exploration and analysis by a wide range of scholarship”. The goal of indigeneity with respect to both the dentistry and the Christian groups was so that the local Christians might be able to touch and influence the wider community in a culturally appropriate way in both the physical and spiritual realms. In the villages’ setting, in order to promote indigeneity, there was an understanding from day one that the dental clinic would eventually be managed entirely by trained locals whilst trainees from further away would start dental practices in other and remote locations after completing training. That there was a time limit on the presence of the facilitators was understood by the facilitators, the Chinese trainees, and the Chinese local health bureau. The longer-term aim of the training was to empower the locals so that we could move away leaving a fully functioning body of believers with no dependence on foreigner input. This was largely achieved in the first six years and monitored in a further four. Apart from the important goal of

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indigeneity for a contextually spiritually healthy and appropriately growing church, the political situation thrown up by communism also meant there would inevitably be limits on how long we foreigners could continue to be involved on-site. Once the church planting process had moved into the church-growing stage and the activity increased as new groups started and were being led by the local believers, we sensed it was time to leave. Dr Co and I were aware that some dental trainees would also leave and return to other areas and discover that different conditions would be in play. Similarly, not all of the Bible/ministry training participants were from the immediate area. Others were leading church groups in villages and communities that were not their own, so, as also for the dental trainees, the training sought to encourage a context-aware outlook. That included flexibility in how the situational practicalities of different aspects of dentistry and/or ministry might be carried out so as to be contextually appropriate. Even while in the current setting, they were also encouraged to seek to engender this situationally contextually aware outlook in those they were ministering to, and with, since the ones being ministered to would eventually also become empowered to become the initiators of transformation elsewhere in other villages and communities. Conclusions

In the years we were on-site in the first village setting, the dental health care training was welcomed as it was seen as beneficial to and for the people, made a recognisable contribution to social conditions in a rural area, and was welcomed by the government because it promoted and engendered well-being for the people. As a result the accompanying Christian message met with no obvious antagonism. This was also the case for the dental training and community health training in the second area, and dental training in the third area. By intentionally adapting the teaching and learning method for the situational specifics of the context, the trainees successfully moved on from passive learning to interactive learning and critical thinking. In conclusion, it is vitally important to be sensitive to both national and local situational factors that might either hinder or benefit outreach activities. Empowering transformation of communities requires sensitivity to both the big picture national cultural understandings and expectations, as well as advice from, or observation of, our local friends to discern local situational specifics. At the same time we need to intentionally keep our ears open to the Holy Spirit for inspiration on how to minister fruitfully within or despite the situational specifics.

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Discussion Questions 1.

2. 3. 4.

5.

6.

In a new setting, how might you become aware of the situational specifics that need addressing so that your outreach endeavours don’t just become a fruitless waste of resources including time, money, and physical and emotional energy ? In settings resistant to the Gospel, how might you discover which approaches to outreach will be feasible and which will not? How might short-term mission teams unintentionally hinder outreach in settings that are resistant to the Gospel? How could this problem be addressed? To what extent, or not, might it be reasonable for missionaries to urge the local church in settings that are resistant to the Gospel to join the missionaries in the fight against injustice? Relate your own experiences or think up some examples and the associated implications. How might believers in settings resistant to the Gospel practically balance the fight against injustice with the Gospel message of love and forgiveness? Suggest any boundaries you consider would be appropriate and/but the associated limitations on achieving justice. Suggest examples for a justice-seeking ministry among oppressed journalists in a communist or dictatorship setting; now suggest examples for a justice-providing ministry for oppressed house-servant women in an extreme fundamentalist and legalistic Christian setting, and then in an Islamic setting. Be sure to consider the situational implications for making public each of these cases.

Chapter 6 Contextualised Church (Discipleship, Church Planting, and On-going Multiplication)

Introduction

In this chapter we start by differentiating between groups of believers meeting together and what makes for a church. Then we turn to the bigger picture process of church planting before addressing more specific aspects in terms of contextualisation and the beginning and evolvement of a contextualised church. What is the Difference Between a Church and a Group of Christians Who Meet Together?

One of the class exercises I often employ when teaching missions courses is to ask students to form groups and come up with an answer to the question, “How do you know when you have actually planted a church?” My reasoning is that if we are engaged in missionary activity that particularly aims to plant churches (whether cross-culturally or not), we need to be clear when we have achieved the goal. Initial responses usually include answers such as “when the group has grown to a certain size” or “when the group has grown big enough that it needs to divide” (e.g. cell group approaches),1 to which I then ask, “So, how many believers are needed for the group to become a church? Does the Bible give any indication?” We eventually go to the whiteboard and as ideas are called out, I build up two lists: the first list is what small groups/cell group/house groups are and do, and the second lists what churches are and do. Typically we’ll see functions such as praise and worship, prayer, teaching from the Bible, fellowship, and evangelistic outreach, all of which will need to be appropriately contextualised.

1

Dr Co and I preferred not to follow a cell group approach since the typical cell model expectation of every member being involved all the time and in every activity was just not realistic in the village setting. Equally, the typical cell model pressure to continually bring in new converts could merely have established a collective numerical-growth performance type of churchmanship driven by organizational expectations, rather than encouraging a depth of spiritual growth and fruitfulness that comes from a delight to be in personal relationship with God and led by the Spirit for His purposes in the lives of others in multiple different ways.

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Inevitably there is much overlap until issues related to leadership arise and the discussion will then follow the line of how do you decide who is the leader (or leaders). This will be followed by discussion on what leaders do that the rest of the group or church members don’t do, and on to the issue of sacraments such as baptism, Holy Communion (or however else it might be termed), marriage blessing, baby dedication, etc., which are seen as performed by the leader or leaders. This then reveals the major difference between small groups and church, wherein churches have leaders who have attained to recognised levels of role and authority, possibly through training (and hopefully, also spiritual maturity), and that leaders also operate in the sacraments for the entire body. Holy Communion may well be enjoyed in a small group setting but baptisms, marriages, funerals, etc. are ministry functions of the overall church leadership and usually take place within the bigger congregation and setting of the church to which the small group belongs. One of the biggest misconceptions about what a church is comes from an incorrect emphasis on what it is supposed to do rather than what it is supposed to be. As the Body of Christ on earth, appropriate being is the crucial prerequisite to doing. Doing for or with Christ must come from being in Christ and not the other way round. Similarly, defining church merely in terms of physical characteristics, e.g. the presence and/or appearance of a building or meeting place can also miss the point of its purpose. Roland Allen (1912/1962:126) suggests that the Bible gives all we need to know about church and it really is not complicated: “[Christians] were members one of another in virtue of their baptism. Each was united to every other Christian everywhere, by the closest of spiritual ties, communion in the one Spirit. Each was united to all by the common rites, participation in the same sacraments. Each was united to all by common dangers and common hopes”. With rather more detail, Cole (2009:643-44) describes how “a church is generally understood to embody the following five characteristics: A group of believers gathered together regularly, that considers itself a church, that has qualified elders [or leaders] present, that regularly practices the ordinances of baptism and communion as well as church discipline, and that has an agreed-on set of doctrinal beliefs and evangelistic purpose”. In addition, Cole points out the hugely important factor wherein the church is the means for Jesus to be seen at work in the midst of the surrounding and wider community as the church lives out the embodiment of Jesus and carries out God’s mission of changing lives and transforming communities and cultures. Cole emphasises the big difference between a group of believers being and doing ministry as a church for Jesus and that same group of believers recognizing the ministry as being done by Jesus, i.e. Jesus is ministering to the community at large in and through the church members.

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From the very early days of church planting in the village setting, we did not use the term ‘church’ at all but rather encouraged the believers to see themselves as that part of the worldwide Body of Christ who happened to gather together for God’s purposes in that remote village setting. Once any of the groups started functioning as a church we still did not use the term. Instead we waited to introduce the term ‘church’ and church-related terminology until some of the last teaching sessions with the leaders in the months before leaving.2 The aim was to familiarise them with the different Biblical models of church and church management so that if necessary, at a later stage, they could make informed decisions about changes and particularly make informed decisions concerning changes that might be suggested or urged by Christians from outside the setting. New Testament Models of Church Governance (or Church Management) Episcopal Model of Church Governance This is seen in Acts 15:1-2, 7 in the top-down leadership decision-making process at the Council at Jerusalem. Typically, a single leader holds all authority over the congregation and members have confidence in the leader. Spiritually young believers from high-power distance cultures will often prefer this leadership model because it clearly defines roles, authority, and responsibilities. Advantages of this model include that decisions and changes can be made relatively easily but it assumes that the leader is reasonably spiritually mature and also accountable to other mature leaders. On this basis, the congregation will more easily receive direction from their leader. The Episcopal model also has disadvantages, for instance that all authority held by one person can bring pride and conceit, as well as that decisions don’t go through any other appraisal process. One of the major drawbacks of Episcopal church management can be seen when the leader not only has the ultimate authority but also takes responsibility for all aspects of church life so that congregation members are neither helped to discover their spiritual gifts nor encouraged to use them and play their part as members of the body. In a worst-case scenario the leader can easily become controlling and unwilling to delegate authority or train new leaders, and the group might even become a sect or cult. Congregational Model of Church Governance We see this in Acts 6:1-6 when the congregation as a body chooses who will have position(s) of authority. Less spiritually mature believers in low-power distance cultures will often prefer this model of leadership. 2

This is further described in D-Davidson (2009a).

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Advantages include that, especially for a smaller group, the group members will know one another well enough to make relevant choices and decisions. The disadvantages include that decision making becomes more complicated because many people can make suggestions and this delays the process. In addition, as of any group of people committed to a common cause, members are not likely to be equally mature in terms of adult maturity let alone spiritual maturity, and immaturity can affect the choices made with the potential for unhelpful consequences. In particular, if we consider personality factors too, the most outgoing people with influential voices are not necessarily the most mature voices. Presbyterian Model of Church Governance In Acts 14:21-24, Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. Here we see spiritually young congregations with several people appointed to lead them. The advantages include that the leaders seek God’s leading for the congregation together. Group leadership means authority and decision making are shared with no single person in a position to be controlling or succumb to pride at gaining a lofty position. Unlike Episcopal and Congregational models that can choose leaders from outside the congregation, Presbyterian leaders are often chosen from within the congregation so they know the history and specific needs of members. This can also encourage and promote an environment for congregation members to discover and use their spiritual gifts as well as for training new and emerging leaders. What are the disadvantages? Less spiritually mature members, as well as those with underdeveloped adult maturity, often prefer to follow one leader rather than a group of leaders and this can result in division. In addition, if mutual accountability and servant-hearted humility are not in operation, the most influential voice within the leaders group may also inappropriately direct the leaders group. Models of Church Planting

Ott (2001:338-44) describes three different models or approaches to missionary church planting: the pastoral church planter, the apostolic church planter, and the catalytic church planter. He suggests that the first model is most common when a new church is started and developed by the church planter until the church has its own pastor raised up and the church is able to pay him. He describes the apostolic church planter as modeling Paul who “focused on empowering the local believers” (340) rather than taking on the role of pastor. and lastly, the catalytic church planter as one who plants a church which then becomes the base from which members both begin and establish daughter churches. Ott advises (343) that the first model works best in a setting that is both responsive and relatively affluent,

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i.e. so that a pastor can be financially supported. Ott is writing very much from a Western context, which presumes the pastoral role must inevitably be a full-time job, but this certainly need not necessarily apply to all settings. He further suggests (344) that the catalytic model “is best suited for urban areas of moderate responsiveness and with potential for multiple church planting in the region”, whereas “the apostolic [Pauline] model is most versatile…suited for both rural and urban populations and seems to be the approach which God has most greatly blessed…” Paul’s letters to the New Testament era churches consistently project an expectancy that a believer’s life will change as they walk in step with the Holy Spirit and that God’s unconditional love lived out through believers will bear fruit in the changed lives of others. More than an individual effort, Paul encouraged that the church, as the body headed by Christ, is made up of different members, each with a different part to play in God’s eternal purposes. A spiritually healthy church not only grows in number and depth of maturity within its members but also reaches out appropriately to the wider community and further. Paul’s experience of being sent out by the Antioch church as a missionary with Barnabas brings a call to churches worldwide to be missionary-sending churches, however this may look culturally. Modalities and Sodalities George Miley (2009:747-8) urges that there are some factors a church should be careful to guard against when looking to be a missionary-sending church: having an independent attitude; a failure to count the cost of commitment to church planting (i.e. the church leadership should be as committed as those being sent, and the whole church should own the missions activities); having only a short-term mentality when sending short-term teams rather than seeing short-term workers as functioning as an integral part of a long-term process; sending people with insufficient or inappropriate training; and lack of long-term member care. Miley continues (749): “Mission to unreached peoples requires apostolic structures. Local churches are primarily pastoral structures – they function to nurture their members with a focus on protection, maintaining continuity, avoiding risks and bringing members to spiritual maturity. Such structures are called modalities.” The danger is that modalities can become inward looking and spend the bulk of available manpower energy in merely maintaining the structure rather than expanding and enriching it. In comparison and contrast, Miley suggests that “An apostolic structure is designed to carry out the mission of extending the Kingdom. It focuses on initiation, plans on taking risks and perseveres against great odds.” These apostolic structures are sodality structures (not unlike the previously used term of parachurch), and, importantly, the two do well to work together.

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Like Roland Allen’s (1912/1962)3 concern for missionaries to follow Paul’s very fruitful apostolic principles of missionary method, as found in the New Testament, Hesselgrave (2008:46) cites A.R. Hay’s (1947:220) view that “Paul’s ministry and that of his companions is recorded in detail because he and they provide a typical example for the exceedingly important permanent ministry of church-planting.” The Pauline Church Planting Cycle Hesselgrave (2000:47-48) describes what he terms the “Pauline Church Planting Cycle” and lists the following ten steps in the cycle along with relevant New Testament backing:4 1. The Missionaries are Commissioned – a church sends out Christian workers to plant one or more churches. Acts 13:1-4; 15:40 2. The Audience is Contacted – the missionaries make contact with people who are not Christians and find ways to establish their credibility as bringers of a relevant message. Acts 13:14-16 3. The Gospel is Communicated – the missionaries build relationships and share the good news of Jesus Christ. Acts 13:43-44; 14:1 4. The Hearers are Converted – some decide to become followers of Christ and are given instruction on the implications and lifestyle of being His followers. Acts 14:21-22; 16:13-15 5. The Believers are Congregated – the believers are urged to meet together regularly. Acts 18:11 6. The Faith of the believers is Confirmed. Acts 14:21-22; 15:41 7. The Leadership is Consecrated. Acts 14:23 8. The Believers are Commended. Acts 14:23; 16:40 9. The Relationships are Continued. Acts 15:36; 18:23 10. Sending churches are Convened. Acts14:26-27; 15:1-4 Hesselgrave acknowledges that Paul didn’t actually carry out every step in all the places he ministered but suggests that (48) “the cycle [is] a sort of 3

Allen (1912/1962:3), previously referred to in chapter 1, wrote “St Paul established the Church in four provinces of the Empire (Galatia, Macedonia, Archaia, and Asia [note: Galatia is now East of Eastern Turkey, Macedonia and Archaia are now in Greece, Asia (or Asia Minor) was then a part of what is now West of Eastern Turkey and home then to Troas, Ephesus on the coast of the Aegean sea]) in a little over ten years. Before 47 AD there were no churches in these provinces; in 57 AD St Paul speaks as though his work there was done and he could plan extensive tours into the far west without anxiety that the churches he had planted would perish in his absence for want of his guidance and support…The churches were really established and in a relatively short time. Many missionaries in later days have received a larger number of converts, many have preached over a wider area than he but none have established churches like he did…” What is it about his methods that modern missionaries have missed? Roland Allen was an Anglican priest and missionary to China from 1895–1903. His classic text, “Missionary Methods: Saint Paul’s or Ours?”, was originally published in 1912 and/but, as previously mentioned, the points he raised are still relevant more than a century later. 4 I have modified some of Hesselgrave’s original scripture suggestions.

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hybrid or composite inferred from a total ministry rather than the basis for a plan in any given situation”. The Four Ps Stages in Church Planting 5

Fuller (1980) describes the Four Ps model of church planting according to the stages wherein the missionary or church planter acts as a Pioneer, Parent, Partner, and Participant (interaction by invitation). The pioneer stage assumes there is no local church so evangelism is begun. The parent stage sees the missionary acting as a spiritual parent to new believers, helping them to embrace their new Christian faith and grow in love and trust of God. Partnering sees the missionary more like an older sibling whilst members of the church have by now been helped to become leaders making decisions on their own terms appropriate for the context. The final stage sees the missionary and local church leaders on equal terms with the missionary, offering advice only as it is requested. Example of the Church Planting Steps in the Rural China Village Setting 1. 2.

Lead people to Jesus and disciple them. Encourage a love for God, His Word, other believers, and a desire to share that love to non-Christians. 3. Help the believers to discover and start using their spiritual gifts. 4. Give responsibility in small amounts as soon as possible. 5. Be a mentor to those starting to take responsibility – praise the positives and successes. Be assertive with gentleness and graciousness and careful not to be overcritical of mistakes. 6. Don’t dominate the group – ask the members to suggest appropriate ways of evangelism, etc. 7. Don’t spend so much time with the first group that you are not continuing evangelism yourself! Model evangelism in the midst of life for the local believers to see 8. Teach them to become familiar with God’s Word, and how to understand the Bible for themselves, and ensure that they are also able to teach others. 9. Find reasons not to be at the services so that local believers take full responsibility, but be available at other times for mentoring/ prayer/discussion of issues. 10. Aim to hand over full responsibility to the local believers once they are aware of, and living out, the basic commands of Christ. 11. As you prepare to withdraw make sure the believers are not only clear about these basic commands of Christ but are also competent in exerting authority in spiritual matters. 5

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Hand over the ministry and maintain an interdependent, mutually caring, and encouraging relationship, offering input only as it is requested. Contextualised Church

In the previous chapters we have seen the importance and effectiveness of presenting a relevant and receivable message so that local people will be willing to make a positive response to the Gospel message. Having seen the bigger picture of the church planting process we now turn to look at what constitutes a contextualised church, beginning with establishing spiritually young local believers in the faith. We concurrently look to see how we can develop the first small group into a contextualised church. By this we mean a church that is appropriately planted by fitting in with the local context devoid of any syncretistic leanings, is not dependent on outside resources, continues to reach out of its own accord with growth in a way that makes it an attraction within the local context, and so acts as a catalyst for bringing healthy transformation of the local and wider community. The Three-self and Four-self Principle in Relation to Indigenous Churches and Contextualisation Rufus Anderson (senior secretary on the American Board 1832-1866) believed that the missionary was only a planter; the harvest was up to God. What missions and missionaries had often exported was their idea of the Gospel that they had mistakenly associated with the Gospel itself. Rather than make converts like the foreign missionaries in their habits and manners, each mission should not look to control the course of the Gospel but to trust the spread of the Gospel to the local believers. At that time Westerners made up the majority of the worldwide missionary body. Rufus Anderson in the USA and Henry Venn in the UK were both inspired to suggest the three-self principle wherein the effectiveness of churches planted by missionaries would depend on the degree to which the churches were self-governing, self-financing, and self-propagating. It is an excellent principle in theory but quite a challenge to work out in practice. For instance, Venn can be criticised for not following the principle concerning self-governance since, although national Christians were appointed as leaders of the Anglican church in Africa, they still had to follow the Anglican churchmanship style of priest as the sole spiritual leader of each local church. Similarly, the wearing of robes and use of historical liturgy and nineteenth-century European hymns certainly would not have promoted an indigenous appearance. As Hastings (2003:24) notes,

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One must remember that even in 1950 there was not a single black Anglican diocesan bishop in Africa. [Moreover, although] Anglican missionary theory progressed beyond an ‘ecclesiastical expansion of England’6 it was still viewed, noticeably by Henry Venn, in essentially national terms. There was to be an accession of national churches reflecting ‘national peculiarities’ and ‘making a national profession of faith,’ to quote a paper of Venn ‘On Nationality’. 7 Doubtless for Venn ‘national’ meant little more than local or native, but it reflected an ecclesiology that could hardly think except in terms of a ‘national [Church of England] church.’ Anglican missionary nationalism was fortified by conviction of the providential role of the British Empire for the worldwide spread of Christianity, but it came to be fiercely challenged precisely by some of the most sensitive Anglican missionaries of the twentieth century, notably C.F. Andrews and Arthur Shearly Cripps. While Oldham [also of Anglican persuasion] represented in principle the quintessence of ‘supranationality,’ in practice, he distrusted such extremists.

Smalley (2009:497) observes that “It may be very easy to have a self-governing church which is not indigenous…All that is needed is to indoctrinate a few leaders in Western patterns of church governance, and let them take over.” During a missions class discussion on this topic, a Chinese student asked me whether the wearing of choir robes in the Chinese government-authorised three-self churches was indigenous or not. I asked him, ‘What do you think?’ and he replied, ‘It’s not indigenous – it must have come from the missionaries.’ However, we can’t help but rejoice that, by God’s grace, these churches continued on so that the Holy Spirit isn’t restricted by limitations imposed by missionaries! Just as Rufus Anderson was concerned that Western understandings of Christianity should not be imposed on churches planted by missionaries from outside the setting, a century and a half later, the same error can just as equally be made by missionaries from non-Western countries. After running the same session with a class of students from some eight different Asian countries, two Koreans came up to me, one of whom had been a missionary to North East China and the other a missionary to South Africa. They said to me, ‘Now we understand why we are having problems in cross-cultural church planting – we were both trying to plant a Korean church!’ The three-self principle was inevitably eventually added to by a fourth self: that the churches planted by missionaries also become ‘self-theologizing’, i.e. that national Christians are also engaging in the process of deciding on Biblically sound approaches to theology and praxis

6 7

This quotes the title of a late Victorian study Cf. Ward and Stanley (2000:346). Cited after Ward and Stanley (2000:164–65).

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as necessary due to the contingencies and circumstances of their own setting. Self-theologizing was deemed necessary since, until then “It was the missionaries, not the members of the young churches, who would determine the limits of indigenisation” (Bosch 1991, 925). Beyerhaus (1971:278) writes: “To be indigenous means that a church, in obedience to the apostolic message that has been entrusted to it and to the living guidance of the Holy Spirit, is able in its own historical situation to make the gospel intelligible and relevant in word and deed to the eyes and ears of men.” In this respect, following the cycle or some similar arrangement of steps to start a truly contextualised church and bring it to full establishment needs sensitivity to what is both biblical, and contextually and situationally appropriate. Gilliland (1989:vii) urges us to be aware of the two equally spiritually unhealthy extremes in cross-cultural church-planting: At the one extreme “you end in obscurantism, so attached to your conventional ways of practicing and teaching the faith that you veil its truth and power from those who are trying to see it through very different eyes…[at the other extreme is] syncretism [which] compromises the uniqueness of Christ and [delivers a false Gospel]”. Newbigin (1994:67) confirms these two extremes and further warns us that there are always two opposite dangers…between which one must steer. On the one side there is the danger that one finds no point of contact for the message as the missionary preaches it, [so that] to the people of the local culture the message appears irrelevant and meaningless [whilst at the other extreme] is the danger that the point of contact determines entirely the way that the message is received, and the result is syncretism. Every missionary path has to find the way between these two dangers: irrelevance and syncretism. And if one is more afraid of one danger than the other, one will certainly fall into the opposite.

Critical Contextualisation and Self-Theologizing So As to Avoid Syncretism Hiebert (1985:184-90) addresses the question of how missionaries, and local people who become Christians, should deal with their traditional cultural beliefs, values, customs, and institutions by pointing out that there are three possible ways: denial of the old (rejection of contextualisation); acceptance of the old (uncritical contextualisation); dealing with the old (critical contextualisation). Of “Denial of the Old: Rejection of Contextualisation”, Hiebert (184) recognizes, in the past, missionaries were inclined to label most of the traditional customs as “pagan…Sometimes, this rejection was rooted in ethnocentrism of the missionaries, who tended to equate the gospel with their own culture and consequently judged other cultural ways as bad” or inferior especially during the colonial era. He presents three major

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problems that arose from the rejection of old cultural ways. First, it created a cultural vacuum that needed to be occupied by uncritically receiving the cultural beliefs and systems of the missionary. Second, by oppressing old cultural ways, it could provoke the locals to practice in secret a syncretistic mix of Christian and non-Christian beliefs. Third, the condemnation of old ways denied converts an opportunity to make their own decisions. In relation to “Acceptance of the Old: Uncritical Contextualisation” (185-86), Hiebert presents two major faults: “Firstly, it overlooks the fact that there are corporate and cultural sins as well as personal transgressions.” Clearly, the aim of the Gospel is to not just bring about individual change but also societal change. Secondly, uncritical contextualisation provides no means of preventing syncretism. Concerning “Dealing with the Old: Critical Contextualisation”, Hiebert (186) asks: “What should missionaries and the Christian converts do about their cultural heritage?” He suggests neither rejecting nor accepting cultural practices and beliefs without first examining them in the light of biblical norms. We should be able to see that it is important for missionaries or outsiders to be aware of not just cultural forms or practices but also their function in holding the community together, i.e. why the people follow the practice, and importantly, what are the associated underlying worldview beliefs. In this light we aim to separate out practices that have deep religious significance (or practices with underlying beliefs that run counter to biblical principles) from practices that are merely a matter of aesthetics or practicality, e.g. design of accommodation out of purely artistic preference or use of particular utensils such as for eating or household purposes, e.g. use of chopsticks by Chinese people as opposed to use of spoon and fork by Filipinos. If in doubt about specifics of worldview beliefs associated with particular cultural practices, the best way to discover them is by asking local people whom we have come to know and trust. The Critical Contextualisation Process

Hiebert provides several steps for the critical contextualisation process: “First, an individual or church must recognise the need to deal biblically with all areas of life,” which is “one of the important functions of leadership in the church”. Second, local church leaders and the missionaries must encourage the congregation to meet and analyze the different cultural ways. Third, “the pastor or missionary leads the church in a study of Scriptures related to the question at hand”. Fourth, “the people corporately critically evaluate their own past customs in the light of their new biblical understandings and make decisions regarding their response to their new-found truths”.

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Hiebert (187) rightly recognises the importance of non-local missionaries to allow the people to make the final decision because, once they are familiar with relevant biblical teaching, they are in a better position than the missionary to critique local beliefs and customs. At the same time, the missionary may need to raise questions, because it is also possible that the local people will fail to see clearly how their own cultural biases or assumptions run contrary to scripture. Fifth, “having led the people to analyse their old customs in the light of biblical teaching, the pastor or missionary must help them to arrange the practices they have chosen into a new ritual that expresses the Christian meaning of the event”. Hiebert further advises that as well as rearranging old practices, local believers will also need to be incorporating new ones. Where the local leaders ultimately make choices on behalf of the people, they must also be willing to stand behind these choices and enforce them. They, and their people, also need to be willing to reject those practices which would compromise the integrity of the local church in relation to living out biblical principles. Perhaps quite understandably, Hiebert puts the onus of critical contextualisation onto local church leaders in cooperation with the missionary or missionaries. However, at the end of chapter 4, I gave a fine example of a spiritually very young Chinese villager articulating in a group setting how he dealt with unbiblical cultural practices associated with honouring the dead. The young man had prayerfully sought God about behaviour that would please Him, and the Holy Spirit inspired him to speak out praise and thanks to God for the ancestor being honoured while with his family at the graveside. In that way the young man was recognizing the ancestor (who was a crucial part of the family line that brought the young man to birth) but transferring worship to God. The young man was living proof of the principle expounded by Roland Allen, who encouraged missionaries to trust that the same Holy Spirit who inspired and taught them life-changing truth could, and does, also inspire and teach the local believers. In encouraging and discipling the young believers, my colleague and I had exposed them to a range of scriptures concerning the inner life and visible behaviour that is possible for us who are in Christ Jesus, but prayed for the Holy Spirit to bring each one conviction of what would be an appropriate response in light of biblical truths and principles. Ultimately, Hiebert (216) prefers that although “Critical contextualisation does not operate from a mono-cultural perspective,” the local believers must also be encouraged to appropriately self-theologise so that the Gospel and appropriate aspects of individual and corporate lifestyle may be understood in their own unique culture. On a more theoretical and perhaps not quite so practical note, Hiebert suggests that, since every Christian body in every culture is part of a worldwide community of believers, they also each need to develop their

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own theology in communication with one another and the larger body. I would suggest that engaging with the entire worldwide body of believers is a marvellous ideal but impossible to actually achieve. Despite this, Hiebert offers some characteristics of such a theology. First, it should be biblically based and understandable in each cultural setting. Second (217), it should be super-cultural. He asks how can theology overcome the biases of different cultures? We should acknowledge that “there are fundamental similarities underlying all cultures [due to] common humanity and shared experience”. For example, “birth, life, and death; joy, sadness, and pain; drives, fears and needs; all create categories, languages and cultures; all have sinned and need salvation”. In addition (218), since “outsiders often see things that insiders do not,” we need to hear from other cultures to overcome our own cultural presumptions so that our own theology can become truly biblical. Third, it should recognise God’s working in history and “it should be…Christological. The centre of the Gospel is the incarnation [of Jesus]. His death and resurrection are the heart of redemption”. Fourth, it should be Holy Spirit-led. Theology must rely on the work of the Holy Spirit so that what is intuited to us is truly of God and does not run counter to the truths and direction of the Bible. Hiebert further suggests that, aside from locally devised theologies which speak to local specifics, seeking a super-cultural theology can help us be enlightened as to the cultural biases in our theologies, in addition the worldwide fellowship of believers might be united, and moreover, the missio Dei task might be cooperatively completed. On a practical note, we should probably recognise that few churches in any part of the world are likely to have a congregational majority keen to ‘do theology’, so it might be more helpful to change the term to something that more reflects ‘self-contextualizing’ and help growing believers to recognise the need for it. As already mentioned, this means ultimately seeing the local believers work out which beliefs and practices need rejecting or modifying, and how to incorporate new beliefs and practices, as well as prayerfully considering how the continuation of the spread of the Gospel and their culture best fit together. Typical Church Functions to Be Contextualised

Churchmanship worldwide includes functions such as praise and worship, teaching from the Holy Bible, prayer, fellowship, and evangelistic outreach. Having gone through the critical contextualisation process to evaluate and either keep, discard, or modify existing cultural practices, prayerful consideration must also be given concerning contextualizing the incorporation of church functions.

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For praise and worship, for instance, the believers may need to consider whether use of cultural musical instruments and music style will help or hinder the church. On the one hand such use points to indigeneity but on the other hand, could non-believers misunderstand the use? Redeeming unbiblical practices by claiming their use in a new way for the church can also provide opportunities for evangelism, especially in smaller communities, as local believers interact intentionally with their family members, friends, and neighbours and explain their new perception and interpretation of the cultural practice. We can hopefully appreciate by now that a contextualised church will likely have its best beginnings from contextualised evangelism. Wright (1998:453) defines contextualised evangelism as “presenting the uncompromising gospel of Jesus Christ in the sociocultural, ethnic, and linguistic context of the hearers so they may respond and be discipled into a church”. Example from the China Villages Setting: As deemed culturally and situationally appropriate by the Christian villagers, the Christians met for worship in different houses and in different village locations with a joyful spontaneity. Wherever the worship service was chosen to take place, whoever else happened to be in the house or courtyard was automatically invited to join the group having the service. This provided opportunities for relaxed sharing of the Christian faith with evangelism perceived and practiced as a ‘normal’ aspect of Christian life and this was the initiative of the local believers. Grounding of Faith as Appropriate to the Context

Moreau et al (2014:290-91) write: “New believers’ faith needs to be biblically grounded and understandable within the culture. The point is not to make the new church indistinguishable from the culture, for no church is to be so culturally bound. Rather, the goal is that the forms of faith exhibited by the new believers be understandable to them and to nonbelievers within their culture. We want new believers made over not in our image, but in what Christ’s image would be if he took on their language and culture.” Establishing new believers in the Christian faith has universally long been described by the term ‘discipleship’. Discipleship, by definition, is essentially a means to the end goal of becoming like Christ so that we follow His ways and leading regardless of the circumstances or conditions. In becoming like Him, we aim to be those who live lives of unconditional love and willing self-denial in God’s greater purposes, moreover be those who daily die to self (1 Cor. 15:31).

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We not only need to be careful to look for appropriate ways of offering discipleship in the local context but also need to remember that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach when it comes to helping people grow in their relationship with God, thus becoming more Christ-like. Moreau et al (2014:248) suggest that rather than follow a pattern or style from one’s background culture and church setting, it is better to be “asking what a disciple should look like in light of the national’s values”. Similarly, materials that worked well in our background culture will probably need contextualizing in terms of content or presentation of content for those in the different culture we are ministering to. Examples of contextualisation of materials in China include, for instance, Warren’s (2002) ‘The Purpose-Driven Life’ being reinterpreted and translated to express a more collectivist and less individualist approach to walking in God’s purposes so that the Western individualistic approach to making decisions and choices no longer so deeply coloured the main thrust of the book. In addition, materials that appear to work well in our background culture may well have been more effective for certain personality types and less effective for others, and this is likely to also be the case in other cultural settings. For instance, encouraging new believers to follow a laid out daily Bible reading schedule works well with Beaver (melancholic) personalities who prefer well-ordered plans and details, but may not work so well for Kitten (sanguine) personalities who prefer variety and spontaneity.8 Of utmost importance is encouraging new believers to talk with God personally and regularly, i.e. pray, along with honouring Him through personal times of praise and worship; reading His Word, the Holy Bible, on a regular basis so that they can receive insights for living and growing; engage with other Christians for times of corporate worship, prayer, and mutual encouragement and challenge through teaching from the Bible; and engaging with others in sharing about their new life in relationship with God through Jesus, as well as mutually urging on fellow believers into deeper intimacy in their relationship with God. In the Chinese agricultural context, as mentioned in chapter 5, I have found the parable of the sower to be a helpful means of presenting the truth of both the rewards and challenges of life in Christ to newer believers, along with establishing the truth that we are born again spiritually to bring pleasure and honour to God through fruitfulness. Just as the parable of the seed sown among thorns gives a picture of a new believer’s faith being stifled by worldly concerns, so we need to make it clear that the new life 8 Some helpful materials concerning providing ways for spiritual growth according to personality types include Mulholland (1993); Fowke (1997); Johnson (1999); Brown (2003). A degree of contextualisation will, of course, likely be needed according to the setting into which the suggestions are to be applied.

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will not be without difficulties and trials but that God’s grace is constantly available to bear the trials. Kraft’s Three Encounters

Kraft (1991:408-413) refers to a series of encounters that are needed for people to willingly commit themselves and their lives to Christ. These are the power encounter, truth encounter, and allegiance encounter. The first is a term coined by renowned missionary Alan Tippett (1971) in which he describes the phenomena of remote island pagans discovering God was more powerful than their native deities. In relation to the power encounter, Kraft urges that merely demonstrating to unbelievers the power of God through the work of the Holy Spirit is not enough to bring people to the point where they will change their ways and commit themselves to God through the work of Jesus. He urges that an encounter with truth is also needed and on top of that an allegiance encounter is essential for them to decide to change their lifestyle and allegiance. Analytically, we might say that a power encounter affects the senses, a truth encounter calls out the truths of Jesus and God’s Word to the heart and mind, but, ultimately, an allegiance encounter is needed to engage the will and elicit a response that has the person willingly surrendering themselves and their ways to God in a commitment of their life to Him. Further to this, I would add that although the initial allegiance encounter leads a person into a relationship with God, a believer’s entire life, from early foundations to deeper spiritual maturity, will be a series of encounters with Biblical truths at deeper levels, and calls to increasingly demanding levels of commitment. As we grow in intimacy with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus, we should expect an accompaniment of deeper calls to self-denial and self-sacrifice, along with a sweet willingness to make our responses of self-denial a continuous series of love offerings to God as we become increasingly conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). When and how to share some of the more challenging truths will vary with different people and in different contexts but, at some point, in order for healthy growth and deeper fruitfulness to be able to occur, believers must encounter truths concerning issues such as self-denial and taking up the cross or crosses God lays before each of us. Dawn (1995:206) writes: We must convey the truth that God’s Word, rightly read and heard, will shake us up. It will kill us, for God cannot bear our sins and wants to put to death our self-centredness. The apostle Paul claims that he has been crucified with Christ’ and therefore that it is no longer he who lives, but Christ who lives in him (Gal. 2:19-20). Once worship kills us, we are born anew to worship God rightly.

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Everything that we do in worship should kill us, but especially the part of the service in which we hear the Word – the Scripture lessons and the sermon.

Again, Dawn is very much approaching the self-denial issue in an individualistic sense and rightly so, but in both individualist and collectivistic settings we also need to encourage the corporate sense of self-denial that sees the believers as a body, the Body of Christ, making corporate choices and decisions for the selfless good of God’s purposes for the wider and, as yet not fully reached community. Churchmanship in Light of Cultural and Context Distinctives

We need to be aware too that how church and/or groups of believers meeting together is perceived may well be influenced by the values held by the community. For instance, Moreau et al (2014:273) point out that “Honour-oriented people who come to see Christ as their patron and the body of Christ as their in-group will desire to connect as deeply as they can with both. Thus one foundational goal in discipleship in honour-oriented cultures will be to nurture this view of Christ and the church.” Although this means of working with the norms of culture rightly encourages an increasingly deeper connection between the new believers, as clients, with their patron, Christ, I would also suggest that we must beware of misrepresenting God in purely patron terms from the culture’s perspective. Why? Because any cultural practice that is apprehended to provide an illustration used to give deeper clarity to a Biblical principle or truth will inevitably fall short of perfect correspondence. Similarly, using commonly understood cultural redemptive analogies to enlighten local people about Biblical truths will also, at some point, hit limitations. For example, Don Richardson’s ‘peace child’ redemptive analogy9 took advantage of the cultural practice which saw enemy tribes of the Sawi region (in the former Netherlands New Guinea) mutually hand over a baby, called a peace child, from one tribe to the other tribe. As long as the baby lived there was peace between the previously hostile tribes. Richardson used this concept to explain that Jesus, who came as a baby, is God’s peace child so that relationship between mankind and God could be restored. As mentioned above, any illustration of Biblical truths will eventually hit limitations, e.g. the Sawi peace child was merely a human child, whereas Jesus is both fully human and Divine. At some point, much deeper teaching would have been needed to correct the limitations of the peace child illustration. Continuing from above, the need for a corrective also holds true for a patron-client cultural perspective since it might be perceived to ascribe the 9

Richardson (1974).

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characteristics of God to the concept of the human patron. Encouraging new believers to seek to draw closer to Christ in the way one seeks to draw closer to one’s patron can, unless there is accompanying deeper teaching, send an incorrect message about spiritual growth and relationship with God. For instance, we can’t and should not even try to manipulate God in the way the patron-client recognizes manipulation and reciprocal obligations as part of the relationship, e.g. as we saw in chapter 2, when the client gives a gift to a potential patron, if the potential patron is willing to begin or continue a patron-client relationship, they will give a bigger gift in return, and a chain of mutual obligations will unfold. New and growing believers need to be encouraged to see their relationship with God as an eternal relationship that encourages accumulation of spiritual treasure (Matthew 6:19-21) for God’s ultimate glory. This is in obvious contradiction to the patron-client relationship which provides a manipulation-oriented means to accumulate material wealth, opportunities, or goods, or for fulfilment of earth-bound hopes and dreams. Further to patron-client cultural understandings and practices, Moreau et al also advise “For people in [honour-oriented] cultures, learning that Christ endured shame can be a hurdle. To acknowledge that God allowed such a person as Christ to suffer shame may contradict their idea of Christ as a patron deserving glory and honour. The idea that Christ achieved great honour by means of bearing shame does not fit their worldview. However, making this connection cognitively, affectively, and volitionally will be crucial for them so that they can connect to Christ’s enduring the shame for the sake of obedience to God.” Again, we can see that awareness of unbiblical beliefs underlying cultural social practices is hugely important so as to prevent local people incorporating such practices into their new spiritual lifestyle and outlook whilst concomitantly attaching unbiblical expectations in terms of developing a relationship with God (whether personally or corporately). At some point the incompatibility of the cultural social practice with biblical principles needs to be grasped by the local believers so that churchmanship does not fall prey to syncretism. Distinctives of the setting might also call us to make choices about incorporating church functions in ways that would not be our personal preference or from our own church culture background. For instance, in China, we were advised to follow the tradition set by missions agencies from decades ago concerning baptism and Holy Communion, i.e. there persists in China a nationwide church understanding that water baptism is a prerequisite for participating in what is variously termed Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, breaking of bread, etc. There is no Biblical injunction that allows only those who have been baptised to partake of the elements in this remembrance church practice, but we were warned that if we did not also incorporate the prerequisite into the churchmanship of the planted churches, once we had moved on it was highly likely that these churches

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would be looked upon as cults or sects by members of other churches in China. As a result, the opportunity for fellowship with and recognition by the wider Body of Christ would be severely limited. A further example of influence of church practice from members of the wider Body of Christ in China appeared when I attended a village service after several years of non-attendance once we had begun mentoring the leaders and individually discussing their weekly preach preparations prior to each service. On the night I attended the service I was surprised to see that the final act as a Body together was to say the Lord’s Prayer together. This somewhat liturgical act was certainly not something that either my colleague or I had ever modelled but it had apparently become incorporated as a result of a suggestion from Christians who were visiting from outside the area. Emergence of Churchmanship Distinctives from Within the Context

In looking to establish a contextualised church we should expect that distinctives of churchmanship will vary from setting to setting, particularly as we recognise (as of John 3:8) that the Holy Spirit moves in different, and often unexpected, ways according to God’s purposes. An Example from the China Villages Setting The local Christians were encouraged to ‘be’ and ‘do’ church in the ways they felt were most appropriate. As a result, some notable aspects or distinctive of their spirituality emerged. One was the perception that development of Christian faith is community-related.10 Another perception was that, despite the nation’s political restrictions, one’s Christian faith should be expressed and be visibly lived out within the wider community.11 In the Chinese community-oriented culture this is perhaps not surprising, and/hence might be seen to give greater credibility to the claim that the

10

Through the period of training and involvement in ministry the participants appear to have come of their own accord to live in and own the understanding of Anglican Bishop J. Taylor (1992, 238) that ‘Christianity, like its parent Judaism, teaches that human life achieves its transcendent potential in the exchange and interflow between persons in community.’ 11 Given the range of different Chinese people groups represented in the wider community due to the tourism-related businesses brought in from other parts of China, along with the range represented by the rural China trainees, the Declaration of Affirmations adopted by the Asian Society of Missiology that Christians be able to live their lives ‘in ways…congruent with their specific cultural contexts’ and that in ‘local communities of faith’ such communities should be ‘influencing their own contexts and serving across ethnic…boundaries’ saw fulfillment through these Chinese believers (Asian Society of Missiology 2008:26).

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emerging churches were ‘being’ and ‘doing’ contextualised church because they were being and doing in what they believed were appropriate ways. Another example that illustrates the emerging sense of community-consciousness and mission-mindedness could be seen in relation to the Bible and ministry training sessions that we held once or twice a month. The local Christians were given the responsibility of deciding when and where to hold these sessions, and make whatever preparations were necessary. Typically the community-consciousness of the believers would delay the start of Bible/ministry training sessions until the group gathered in the courtyard had ‘en masse’ completed whatever aspect of agricultural work was required in the courtyard where the training session was held. Moreover, this activity would take place in the company of other members of the household as well as neighbours from surrounding courtyards. As a result, not only was the agricultural task completed but it was also a means of evangelism in the midst of rural life’s agricultural norms. While completing the tasks the believers would share with one another and those nearby what they had read in the Bible, how God had answered prayers that week, and whatever else the Holy Spirit encouraged them to be, do, or say so as to evangelize among the gathered community members. I had my own time-oriented and task-oriented preferences, which meant I would rather have preferred us to just get on with the training activity, but I had to put my preferences aside. This approach to outreach as initiated by the local believers was an on-going challenge (and for safety reasons too), but the importance of the local believers taking responsibility for reaching out with the Gospel to the wider community in the way that seemed best and contextually fitting to them could not be underemphasised however it might occur. Conclusions and Potentially Transferable Insights for Christian Missions Concerning Establishing Contextualised Churches

A body of believers that has appropriately contextualised its churchmanship by managing to avoid the first extreme of irrelevance to the wider community as well as the second extreme of syncretism, is generally perceived as having the greatest potential for ongoing growth and eternal fruitfulness. Hiebert, not unreasonably, urged that the critical contextualisation process should be carried out by local church leaders in cooperation with the pioneer missionary or missionaries but, as we have seen, where spiritually young believers truly seek God and desire increasing intimacy in relationship with Him, they too can also come under conviction in relation to encounters with truth in God’s Word, and be inspired as to responses that please Him and that can also influence others.

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Insight 1: Humility is surely a key attribute for anyone involved in the critical contextualisation process regardless of their degree of adult maturity or spiritual maturity. Insight 2: Just as with our experience in the Chinese village setting, as missionaries and facilitators we were very necessarily engaged in an on-going learning process of what the local Chinese Christians saw as appropriate for ‘being and doing church’ in their own setting. For missionaries in any setting, as leaders and teachers they must also be willing to become learners and learn from those they are ministering amongst. This is of utmost importance to negate any potential for expression of paternalism or subconscious ethnocentric contempt and, rather, to uphold and enhance the dignity of the local people in a way that also empowers them. Insight 3: Our aim for the church planting ministry in the Chinese villages was for a body of believers ‘being and doing’ church fruitfully and on their own terms. We were not to know ahead how such a church body would express itself but what gloriously resulted was a community-oriented mission-minded expression of the worldwide Body of Christ. For us and for missionaries in any setting (whether cross-cultural or not), a balance is needed in providing information and tools for spiritual development, churchmanship, and evangelistic and mission activity, without being overly prescriptive in how the related activities should look in practice. Discussion Questions 1. 2. 3.

4.

What everyday practices can you identify in your own cultural background that would have you compromising your Christian faith if you were to continue to follow them? What aspects of your background church culture are merely due to preference and/or tradition rather than Biblical prescription? In settings resistant to the Gospel how might believers engaging in evangelism be tempted to compromise the essentials of the Gospel to fit with the local context? For example, in Muslim settings, how helpful might it be long term to provide a translation of the Bible that plays down or even omits the truth of Jesus as the Son of God? How would you respond if the results of self-contextualisation by the local believers do not line up with your own interpretation of Biblical principles?

Chapter 7 Establishing the Spiritually Healthy Contextualised Church and Handing Over

Introduction

The aim of a spiritually healthy church is for its members to be growing in their relationship with God, encouraging, challenging, and building one another up, and reaching out to the unsaved and influencing the wider community in a way that transforms the wider community by establishing God’s Kingdom principles of love, truth, heart-peace, and justice. In achieving this aim the church and its members will be on a journey that seeks to individually and corporately work out God-given vision for His pleasure and glory. Establishing the spiritually healthy contextualised church involves giving the believers a solid foundation in God’s Word, helping them discover and use their spiritual gifts for mutual strengthening and church expansion, and envisioning them for further discovery of God’s plans for their setting and wider. The missionaries or church planter/s should concurrently also be intentionally seeking the Holy Spirit’s leading for delegating responsibility and raising up local believers as leaders who will continue and develop the work so that it might not only continue growing locally but also become a missionary-sending body. The missionaries or church planters must be intentionally sensitive to when is the right time to hand over the ministry and spiritual authority to them. To this end, I offer as an illustration the process of the establishing of the village church network, envisioning, and handing over. The process included the content and progression of the theological1 training program in the first ministry area villages setting, which was set up and run to equip and empower the local believers. It was open to whoever desired to grow in their love of God and service to Him, and was the vehicle through which the eventual leaders emerged and learned and developed ministry skills. This chapter describes the process and content of the training given before turning to the issues of envisioning and handing over the work to the local believers.

1

The approach to theological training began with essential discipleship topics followed by that aspect of theological education that pertains to ministerial formation along with ministerial education, and hence became what might also be termed Bible/ministry skills training.

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Building Credibility as Teachers

Brookfields (2006, 56) identifies two key characteristics of teachers whom students consider to be effective: These are credibility and authenticity. By authenticity he means (72) “the perceptions students have that their teachers are flesh and blood human beings with lives and identities outside the classroom”. Nichols (2012, 46) suggests that “The key to strengthening these [i.e. the characteristics of credibility and authenticity] is through intentional interaction with students outside the classroom [and that, as Palmer (2007:10) offers] ‘good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.’” I would suggest that credibility as a teacher outside the classroom is only strengthened as we intentionally use our lives and lifestyle to model the principles and values that we are wanting to inculcate into the students’ lives. Dr Co and I were hugely privileged to be able to live in the village setting and share our skills and our lives with the community members, offering both service and friendship through the dental clinic. Living in the close-knit community 24 hours a day dissolved the initial suspicion shown towards outsiders and opened up countless opportunities to intentionally visit various courtyards and spend time with the young believers, as well as get to know their families. Spending vast amounts of time with the dental trainees meant they saw us at our best and at our worst, yet by God’s grace, we kept pointing them to God as our source of strength and the Holy Spirit as our source of inspiration in both good times and difficult times. In sharing our lives and identities in the villages setting, we also attended a great many wedding celebrations and pre-wedding gatherings, and, in turn, held a variety of social and evangelistic activities to celebrate Christmas and Easter as well as festivals through which we could engage Biblical principles, such as Valentine’s Day. On preparing to leave a family we had visited, we would invariably invoke a blessing by saying, “We are praying God’s blessing on you all”, and receive a thank you and smiles from the older family members too. But we were also aware of how steeped in cultural tradition these dear people were and, quite frankly, sometimes wondered if we were making any difference through the simple gestures. Aims and Overview of the Training Program Timing and Content

The aim of the training program was to, as far as possible, facilitate the spiritual growth of the local Christians so that they would increasingly desire to obey all that Jesus taught, and overflow His love and new life transformation into the surrounding community. In summary, we held seminars for the believers to identify their spiritual gifts, and explore ways of reaching out that are contextually appropriate from the locals’ perspective; sought to ensure understanding of essentials of the Gospel

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message, basic doctrines/fundamentals of faith as seen in the Bible without dismissing cultural understandings in terms of different emphases rather than different meanings; provided means for believers to study the Bible for themselves and be able to teach others in appropriately contextual ways; provided means for more mature believers to disciple and mentor newer believers and develop groups into churches; provided non-condemning means of recognizing manifestation of both spiritual growth and spiritual stagnation or regression.2 The training began with simple gatherings of times of corporate worship,3 discipleship topics4 in light of scriptural principles, and times of prayer. Weekly gatherings were established at which I took the preaching and teaching role and Dr Co took the pastoral role. In evangelical fashion, participants were encouraged to develop a relationship with God through faith in Christ, seek to develop in Christ-likeness in cooperation with the indwelling Holy Spirit, and live so as to let the overflow of God’s love, touch lives around them through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Regular study of the Bible and times of personal prayer were encouraged as well as regularly meeting together for worship, prayer, and teaching from the Bible. Eventually the believers were enabled to lead these weekly times without Dr Co or I present with the understanding that such involvement by the participants constituted an aspect of the servanthood modelled by Christ. By then we had held seminars to cover discovery of spiritual gifts,5 leading worship services and prayer times before focusing on Biblical interpretation and principles for understanding of the Bible. These latter sessions covered preaching and teaching according to the different genres of scripture so that the local believers might be able to avoid error or heresy and, instead, access Bible truths for themselves and their rural community context. We were aware of the problem that “the [Mainland China] house churches lack training and are prey to cults” (Chao and Lambert 1992, D-156), also that “the overwhelming majority of [house church leaders] do not go to seminaries and are seldom trained 2

Much of this section combines material from D-Davidson (2011b). ‘From Passive to Active Learning: A Worked Example of Theological Education in Rural China’, in Journal of Adult Theological Education 8(2) Dec (186–195); and D-Davidson 2012 ‘Mission and Education in Rural China: Birthing a Community-Oriented Mission-Minded Body of Christian Believers’, in Evangelical Missions Quarterly 48(2) April (226–231). Excerpts used with Permission. 3 Since Dr Co and I are both Pentecostal the worship style involved openness to the Spirit and a degree of joyful spontaneity. However, we preferred to model Pentecostalism as a lifestyle rather than emphasize or impose doctrine on the village believers’ churchmanship. 4 The list of discipleship topics and scriptures can be found in Appendix 3. 5 I modified material by Llobrera (1995) as described in Appendix 2. Tools for Discovering Spiritual Gifts.

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theologically [so that] no wonder old-time sects as well as newly arisen [heretical] movements are ever more prominent” (Deng 2005, 439). Dr Co and I had been encouraged to train a single leader as soon as possible so that the security of the local believers’ times together would not be compromised by our attendance. I was not keen to merely train a single leader because I sensed the urging of the Holy Spirit to train whoever desired to receive training. It appeared that a single leader would suffice for the small group of believers at that time, but I sensed the Holy Spirit saying that when however many were trained there would certainly be more than enough spiritually younger Christians for them to lead, teach, and pastor. Neither Dr Co nor I used terminology such as ‘leader’, ‘teacher’, and/or ‘pastor’ to refer to ourselves or others. These, and other ecclesiological terms, were only introduced and included in later seminars before our departure. Similarly, the term ‘church’ was not introduced until much later in the training. Rather, the participants were urged to consider themselves as that part of the worldwide Body of Christ which met in that particular village or group of villages. Training of Emerging Leaders

Slack writes (1998:510): “The growing, healthy church does not simply disciple every believer, but it goes on to disciple every leader at his or her level of leadership. This pattern places leaders in line for more responsible leadership assignments. A church must continually be [aiding] each member to live the victorious Christian life and to serve effectively in some kind of ministry within the local church.”6 As previously mentioned, we had run seminars to help each believer discover their spiritual gifts and provided opportunities for them to use and further develop their gifts by leading new groups with a leadership team of two or three growing believers. Complementary to the emerging church’s community consciousness, Ott (2001:242) describes an emerging paradigm of theological education wherein the agenda might best be community-oriented and outward-looking, borrows from and implements developments in adult education theory, theory is integrated with practice so that learning is an action-reflection process, and the curriculum is integrated (207). 7 The young emerging leaders were encouraged to be reflective both in 6

See Patterson (1969, 148–49), whose timeless suggestion as to “possible future [mission] strategy” in China sees lay training as key for the whole congregation to be “a more representative witness” to the wider community. See too Barrow (2002, 8), who urges “The focus should be on equipping all, not just a clerical minority.” 7 On theological education’s engagement with contemporary education theory’s integrative and reflective learning, see, too, Drummond (2008).

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preparation for ministry as we met together, as well as in response to how their giftings played out and how the Holy Spirit moved in the services. Theirs was the very real experiential learning urged by Foster, Dahill, Golemon, and Tolentino (2006:175).8 Importantly, Kirkpatrick (1998:531) reminds us that “A growing walk with the Lord is needed above all else for one to become an effective leader” and that training is best directed and “designed to guide men and women to be able to do what is needed in their settings”. Stamoolis (2001:492-94) also urges the need to not only teach leaders but to also teach them to teach others. He lists several principles concerning training: 1. The training needs to answer the real questions people have. By this he means we need to be aware of the problems people face in their setting so, through the training, the leaders will be able to formulate ways of addressing the very real issues. 2. The training needs to be delivered in a manner appropriate to the learning style of our disciples. Chapter 5 describes the steps we took to help the local people move from passive to active and interactive learning as needed for ministry that is both sensitive to people’s needs, situational specifics, and in step with the Holy Spirit. 3. The training ought to cause a positive behavior change in those participating. This is perhaps a rather obvious point but certainly underlines any teacher’s desire for change to come about in the learners’ lives, particularly when spiritual growth is a key goal of the training program. It is important to recognise, too, that some people change faster than others and not to give up on those who don’t seem to be progressing as well as others; equally not to merely favour the high flyers. I would also add that whether teacher or student, we can all expect that God will have specifics things He wants each of us to learn through the teaching and learning training process. 4. The training will be able to be replicated by those being trained. As of Stamoolis’s second point, it was marvellously encouraging to see different villages’ believers who had attended the very first round of teaching on understanding and preaching from didactic scriptures then go on to teach the same material to younger believers in the groups they were leading which had begun as discipleship groups. 5. Those being trained must own the training program.9 8

Here, Foster et al emphasize the importance of experiential learning for the minister in training who is then “enacting – sometimes awkwardly – the integrative, discerning, often intuitive and complex imagination at the heart of clergy practice, as that inevitably comes down to the very practical embodiment of theory and theology in concrete decisions, concrete actions, concrete performances”. 9 As mentioned in chapter 5, before our departure in 2004, all the training participants

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Some Specifics of the Training Content

Following discipleship, training in understanding the Bible was given in Mandarin Chinese and began with a Bible history overview and then Biblical interpretation principles. Seminars were held to teach about one genre of the Bible at a time. The genres covered included teaching (didactic) texts, narrative (including parables), poetry, law, and texts from the books of the prophets and other prophetic passages.10 Then principles were taught for preaching and teaching according to the genre.11 These principles were interactively applied to specific Bible passages of that genre during the training session. The emerging leaders were then assigned texts of the genre and preached for several months or longer until each participant had had several opportunities to preach/teach.12 The weekly designated preacher would first discuss the prepared preaching content with Dr Co and I so that we could ensure the principles were followed, the preaching content was relevant, and a clear application and challenge were included. Through this systematic approach participants became accustomed to preaching from both the Old and New Testaments, which served well for their teaching input into the churches which emerged and promoted familiarity with Scriptures from the entire Bible. Aspects of Church history and tradition were taught only so as to avoid the unhelpful reoccurrence of error. The training raised historical and contemporary issues which are incompatible with Christian and Biblical tradition but encouraged the Chinese believers to reflect on ways of resolving these in practice and in a culturally appropriate way. A similar approach was taken for issues related to Church management, as well as culturally appropriate means of outreach and evangelism in the wider community. In line with aims of the training method, the practical and theological development of the local churches which emerged was left in the hands of the local Christians, similarly, the ‘being’ and ‘doing’ of their church practices, and exercise of power and authority. A further aim of the training were interviewed regarding their own perceptions of the training method, and all evaluated the training method positively. The records of their progress and breadth of experience in the practice of dentistry and/or Christian ministry served to give validity to the interview responses. 10 Seminars were also held to teach about understanding Psalms and understanding the Wisdom Literature books of the Bible. 11 Appendix 5 provides the English version of materials taught concerning Basic Hermeneutics and Biblical interpretation, and Understanding and Preaching from Didactic texts, Narrative texts, and Parables. Once principles of basic hermeneutics and Biblical interpretation had been taught, followed by principles related to didactic and narrative texts, the believers were able to preach from the greater part of the Bible. 12 As can be seen listed in Appendix 3 Discipleship Topics and Preaching texts according to Genre.

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was that participants be empowered to not only learn for themselves but also be able to teach others to teach others along the lines of 2 Tim. 2:2. As for the dental training described in chapter 5, a contemporary adult education methodology principle saw those with more training having opportunity to teach and take responsibility for those with similar or less training. Cultural Considerations

The training program began teaching basics of the Christian faith and moved on to principles of Biblical interpretation with an eye to cultural sensitivity so that understanding the Bible would neither be constrained by context nor merely the appropriation of inapplicable theory (Tai Woong Lee 2000:144). Dr Co and I aimed to be culturally sensitive so that understanding the Bible could have practical application in the local believers’ real-life setting. Through engagement with the different genres of the Bible, we sought to encourage discovery and ownership of a foundation of the central truths of Christianity whilst encouraging the local believers to work out, with sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, how to live, teach, and apply them in their own setting. The village setting very much lent itself to being a storytelling culture and there is much in the literature about ministering in storytelling cultures, i.e. those cultures where beliefs and values are taught through stories and parables, just as Jesus did. Steffan (1999:59) notes that this is particularly the case for illiterate and semi-literate people who tend to prefer concrete forms taught in a story format rather than abstract principles. We had already noted the wider Chinese people’s preference for concrete examples and illustrations over abstract ideas. But for Christians to grow in their relationship with God and play their part in the Body of Christ, despite much of the Bible being in narrative form, believers will still need to be exposed to scripture beyond the storytelling scriptures, and leaders taught to understand and preach scriptures from all the Bible genres.13 One might argue that in order to meet the cultural preference, principles from non-narrative texts could be taught within a story framework, and there would certainly be benefit, but ultimately believers need to engage with the whole corpus of God’s Word in the way the authors intended. For instance, writers of New Testament didactic texts, such as Paul, were clearly influenced by the Greek empire’s philosophical and logic-based linear flow of thought. Even believers from storytelling cultures will need to be willing to engage with the whole variety of texts including didactic, 13

Cf, Stetzer 2003:146, who urges that it’s not enough to merely tell contemporary stories and include some scriptures in the process within the storytelling, rather, the scripture needs to be the focus.

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poetry, wisdom literature, and prophetic texts if they are to minister and reproduce Bible literacy and familiarity in a way that will be sustainable in the long term. As the trainees grew in confidence in interpreting Scripture texts, they were able to take turns in teaching the rest of the group week by week at the Christian worship services. Eventually, this peer-tutoring experience might include those with either as much training as themselves or even teaching those with less training as new groups were started. This also provided opportunities for participants to develop other gifts and hone skills in evangelistic and pastoral ministry, thus engaging with presenting ‘problems’ in light of growing experience and with support at hand when and where needed. Eventually, meeting regularly as a group of acknowledged leaders provided a platform for mutual accountability and encouragement, and mutual teaching from the Bible at a more mature level so that they could continue in their own spiritual growth as well as leading the groups. These rural Christian leaders were encouraged to self-propagate through self-owned, culturally appropriate evangelism and discipleship, and then train others including teaching them to evangelise and disciple others. Situational Considerations

Just as the Holy Spirit had encouraged me to train more than one leader, in the years 1998-2004 three more groups emerged in surrounding areas under the leadership of the believers attending training. The experiential problem-solving nature of the training encouraged participants into ministry and growth as a body together with team leadership of the groups that emerged. As befitted the more collective nature of the local people, no single individual had sole responsibility for a group but rather worked and grew with others. They acted as peer mentors, learning and, as Kuhrt urges (1997:34), working collaboratively in ministry in order to bless and leaven their communities. Whilst Dr Co and I purposefully began the first and second groups, the third and fourth were initiatives of the local Christian trainees in recognition of the situational wider community needs. The first group was the fruit of our earliest evangelistic endeavours and included both dental trainees and other villagers. The second group was begun because one of the believers in the first group was engaged to a young man who was not a believer and from another village. Villagers did not always have a say in who they married as arranged marriage was still a prevailing cultural practice, although increasingly less frequent than in earlier days. Out of concern for young couples, we had already developed some material for pre-marital counselling on the basis of what makes for enduring relationships. The

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material included aspects such as the need for mutual respect and loyalty, open and honest communication, and an unselfish loving and caring lifestyle.14 By the end of the pre-marital counselling sessions, he became a Christian and they opened their house in his village to start a new fellowship group. We invited two of the slightly more mature lady Christians from the first group to lead the new gathering and Dr Co and I attended the first six weekly meetings, with me preaching a series from the book of Philemon. The Chinese leaders took turns to lead aspects of the services and there were times of praise and worship, teaching and prayer. We were careful to model taking advantage of opportunities for evangelistic input with any other members of the husband’s family and/or friends who attended the meetings. By the sixth meeting there was a group of regular attendees and we had been thrilled to witness one of the young Chinese leaders lead a salvation prayer with a visiting friend. From then on Dr Co and I stopped attending and the two leaders alternated leading and preaching each week. They would meet with Dr Co and I to reflect on the recent service, discuss their preach preparation material for the next service, and pray together. The third group came about because one of the believers in the first group, who was a dental trainee from another province, said he would like to start a ministry of friendship and evangelism among the teenage boys in the village. It took very little time before it became a discipleship group for them and other young men in the village. The group eventually developed to include other family members and friends in the wider community. The fourth group began at the suggestion of one of the earliest believers as a planned outreach to medical students in a hospital on the edge of town. This group developed into a larger gathering of not merely medical students but also friends and family members of others who attended the services. As the group grew and further developed, many of the original medical students dispersed on finishing their medical training but left in place a functioning church body. The group leadership teams were encouraged to work out the practicalities of group management according to the needs and particular situation and setting of whichever group they were involved in. On-going growth in intimacy with God was seen as important on an individual basis while, at the same time, carrying with it a community-conscious spirituality. This served to confirm the importance of the interdependence 14 Of the ten couples with whom we did this pre-marital counseling, all but one of the non-Christian spouses prayed for Jesus to come into their lives as they recognized they needed God’s unconditional love like their soon-to-be spouse had. The only non-Christian became a believer at a barbecue on one of our return training and fellowship visits some years after we had left. We stopped doing the pre-marital counseling sessions once the first couple felt ready to take on the responsibility.

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of the believers involved in the different groups but working together for the good of the wider community and surrounding villages. Identifying and Developing Potential Leaders

It is always an act of faith to delegate responsibility but ultimately this must be done for a healthy church to grow. A danger can arise if choices are made too hastily. Nevius advised, “While elders should be ordained as soon as practicable, we should not forget that the qualifications of elders are minutely laid down in the Scriptures…If suitable elders are not to be found, we should wait for them, however long a wait may be required” (1886/2003:72). The literature is rich with material concerning spiritual leadership, but so as to identify potential leaders and seek out believers to mentor into responsibility Dr Co and I looked for those who met the following requirements: • A clear commitment to Christ and faithful in their lifestyle • Willingness to take initiative for their own growth, i.e. those who don’t need continual urging • Those willing to be trained I also offer some pointers from one of my spiritual mentors which were particularly helpful in the early stages of leadership development and which are universally applicable for answering the following three questions:15 1. Can potential leaders be pushed too fast for their own good? 2. What are appropriate ways for giving potential leaders responsibility? 3. How should potential leaders deal with backsliders? Pushing Potential Leaders There needs to be a balance between Lamentations 3:27 (It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young) and 1 Tim. 3:6 (he must not be a recent convert or he may become conceited). The first focuses more on responsibility and the second on position. We could press the distinction further and speak of strength and experience, activity and authority. Sometimes potential leaders become discouraged for want of activity and responsibility. At other times potential leaders become ruined through too much status and authority. Give ample opportunity for activity and responsibility but the status and authority have to be earned as experience is gained and wisdom grows. Paul and the early apostles often left very young Christians in charge of churches. It can be thrilling to discover what young believers can do, and 15

From personal correspondence dated November 17,th 2001 sent by a cherished mentor, Rev Dr Hugh Osgood (founder of Cornerstone Christian Centre, Bromley, UK), and used with permission.

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older leaders from outside should be careful to remain as ‘hands off’ advisors. Giving Potential Leaders Responsibility Look to Acts 6 as an example of delegating responsibility. First, it is easier to delegate when everyone (leaders and led) recognise the need for new appointees and shared responsibility (v1,2). Second, it needs to be talked about openly (v2a). Third, those to be given responsibility need to have the confidence of all (v3a). Fourth, they need to be people who have proved themselves dependable, show evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and are, if not vastly experienced, at least ‘level headed’ (v3b). Fifth, they are going to need to be appointed and their exact terms of reference spelt out (v3c). Sixth, the on-going role of those previously expected to do everything has to be made clear (e.g. prayer and preparation of preaching/training materials) so there is no sense of unhelpful abandonment (v4). Dealing with Backsliders Developing leaders should be made aware that it is important that those not going on with the Lord are not unduly hassled but drawn out about the nature of their hurts, doubts, discouragements, difficulties, or whatever else has hindered them. This may not be easy. Certainly Ezekiel 34:4 is a good pastoral guideline for what not to do. The foolish shepherd is similarly described in Ezekiel 11:15-16. There are times when a prayerfully sought out third party might be the better person to draw them out, notwithstanding that Matthew 5:23-24 puts the onus on the offender rather than the offended. People do need handling with care and ultimately our responsibility can be seen in Romans 12:18: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Church Management, Churchmanship and the Place of Authority and Power16

An easy trap for leaders to fall into is that of pride. The paradox of the servanthood of Christian believers was highlighted during the training, and that servanthood marks true followers of Christ regardless of whether 16

This section originally appears in D-Davidson 2009b ‘Pentecostalism, Power and the Exercise of Authority in a Rural China House Church Network 1998–2008: Insights from a Decade of Involvement and Learning’, a paper presented at the APTA (Asia Pacific Theological Association) Theological Symposium held at Alphacrucis (formerly Southern Cross College), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, September 8–9, 2009.

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believers are lay or in leadership. The emerging leaders were also encouraged that one did not need a leader’s ‘title’ to use one’s gifts and play one’s part in the Body. Lay involvement in ministry was taught as a norm, as was the concept of shared responsibility as each member of the Body plays their part. As such, God-ordained ministry was recognized as that which sees the Christian playing their part in God’s plan in a responsible manner with an eye for its fruit in both the immediate church group and in a way that might touch the wider community. Exercise of power was seen as cooperation with the Holy Spirit in the context of purposes of God in which God plays His part and Christians play the part given to them – as individuals in the setting and so as to promote unity of the church community. The function and role of the church community was seen and self-owned as to influence and transform the wider community. The leaders of the several groups regularly met together. This provided a platform for mutual accountability and encouragement. It was also a time for mutual teaching from the Bible at a more mature level so that they could continue to develop their own spiritual growth as individuals as well as leading and encouraging their groups’ members. In terms of exercise of power and authority, decisions affecting the leaders group were made on a unity-engendering consensus basis; decisions which might affect any of the church groups were made on the agreed basis of what would also serve to empower for the good of the wider body and community at large.17 Assessing Spiritual Growth

Lest we have any doubt that spiritual growth is to be expected, we can see two clear examples in the New Testament letters to the Hebrews and the Corinthians:18 i. Heb. 5:11-14 “…By now you ought to be teachers… [but] you need milk, not solid food…Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teachings about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” A test for growth: Is the new believer getting familiar with the truths in the Bible and learning to distinguish good from evil? 17

For example, some years after we had left the area the very important decision was eventually made to register the church presence with the local authorities. This increased the ease with which the body of believers could be expanded and further interact with the community and society at large without external hindrance. 18 The thoughts concerning issue of expectation of spiritual growth according to the New Testament scriptures cited, and the timescale for spiritual growth, were given to me by another cherished mentor, Rev John H. Price (founder of Walsall Evangelistic Centre aka The Church at Junction 10, UK) and are used with permission.

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ii. 1 Cor. 3:1-3 “Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly – mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealously and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly?” Another test for growth: Is worldliness decreasing in the new believer’s life? Timescale for Growth Following conversion, it is usually most helpful to lead the new believer or believers through basic discipleship topics, thus giving them the foundations of Biblical perspectives appropriate for the new lifestyle, an understanding of the requirement of simple obedience to Christ and the fruit of this commitment, as well as a means of breaking away from inappropriate behaviour patterns. At the same time encourage them that this new life and love is to be shared and given away to others because that’s what Jesus commanded and the Holy Spirit equips us to do this. It is not unreasonable to expect that by three years a new believer, in a caring community of Christians, should have shown some obvious signs of growth and should be at least starting to take some responsibility in using their gifts as a part of the body of Christ. Lack of growth by three years may well be a sign of either a spiritually unhealthy believer or an insensitive surrounding sector of the worldwide Body of Christ. Signs of Spiritual Growth Important markers of spiritual growth19, but which will vary in order and degree from person to person, and which may manifest differently from culture to culture: • Increasing intimacy in relationship with God (and will usually accompany increasing love for His Word, praise, prayer, fellowship, and outreach) • Increasing integrity and conviction to graciously challenge non-Biblical cultural values • Increasing fruitfulness by overflowing God’s love and truth • Emergence of fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22,23) 19

Some more recent spiritual formation material with universal application (once contextualized where necessary) include Nouwen (2011), which presents a beautifully fresh attempt at explaining and engaging with some of the paradoxes of change and growth; MacDonald (2004) on building resilience; Willard (1998) on the Sermon on the Mount; and Mulholland (1993), which unfolds the Catholic approach to the spiritual journey. Earlier classics include Foster (1980), which gives a Protestant interpretation of the traditional Catholic spiritual disciplines; Maxwell (1945) on our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection; and Oswald Chambers’ (1935) My Utmost for His Highest devotional.

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•

Stewardship of time (time with God, time helping others, time for work, rest, and recreation) Stewardship of spiritual gifts and natural abilities (use with individuals and the body so that all grow) Stewardship of finances (with appropriate motives!) Envisioned as to their part (and that of others) in God’s Kingdom work Visible decrease in worldliness

• • • •

The Stages of Spiritual Development Associated with a Growing Christian’s Perception of the Reasons for Prayer and Obedience to God, and the Degree of Belief in God’s Sovereignty.20 As part of the more advanced training, the emerging leaders were provided with the following guidelines to use as a tool concerning goals for their own spiritual growth as well as to be able to assess the progress of the believers in their fellowship/church groups.21 Any assessment tool can only provide a degree of measurement according to the results shown by the tool, and the results may or may not actually match reality. Christians looking into assessment of their own spiritual growth invariably decide they are further along than they actually are.22 A key factor in deciding how well we are growing in prayer and obedience depends on our underlying rationale for praying to God and obeying Him, i.e. we need to examine what we believe about prayer and obedience and why we pray and obey. Similarly, for the issue of God’s sovereignty: What do we truly believe concerning God as sovereign and how do those beliefs work out in practice in everyday life? I. PRAYER STAGES 1. Mental assent only – I pray because I know I should. My parents or someone told me this. 2. I pray to avoid losing the new blessings. 3. I pray to keep the blessing coming. Stages 1-3 show immaturity; are fear based; are manipulative; little or no true relationship with God. Many religions, e.g. Islam and Buddhism, include prayer practices so the measure for spiritual growth is not how or how much one prays but the underlying rationale behind the practices. 20

These stages related to progression from immature perception to greater maturity are my combination of material from Fowler’s (1981) classic stages of faith approach with that of Oser and Gmünder (1991), but have been adapted to reflect an evangelical spirituality. 21 This, of course, with the understanding that only God knows the true depths and motives of a person’s heart and their degree of intimacy with Him. 22 Might this be due to unrealistic wishful thinking, pride, or some other reason?

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4. I begin to realise that God has a plan for my life and I pray so that I can understand and walk in that plan cooperatively (Phil. 2:12,13). 5. I pray so that I can continue to grow in intimacy of relationship with God; increased willingness towards the sacrificial Luke 22:43 prayer. I speak less and listen more. Stage 4 shows the beginnings of maturity and stage 5 shows increasing maturity. 6. I become like Christ, in communication, one with God. Mature, Complete, Perfect

II. OBEDIENCE STAGES 1. Mental assent only – I obey God because I know I should. My parents or someone told me this. 2. I obey to avoid losing the new blessings. 3. I obey to keep the blessing coming, get a reward from God, and/or avoid God’s punishment. Stages 1-3 show immaturity; are fear based; are manipulative; show little or no true relationship with God. As for the prayer stages, evidence of obedience and degree of obedience may give a misleading suggestion of spiritual growth. The key to true growth is a spiritually healthy underlying rationale for obedience to God. 4. I become more aware that God has a plan for my life and I want to lovingly obey so that I can walk in that plan. I start learning to live out Luke 9:23 but still more on my terms than God’s. I realise that God doesn’t maliciously punish His wayward children but, rather, disciplines them as a loving father disciplines a son. 5. I increasingly obey because my desire is to grow in increasing intimacy in relationship with God; increased willingness towards greater depths of sacrificial obedience and Luke 9:23 more on God’s terms. I delight in the hidden service that pleases Him and make intentional acts of self-denial sweet love offerings to Him. Stage 4 shows the beginnings of maturity and stage 5 shows increasing maturity. 6. I become like Christ, perfect in obedience. Mature, Complete, Perfect

III. SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD STAGES 1. Mental assent only – I “know” God is sovereign because my parents or someone told me He is. 2. I begin to test God’s sovereignty by trying to “manipulate” Him through prayer. [This can be seen with young children and also new adult believers, although possibly subconsciously.] 3. Unanswered prayers lead me to believe that God is not sovereign in every area of life. Luck, chance, animist-like spirits, etc. can also be causes behind events.

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[The child or adult draws a mental box compartmentalizing the areas of life in which they are willing to trust God.] Stages 1-3 show immaturity; are fear based; are manipulative; show little or no true relationship with God. 4. I begin to realise that God has a sovereign plan for my life and I start submitting to that plan. I know there are aspects of my life that I hold back from God and that there are also aspects I hold back that I’m not yet mature enough to be aware of. I begin to recognize that, although if I’m honest I’m really not truly willing, I do need to trust God and let God be in control of my relationship with Him. I am now less likely to feel the need to deny the paradoxes of Christian faith but, if I’m honest, they still give me some private concern. 5. I continue to grow in intimacy of relationship with God and in my understanding of His sovereignty. I increase in my willingness to suffer so that His plan and purposes in and through me can become a reality in my life along with Phil. 3:10-11. I am increasingly comfortable with the paradoxes of Christian faith. I hold back less and less areas of my life and give God increasing control of my relationship with Him because I have absolutely no doubts that He is in control of everything that happens, both the events He brings about for His purposes and those He allows to influence my life but which are the consequence of my poor choices or even the poor choices of others. In this respect I am confident that God’s sovereignty limits the power and effects of evil. Gal. 2:20 and 1 Thess. 5:16-18 increasingly consistently mark my life. Stage 4 shows the beginnings of maturity and stage 5 shows increasing maturity. 6. I become like Christ, perfectly submitting and yielding to the will of the Father – “Not my will, but ALWAYS Yours be done.” Mature, Complete, Perfect

We do well to recognise that growth towards increasing maturity is not likely to follow a consistent linear progression for any of prayer stages, obedience stages, or stages in perceptions concerning God’s sovereignty – we may easily find ourselves slipping back to earlier stages before recovering and moving forward again. Here is where having fellow believers to whom we can be accountable is absolutely crucial. Equally important is to recognise that although attaining to the final stages of maturity is highly unlikely this side of seeing Christ face to face, let us at least know what we are aiming for and encourage our fellow journeymen likewise.23

23

See also Appendix 4 Tool for Monitoring Spiritual Change. The assessment questions look to help identify which areas of one’s Christian lifestyle and beliefs have seen change and which still seem to be lacking.

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Spiritual Growth Pointers for Those with Positions of Spiritual Authority and/or Responsibility Although being a devotional rather than an academic text, Hayford (1997) provides some key lifestyle aspects that church leaders do well to pay attention to in light of his own many years of church leadership experience: (139-43) Be Aware of Areas of Potential Vulnerability: “Five areas of vulnerability calling for the pastor’s guardedness” – these are areas where integrity can easily become compromised: “Matters of accuracy” – be careful to maintain honesty through no exaggeration or half-truths. “Matters of power” – be careful to maintain people’s dignity and do not abuse the authority invested in you. “Matters of perceived privilege” – don’t clamour for affirmation because it merely results in human vanity and smugness. “Matters of moral purity” – be intentionally guarded and self-controlled in situations where temptation might come about. “[Have] A leader’s ‘heart-set’ as opposed to ‘mind-set’ – do not be judgmental of others in ministry or other denominations.” (204-205) Being Accountable: As Christian leaders desiring to grow closer to Christ, be accountable to others concerning: “Impurity of speech: profane (angry speech)…negativism or contradiction of His Word as it addresses my situation.” “Indulgences of the mind: allowing irritation towards others, justified because it was unspoken.” “Faithlessness and fear; cowered or crippled by ‘what people think’ through reverencing and fearing men.” “Judgmentalism: discovering an attitude towards another leader and finding myself guilty of failing to ‘take the beam out’ (Matt 7:34).” “Forgotten/neglected disciplines: fasting, warfare, [study of God’s Word], memorizing Scripture.” “Pride or self-importance…swaggering…impudence (see Ezek. 3:4).”

Principles that Emerged from the Training Process

Dr Co and I had to be careful to let the more advanced trainees be the decision makers as to what would be contextually appropriate in terms of dealing with the problems associated with the ‘being and doing’ of the Christian groups in their own context. As educators, we provided information and tools for the spiritual work (including personal spiritual growth), but, as mentioned in chapter 6, needed to do so without being unduly dogmatic or insistent on how such praxis or problem-solving should look once worked out. Adult education and, indeed, theological education

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methodology suggest the teacher play both the role of facilitator and on-going learner. In addition, since not all of the training participants were from the immediate area, and others were leading groups in communities that were not their own, as described in chapter 5, the training sought to encourage a context-aware outlook that included flexibility in how the practicalities and problem-solving of different aspects of ministry might be carried out so as to be contextually appropriate. The training also sought to encourage the participants to engender an appropriately contextually aware outlook in those they were ministering to and with, since these local people would eventually become the context-familiar next-generation leaders of the emerging groups of believers. It is advisable for theological educators worldwide to promote an understanding of ministerial principles whilst at the same time inculcating an awareness of context as well as sensitivity to particularities that differing contexts might engender. Two Examples from the Villages Setting I. MARRIAGE

Marriage in China, as indeed, worldwide, involves two distinct formalities. One is the signing of a legal document that registers a couple as married and the second is a gathering of the husband and wife’s immediate family members, wider family members, and friends to celebrate the occasion of their marriage. In the village setting some might have the communal celebration first followed by making the trip to complete the legalities, whereas others would secure the legal document first and then have the communal celebrations. There would be a series of celebrations before the wedding day and then festivities at different times of the wedding day at each of the husband and wife’s families’ houses. For the first few Christian marriages we had specially held a marriage blessing service either as part of, or additional to, the weekly church gathering. Then the responsibility was handed over to the first married couple. This was as well as the public communal celebrations. Since the village couples who completed the marriage legalities first would invariably start living and sleeping together before the communal celebrations, we raised the issue with the emerging leaders that they would do well to decide together to have a church standard followed by all the groups as to when a Christian couple were considered married in God’s sight, i.e. was the legal document sufficient? Or was the communal celebration a requirement too? We put this to the leaders to prevent any future misunderstandings or potential judgmentalism concerning the possibility of a couple sleeping together on the basis of only having obtained the marriage license. The leaders discussed the matter and,

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without exception, agreed that both the license and communal celebration would be the standard requirement for church members to be recognized as man and wife so that they could live and sleep together. II. WATER BAPTISM

Baptisms have had a long tradition in China of being carried out on Easter Sunday. Dr Co and I were well advised to have baptisms done by Chinese Christians so that it would not come across as a ‘foreigner-run’, hence foreign, activity. The first two years we prepared the candidates concerning the Biblical practice and reason, and invited a more mature believer from the city to come and carry out the sacramental service. To facilitate this we had hired a hotel room with a bath since none of the villagers had a bathtub. Although we hired the hotel room, we stayed well away from it throughout the activities. In the following years the emerging leaders carried out the baptisms. After we had left the area, we returned periodically to teach and encourage the leaders and from time to time would get a call just asking how we were. During one particularly special call, we were asked how they should do baptisms now that we weren’t there to hire a hotel room – after all, it would seem very strange for a local person to register in a hotel. Also, there were some elderly people to be baptised and it would be perhaps unsafe for them to clamber down into the river. I asked, ‘What do you think? How do you think the baptisms might be done?’ The believer replied, ‘If several people threw a bucket of water from each side and another person threw a bucket of water from on top and all at the same time, would that be ok?’ I replied, ‘What do you24 think?’ The believer replied, ‘We think it would be ok’, so I said, ‘Ok then, have a wonderful and blessed time.’ Facilitating Envisioning and Handing Over

Importantly, in relation to the Pauline church-planting cycle described in chapter 6, Hesselgrave (2000:48) points out that a cycle, by its very nature, manifests continuing reproduction. He also enthuses (50) that “Tom Steffan [1997]…underscores the critical importance of ‘passing the baton’ from church planter to succeeding pastor. The successor must take up responsibility for every stage in the church-planting process.” Not unlike the need for parents to encourage their offspring to grow and develop into mature adults who are responsible and a benefit to their communities, so do church planters need to hand over the ministry and its out workings and fruits to local believers. Slack (1998:501) urges that “the very nature of the missionary calling excludes the missionary from serving as a long-term pastor of an established church. Such a ministry goes beyond the missionary task.” 24

Plural nimen .

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In agreement, Hesselgrave (2000:288) writes: “The lessons of the New Testament and the history of churches and missions are uncomplicated and unequivocal. The ministry of any local church or mission will suffer greatly if the withdrawal of the pioneer workers comes either too soon or too late. The baton must be passed to the next runner. When the pioneer leaves the race without passing on the baton, he departs too soon. When he continues to hold the baton until he has exhausted his time and resources, it may be too late.” As of the secular business world, missions and church planting organisations often aim to have their organisational vision continually and consistently reproduced. As will be further addressed below, we do well to recognise that God’s ultimate desires through people in differing contexts may well be the catalyst for a variation on the vision that the baton-holder presents as encompassed in the baton. Timing of the Handover When is it time to hand over and move on? Not surprisingly, the Bible doesn’t give a timeframe since church planting and growing disciples runs according to the particulars of the context and local personnel and, ultimately, hopefully, according to the Holy Spirit’s leading, not that of the missionary or church planter. In chapter 6 we saw Fuller’s 4Ps of church planting: pioneer, parenting, partnership, and participant. Moving through the stages and taking on the associated role-changes gladly can be a challenge for the church planter. It is not unlike parents needing to change their roles as their biological children grow into adulthood. Equipping spiritual leaders and handing over authority can inevitably bring with it a sense of loss – loss of our perceived and formerly acknowledged role; if moving away, loss of friends and acquaintances; loss of what has become familiar, and loss of situations and norms that bring comfort and a sense of security. When the time comes to leave and start again elsewhere, missionaries and church planters are advised to factor in the potential sense of loss and grieving that the spiritual ‘success’ will bring about. We must also recognise that success and/or fruitfulness are always on God’s terms and from His perspective. His call to us is faithfulness so that He can work in and through us all that pleases Him. Prayerfully handing over and moving on with no regrets for anything overdone or left underdone is entirely possible as we stay focused on eternal perspectives and Gal. 2:20 love and life in Christ. Steffan (2001) gives some suggestions as to what needs to be established before the church planters move on: The first area (180) concerns lifestyle in light of the scriptures: In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus committed to the disciples the great commission quest of making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything Jesus

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had commanded them. Teaching believers factual Biblical principles concerning the new life that following Jesus entails, including growth and fruitfulness, is quite different to teaching the believers to actually live out these principles. I suggest we can achieve the latter by modelling the joy, purposefulness and empowering that comes from living the Christ-following life of growing unconditional love, trust, and obedience. Earlier we saw the writer to the Hebrews expectation that lack of spiritual growth can be related to the believer not being acquainted with the teachings about righteousness (Heb. 5:11-14). In that case, when the handover time comes, how much of the scriptures do the local believers need to know? Steffan suggests that awareness is needed of God’s story as it runs through the Bible from Old Testament to New. Second, (184) Steffan suggests that the local church needs to be associated with other churches or believers, i.e. not merely exist as an independent entity. Third, (186) there needs to have been inculcated an awareness and ownership of the great commission task, particularly with its cross-cultural call. He suggests establishing a missions training centre for this very purpose, but this may be an unrealistic ideal in some settings. Fourth is Steffan’s call (187) to ‘structuring a [church planting] movement’, which, again, may not be a realistic goal in every setting. Helpful as these suggestions are, we do well to remember Jesus’ teaching that (John 3:8) the wind of the Spirit blows wherever it chooses in line with God’s timing and purposes. Being sensitive to the voice of the Spirit and sensitive to God’s leading requires that we do not move according to our plans but according to God’s plans and timing. Knowing when to move on involves the risk of trust that God will continue working in and through the lives of the local believers, and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit concerning our new role. We each need to be sensitive to Holy Spirit leading for God’s purposes in and through us in the now but also be prayerful concerning what God has for the future and particularly during the times of transition. In anticipation of transition, Hayford (1997:185) studied what he calls the ‘wrap-up phase’ of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, Saul, David, Simeon, John the Baptist, Jesus, and Stephen. He brings out three helpful questions that I suggest can be applied for anyone anticipating an inevitable transition in ministry: 1. “What kind of awareness did each man have regarding the time of his departure? 2. What obligations, if any, did each man have to complete prior to leaving? 3. What specific tasks or actions were required to complete those obligations?”

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In preparing for transition and the next season of life, Hayford (189-90) offers: 1. “Remain aware and sensitive regarding unfulfilled assignments given by the Holy Spirit in accord with Eph. 2:10. 2. Increase my boldness to speak and live out truth as moral degradation increases all around. 3. Develop a triumphant – not an escapist – mind-set… 4. Purge world-mindedness and carnal values from my life – as an ongoing exercise of my will. 5. Recognise and acknowledge God’s sovereignty increasingly in new dimensions – in world events, natural phenomena and individual lives” and to this I would add, also in our own lives and circumstances, regardless of how bleak or uncertain the situation may look. Facilitating Envisioning of Leaders

Encouraging the discovery of God’s enhanced vision for the local believers runs in tandem with the act and attitude of intentionally looking to heighten the dignity of those being reached out to and, so, facilitating their empowerment to be agents of the next stage of ongoing spiritual and physical transformation. Daniels (2005:98)25 brings the challenge that missionaries from outside the setting “usually don’t ask local leaders what their visions are because we are too busy thinking about our own. We find it easier to use them as a means to reach our dreams than to help them explore theirs”. But for a planted church to be sustainable according to the Holy Spirit at work in the local believers’ lives, we must be prepared to recognise that a new season and changed leadership may actually be the catalyst to bring into play new vision. 1.

2.

25

Pointers for Envisioning Others26 Leaders empower others, so be wary of holding onto a position that says you know more. Give away the knowledge that God has given you and delegate in a way that encourages leaders and emerging leaders to seek God’s vision for themselves and others through them. Be aware that receiving or catching God’s vision for a specific setting or church may appear to come in a prayerful moment, but more likely comes in response to a combination of experiences, insights, abilities, and Holy Spirit intuition as the culmination of a process as leaders seek to grow in increasing intimacy with God.

Cited after Malone (2012:408). These pointers come from a discussion with one of my mentors, Rev Dr Hugh Osgood, and are some thoughts that I have modified and expanded.

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3.

4.

5.

6.

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Being over confident or under confident concerning capability is likely to hinder the fruitfulness of vision. Help them to get the right balance so that vision comes about in cooperation with the Holy Spirit working in and through them. For seemingly visionless leaders, remember the old adage: Don’t try and get a dead horse moving by strapping it to a live horse because eventually both will stink! Find the spark that God has placed in them and fan it into flame and reality – what do they enjoy? What do they have a passion for? Helping them to discover the answer will prevent them from falling into the trap of being and doing what they feel they ought to be and do rather than what they have a Spirit-inspired passion to be and do. Advise them: When sharing vision, get the motivated people on board first and pray that the rest will follow. Keep speaking out the vision with delight and enthusiasm knowing that, just like working the vision out, envisioning others is a process. Advise them: Develop and encourage a corporate sense of God’s sovereignty concerning open and closed doors, and personally seek Him for insight and revelation concerning His timing for bringing about the fresh vision in appropriate stages.

Example from the China Villages Setting The vision we started with in the village ministry area was for transformation to occur holistically through attention to social concerns bringing a spiritual change too, and this was the ministry environment that the planted church inherited. We very much desired that they would own the vision for transformation to continue and to hear God for themselves as to how to build on the foundations. Albeit of the Western church, Tizon (2012:68) writes: Many Christians today still have trouble grasping the holistic nature of the gospel, and many churches continue to demonstrate lopsidedness in their practical outreach…even though increasing numbers of congregations affirm holistic ministry in principle, there are still relatively few that do both evangelism and social concern effectively on the practical level.

We purposefully aimed to encourage villagers to come to know God personally and to discover that following His plans for them would bring them into a fuller and more vibrant life than they could ever have imagined. We urged that the new life applies to all aspects of life and so has the potential for a holistic impact both in and through us. We enthused that the eternal life promised in John 3:16 is not just a promise for the future but begins as soon as they come into relationship with God through Jesus. We encouraged them to pray for those in the wider villages’ community beyond their immediate circle of family and friends.

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As the network of small groups was established, the leaders group inevitably ran with our vision, which, at the same time, was the vehicle for their own distinctives of community consciousness and mission-mindedness to emerge. On occasion Dr Co or I were approached for help in resolving difficulties due to agreement not being reached amongst the leaders, but intervention was kept to a minimum. This was so as to prepare for the eventual handing over. The local believers were encouraged that dealing with difficult personalities and/or opinions that came from within, or even outside their rural setting, were matters best handled by themselves in prayer and fellowship together, and in the way most appropriate to their setting. They were also encouraged to assign value to different issues in the light of eternal perspectives. A commissioning service took place before Dr Co and my departure, which gave formal recognition to the roles they had played for the past few years team-leading the different groups. At that point we had arranged to stay in contact by phone so that we might have an on-going relationship of prayerful encouragement.27 Having left, we were disheartened in the six months following to hear that, despite our teaching about owning God-given vision and growing as a fellowship network, the groups were meeting but no longer meeting regularly. So we returned for a short visit to bring encouragement as well as arranging, with their hearty agreement, a preaching/teaching-material outline for them and a rota for discussing their preach material through weekly long-distance telephone calls. We returned on several more occasions for times of more mature teaching and personal mentoring of these leaders. During this same time period, we also privately laboured in prayer for them to catch fresh specifics of God’s vision for their new season. Also during this time period I attended a conference for missionaries and charity workers in Asia where the speaker invited attendees to discuss their leadership and ministry concerns with him and his wife. I put to him our very real concern that the leaders still did not seem to be catching God’s vision for them and their church in that setting but were still following ours. He responded that if they did not have vision, then they were not leaders. I 28

27 As of Roland Allen (1912/1962:111), who perceived that, once elders were appointed in the churches, converts “were no longer dependent on the Apostle [Paul], but [neither were they] independent of him”. He also describes how Paul sought a cooperative venture of ongoing encouragement towards mutual maturity rather than a complete separation (106–107). 28 This analysis can certainly be found in approaches to leadership but I suggest that apart from this somewhat dichotomistic perception, when we consider the link between leadership roles and Holy Spirit leading, we must also allow that, just as for envisioning others, leaders catching God’s vision for a particular setting involves a process.

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could have wept there and then but didn’t. I went away sadly and spent time with God. Those dear brothers and sisters in leadership positions were the ones He had brought across our paths and they had faithfully attended training – there just weren’t any others to have the luxury of choosing from. On reflection, the final leadership training had only happened in the few months before we left and the early post-handover period had perhaps, not untypically, been rather traumatic. Our part was to wait and continue praying for these dear brothers and sisters. Later Dr Co and I, and our many prayer partners, saw our prayers answered when we got the phone call enquiring about baptizing the elderly village members. Fresh vision had been caught as older generation family members and their friends had at last been evangelised, became Christians, and a group was started for them. Many of the older generation did not understand Mandarin Chinese but some years earlier, while still on-site, we had encouraged several of the believers to help Summer Institute of Linguistics’ (SIL) missionaries translate the Gospel of Luke and other texts into the minority group language. The elderly persons group rejoiced to have portions of the Bible in their dialect. Their group is still going strong and the first of them to pass from this life provided a marvellous opportunity for the church to hold a Christian funeral. The event was put together and led by the lady’s son, who was one of the earliest believers and, by then, a proven and respected leader. He reported to us after the event that he had established that there was to be no prostrating before the body or wailing, no incense would be offered, a fresh grave was dug and flowers laid instead of using the ancient and revered family tomb, a service was held to give thanks for his mother’s life and witness, and onlookers heard the Gospel in the process. One of his sisters, with whom we had shared truths of the Gospel some ten years earlier, became a Christian on the back of the funeral. Despite the sadness and loss for the son and family members, the funeral brought a visible expression of Christian transformation into the village community. Another aspect of fresh vision that we were delighted to get news of was a newly forged link with a much poorer community higher up in the mountains and which had a group of believers. A livelihood project was put together to help them in which they would bring freshly cut and arranged wild flowers down from the mountains and sell them to tourists visiting the town and villages. This envisioning to holistic ministry also brought great joy to Dr Co and I and certainly buried the idea from the conference speaker that these dear saints were not leaders because they were not envisioned! On the contrary, by God’s great grace, the development ministry we began brought about a further creativity in sustainable development and became the owned goal of the local believers as they were envisioned to empower the mountain believers. In turn, the enduring perseverance in faith of these mountain believers brought mutual

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encouragement to both groups. As with any other aspect of outreach and church planting, receiving and outworking of vision comes in God’s timing and according to His purposes as His children remain prayerful and faithful to Him. Sanchez 1998:469 writes: “Established churches generally tend to plateau by the time they are around ten years old. Part of the reason for this stems from the fact that as churches mature, they tend to concentrate on maintenance activities and lose the evangelistic fervour they had in their initial stages.” Dr Co and I continue to be encouraged that the village believers are still going strong more than 14 years since we left the area. As well as the elderly people’s group, a short-term ministry to a school was also begun in another village and the believers continue to find ways to engage with the wider community through children’s ministry and seasonal activities, as well as with believers in other settings. Conclusion

In summing up this last chapter, and the entire book, let us recognise that the missionaries or church planters’ aim is to eventually hand over full responsibility for the ministry and its out workings, with all authority concerning the work passed to local believers. This can be achieved by inculcating the vision of future local ownership of the work as early as possible and this is likely to be when local believers have been helped to reach a sufficient level of spiritual maturity. We can consistently encourage a spiritually healthy lifestyle as we model a desire for deeper intimacy with God; prayerfully seek His will, inspiration, and leading; delight in sacrificial obedience to Him with doing that is the result of being in Christ; and in all circumstances, implicitly trust in His sovereignty. We also need to recognise that the missionaries or church planters’ vision will very likely become reordered as locals in leadership get fresh vision for their own context and setting and wider, and own their God-given vision, which may well be different from that of the original church planters. Empowering transformation through empowering others requires letting go, and/but letting go empties the hands to receive God’s refilling with a vibrant refreshing that delights in broadened new horizons and un-trodden paths of Holy opportunity. Discussion Questions 1.

How can you tell if you, personally, are growing in your relationship with God? How often do you consider the question and what markers show you’re continuing to mature spiritually? How might that vary: for Muslim converts? For Catholics who become born again? For Buddhist and/or Sikh converts?

Conclusion

2.

3.

4. 5.

6. 7.

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What does intimacy with God look like in your own church culture? How can you balance seeking and nurturing spiritual growth according to how God is working in your life with meeting the expectations of peers and/or church leaders or organisation leaders? Handing over anything precious can bring with it a sense of loss. Why is it so difficult to let go of those people/places/situations that we have poured our hearts and lives into? What might spiritually healthy grieving look like (as opposed to not grieving at all)? How might this vary for cultures other than your own? How would you counsel a missionary or leader who doesn’t appear to be planning to hand over the baton? How would you counsel a missionary or leader who is struggling because key church members or mentored leaders are pressing for multiple new and different visions for the church body? How would you handle emerging but clearly conflicting visions, e.g. in the area of dealing with social injustice? What vision or calling has the Holy Spirit intuited to you? How has it changed, or how have you changed in relation to it as your relationship with God has deepened? What have you invested in so far for God’s Kingdom that will eventually need to be given away? What plans have you made or are you making to empower others, delegate responsibility, and hand over authority?

Final Comments

As you seek our loving, caring God for His leading in your current season of life, may you know a quickening in your spirit and desire for deeper intimacy with Him, fresh and deepening envisioning as He presences Himself in your life circumstances, a renewed empowering to overcome the seeming mountains on the Calvary road marked out for you as His Holy Spirit works powerfully within you and through you, and a yearning for missions fruitfulness that will give our Lord and Saviour, Jesus, pleasure as your life radiates Holy vibrancy and gives Him eternal glory.

Appendix 1 Personality Analysis Tool

Tick the adjectives that really do describe you. Total your scores. The highest score should reflect your major personality type. The next highest, which may be a combination of types, should reflect your minor personality type. Be aware of both your strengths and weaknesses, especially when involved in conflict. 1.LION Extrovert and task-oriented Strengths: Natural leader Visionary Hardworking Practical Optimistic Courageous Very active Decisive Self-confident Efficient Determined Independent Weaknesses: Demanding Insensitive Inconsiderate Unsympathetic Severe Hostile Sarcastic Tough Unforgiving Domineering Opinionated Prejudiced Cruel Strong-willed TOTAL x 2:

2.BEAVER Introvert and task-oriented Strengths: Conscientious Very intelligent Loyal Serious Idealistic Sensitive Self-sacrificing Very orderly Hardworking Creative Thinks a lot Self-disciplined Weaknesses: Critical Moody Pessimistic Inflexible Legalistic Boring Vengeful Unsociable Perfectionist Negative Indecisive Picky Persecution prone Moralistic/preachy TOTAL x 2:

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3. DOG Introvert and people-oriented Strengths: Good listener Avoids conflict at all costs Sympathetic Supportive Easygoing Respectful Caring Reluctant leader Agreeable Comfy to be with Conforms to rules Patient Weaknesses: Hesitant Stingy (mean) Lazy Selfish Dislikes change Stubborn Indecisive Fearful Spectator Easily embarrassed Dependent Self-protecting Lacks self-confidence Clingy TOTAL x 2:

4.KITTEN Extrovert and people-oriented Strengths: Lively Avoids detail Enthusiastic Stimulating Talkative Carefree Generous Very, very friendly Spontaneous Enjoys variety Compassionate Optimistic Weaknesses: Exaggerates Disorganised Manipulative Unproductive Overexcitable Undependable Egotistical Easily distracted Talks endlessly Shows off Negligent Restless Loud Distracts people TOTAL x 2:

Note: It can be more helpful to just total the strengths scores as we are often less willing to acknowledge weaknesses and/or may not be aware of them! Where there is uncertainty deciding from the scores which is the major personality type, ask: am I more introvert or more extrovert? Or more task-oriented or more people-oriented? Asking someone who knows you well to look over how you have assessed yourself can also be helpful to get a more accurate picture.

Appendix 2 Tools for Discovering Spiritual Gifts1

A list of gifts is drawn from these three key New Testament scriptures: Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:4-11, 27-31; Eph. 4:11. Read through the three scriptures and write out the gifts mentioned without any overlapping so that you have what Llobrera terms a ‘Master List’. Rom. 12:3-8: prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging/exhorting, giving, leadership, showing mercy. 1 Cor. 12:4-11, 27-31: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits/ discernment, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues. Apostles, prophets, teachers, workers of miracles, healing, helps, governments 2 / administration, speaking in tongues. Eph. 4:11: Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Llobrera recommends (13) “By ‘Master List’ we do not mean that there are no other spiritual gifts. The list of gifts in the three key scriptures above should only be treated as representative. According to 1 Peter 4:10, God’s grace is manifold, varied, unlimited. Spiritual gifts, which are manifestations of God’s grace, are also manifold, varied, unlimited. There are many other gifts mentioned or hinted at throughout the Bible.” The gifts from the three key scriptures are then categorised according to the wider functions of Serving, Teaching, Leading, and Basic Ministries. Definitions are given along with an example from scripture of the gift being used or exhortation concerning its use so that those attending the seminar are clear as to the nature and use of each gift. Gifts for Serving: serving as a regular on-going activity (Acts 6:1-8, 1 Cor. 16:15); helps performed when a need occurs (Luke 8:2-3, Phil. 2:25-30); giving (Matthew 10:8, Acts 4:34-37); mercy with continuing commitment and joyful willingness (Acts 9:36, Gal. 4:14); healing (Acts 3:1-8, Acts 19:12).

1

From Llobrera, Bien A. 1995. ‘Spiritual Gifts: Discerning, Developing, Deploying.’ Makati City, Philippines: Church Strengthening Ministry of the Foreign Mission Board, SBC, Inc. Note: Permission was given to use a much longer series of segments from the text, but what appears here is a shortened version. 2 Llobrera (39) links the concept of governments as of a helmsman or pilot steering a ship, i.e. someone who does not have the highest level of authority but, rather, answers to the captain. Llobrera suggests that whereas leadership is people-oriented, governing/administration is goal and task-oriented.

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Gifts for Teaching: word of wisdom (Acts 6:8-10, Acts 23:1-8); word of knowledge (Matthew 16:13-17, Acts 27:21-22); encouraging/exhorting (Acts 9:20-27, Acts 11:22-23); speaking in tongues (1 Cor. 13:1, Acts 10:44-46); interpretation of tongues (1 Cor. 14:13, 26-28). Llobrera notes (34), “Tongues and Interpretation are classified under the Gifts of Teaching because, when properly used, they communicate God’s message.” Gifts for Leading: leadership (Acts 14:21-23, Acts 27:27-36); governments/administration (John 6:38-39, Acts 15:36-38); faith (Acts 14:8-10, Acts 27:22-25); miracles (Acts 9:32-35, Acts 14:8-10); discernment (Acts 5:1-4, Acts 13:6-11). Llobrera advises (43), “The gift of miracles is classified under the Gifts for Leading because this gift is often granted by the Lord to establish the authority of his leaders.” We do well to recognise, too, that the gift of miracles is not limited to those hold a leadership role or title. Gifts as Basic Ministries: Apostles – Llobrera (53-54) notes, “The primary meaning refers to the Twelve Apostles. This meaning cannot be repeated; there will only be Twelve Apostles in the foundation of the church…The secondary meaning of apostles refers to persons who fulfil the role of ‘pioneer church-planters’” (1 Cor. 3:10-11, 1 Cor. 9:1-2, Rom. 15:20). Prophets – those who either are moved by God to foretell concerning the future (Acts 5:9-10), or who forth-tell according to God’s Word into the current situation (Acts 4:7-12)3. Evangelists (Acts 11:19-20, 1 Cor. 9:16-17). Pastors4 – those who attend to the life and growth of the flock and wider community entrusted to them (1 Thess. 1:10-12, 1 Peter 5:2, Acts 20:28) and Teachers5 (Acts 18:7-11, Acts 20:20). 3 The gift of prophecy and use of the gift are unquestionably contentious issues. Some basic guidelines I offer are that a prophetic word should never contradict or deny scriptural truths, that there can be no revelation that is in addition to that of the Bible canon, and that any such prophetic utterances should have agreeing confirmation from within the group of believers. In helping believers to develop use of gifting in words of knowledge, wisdom, and prophecy, I have found the CDE rule to be very useful. This urges that, in the beginning and early days of using the gifts, no words are spoken out that bring anything of correction, direction, or exposure. Rather, the giftings can be developed by starting with bringing Holy Spirit-inspired words of encouragement, and/or words that are from scripture or based on scripture according to what will build up the believer or believers being addressed through the gifting. 4 Llobrera (58) sensibly advises distinguishing between the designated position (or church leadership title of pastor) and the pastor gift. He points out that one may have the title but not the gift, or the gift but not the church-leader office or title. Christians with the gift of pastor may often be found as church staff members with or without the title. Llobrera further offers (59), citing the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, that the New Testament use of the term pastor “designates both an endowment for ministry and the one who fills that ministry, but it implies no fixed office…Rather than an office,

Apendix 2

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To discover one’s spiritual gifts, Llobrera (36-37) offers “five indicators that may show the presence of a gift or gifts in your life. These include: awareness, burden, capability, delight, and encouragement”. Awareness – you have an intuitive awareness that God wants to use you through this gift and so you also have a humble confidence concerning the gift. Burden – you have a clear sense that the Holy Spirit motivates you to use this gift and you feel a sense of urging to use it. Capability – when you move in this gift you are very aware that it is because the Holy Spirit is enabling you and working in and through you, and also gives you the sensitivity to know when to use the gift. Delight – when you use this gift you experience a sense of delight, and an awareness that you are pleasing God and helping others to grow spiritually as well as growing yourself. Encouragement – other believers may have already observed that you have this gift and perhaps even commented on it. Those to whom you are accountable and/or are in a position of spiritual authority will, at some point, likely also confirm that you have this gift. Llobrera then suggests (37) assigning a score for each indicator in relation to each of the listed gifts using the following scale: 1 – Never; 2 – Once or twice; 3 – Several times; 4 – Often; 5 – Almost always. Averaging the total scores for each gift will then give some indication of which gifts may well be present in the believer’s life since they have received higher scoring. Although this may be subject to alternative opinion, Llobrera (53) suggests that every Christian will have gifting associated with at least one of the Basic Ministries. My experience administering the Spiritual Gifts discovery material with dozens of Christians in China has also shown this to be the case. We would follow up each teaching and assessment session (or series of sessions) with a time for other believers to volunteer where they see the different gifts at work through other believers, and also to confirm the presence of the gift/s as believers are given opportunity to speak out their findings. Sessions close with a time of prayer and believers will also be made aware of specific ways that they can use and develop the gifts either

it suggests a moral or spiritual relationship. A pastor must be faithful to Christ the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 2:25; cf. Heb. 13:20), self-sacrificing (cf. John 10:11), seeking the lost (cf. Mt. 18:12-14)”. 5 Llobrera (61) rightly acknowledges that the New Testament Greek combines the terms ‘pastor’ and ‘teacher’ with a single article indicator. He suggests that since one of the responsibilities of a shepherd is to help nourish and grow the flock, in metaphorical terms, so must a pastor be able to teach his congregation. NB: Llobrera is a Baptist minister.

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in their own fellowship or in new groups that are starting, or even by starting new groups together.

Appendix 3 Discipleship Topics and Preaching Texts Assigned According to Genres

20 Discipleship Topics (not necessarily covered in this order) 1/ Three promises God gives to Christians (to be preached in the context of the wider scripture passages): John 3:16 eternal life; 1 John 1:9 forgiveness; John 1:12-13 relationship as a child of God. 2/ The Significance of Christ’s Death on the Cross: Romans 5:8; Isaiah 53:4-6; 2 Cor. 5:17-18. 3/ The Bible is God’s Word: 2 Tim. 3:16. 4/ Prayer: 1 John 5:14; Mathew 6:9-13. 5/ The Trinity: John 5;19-21; John 14:15-21, 25-27. 6/ Fruit of the Spirit – the Changed Life: Eph. 4:21-24; Gal. 5:16-26. 7/ Love and Obedience: John 15:9-17 (PT3). 8/ Sin, Fear, and Hope: Luke 24:1-9; John 20:19-20. 9/ Two Kingdoms: Col. 1:13-14; Luke 17:20-21. 10/ Praise and Worship: Psalm 145:1-21. 11/ Faith and Trust: Luke 8:40-56. 12/ The Relationship Between Forgiveness and Love: Luke 7:36-50. 13/ Christlikeness and Selflessness: Phil. 2:1-11. 14/ Spiritual Armor: Eph. 6:10-18. 15/ Love: 1 Cor. 13:1-7. 16/ Water Baptism: Mathew 3:13-17; Mathew 28:19-20; Rom. 6:3-7. 17/ The Concept of the Body of Christ: 1 Cor. 12:12-27. 18/ Holy Communion: Exodus 12:1-14; Luke 22:7,8,14-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-29. 19/ Holy Spirit Baptism: Acts 1:1-11; Acts 2:14-17; Luke 11:9-13. 20/ The Second Coming of Jesus: Acts 1:1-11; Revelation 11:15; 2 Tim. 4:1-2. New Testament Teaching Texts John 15:9-17; John 14:15-21, 25-27; Gal. 5:16-26; James 5:13-16; Ephesians: 4:17-32; Phil. 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Colossians 3:12-17; Phil. 4:4-7; Gal. 6:7-10; Eph. 2:1-10; Eph. 4:1-3; Col. 3:15-24; Eph. 6:10-18. New Testament Didactic Texts from the Gospel of Matthew: Mathew 5:1-6; 5: 7-9; 5: 10-12; 5: 13-16; 5:43-48; 6: 19-24; 6: 25-34; 7:1-6;

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7:24-29 New Testament Narrative Texts Mathew 12;1-14; 14:13-21; 14:34-36; 14:22-23;16:13-17; 16:21-2318:1-6; 26:6-13. Parables in the Gospel of Mathew 5: 14-16;7:24-27; 13:33; 13:47-50; 13: 51-52; 18:21-35; 25:14-30; 25:31-46. Old Testament Didactic Texts Deut 7:1-6;1 Sam 16:1-13; Exodus 19:1-6; Combination of Mal 6:3-12, Gen 14:18-20, 2 Cor 9: 6-15; Deut 6:4-5. Old Testament Narrative Texts, Series of Nine Preaches on the Life of Joseph in the Book of Genesis 37: 1-36; 40:1-23; 44:1-34; 41: 1-40; 39:1-23; 43:1-34; 41:41-55. Selected Psalms Psalm 30; Psalm 17. Psalm 24; Psalm 10; Psalm 139. Psalm 4; Psalm 9; Psalm 18; Psalm 27; Psalm 23; Psalm 51. Psalm 84; Psalm 131. Selected Old Testament Law Texts Leviticus 19:9-18. Exodus 20:1-14; Deuteronomy 8:1-14. Exodus 23:1-9; Deuteronomy 24:10-18. Exodus 20:12-17; Numbers 15:22-31; Deuteronomy 18:9-13. Old Testament Prophetic Texts Isaiah 40:25-31; Micah 6:1-8; Jeremiah 9:23-24. Jeremiah 17:7-10 with 1 Corinthians 3:10-15; Jeremiah 20:7-12; Isaiah 25:1-5. Jeremiah 18:1-17. Isaiah 53:1-12; Habakkuk 3:1-19.

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Biographical Preaching Joseph; Ruth; Nehemiah; Jonah. Noah; Moses; Samuel; Job. Abraham; Joshua; David; Isaiah. Jacob; Caleb; Elijah; Daniel. Topical Preaching Faith; Love; Truth; Righteousness. Fear; Obedience; Hope; Faithfulness; Grace; Judgment; Servanthood.

Appendix 4 Tool for Monitoring Spiritual Change Use the following range of numbers to answer the questions below: a) and b) answers on a scale of 0 – 10: 0 (no importance) – 10 (of absolute importance) c) and d) answers on a scale of 0 – 10: 0 (not at all) – 10 (moment by moment) PLEASE WRITE AN APPROPRIATE NUMBER AT THE END OF EACH QUESTION: 1. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that prayer was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of prayer? c) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you actually spend time in prayer? d) To what extent do you now actually spend time in prayer? 2. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that reading God’s Word, the Holy Bible, was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of reading God’s Word, the Holy Bible? c) To what extent did you actually read God’s Word in the Holy Bible, when you first became a Christian? d) To what extent do you now actually read God’s Word in the Holy Bible? 3. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that setting time aside to spend with God was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of setting time aside to spend with God? c) To what extent did you actually set time aside to spend with God when you first became a Christian? d) To what extent now do you actually set time aside to spend with God? 4. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that dwelling on God’s Word throughout the day was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of dwelling on God’s Word throughout the day? c) To what extent did you actually dwell on God’s Word throughout the day when you first became a Christian?

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d) To what extent do you now actually dwell on God’s Word throughout the day? 5. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that believing God is all-sovereign (i.e. in control of all things) was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of believing that God is all-sovereign (i.e. in control of all things)? c) To what extent did this concept influence how you lived life when you first became a Christian? d) To what extent does this concept influence how you live life now? 6. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that deliberately expressing God’s love to people around you was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of deliberately expressing God’s love to people around you? c) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you still withhold expressing God’s love to people around you? d) To what extent now do you still withhold expressing God’s love to people around you? 7. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that evangelism, i.e. sharing your Christian faith with non-Christians, was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of evangelism, i.e. sharing your Christian faith with non-Christians? c) To what extent did you actually share your Christian faith with non-Christians when you first became a Christian? d) To what extent do you now actually share your Christian faith with non-Christians? 8. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that believing God to be omnipresent was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of God being omnipresent? c) To what extent did this concept influence how you lived life, e.g. that God was present and watching your day-to-day decision making, when you first became a Christian? d) To what extent does this concept influence how you live life now, e.g. that God is present and watching your day-to-day decision making? 9. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that seeking God’s will as you made decisions was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of seeking God’s will as you make decisions?

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c) To what extent did you actually seek God’s will as you made decisions when you first became a Christian? d) To what extent do you now actually seek God’s will as you make decisions? 10. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that deliberately putting aside sinful habits was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of deliberately putting aside sinful habits? c) To what extent did you continue in sinful habits when you first became a Christian? d) To what extent do you now continue in sinful habits? 11. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that doing God’s will, i.e. obedience to Him and His Word, was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of doing God’s will, i.e. obedience to Him and His Word? c) To what extent did you actually do God’s will, i.e. obey Him and His Word, when you first became a Christian? d) To what extent do you now actually do God’s will, i.e. obey Him and His Word? 12. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that God’s forgiveness of your sins was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of God’s forgiveness of your sins? c) To what extent were you convicted of your sinfulness and need of ongoing forgiveness when you first became a Christian? d) To what extent are you convicted you of your sinfulness and your ongoing need of forgiveness now? 13. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that forgiving others who sin against you was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of forgiving others who sin against you? c) To what extent did you still withhold forgiveness from others who sinned against you when you first became a Christian? d) To what extent do you now still withhold forgiveness from others who sin against you? 14. a) When you first became a Christian, to what extent did you consider that trusting God in all your situations was an important part of Christian life? b) How important to you now is the concept of trusting God in all your situations? c) To what extent did you trust God in all your situations when you first became a Christian?

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d) To what extent do you now actually trust God in all your situations? Note: This assessment is more representative of change for those who became Christians in early-mid teens or in adulthood, rather than during childhood. Note, too, Christians invariably find their score changes are higher concerning their beliefs than for how the beliefs actually work out in practice. May this bring a gentle but encouraging challenge as we seek to grow in intimacy with our Lord Jesus and let His life within us increasingly, and with great fruitfulness, be lived out through us for His glory.

Appendix 5 Tools for Understanding the Bible The material comes from the author’s 2007 “Genesis to Revelation: Getting the Point and Getting it Across: Principles to help scripturally sound understanding and preaching of God’s Word.” Manila: ICI Ministries. The book also provides for understanding and preaching from the additional genres of Poetry, Wisdom Literature, Law, and Prophetic texts. The material related to basic hermeneutics, Didactic texts, Narrative texts,1 and Parables presented here enables interaction with the greater part of the New Testament and a large portion of the Old Testament. A. Basic Hermeneutics B. Didactic (Teaching) Texts C. Narrative (Story) Texts D. Parables

A. Basic Hermeneutics 1/ What do We Mean by Hermeneutics? Hermeneutics has to do with the lens we use for Biblical interpretation – in our case, an evangelical lens. Interpreting the Biblical correctly in order to understand what a scripture text means is very important if we want to avoid preaching error and/or heresy. In order to understand what a text means for Christians, we first need to know what the text would have meant for those whom it was originally written i.e. the people in the Bible Era to which the text you are looking at belongs.

1

Some parts of the principles related to the main point of Didactic texts and Narrative texts, and the story curve principles and diagrams in the Narrative texts section come from the second edition of the Chin ese version of the book and have been translated back to English from the Chinese language.

The Bible is completely inspired by God. Each Bible book writer was moved by the Holy Spirit to write according to God’s plan. Therefore, by discovering the author’s intention and meaning you will learn something of God’s intention and meaning for each specific text. To do this it will be necessary for you to understand the historical background, cultural and societal conditions in order to decide what the text might have meant to the people of that scripture text era and later generations. Then and only then can you consider how Christians should apply the meaning of the text into our situations. This whole process is what hermeneutics is all about. Bible Handbooks, annotated study Bibles, and Bible commentaries are all useful for helping you understand the historical background, cultural and societal conditions throughout the Bible era. But, concerning the meaning of the text, first decide for yourself what you think the text might mean and then check in these reference books to confirm, change or supplement your thoughts. 2/ What Kind of Text are You Dealing With? Broadly the six main types are as follows, however it should be noted that a text may fall into or contain one or more categories: x

Didactic (teaching) texts: These texts teach truth because the words used present ideas in a logical and reasoned way and so the instruction intended is very clear. Due to the influence of the Greco-Roman approach to rhetoric many of the epistles use this kind of text to teach truth as did Jesus in much of his teaching. This kind of text is also found in the Old Testament. E.g. OT: 2 Chronicles 7:11-14; NT: Matthew 6:25-34

x

Narrative (story) texts: These texts introduce what is happening or has happened to a person or people, or relate specific events. The text may or may not also give details of the time and place. The Bible uses narrative texts as another means of teaching truth i.e. by illustration. These texts include stories, biographies, parables, and lists and provide a wealth of information about life in Bible times. E.g. OT: 2 Chronicles 28:1-5; NT: John 19:2837

x

Poetry texts: Poetry is a form of literature found throughout the Bible. In some Bible translations all the poetry is printed in poetic form i.e. indented stanzas. However, this is not always

the case. For instance, the book of Psalms is almost always printed in poetic form whereas the book of Proverbs which originally had the poetic form in Hebrew may not always be printed in this form. E.g. OT: Ps 23; Judges 5:2-31a; Isaiah 5:1-30; NT: Luke 2:29-32; Philippians 2:6-11; Rev 4:11 x

Wisdom Literature texts: Wisdom is a genre recognized by the Jewish people and which provides insight into how to live wisely. Wisdom literature texts are found in the books of Job, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and some of the Psalms. Note: Much of the wisdom literature is in poetic form. E.g. Proverbs 3:1-35

x

Law texts: Through law texts, the author gave the Israelites God’s commands and regulations concerning how to live acceptably before Him. Law genre texts are particularly found in the books of the Pentateuch i.e. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In addition they may be found repeated in portions of other Old Testament books e.g. Isaiah 48:1-5 as well as repeated or even supplemented in parts of the New Testament e.g. John 13˖34-35. E.g. OT: Leviticus 26:1,2; NT: Mark 12:30-31

x

Prophetic texts: These are proclamations by appointed prophets or people ‘moved’ by God to foretell or forthtell His Word to specific people or peoples in specific situations. Note: the force of a proclamation is not always necessarily limited to the time period in which it was originally given. E.g. OT: Amos 5:21-24; Isaiah 39:5-7. NT: Luke 18:31-35

3/ Concerning Doctrinal Truths: Teaching texts have the task of expressing doctrinal truths. Other kinds of texts may simply illustrate doctrinal truths. Doctrinal truths include what Christians believe, how they ought to behave, and their responsibilities as members of the Body of Christ. Moral Issues: Behaviours such as sexual immorality, idolatry, adultery, male prostitution, homosexuality, thieving, greed, drunkenness, slander, and swindling etc are all evil and are always sin (Gal 5:19-21; Rom1:21-32; 13:13-14). Regardless of whether it is an Old Testament or New Testament teaching about a moral issue such teaching applies to everyone, everywhere, and at all times.

4/ Concerning the Preaching Text Background: Ask and Answer the following (1) - (4) questions: (1) Who is the author of the text? Your text is a small part of a Bible book. Some books introduce the author at the beginning of the book so first, check the beginning paragraph of that book to see if it identifies the author. If not, check for any explanatory notes elsewhere in your Bible about the books background and author. If you are still unclear refer to other reference materials but be aware that not all the authors of Bible books have been identified or agreed upon. (2) Who was the text originally written to or for? Use the same method as in (1) above to answer this question. (3) What is the historical background surrounding the text? (4) What aspects of cultural and societal conditions are implicit in the text and so have influenced its content? Use other Bible reference materials such as Bible Handbooks, annotated study Bibles, commentaries, etc to help you better understand your text background and confirm or supplement your findings. 5/ Discover the Meaning of the Text: Reminder: The meaning of a text has two aspects. First, decide what the author’s intention was in writing the text and, at the same time, consider what the text would have meant for the Biblical era people. Second, then and only then, consider what the meaning of the text is for Christians and hence, how to apply the truth it teaches us. 6/ Follow the Verification of Meaning Principles 1. Scripture does not contradict itself. You must be careful not to bring your own meaning to the text. Rather, you should let the words speak for themselves. As you examine a scripture thoroughly through asking questions 1/ – 5/] above, you will provide an opportunity for its true meaning to emerge. It may not be what you expected to find.

God inspired the authors and since God does not contradict Himself, neither will the contents of the Bible. If there are passages whose meaning seems to be in opposition, it is probably because of a lack of understanding or lack of information. In such cases, always reserve judgement until further light can be shed on the problem. 2. No strong doctrines can be based on single verses of scripture for which no other support can be found. This is why you need to find New Testament didactic (teaching) verses to verify the opinion you are putting forward about the meaning of your verse or verses. 3. Usually doctrinal truth is found in didactic (teaching) texts and may also be found illustrated in other kinds of texts especially narrative texts. Doctrinal truth is not usually found in poetry texts. 4. Verify your opinions about the meaning of a text’s main and secondary points as follows: 2 x For an Old Testament text main point, find at least one, and if possible two, New Testament didactic (teaching) texts that concur with your opinion in order to verify your opinion. They will act as verification verses. x For a New Testament text main point (with the exception of didactic texts), find at least one New Testament didactic (teaching) text that concurs with your opinion to act as a verification verse. (The main point of a New Testament didactic text will need to be verified when you have doubts about what you think it means or when it is a controversial topic. In any case, providing another New Testament didactic verse to verify what you think a New Testament didactic text’s main point means is always good practice). 2

Being able to find New Testament didactic texts whose meaning concurs with the meaning you are wanting to verify does not guarantee that you drew out a correct meaning in the first place. But by turning to New Testament scriptures for your support, you will at least be bringing out New Testament truths as you preach and so keeping the congregation focused in God’s Word rather than merely your ideas.

x For any Old Testament or New Testament (with the exception of didactic texts) secondary points, find at least one New Testament didactic (teaching) verse that concurs with your opinion to act as a verification verse. (A secondary point in a New Testament didactic text will need to be verified when you have doubts about what you think it means or when it is a controversial topic. In any case, providing another New Testament didactic verse to verify what you think a secondary point in a New Testament didactic text means is always good practice). x Be sure to check that the wider context of any verification verses also supports the meaning you want to verify. 5. Use a concordance or cross-reference Bible to find suitable verses that might verify your opinion about a text’s meaning. The more familiar you become with the contents of the whole Bible, the easier it will be to locate verification verses. NOTE WELL: If, for the Biblical era people, the text couldn’t possibly have meant what you think it means, then it also can’t have that meaning for us either. Consequently, your opinion about what the text means is incorrect. Similarly, if there are texts that disagree with the meaning you are trying to verify then very probably your opinion about the text’s meaning is either incorrect or incomplete. Example of verifying the meaning of a text: In Job 2:9 Job’s wife urges Job to “curse God”. Does this mean people should curse God? Although the form of the words in the text appears to be in the imperative tense (and, in fact, are), you will be unable to find any New Testament didactic (teaching) verses to act as verification verses. Furthermore, there are verses that prohibit such behaviour e.g. Exodus 20:7 commands that God’s name should not be misused, and Deuteronomy 6:5 commanded the Israelites to love God with all their heart, soul and strength. The New Testament repeats this command in Luke10:27 and Matthew 22:37. Hence, since the verse cannot possibly have meant that the Biblical era people should curse God, it also cannot mean that for Christians today.

7/ Other Issues You Must Consider: x You need to be able to differentiate between when the text describes merely a local custom as opposed to something that is a universal principle. Example: Acts 14:8-15 Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes (verse 14) in their despair before God. The Bible shows that this is a Jewish custom rather than behaviour that we should copy. Verification verses include Matthew 26:65 and 2 Kings 5:8. In addition, because there are no New Testament didactic (teaching) texts which instruct us to copy this behaviour or any record of non-Jewish Christians doing this, it does not appear to be a universal principle for behaviour that we should follow. x You need to be aware when the text describes an Old Testament, old covenant principle that no longer applies to us. Example: Leviticus 24:19-20 gives an Old Testament law concerning limits on revenge that doesn’t apply to us. Verification: Jesus recognized but altered this law in Matthew 5:38-39 and Paul confirmed the change in Romans 12:17-21. So, rather than seek revenge according to an injury received, evil should not be paid back with more evil. Moreover, vengeance should be left in God’s hands. x We absolutely may not allegorize or ‘spiritualize’ portions of text indiscriminately. Historical facts and events can only be taught as symbols of spiritual truth teachings when scripture clearly designates them as such. Following this principle will dramatically reduce the possibility of misinterpreting a text and teaching error instead of truth. Example from 1 Corinthians 10:1-4. In verse 2 Paul teaches that crossing the Red Sea symbolized baptism for the Israelites when they were led by Moses. Whether or not we understand the implications of this teaching, it is clear that symbolism is involved because Paul says so. Note: In personal devotional times, the Holy Spirit may move you to apply a text allegorically into your own, perhaps difficult, situation as a means of encouragement but this is quite different to preaching or teaching it as the author’s intention and, hence, meaning of that text. x You need to know whether what the text describes is normative or not i.e. whether or not it is an action, situation, or experience that

still applies to Christians. Apart from where New Testament teaching texts give a clear command, not everything described in the Bible can be considered normative for Christians. Example 1: Acts 16:13-15 describes how Lydia offers Paul hospitality after she has become a believer. In v15 she urges him to ‘come and stay at my home’. The practice of offering hospitality is found elsewhere commended, if not commanded, in New Testament didactic (teaching) texts such as 1 Peter 4:9 ; 3 John 5-8; and Rom 12:13. Because of this we can say that Lydia’s example of offering hospitality is normative for Christians i.e. it is behaviour Christians are urged to follow. Example 2: Acts 9:1-22 describes Saul’s conversion and shows it was a dramatic event. But we shouldn’t expect that every conversion will be as dramatic as Paul’s where one audibly hears the voice of the Lord. No other recorded conversions show such a dramatic experience or even any predictable pattern. So we can say that Paul’s conversion experience is not normative. Verification verses include: Acts 8: 26-39 (Conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch);Acts 10:24-48 (Cornelius’ conversion); Acts 16:11-15 (Lydia’s conversion); Acts 16:25-34 (Conversion of the Philippian jailer). 8/ Your Preaching Goal and Relating It to the Main Point of Your Preaching Text. In any kind of teaching we should have some expectation about what we hope to accomplish. Just as the writers of the Bible books were led by God to write what He wanted to communicate for His purposes, so we should have a purpose and goal for our time of preaching which coheres with the author’s intention i.e. main point of the text. So, your preaching main point should come from the scripture text content. The entire Bible contains numerous truth points concerning God, mankind, and His plan for mankind e.g.: – Aspects of God’s character. – The progressive revelation of God. – How God fulfilled aspects of His plans through specific people or peoples. – The truth that people are sinners – The good news of reconciliation with God through Christ’s substitutionary atonement – Principles for living a Holy life that is pleasing to God.

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Principles and illustrative examples concerning God’s power The truth of God’s sovereignty

Examples of preaching goals might include that the listeners will: • Understand and know God better • Discover God’s plan and will for a person’s life • Live life according to God’s plan • Learn to see life’s situations and conditions from God’s perspective as taught in the scriptures • Learn to develop appropriate relationships with others SUMMARY: • Your preaching main point is what the scripture text says. • Your preaching goal is that people will hear, receive, and apply the truth of that main point.

B. DIDACTIC (TEACHING) TEXTS 1/ Understanding Important Aspects of Didactic (Teaching) Texts 1) In the New Testament didactic texts appear in the Gospels in Jesus’ teachings, the epistles and also Acts and Revelation. In the Old Testament, didactic texts mostly appear in the Pentateuch but may also be found (although less frequently) in the historical books, prophetic books and wisdom books. 2) Didactic texts have the task of expressing doctrinal truths. Doctrinal truths (as previously mentioned) include what Christians believe, how they ought to behave, and their responsibilities as members of the Body of Christ. Some aspects of doctrinal truths are clearly stated in the text e.g.: - God is love (1 John 4:8) - All people have sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Rom 3:23) - Salvation is through Christ alone (Acts 4:1-12) - Holy Communion remembers Christ’s death until He comes (1Cor 11:23-26) - Believers should meet together regularly (Heb 10:25) Other aspects of doctrinal truths, particularly their practical application, are only implied in the text or derived by

precedent. Consequently how churches apply these aspects isn’t completely the same. For instance: How often a church should meet isn’t specifically addressed in the Bible so that the frequency and time of church meetings vary with different modern-day churches. Similarly, the frequency of participation in Holy Communion is also not specifically addressed in the New Testament. Hence, this practice also varies from church to church. Doctrinal truths are often expressed in didactic (teaching) texts through one or more of the following (literary) vehicles: -

A command or imperative language that urges what should be done e.g. Matthew 5:44 A direct warning e.g. Matthew 10:28 An indirect warning as implied in a story e.g. Acts 5:1-11 A promise e.g. John 14:21 An encouragement e.g. 1 Peter 1: 6,7 An example to follow e.g. 2 Cor 8:1-7 A behaviour to avoid e.g. Acts 5:1-11 A truth fact e.g. Eph 2:8,9

3) Some commands could only have been for that person in the text at that particular time. E.g. 2 Tim 4:13 Paul directed Timothy to bring his cloak. Of course that command could only be directed to Timothy then and cannot apply to us since Paul and his cloak are long gone! 4) Not all Old Testament teaching, and even some New Testament teaching, as described in 5) below, still applies to Christians today. - To check whether an Old Testament teaching still applies to us today, you need to find at least one (and if possible two) New Testament didactic verses which confirm and so, verify that the teaching also comes under the new covenant and so applies to Christians, too. - To check whether a New Testament teaching verse still applies to Christians today, you do best to find at least one other New Testament didactic verse to verify the teaching.

5) You need to be able to recognize which teachings are merely due to cultural practices, customs or situations in Bible-times. Why? Because cultural values and attitudes are established differently in each place and society and do not necessarily have universal application. (Refer to Bible handbooks and other reference materials to better understand cultural and situational aspects of Bible texts). Consider the following example: 1 Tim 2:9-10 Paul wrote to Timothy who was leading the Church in Ephesus, concerning the dress and appearance of Christian women there. Paul wanted (verse 9) ‘women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes.’ Many Christians consider this teaching was merely due to a cultural issue and so not applicable today (note: in our days, it is generally acceptable for Christian women to wear jewellery such as gold earrings!). Why? Verse 10 reveals the wider context of the teaching: There is a contrast wherein women who profess to worship God shouldn’t be overly concerned with outward appearance but rather, should show it through good deeds. Verification verse: 1 Peter 3:1-6 (Whilst the context concerns wives submitting to husbands, verses 3-5 clearly show that for women who put their hope in God, inner beauty is of greater worth to God than outer appearance. Moreover, the outer purity and reverence that is associated with Godly behaviour and inner beauty will be a witness to their husbands.) The cultural issue that perhaps provoked the problem in the first place, is hinted at in the narrative support of Acts 19:2328 i.e. the goddess Artemis was worshipped in Ephesus before Christianity came to that region. The religious aspect of local culture may have provided the rationale for women to overly draw attention to their appearance in association with worship of the goddess or even with the goddess itself. 6) As previously mentioned, regardless of whether it is an Old Testament or New Testament teaching about a moral issue, that teaching applies to everyone, everywhere, and always. 7) As previously mentioned, we absolutely may not allegorize or ‘spiritualize’ portions of text indiscriminately. Historical

facts and events can only be taught as symbols of spiritual truth teachings when scripture clearly designates them as such. Following this principle will dramatically reduce the possibility of misinterpreting a text and teaching error instead of truth. Example from 1 Corinthians 10:1-4. In verse 2 Paul teaches that crossing the Red Sea symbolized baptism for the Israelites when they were led by Moses. Whether or not we understand the implications of this teaching, it is clear that symbolism is involved because Paul says so. Note: In personal devotional times, the Holy Spirit may move you to apply a text allegorically into your own, perhaps difficult, situation as a means of encouragement but this is quite different to preaching or teaching it as the author’s intention and, hence, meaning of that text. 8) Promises in didactic texts mostly apply to Christians in any place or time. Promises in New Testament didactic texts always apply whereas promises in Old Testament didactic texts are conditional on the promise (referred to in the Old Testament teaching) being repeated in the New Testament and hence being part of the new covenant. (I consider promises to a means of positive encouragement as opposed to teachings or warnings that have a negative tone.) Promises in narrative texts are often only for those people in their specific times and situations. Principles for ‘Narrative Texts’ below gives a clearer explanation of how to interpret such promises. 2/ Preaching Principles for Didactic Texts 1) Read the text in its wider context so as to get a feel for the flow of thought and discover the main issue being addressed. Read your text paragraph by paragraph and see how the text breaks down into parts. Usually each paragraph or part has one main idea so note down each idea and their mutual relationships. Specially note the sentences which introduce changes of ideas. (If the text is in an Epistle, start by reading the whole epistle all in one go.) A didactic passage usually only has one main teaching point. This is your preach main point. Other points (that come from the ideas in the different paragraphs) may be used

as secondary points to develop your message (preach content) by giving support to or supplementing the main point. 2)

Read the text literally unless it will only make sense figuratively. Words cannot be used literally and figuratively at the same time. Literal interpretation is meaning that is based on natural or normal usage of language, the ordinary sense of the words. Figurative language is the expression of one thing in terms of another. Figurative words present pictures to the mind that illustrate other ideas. Jesus often used figurative language in His teaching e.g. John 6:48 Jesus said ‘I am the bread of life’. Jesus saying he is bread, can only be figurative language. These figurative words represent the teaching that he is a means of sustenance for living the spiritual life.

3) Make a provisional attempt at deciding what the text’s main point is. The main point in a teaching text will usually be related to either: • The strongest command e.g. 1 John 2:15-17 v15 “Do not love the world” OR • A command that’s an encompassing principle e.g. Col 3:12-17 v17 “whatever you do” •

OR The strongest truth point principle e.g. Matthew 6:19-21 (v19 and 20 are commands. v21 is the truth point principle: ‘where your heart is there your treasure is also’) Ask what is Jesus most likely trying to get across? Probably the truth principle in v21 because the context is about relationship with God

Also note down any secondary points that you see. If you decide to use a text’s secondary point as the main point of your preach, then you should definitely make clear to the people listening that it is not the most important teaching aspect of the text. 4) Concerning the Preaching Text Background: Ask and Answer questions (1)-(4) below: (1) Who is the author of the text?

(2) Who was the text originally written to or for? (3) What is the historical background surrounding the text? (4) What aspects of cultural and societal conditions are implicit in the text and so have influenced its content and meaning? 5) Discover the Meaning of the Text by Asking and Answering questions [1]-[10] below: [1] What is the text’s literary context and what is its distinct theme? Your text is a small part of the whole Bible. Many themes can be traced throughout the Bible but the main one is redemption through Christ. Each Bible book has its own distinct theme. These distinct themes act as secondary themes which contribute to overall understanding of the development of the whole Bible’s main theme. Your text’s literary context includes the theme/s of the book and how your text relates to it/them. Pay special attention to what comes immediately before and just after your text (apart from prophetic book texts because their content does not always run chronologically) but be aware that the whole Bible is the complete context and guide for understanding your text. Therefore you must never take a single text out of its context. [2] Where is the geographical setting of the text? Where else or what other places are significant for understanding the meaning of the text? [3] Who does the content of the text include? Which people say or do something significant for understanding the meaning of the text? [4] What literary devices (e.g. verbs, adjectives etc. which heighten the text’s overall meaning) does the text include? [5] When should the teaching point be applied? Read the text carefully to determine whether its content gives any pointers regarding the timing and/or circumstances for the application of the teaching point.

[6] What is the author teaching through the text? There are two methods for arranging the material you gather for your preach content: Method 1. When the text has only between one and six verses, consider what each individual verse teaches and how it relates to your text main point. Method 2. However many verses the text has, choose at least three secondary points that relate to (and support or supplement) your text main point and explain these relationships. Through answering the questions so far, you may have discovered that your original decision about the text’s main point needs revising. Now is the time to modify your main point if necessary, and also ask ‘what doctrinal truth is the teaching concerned with?’ Remember, doctrinal truths include what Christians believe, how they ought to behave, and their responsibilities as members of the Body of Christ. [7] How is the teaching about the doctrinal truth expressed? What specific emphasis do any of the literary devices bring out that particularly help us to understand the content and importance of the teaching? For instance, it is clear that a command has greater literary weight in terms of bringing a teaching than does an encouragement. Similarly, conditional words bring a stronger emphasis to a teaching than words of causation. Example: The first sentence uses words of causation: ‘Sin causes death’. The next sentence uses conditional words: ‘If you repent then you will inherit eternal life’. The sentence with conditional words has a stronger literary impact on the reader or the listener than the sentence with causation words. (Both of these truths are in the Bible as God desired. It is not that one is theologically more important than the other but that when we consider the use of the literary devices we can see how words affect the literary weight and impact on the reader or the listener.) Consult the list of literary devices in the text that you made in [4] above and specially consider how the use of

these literary devices contribute to understanding the content and importance of the text’s main point and, if using Method 2, any secondary points. [8] Why might the truth that this text teaches have needed to be taught or emphasized for the Bible-era people? [9] What does the text imply? Be sure to distinguish what the author actually said in the text from what you think the words imply. Implied concepts are those concepts which the text suggests rather than what is actually written. Be aware that implied teaching will always have related teaching passages to support it. Follow the Verification Principles given above to check the validity of your opinions about what a text implies. Be careful to distinguish any differences between what the text implied for the Bible era people and what it implies for Christians after the Bible era. NOTE WELL: If, for the Biblical era people, the text couldn’t possibly have meant what you think it means, then it also can’t have that meaning for us either. Consequently, your opinion about what the text means is incorrect. Similarly, if there are texts that disagree with the meaning you are trying to verify then very probably your opinion about the text’s meaning is either incorrect or incomplete. Follow the verification principles given above to accurately verify the meaning you are proposing. 6) Write down your text main point, preaching goal, and verification verses being careful to make sure that there is no disagreement in their content. 7) Develop your preaching content using the answers you have gathered to all the questions above. Arrange your material as follows: Method 1. When the text has only between one and six verses, consider and explain what each individual verse teaches and how each verse relates to and supports your text main point. Method 2. However many verses the text has, choose at least three secondary points that relate to (and support or supplement) your text main point and explain these relationships.

8) Complete Your Preach Material: Begin your preach with the answers to Concerning the Preaching Text Background questions (1)-(4) and then the answers to Discover the Meaning of the Text questions [1][3]. Next state the main point of your text. Then use the developed preach material from 7) above (which contains the answers to questions [4]-[10].) Include and read out the main point verification verses and any other or secondary point verification verses at appropriate points in your preach. Similarly, include illustrations where they will best help clarify and make memorable the truth you are emphasizing in the text. Finally, emphasize your preaching goal by saying clearly what the text urges the people listening to do or be, and give a concrete means of application along with an opportunity for the people listening to make an appropriate response.

C. NARRATIVE (STORY) TEXTS 1/ Understanding Important Aspects of Narrative (Story) Texts 1) Much of the Old Testament is narrative (story) concerning Israel’s history and beginnings from God creating the world to the silent era. In the New Testament, much of the Gospels and Book of Acts are narrative texts. Be aware that sometimes didactic (teaching) portions or even prophecy or poetry can be seen in the midst of narrative texts. 2) Narrative texts tell stories about people and events. Sometimes a story focuses on a single person. Other times we see the actions and attitudes of several people or even a whole nation. These stories reveal and illustrate principles concerning God’s involvement with people as well as how they live their lives. When preaching from narrative texts we are looking to draw out these principles illustrated in the stories, see to what extent they are also appropriate for our lives, and then how to apply these principles in our own lives.

3) Some of the narratives show examples of people with character and behaviour that Christians are encouraged to follow. Others are people of bad character as well as those who follow practices that Christians should avoid. Hence we can see that we need to be discerning about which people and practices are good or bad and not just assume that every story or person in the Bible serves as a correct example. 4) The story may have a moral teaching but not always. 5)

Sometimes a story may use figurative language e.g. Jesus spoke figuratively when he told parables. When figurative language is used, the words may not be taken literally but must be read figuratively or symbolically. However, as previously mentioned, in preaching and teaching, we may not allegorize aspects of narrative texts ( i.e. bring out a symbolic meaning) unless there is a clear New Testament teaching text that teaches that there is symbolic meaning in that story text event or person.

6) Each story is part of a larger narrative. Each small story has its own climax and meaning. The larger narrative is the literary context of the smaller story. Example: The Old Testament Book of Genesis chapter 40 tells of an event in the story of Joseph in prison. Its literary context is the wider story of the prison narrative Gen. 39:20-41:14. The prison narrative tells a part of the story of the whole of Joseph’s life whose literary context is the larger narrative found in Gen. chapters 37-50. Example: The New Testament Gospel of John 19:12-30 is the story of the death of Christ on the cross. Its wider literary context is found in John chapters 18-20 concerning the longer story of Jesus’ arrest, death, and resurrection. 7) The author has reasons for including what he has in the story. The author intended the story to illustrate a certain truth or teaching point as inspired by God. To discover these truths we first need to understand how parts of a story fit together and that stories tend to follow a typical progression:

Introduction – crisis – Climax – wind-down Causes of Climax – Climax – Results of Climax We can see a typical curve shape to stories as below:

Climax (which resolves the Crisis)

Crisis and Causes of Climax

Introduction

Results of Climax

Winddown

THE MAIN POINT OF THE STORY relates to the climax and the principle it is illustrating or it will be in a verse that either mentions Jesus/God directly or implies something about Jesus/God’s nature, or it will be a clear teaching point within the story (especially if there is no obvious climax). Write down the series of events that occur in the story. Note all the teaching points that you can see illustrated and decide what the main point of the story is. Then pay attention to the relation of the other points you found (secondary points) to the main point. Secondary points in a narrative are only subordinate points. They will often be related to the progression of the story whose main point is at the climax of the story. They can support or supplement

a main point (as causes or results of the climax) but they cannot replace it. Finding the author’s intention for the story is to find the main point and the principle it is illustrating. Absolutely do not emphasize what the author did not intend to be emphasized. New Testament Examples: Luke 5:1-7 Main point: What did Jesus want people to learn?: v6 miraculous catch. Principle: Jesus has God’s power over creation Col 1:15 v3 Peter willing to stop what he’s doing v5a ‘worked hard all night’ is an honest response v5b ‘because you say’ shows trust in Jesus Results in v6 climax v7 other boatmen came to help. Others affected by the miracle too . Evangelistic message and preaching goal: Believe in Jesus who has the power of God because He is God Luke 5:1-11 Main point: What did Jesus want people to learn? v8 ‘away from me a sinful man’ Principle: we need to have a real encounter with Jesus and confess we’re sinners for new life 1Jn1:9 v5a,b trust v6 miraculous catch = minor climax (like life – a series of climaxes) that is a cause of main climax v8 Climax – lifechanging encounter with the reality of who Jesus is and who Peter is in relation to him! Results of the climax: v10b Don’t be afraid, from now on you’ll catch men v11 They left everything and followed Him. (the life change is the result of the climax ) Message for Christian: When did you last have an encounter with Jesus that caused you change some aspect of your lifestyle or behaviour? 8) As previously mentioned, not all practices in the Bible are normative. Especially be careful with narrative passages. Unless there is a command in a New Testament didactic (teaching) text to verify the practice we can’t consider that everything that happens in a Bible story is normative for Christians. Example: Acts 1:12-26 is a story about choosing church leaders by praying and drawing lots. The practice of drawing lots to choose a church leader may not be considered normative because there is no New Testament didactic text that commands or verifies it.

9) As previously mentioned, regardless of whether it is an Old Testament or New Testament narrative that has teaching about moral issues, the teaching applies to everyone, everywhere, and always. 10) To verify whether what an Old Testament narrative teaches still applies to Christians, find at least one (and preferably two) New Testament didactic texts to confirm it. If in doubt about a New Testament narrative, do the same. 11) Promises in narrative texts are given to specific people at specific times. Apart from a special move of the Holy Spirit, Christians can not take a narrative promise and apply it to their personal situations. So if a narrative text has a promise in it, in your preaching (apart from a special prophetic move of the Holy Spirit) you may not apply the promise as if it is for everyone listening. 2/ Preaching Principles for Narrative Texts 1) Read the text in its wider literary context so that you know what the wider story is that surrounds your smaller story. Each paragraph or part contributes to the progression of the story so sum up and write down the content of each paragraph or part. Especially note the sentences which introduce new ideas. Specially note where the climax of the story is and what happens at the climax. 2) Read the text literally unless it will only make sense read figuratively. 3) A narrative usually only teaches one main thing. This is the main point of the story and is what the author wanted the story to teach. It is usually related to the climax of the story. Anything else is secondary. Note provisionally what you think this main teaching point is and what principle it reveals or illustrates. 4) Concerning the Preaching Text Background: Ask and Answer questions (1)-(4) below: (1) Who is the author of the text?

(2) Who was the text originally written to or for? (3) What is the historical background surrounding the text? (4) What aspects of cultural and societal conditions are implicit in the text and so have influenced its content and meaning? 5) Discover the Meaning of the Text by Asking and Answering questions [1]-[10] below: [1] What is the text’s literary context and what is its distinct theme? Your text is a small part of the whole Bible. Many themes can be traced throughout the Bible but the main one is redemption through Christ. Each Bible book has its own distinct theme. These distinct themes act as secondary themes which contribute to overall understanding of the development of the whole Bible’s main theme. Your text’s literary context includes the theme/s of the book and how your text relates to it/them. Pay special attention to what comes immediately before and after your text (apart from prophetic book texts because their content does not always run chronologically) but be aware that the whole Bible is the complete context and guide for understanding your text. Therefore you must never take a single text out of its context. [2] Where is the geographical setting of the text? Where else or what other places are significant for understanding the meaning of the text? [3] Who is the main person in the story? Also ask: How does the author describe him/her? What is the main person’s relationship with God like? What teaching does the text imply concerning the main person’s speech and/or behaviour? What aspects of the main person’s speech and/or behaviour are good or bad examples? Who else is in the story? What principles might these peoples’ speech and actions illustrate and so teach us? (These can be secondary points.)

[4] Literary Devices: Note down all the literary devices found in the text and describe how they affect the content of the story. If the story has figurative language, ask is this story a parable? IF THE STORY IS A PARABLE then refer to D. Parables below. [5] When does the author say the event in the text occurred? What changes of conditions or peoples’ responses occur in the text? When do these happen? Look for words like ‘after’, ‘as’, ‘at’ (a certain time), ‘before’, ‘now’, ‘then’, ‘until’, ‘while’ etc. [6] What other teaching points are there illustrated in the story? Very likely these are secondary points. List down these secondary points and also note their relationship to the main point. What principles do these teaching points reveal? Through answering the questions so far you may have discovered that your original main point needed changing so now modify the main point. Ask: What aspect of doctrinal truth is the story’s main point and principle being illustrated concerned with? [7] How did the occurrence in the text happen? Does the author clearly explain how something happened or do you have to decide how it happened? When you come up with your own decision you must also provide evidence to substantiate it. Find other texts which provide evidence to verify your decision concerning how something happened. (Follow the verification principles). [8] Why did the occurrence happen? Does the author clearly explain the reason for something that happened? If not you may have to decide for yourself why it happened. As for the previous question, when you come up with your own decision you must also provide evidence to substantiate it. Find other texts which provide evidence to verify your decision about why something happened. (Follow the verification principles).

[9] What does the text imply? Be sure to distinguish what the author actually said in the text from what you think the words imply. Implied concepts are those concepts which the text suggests rather than what is actually written. Implied teaching will always have related teaching passages to support it. (Follow the Verification Principles above to check the validity of your opinions about what a text implies.) Be careful to distinguish any differences between what the text implied for the Bible era people and what it implies for Christians today. [10] What does the text mean and how may the teaching be applied? Having answered the questions above, you should now be able to decide what the author’s intention was in writing the text and hence, what it would have meant for the Biblical era people. Also, by now you should be able to decide what the text means for Christians. You should be able to say what the text teaches Christians and also what the text implies concerning applying the truth into the real life situations that we Christians face. Note down how Christians may specifically apply the text main point and secondary points in their lives. (In the event that you still can’t decide what the text means, apply the above principles to other Bible texts with related content.) NOTE WELL: If, for the Biblical era people, the text couldn’t possibly have meant what you think it means, then it also can’t have that meaning for us either. Consequently, your opinion about what the text means is incorrect. Similarly, if there are texts that disagree with the meaning you are trying to verify then very probably your opinion about the text’s meaning is either incorrect or incomplete. 6) Write down your text main point, preaching goal, and verification verses being careful to make sure that there is no disagreement in their content. 7) Develop your preaching content using the answers you have gathered to all the questions above. Arrange your material as follows:

Method 1. When the text has only between one to six verses, consider and explain what each individual verse teaches and how each verse relates to and supports your text main point. Method 2. However many verses the text has, choose at least three secondary points that relate to (and support or supplement) your text main point and explain these relationships. 8) Complete Your Preach Material: Begin your preach with the answers to Concerning the Preaching Text Background questions (1)-(4) and then the answers to Discover the Meaning of the Text questions [1][3]. Next state the main point of your text. Then use the developed preach material from 7) above (which contains the answers to questions [4]-[10].) Include and read out the main point verification verses and any other or secondary point verification verses at appropriate points in your preach. Similarly, include illustrations where they will best help clarify and make memorable the truth you are emphasizing in the text. Finally, emphasize your preaching goal by saying clearly what the text urges the people listening to do or be, and give a concrete means of application along with an opportunity for the people listening to make an appropriate response.

D. Parables 1/ Understanding Important Aspects of Parables 1) Some Old Testament narrative texts contain parables, but mostly they are found as a narrative form in Jesus’ teachings in didactic (teaching) texts in the New Testament. 2) Each parable has only one central truth. To understand the meaning of a parable, you need to find out what central truth the author (Old Testament) or Jesus (New Testament) was intending to teach.

3) Although Jesus used parables to reveal truth, He also used them to conceal what He was saying from those who were unwilling to receive God’s truth. 4) Sometimes the text identifies its content as a parable but not in every case. 5) Sometimes parables also have an explanation but, again, not in every case and when there is an explanation, it may occur in text that comes beyond the end of the parable. Example: Matthew 13:1-8 tells the parable of the sower. The explanation for this parable can be found further on in chapter 13:18-23. 6)

Parables take advantage of something very familiar to the hearers in order to teach a spiritual lesson. Example: Matthew 13:47-50 uses a net. Example: Matthew 18:12-14 uses a lost sheep

7) Parables come in different forms including: x The form of a simile. This can be seen by use of the words ‘like’ or ‘as’ in the sentence. Example: Matthew 13:31 Jesus said “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed.” Example: Luke 10:3 Jesus said “I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.” x The form of a metaphor. This uses words that describe an implied likeness. Example: 1 Peter 5:2 “Be shepherds of God’s flock”. This implies believers are like a flock of sheep and their overseers are like shepherds whose role is to protect and guide the sheep. x The form of a story. Example: Luke 15:11-32 contains the parable of the lost son which tells a story of undeserved forgiveness. Regardless of which form is used, most of Jesus’ parables are concerned with teaching about aspects of the Kingdom of God. 8) The content of a parable that uses a simile may be broken down as follows:

1. 2.

A spiritual thing is likened to a worldly thing or matter. Next, the parable gives more detail about the worldly thing or matter.

3. Sometimes the parable will then give more information about the spiritual thing or matter so as to explain the parable’s meaning. This is the main point of the parable. When you are preaching a text that is a parable, it is also your main point. 4. The author of the parable (Old Testament parable) or Jesus (New Testament parable) hoped to get a certain response from us through telling them the parable. This is the preaching goal of the parable. When you are preaching a text that is a parable, it is also your preaching goal. 9) With parables that use a metaphor or have the form of a story, you are also essentially looking for how a spiritual thing or matter is likened to a worldly thing or matter and what is said about them. In these cases, the teaching may be more implied than explicit. 10) When the parable has an accompanying explanatory passage, you should always include it in your preach content. If the parable has no spiritual explanation in the text or accompanying explanatory text, then you must discover the meaning of the parable yourself. Refer to the Preaching Principles for Parables below. 2/ Preaching Principles for Parables 1) Read the parable in its wider context to see how it relates to the surrounding material. 2) Ask: Which form of parable is it? 3) Is there an explanation given that tells the meaning of the parable? 4) Concerning the Preaching Text Background: Ask and Answer questions (1)-(4) below: (1) Who is the author of the text?

(2) Who was the text originally written to or for? (3) What is the historical background surrounding the text? (4) What aspects of cultural and societal conditions are implicit in the text and so have influenced its content and meaning? 5) Discover the Meaning of the Text by Asking and Answering questions [1]-[10]: [1] What is the text’s literary context and what is its distinct theme? Your text is a small part of the whole Bible. Many themes can be traced throughout the Bible but the main one is redemption through Christ. Each Bible book has its own distinct theme. These distinct themes act as secondary themes which contribute to overall understanding of the development of the whole Bible’s main theme. Your text’s literary context includes the theme/s of the book and how your text relates to it/them. Pay special attention to what comes immediately before and after your text (apart from prophetic book texts because their content does not always run chronologically) but be aware that the whole Bible is the complete context and guide for understanding your text. Therefore you must never take a single text out of its context. [2] Where is the geographical setting of the text? Where else or what other places are significant for understanding the meaning of the text? [3] Who does the content of the text include? Which people say or do something significant for understanding the meaning of the text? [4] What literary devices does the text include? [5] When does the author say the event in the text occurred? What changes of conditions or peoples’ responses occur in the text? When do these happen? Look for words like ‘after’, ‘as’, ‘at’ (a certain time), ‘before’, ‘now’, ‘then’, ‘until’, ‘while’ etc.

[6] What? 1) In the parable, what spiritual thing or matter is likened to what worldly thing or matter? 2) What further details does the parable give about the worldly aspect? 3) What other details or explanation is there regarding the spiritual aspect? This gives the parable’s and your preaching main point. 4) If the parable has no spiritual explanation in the text and no accompanying explanatory text, then you must discover its meaning yourself. In that case: x Let only what the text actually says influence your decision about the meaning of the parable. x Decide what response the author (Old Testament parable) or Jesus (New Testament parable) hoped people would make. This is the preaching goal of the parable. Discovering the preaching goal will help you understand more about what the parable was intended to teach people. x Verify what you think the parable means: Find at least 2 New Testament didactic texts that concur with the teaching you think the parable contains. [7] How did the occurrence in the text happen? Does the author clearly explain how something happened or do you have to decide how it happened? When you come up with your own decision you must also provide evidence to substantiate it. Find other texts which provide evidence to verify your decision concerning how something happened. (If you are unclear about this, follow the verification principles below). [8] Why did the occurrence happen? Does the author clearly explain the reason for something that happened? If not you may have to decide for yourself why it happened. As for the previous question, when you come up with your own decision you must also provide evidence to substantiate it. Find other texts which provide evidence to verify your decision about why something happened. (Follow the verification principles.) [9] What does the meaning of the parable imply?

x What was the author (Old Testament parable) or Jesus (New Testament parable) hoping for in terms of a response by the listeners? These two questions relating to implied meaning and hoped-for response are provoked by the main point of the parable. They should have a related answer i.e. the author’s (OT) or Jesus’ (NT) hoped-for response relates to what is implied in the meaning of the parable, and getting that response from the listeners is the preaching goal. (It is also your preaching goal if you are preaching the parable.) x Verify what you think the parable implies: Find at least 2 New Testament didactic texts that concur with what you think the parable implies. x Now ask: What doctrinal truth is the teaching (both explicit and/or implied) in the parable concerned with? [10] What does the text mean and how may the teaching be applied? Having answered the questions above, you should now be able to decide what the author’s intention was in writing the text and hence, what it would have meant for the Biblical era people. Also, by now you should be able to decide what the text means for Christians. You should be able to say what the text teaches Christians and also what the text implies concerning applying the truth into real life situations that we Christians face. Note down how Christians may specifically apply the text main point and secondary points in their lives. (In the event that you still can’t decide what the text means, apply the above principles to other Bible texts with related content.) NOTE WELL: If, for the Biblical era people, the text couldn’t have meant what you think it means, then it also can’t have that meaning for us either. Consequently, your opinion about what the text means is incorrect. Similarly, if there are texts that disagree with the meaning you are trying to verify then very probably your opinion about the text’s meaning is either incorrect or incomplete. 6) Write down your parable’s main point, preaching goal, and verification verses

being careful to make sure that there is no disagreement in their content. 7) Develop your preaching content. Arrange your material as follows: The guiding structure of your preach content will basically follow the structure of your answers to the questions in [6] What? above. Use the answers to [4],[5], and [7]-[10] to fill out the structure. 8) Complete Your Preach Material: Begin your preach with the answers to Concerning Your Preaching Text Background questions (1)-(4) and then the answers to Discover the Meaning of Your Text questions [1][3]. Next state the main point of your text. Then use the developed preach material from 7) above (which contains the answers to questions [4]-[10] .) Include and read out the main point verification verses and any other or secondary point verification verses at appropriate points in your preach. Similarly, include illustrations where they will best help clarify and make memorable the truth you are emphasizing in the text. Finally, emphasize your preaching goal by saying clearly what the text urges the people listening to do or be, and give a concrete means of application along with an opportunity for the people listening to make an appropriate response.

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Index

abstract, 52, 54, 163 acceptance, 66, 78, 144 accommodation/accommodating, 114 accountability, 15, 61, 138, 164, 168 adult maturity, 35, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43, 55, 67, 68, 78, 120, 138, 155 agenda/agendas, 2, 12, 43, 46, 48, 92, 93, 117, 160 allegiance, 48, 49, 150 Allen, Roland, 4, 136, 140, 146, 180 Anderson, A.H., 20, 86 Anderson, Rufus, 111, 142, 143 Andors, S., 87 anger, 55 Anglican, 140, 142, 143, 153 animism/animistic, 104, 105 anthropologists, 28 Aquinas, Thomas, 51 Argyle, M., 28, 231 Asia, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 42, 55, 85, 140, 167, 180 Asian Society of Missiology, 153 Assyrian, 31 atheist/atheistic, 116 authentic/authenticity, 1, 61, 158 authority, 4, 7, 8, 16, 20, 40, 41, 46, 101, 118, 136, 137, 138, 141, 157, 162, 166, 168, 173, 176, 182, 183 avatar, 110 Babylon/Babylonian, 31 backsliders, 166 baptism, 136, 152 Barrow, S., 160 baton, 175, 176, 183 Baxter Magolda, M.B., 132 beliefs, 5, 8, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 39, 50, 56, 57, 61, 75, 81, 82, 85, 103, 106, 109, 110, 111, 115, 116, 117, 123, 125, 127, 144, 145, 146, 147, 152, 163, 170, 172 Benedict, Ruth, 42 Bennett, M.J., 60, 61, 62, 68 Beyerhaus, Peter, 144 Bible translation, 98 Biblical interpretation, 89, 122, 159, 162, 163 blame, 75, 76, 77 blocked goals, 63 Body of Christ, 1, 61, 66, 101, 102, 115,

136, 137, 151, 153, 155, 159, 160, 163, 169, 191 Bond, M.H., 68 Bosch, D., 2, 41, 144 boundaries, 30, 36, 79, 134, 153 bribe, 93 Brinkman, Rick, 68, 72, 80 British Empire, 20, 143 Brookfields, Stephen D., 158 Brown, Patricia, 149 Browne, S.G., 118 Buddhist/Buddhism, 18, 127, 170, 182 Campbell, E.H., 36 care/caring, 7, 23, 24, 39, 48, 70, 75, 78, 90, 117, 120, 124, 142, 165, 169, 183 Carter, Craig A., 113, 114, 115 Castiglioni, I., 60catalytic, 138 cell group, 135 Chambers, Oswald, 59, 102, 169, Chao, J., 159 Christendom, 113, 114 Christ-likeness, 37, 112, 159 Christmas, 91, 92, 126, 127, 128, 131, 158 Chuang, Tsu-kung, 97 Chung, L.C., 80 church planting/planter, 1, 12, 58, 83, 120, 133, 135, 137, 138, 139, 141, 142, 143, 155, 157, 175, 176, 177, 182 church/es, 3, 4, 28, 41, 79, 100, 109, 110, 111, 118, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 147, 152, 154, 157, 159, 162, 166, 167, 168, 176, 177, 179, 180, 182 Clarke, W. V., 69, 232 client, 48, 49, 152 cognition/cognitive, 29, 52, 53, 56, 61, 67 Cole, N., 136 collectivism/collectivist, 40, 66, 149 colonial/colonialist/colonialism, 12, 20, 21, 114 commissioning, 180 communication, 1, 5, 12, 23, 28, 32, 47, 49, 50, 78, 79, 80, 88, 113, 120, 124, 147, 165, 171 communist/communism, 4, 116, 133 Community Health Education, 12, 91, 92 Community Health Evangelism (CHE) program, 12

242 compromise, 24, 31, 74, 75, 113, 114, 146, 155 conceal vulnerability, 33 concrete/concrete-relational, 16, 52, 53, 54, 69, 70, 126, 161, 163 condemn/condemned, 99 conflict, 1, 24, 39, 40, 43, 55, 62, 63, 66, 67, 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 93, 96, 113, 124 Confucianism, 47 congregation, 45, 66, 136, 137, 138, 145, 160 Congregational, 137, 138 conscience, 99 contexting, 49, 50 contingencies, 29, 55, 104, 117, 144 conversion, 41, 100, 103, 112, 117, 128, 169 conviction, 98, 99, 105, 107, 143, 146, 154, 169 coping mechanisms, 28, 60, 103, 104, 107 coping skills, 117 courage, 51, 129 creative access, 1 credible/credibility, 18, 19, 81, 93, 123, 126, 140, 153, 158 critical thinking, 119, 120, 133 culpability, 41, 76, 124 culture/cultural, 4, 9, 16, 18, 21, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 70, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 93, 96, 97, 99, 100, 104, 105, 106, 107, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 123, 124, 127, 129, 132, 133, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 151, 152, 153, 155, 158, 159, 163, 164, 169, 183 customs, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 39, 45, 57, 81, 82, 106, 112, 144, 145, 146 Dahill, L.E., 161 Daniels, Gene, 178 Dawn, Marva, 150, 151 D-Davidson, V.J., 1, 5, 6, 1, 13, 87, 88, 117, 118, 120, 137, 159, 167 decision/s, 1, 17, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 46, 55, 72, 73, 94, 100, 101, 128, 129, 137, 138, 141, 145, 146, 149, 151, 161, 168, 173 deity/deities, 110, 116, 150 deliberate, 27, 100, 128 deliverance, 3, 7 dentist/dentistry/dental, 1, 13, 14, 15, 16, 22, 58, 78, 87, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 94, 102, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 132, 133, 158,

Empowering Transformation 162, 163, 164, 165 dependence/dependency, 12, 13, 92, 121 depression, 58, 129 Descartes, René, 3 determine, 6, 25, 40, 99, 144 development work, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 24, 91, 126 dichotomistic thinking, 32, 37, 39, 44, 54, 114, 180 didactic (of scripture), 161, 162, 163, 164 dignity, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22, 23, 45, 48, 86, 92, 106, 116, 117, 125, 155, 173, 178 direct/directness/directly, 2, 27, 49, 75, 76, 77, 80, 87, 138 disagreement/s, 73, 74, 93 discipleship/discipling, 18, 102, 135, 146, 148, 162 discomfort, 35, 42, 47, 50, 57, 59, 99 dishonesty, 93 doctrinal beliefs, 136 Drummond, S. B., 160 Durkin, K., 119 Dye, T. Wayne, 99 Easter, 158, 175 ecumenism/ecumenical, 2, 21 ego-centred, 104 Eitel, K.E., 110, 111, 115 Elmer, Duane, 37, 60, 63, 66, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 97, 98 emotions/feelings, 38, 42, 58, 68, 71, 79, 85 empathy, 24, 62, 78, 80 empowering/empowerment/empowered, 3, 9, 13, 19, 20, 22, 24, 86, 92, 106, 116, 117, 120, 132, 133, 138, 163, 177, 178, 182, 183 enculturation, 111, 112, 121 enlightenment, 4, 9 entitlement, 13 environment/environmental, 27, 28, 57, 69, 92, 104, 127, 138, 179 envision/envisioning/envisioned, 89, 157, 179, 180, 181, 183 Episcopal, 137, 138 Erickson, Millard J., 5, 233 eternal life, 5, 6, 99, 179 eternity, 96 ethnic, 148, 153 ethnocentricism, 60 ethnorelativism, 60 Europe, 3, 55, 233, 236 evangelical, 95, 110, 119, 122, 159, 170 evangelism, 2, 3, 10, 11, 19, 51, 83, 84, 85, 97, 128, 141, 148, 154, 155, 162, 164, 165, 179 expose vulnerability, 32, 42, 124 face/face-saving/lose face, 17, 42, 45, 50, 54, 55, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 93,

Index 102, 103, 119, 131, 161, 172 facilitate/facilitators, 90, 92, 118, 120, 123, 132, 155, 158, 175 Fanon, F., 21 fear, 63, 170, 171, 172, 173 forgiveness, 5, 7, 23, 93, 124, 131, 134 Foster, C.R., 161, 169 Fowke, Ruth, 149 Fowler, J.W., 35, 37, 170 fruit of the Holy Spirit, 7, 8 fruitful/fruitfulness, 24, 85, 96, 102, 127, 135, 149, 150, 154, 169, 176, 177, 179, 183 Fujino, G., 40 Fuller, W. Harold, 141, 176 fundamentalist, 44, 134 funerals, 136 Gaengler, P., 120 gender, 44, 45 General Dental Council (GDC), 90, 120 genre (of scripture), 162 Gilliland, Dean S., 144 global north/south, 43 Gmünder, P., 37, 170 Golemon, L.A., 161 graciousness, 65, 141 Greener, S., 36 Greenlee, D., 119 group conversion, 100 Gulick, Sidney Lewis, 52 Hall, Edward, T., 28 harmony, 28, 62 Hastings, A., 20, 142 Hawthorne, Steven C., 32, 85 Hay, A.R., 140 Hayford, Jack, 173, 177, 178 healthcare, 4, 10, 13, 15, 19, 22, 87, 88, 118, 123, 124, 126 hermeneutics, 122, 162 Hesselgrave, David J., 8, 9, 10, 11, 28, 29, 30, 40, 41, 42, 47, 51, 52, 53, 100, 101, 140, 175, 176 Hiebert, Paul G., 29, 62, 101, 103, 104, 106, 113, 115, 116, 144, 145, 146, 147, 154 Hiebert’s ‘Flaw of the Excluded Middle’, 101, 103 hierarchy, 46, 47 Hindus, 5, 110 Hofman, J.S., 118 Hofstede, Geert, 46 Hogbin, H. Ian, 101 holistic, 1, 18, 22, 32, 36, 37, 132, 179, 181 Holy Communion, 136, 152 Holy Spirit, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 18, 19, 22, 34, 35, 62, 65, 81, 95, 96, 99, 102, 105, 106, 111, 112, 116, 117, 120, 124, 125, 128,

243 129, 130, 131, 133, 139, 143, 144, 146, 147, 150, 153, 154, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 167, 168, 169, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 183 honour, 49, 62, 65, 76, 78, 106, 124, 149, 152 Hook, B., 87 hope/hopes, 8, 78, 92, 131, 136, 152 Horgan, Terrance G., 28 Hughes, R.D., 52, 86 human development, 35 humanism, 113 humility, 20, 22, 51, 65, 81, 138 ideals, 8, 24, 42, 46, 75, 82, 112 immanence, 103 imperialist/imperialism, 20, 21 inculturation, 1, 121 indecisiveness, 40 indigenous/indigeneity, 132, 133, 142, 148 indirect/indirectness/indirectly, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80 individualism/individualist/individualistic, 40, 41, 56, 97, 149, 151 institutions, 22, 27, 28, 30, 46, 90, 144 integrity, 13, 17, 19, 24, 45, 92, 93, 124, 146, 158, 169, 173 interpersonal distance, 45 intimacy, 7, 62, 66, 97, 103, 105, 130, 149, 150, 154, 165, 169, 170, 171, 172, 178, 182, 183 intuition/intuitional, 52, 53, 54 irrelevant message, 5 Japan, 11, 35, 39 Jenkins, P., 43 Jewish/Judaism, 31, 64, 112, 153 Johnson, 149 Jones, E. Stanley., 130 justice, 2, 3, 9, 10, 11, 43, 45, 134, 157 Kaplan, F, 87 kernel, 110 Kilmann, Ralph H., 73, 75 Kinsler, Ross F., 119, 122 Kirk, Andrew J., 2, 3, 6, 28, 63 Kirkpatrick, Vance, 161 Klopf, D.W., 40 Koch, Bruce A., 83, 85 Kolb, D.A., 122 Kraft, Charles H., 29, 49, 50, 51, 112, 150 Kwarst, L.E., 29 LaHaye, T., 69, 70 Lambert, D.W., 59, 102, 159 language, 16, 23, 28, 47, 57, 58, 80, 83, 84, 85, 86, 96, 97, 98, 118, 148 Latin American, 9 Latourette, K.S., 20 Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, 27

244 leaders, 16, 17, 31, 66, 69, 70, 76, 80, 89, 91, 124, 126, 136, 137, 138, 141, 142, 143, 145, 146, 153, 154, 155, 157, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 170, 173, 174, 175, 176, 178, 179, 180, 181, 183 learning/learners, 4, 69, 118, 155, 159, 161, 167 legalistic, 64, 134 Levinson, D.J., 35 liberal/liberation/liberationist/liberationism, 8, 9, 10, 11, 19 Lingenfelter, Sherwood G., 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 56, 63, 64, 82 liturgy/liturgical, 153 livelihood projects, 10 Llobrera, Bien A., 159 local resources, 12 long-term solutions, 12 love, 4, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 45, 51, 59, 62, 64, 65, 76, 81, 95, 96, 99, 101, 103, 112, 125, 126, 127, 134, 139, 141, 148, 150, 157, 158, 159, 165, 169, 171, 176, 177 MacDonald, Gordon, 169 magic, 54, 104, 105 Malone, Kelly, 178 manipulate, 19, 105, 152, 171 marginal/marginalised, 76 marriage, 59, 69, 136, 164, 174 Marston, W.M., 68 Maxwell, L. E., 169 McCrae, R.R., 68 McGavran, Donald A., 41 McIntosh, John A., 2 McLeod, Hugh, 114 mentor/mentoring, 121, 122, 125, 141, 153, 180 middle ground questions, 104 Miley, George, 139 mindset, 73 ministry, 7, 16, 19, 22, 24, 27, 32, 34, 55, 58, 59, 64, 81, 83, 88, 89, 92, 94, 97, 98, 113, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 129, 132, 133, 134, 136, 140, 141, 142, 153, 154, 155, 157, 160, 161, 162, 164, 165, 168, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 179, 180, 181, 182, 188 Misar, S.R., 37 missio Dei, 2, 147 missiology, 4 mission, 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 11, 20, 21, 85, 88, 109, 118, 134, 136, 139, 142, 155, 160, 176 missionary/missionaries, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20, 21, 28, 32, 34, 44, 49, 53, 62, 81, 83, 88, 104, 109, 110, 115, 116, 118, 120, 134, 140, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 154, 155,

Empowering Transformation 157, 176, 178, 180, 182 missions, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 30, 58, 59, 107, 113, 135, 139, 142, 143, 152, 176, 177, 183 modalities, 139 modernists, 4 modernity, 3, 4 Molinsky, A., 80 monochronic time, 35 moral/morals/morality/moral standards, 45 Moreau, A. S.,, 36, 40, 44, 46, 48, 49, 50, 66, 67, 76, 77, 97, 99, 148, 149, 151, 152 motivation, 18, 19, 24, 64, 106, 126 Mulholland, Robert M. Jr., 35, 149, 169 multiplication, 6 Muslim, 3, 8, 18, 44, 45, 58, 84, 127, 129, 155, 182 Myers, I., 67 narrative, 162, 163 nationalism, 20, 143 needs, 2, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 32, 57, 66, 72, 78, 83, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 96, 98, 105, 106, 107, 109, 110, 115, 117, 119, 123, 124, 126, 132, 135, 138, 144, 147, 148, 152, 161, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 176, 177 Neill, S., 20 Nevius, John L., 166 New Testament, 3, 6, 19, 54, 98, 137, 139, 140, 162, 163, 168, 176 Newbigin, Leslie, 119, 144 Nichols, Mike, 158 Nida, Eugene A., 53 Niebuhr, H. Richard, 113, 114, 115 nonbeliever/s, 148 non-crisis orientation, 32, 38 non-negotiable, 8, 24, 71, 75, 82, 93, 113 North America, 14, 33, 34, 42, 55, 62 Northrop, F.C.S., 52, 54, 100 Nouwen, Henri, 169 obedience/obeying, 6, 30, 76, 104, 144, 152, 169, 170, 171, 172, 177, 182 objective, 5 obligation/s, 48, 49, 96, 152, 177 offence, 42, 49, 93, 97 Old Testament, 9, 30, 31, 54, 177 one-down position, 78, 80 open-ended, 36, 40, 73, 100 openness, 18, 48, 51, 66, 68, 130, 159 oppression/oppressed, 9, 118, 134 oral hygiene, 91 organisation/s, 9, 11, 12, 19, 101, 176 Oser, F., 37, 170 Osgood, Hugh, 166, 178 Ott, Bernard, 118, 122, 138, 160

Index outreach platform, 86, 90 outsiders, 13, 18, 78, 89, 124, 145, 147, 158 Padilla, W., 119 Pakistan, 3, 8, 11, 45, 58 Palmer, Parker J., 158 Pannikar, K.M., 21 paradox, 113, 167 parent, 141, 153 participate/participant, 122, 162, 176 partnership/partnering, 112, 176 pastor, 46, 138, 145, 146, 160, 173, 175 pastoral, 101, 120, 138, 139, 159, 164, 167 paternalistic, 4, 12, 21 patron, 48, 49, 76, 151, 152 patron-client, 48, 49, 66, 67, 96, 151, 152 Patterson, G.N., 160 Paul/Pauline, 4, 19, 59, 65, 102, 112, 138, 139, 140, 150, 163, 166, 175, 180 peace, 3, 10, 63, 75, 151, 167 Pentecostal/Pentecostalism, 20, 159, 167 people orientation, 32 people-groups, 27 perseverance, 7, 102, 181 personality, 14, 35, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43, 51, 55, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 74, 79, 82, 138, 149 personality/temperament types, 67, 68, 69, 70, 79, 149 Phan, P.C., 20 Phillips, Bob, 68, 71, 72 pioneer/pioneering, 112, 141 Plasschaert, A., 120 postmodernism, 4, 5 postmodernity, 4, 5 power, 3, 5, 7, 8, 31, 39, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 56, 59, 65, 66, 81, 92, 93, 95, 98, 113, 131, 144, 150, 162, 168, 172, 173 power distance, 39, 46, 47, 48, 56, 66, 93 power encounter, 150 pragmatic/pragmatist, 6, 24, 32, 35, 39, 64 praxis, 88, 89, 122, 143, 173 prayer/prayerful/prayerfully, 2, 23, 62, 66, 86, 92, 115, 117, 125, 146, 147, 153, 167, 170, 177, 178, 180, 182 pre-evangelism, 116 Presbyterian, 138 prestige, 43, 44 Preston, Diana and Michael, 101 Price, John H., 168 pride, 24, 129, 137, 138, 167, 170 primitive/tribal people, 104 prioritist/prioritism, 8, 10, 11, 18 privacy, 57, 58, 81 professionalism, 19 proven concepts, 52, 54 rational/rationalism, 103 reaching out/outreach, 1, 6, 9, 10, 12, 19,

245 22, 23, 24, 44, 62, 69, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 88, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 101, 102, 106, 107, 109, 111, 113, 116, 117, 118, 120, 123, 133, 134, 135, 147, 154, 157, 158, 162, 165, 169, 179, 182 reality, 4, 8, 27, 31, 34, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 61, 67, 73, 85, 88, 96, 102, 104, 109, 113, 124, 125, 129, 170, 172, 179 redemptive analogies, 151 redirecting, 80 regret, 43 relationship, 7, 18, 38, 48, 49, 53, 59, 62, 66, 67, 68, 71, 75, 77, 79, 81, 92, 95, 96, 97, 100, 101, 105, 106, 112, 113, 116, 124, 125, 128, 132, 135, 142, 149, 150, 151, 152, 154, 157, 159, 163, 169, 170, 171, 172, 179, 180, 182, 183 relief work, 11, 12 Reprimand, 77, 79 resistance/resistant, 3, 19, 89, 97, 107, 114, 131, 134, 155 respect/disrespect, 16, 18, 29, 30, 42, 46, 47, 52, 54, 63, 72, 79, 86, 95, 102, 121, 127, 129, 132, 144, 165, 172 responsibility/responsible, 10, 15, 17, 34, 37, 62, 65, 74, 90, 121, 122, 137, 141, 154, 157, 160, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 174, 175, 182, 183 restricted access, 19 rice Christians, 101 Richardson, Don, 151 Rogers, A., 122 role, 1, 3, 7, 36, 43, 44, 45, 48, 58, 61, 86, 90, 118, 136, 138, 143, 159, 167, 168, 174, 176, 177 rural, 1, 44, 45, 70, 87, 88, 90, 117, 118, 120, 121, 122, 125, 133, 139, 153, 154, 159, 164, 180 sacraments, 136 Sampson, P., 4 Samuel, V., 4, 177 Sanchez, Daniel. R., 182 secular/secularism, 27, 54, 68, 104, 105, 176 sensitivity, 96, 106, 130, 133, 144, 163, 174 servant/s, 44 Shaffer, R., 9, 12 shame, 42, 43, 50, 63, 66, 75, 76, 78, 97, 98, 124, 152 short-term, 12, 58, 74, 79, 107, 134, 139, 182 Siemens, R.E., 19 sin/sinful, 10, 63, 66, 95, 96, 97, 99, 100, 105 situational/situationally, 1, 92, 109, 111, 113, 115, 116, 117, 118, 122, 123, 126, 127, 132, 133, 134, 144, 148, 161, 164

246 Slack, James. B., 160, 175 Smalley, G., 68, 69, 70, 143 Smith, F.H., 52, 53, 54, 86 Sobin, J., 87 social, 1, 2, 9, 10, 11, 18, 19, 23, 27, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 56, 65, 66, 67, 68, 70, 84, 94, 112, 117, 127, 133, 152, 158, 179, 183 sociocultural, 148 sovereign/sovereignty, 23, 59, 65, 81, 105, 106, 170, 171, 172, 178, 179, 182 space, 16, 45, 72 spirit/s, 10, 103, 105, 183 spiritual, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12, 18, 23, 24, 35, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 55, 62, 67, 68, 76, 78, 83, 85, 88, 89, 94, 97, 103, 104, 105, 115, 116, 117, 118, 121, 122, 123, 124, 126, 132, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 141, 142, 149, 150, 152, 155, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 164, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171, 173, 176, 177, 178, 179, 182, 183 spiritual development/growth, 42, 76, 78, 88, 103, 118, 121, 135, 149, 152, 158, 161, 164, 168, 169, 170, 171, 173, 177, 183 spiritual gifts, 89, 105, 137, 138, 141, 157, 158, 159, 160, 170 spiritual/spirituality, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12, 18, 23, 24, 35, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 55, 62, 67, 68, 76, 78, 83, 85, 88, 89, 94, 97, 103, 104, 105, 115, 116, 117, 118, 121, 122, 123, 124, 126, 132, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 141, 142, 149, 150, 152, 153, 155, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 164, 165, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171, 173, 176, 177, 178, 179, 182, 183 Stamoolis, James, 161 Stanley, Brian, 1, 4, 130, 143 status, 43, 44, 45, 48, 63, 166 Steffan, Tom. A., 163, 175, 176, 177 stereotypes/stereotypical, 61 stress, 11, 24, 42, 57, 71, 81 Stück, J., 119 students, 32, 33, 39, 46, 47, 48, 54, 55, 59, 69, 84, 118, 119, 135, 143, 158, 165 subjective, 62, 106, 116 Sugden, C., 1, 4 Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL), 181 superior/superiority, 12, 20, 33, 86, 92, 115 superstition, 117 sustainable/sustainability, 9, 13, 83, 86, 92, 106, 107, 164, 178, 181 syncretism, 61, 109, 115, 117, 144, 145, 152, 154 Tai Woong Lee, D., 163 Tallman, J.R., 110, 238 task orientation, 68

Empowering Transformation Taylor, J. V., 118, 153 teachers, 4, 39, 47, 50, 51, 53, 76, 118, 127, 155, 158, 168 Ten Commandments, 99 tent-making, 19 theological training program, 118 theology of mission, 1, 5, 8, 24, 25 third-party mediator, 77, 80 Thomas, Kenneth W., 51, 73, 75 three-self principle, 142, 143 timeframes, 83, 86, 106 Ting-Toomey, S., 80 Tino, James., 48 Tippett, Alan, R., 109, 150 Tizon, A., 179 Tolentino, B.W., 161 tolerance, 55, 62 Topping, K., 121 transformation, 4 transformation/transform/transformer, 3, 11, 19, 20, 22, 24, 87, 88, 106, 113, 116, 117, 126, 131, 132, 133, 142, 158, 168, 178, 179, 181, 182 transition, 177, 178 Trent, J., 69, 70 Trinitarian, 2, 6 trust, 7, 13, 18, 65, 66, 74, 81, 93, 98, 105, 124, 141, 142, 145, 146, 172, 177, 182 truth encounter, 150 Turney, J. Russell, 62 universal, 2, 29, 36, 54, 61, 68, 169 unreached people groups, 1, 18, 41 unreached peoples, 5, 139 unseen world, 103 Ustorf, Werner, 114 values, 8, 9, 10, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 39, 44, 48, 61, 63, 66, 74, 75, 76, 81, 82, 93, 109, 144, 149, 151, 158, 163, 169, 178 Venn, Henry, 111, 142, 143 village, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 24, 54, 58, 59, 70, 78, 79, 80, 87, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93, 98, 99, 101, 103, 105, 117, 119, 120, 121, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 130, 131, 132, 133, 135, 137, 148, 153, 155, 157, 158, 159, 160, 163, 164, 165, 174, 179, 181, 182 vision, 15, 23, 132, 157, 176, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183 Volf, M., 121 vulnerability, 33, 42, 63, 65, 78, 173 Währisch-Oblau, C., 87 Ward, K., 143, 239 Warneck, Gustav A., 115 Warren, Rick., 149 weakness, 65, 66, 69, 99 will/willingness, 1, 4, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 24, 27, 29, 31, 32, 35, 37, 38,

Index 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 59, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 78, 81, 83, 85, 86, 88, 92, 93, 95, 96, 98, 99, 101, 103, 104, 105, 106, 109, 110, 111, 112, 117, 121, 124, 125, 128, 129, 134, 135, 136, 137, 139, 142, 144, 146, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 157, 161, 163, 169, 171, 172, 176, 177, 178, 179, 182, 183 Willingen, 2 Willowbank Report, 27

247 Winter, Ralph D., 83, 85 witness, 31, 59, 62, 64, 88, 112, 160, 165, 181 worldliness, 169, 170 worldview, 29, 30, 32, 39, 44, 50, 51, 54, 56, 57, 61, 76, 81, 82, 85, 105, 110, 111, 112, 114, 117, 129, 145, 152 Wright, C. Thomas., 12, 148 Yang, K., 68 Yeweng S.J., 87  [Zhu Muju], 119

Vee J. D-Davidson is British and has a PhD in Mission and Education from the University of Birmingham, UK. She has spent 25 years as a hands-on missionary and theological educator in Asia, is currently a missionary professor at a seminary in North Asia and a non-resident faculty member of Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, Baguio, Philippines.

Empowering Transformation Transferable Principles for Intercultural Planting of Spiritually-Healthy Churches Based on Two Decades of Involvement in Rural and Remote Urban China The book brings out principles related to intercultural missions, church-planting and training of local believers. They include aspects of missions praxis which challenge, modify, and/or supplement material in classic and current textbooks. The principles, which centre around affirmation of dignity and empowerment of local people to bring about transformation, are re-workable in multiple settings including those resistant to the Gospel – particularly in restricted contexts or amongst unreached peoples where deep-rooted religious systems prevail and hostility to the Gospel is prevalent. Mission studies cannot be written effectively without the authenticity that comes from actual involvement in the work of sharing the Gospel. DrVee D-Davidson writes from the perspective of long experience of rural and remote urban mission in SouthWest, South Central, and Northern provinces of China. Her passion for effective cross-cultural communication of the transformative Christian message shines through every page of this book. Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh DrVee J.D-Davidson is a cross-cultural mission activist, scholar and trainer. She draws on her experience of holistic ministry combining dentistry with church planting in rural China to reflect on the extensive literature on contextualisation and inculturation of the gospel. She offers discussion questions for students and others engaged in moving beyond their natural social grouping with faithful biblical witness to Jesus Christ. This unique work will resource mission activists, scholars and trainers alike. Canon Dr Chris Sugden PhD, Secretary, Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life

regnum www.ocms.ac.uk/regnum

V.J.D-Davidson has a way with words that paint pictures in our minds and make missiological concepts very tangible. Her vast experience in both rural and remote urban China give contexts that might be unfamiliar to many. This is a treasure trove of insights into Mission and missions that a world Christian must not miss. It is spiritually enriching to savour reading this brilliant book. Teresa Chai, PhD, Academic Dean, Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, Philippines Member of the Joint Consultative Group of the WCC Vice-Chair of the Asia Pacific Theological Association Board