Beyond Borders: Change Your Thinking On Cross Cultural Ministry

Culture Shock is Closer Than You Think

When we talk about cross-cultural ministry, our minds often jump to a foreign country—Indonesia, South America—and that’s certainly part of it. But culture is everywhere. You have the culture of your church, the culture of a different denomination, or even the culture of someone who grew up just miles away from you but with a completely different worldview.

For example, my wife and I grew up in the same small area in Georgia, our parents were high school friends, yet our backgrounds were miles apart. I grew up steeped in a Christian culture. My wife, however, grew up out of church. A family tragedy—her older brother taking his life when she was three—had led her parents to grow bitter toward God and leave the church.

When she finally heard the Gospel and got saved as a teenager in Christian school, she entered a new culture. I remember when she first heard believers talking about "eternal life" or "everlasting life"—she was genuinely confused, thinking, "You guys don't think you're going to die?" We were using the same English words, but with completely different dictionaries of understanding.

Stepping Forward Despite the Pain

Cross-cultural interactions, whether in a different country or your hometown, will bring friction. You're going to hit walls and experience pain points. The natural human response is to back away, to avoid the discomfort.

But here’s the challenge: if that person needs Christ, and you back away from them and their culture, who will take the Gospel to them?

Whether it's learning to engage with people from a different religious background (like reaching Muslims, which desperately needs more laborers with good doctrine) or simply navigating the nuances of a different regional dialect (like when my brother-in-law from Connecticut was confused by my father-in-law's polite but baffling Georgia farewell, "Y'all go with us"), you have a choice:

1. Back Away from the cultural bump.

2. Step Forward and push through the uncomfortable situations.

This isn't just about tolerance; it's about love—loving people enough to endure the abrasion for the sake of introducing them to Christ.