Thoughts Along The Journey

In our work as cross-cultural church planters, we are committed to being “incarnational”.  This is one of our guiding principles as World Team workers, and can be found in the WT Ministry Framework.

We describe what it means to be incarnational in this way: “As cross-cultural workers, we intentionally surrender our rights to our home culture, language, and ways and embrace those of the host culture. By this, we seek to model Christ, who emptied himself of the privileges and powers of divinity, taking on human form, in order to carry out his mission.”

How does this biblical principle, exemplified by Jesus Christ, work itself out in our daily life and ministry?  What is its relevance and impact?

There are at least four (4) applications of an incarnational lifestyle for us as cross-cultural workers.

• We invest significant time in understanding the local culture in which we live and work at mastering the heart language of the people we serve.
• Disciples and communities are trained to critically contextualize the gospel in a way that preserves the integrity of the gospel as it engages one’s local context.
• We are not satisfied until we see the gospel multiplied by disciples making disciples, and communities multiplying themselves in other communities.
• We are not the centre nor the ultimate motor of all this work.

In my recent reading, I ran across this quote: “… missionaries tend to be self-sufficient. It’s hard for the to be needy.  But not to receive from others make them look superior.”   The writer was speaking of a specific group of missionaries, but I think it applies to all of us in general.  None of the applications above could take root in our lives if we are not dependent on God for His grace and strength to learn one more phrase today in Tagalog, Khmer, Spanish or Portuguese.  None of the applications above could produce any fruit if we are not dependent on those we serve to carry the work of the gospel forward in their culture and context.

So, which one of the four applications is the hardest for you?  What small step might you take today to begin to work that application into your life and ministry this week?

Filed under: Contextualization, Dependency, Incarnational living |