“He [Jesus] fearlessly, graciously overcame the barriers that divide people into in-groups and out-groups.”
This weeks devotion includes excerpts of Bishop Linda Adam’s article on Cross Cultural Collaboration. You can read the entire article at the link found in the resources section below.
For many Free Methodists in the U.S., cross-cultural exposure has first been experienced on short-term international mission trips. Tens of thousands have gone on Volunteers in Service Abroad (VISA) trips to visit and serve in another part of the world. Almost always, VISA teams return home reporting eye-opening and humbling experiences: “The people we met had so little but were so generous!” “The children were poor but so happy!” “The church’s high-energy worship went on for three hours and nobody got tired!”
Lasting impressions have often been formed around memories of passionate faith, sacrificial hospitality, family solidarity and delicious, exotic food. The beauty of another culture was on full display, and the VISA team eventually realized, “We went to help, but actually we found out we were there for God to open our eyes to ourselves and our world. We learned far more than we taught.” And that is, in fact, one reason to send teams. People gain from the experience of “Crossing Cultures 101.”
But of course, only the most basic lessons can be learned in a week or two. And sometimes appearances deceive, and we are so blind to the impact of our own presence and culture that our learning is flawed. How can we get beyond first impressions and host/guest politeness and begin to understand at a deeper level? How can we gain a worldview shaped by intercultural intelligence rather than surface realities?
That’s where collaboration comes in. We need each other. When our brothers and sisters around the world become our real partners, we take a learning posture with them. When they recognize in us a desire to be true co-laborers, they can speak the hard truth and ask the hard questions and learn from us as well. We all move beyond judging based on outward appearances to appreciating something closer to what God sees, the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Humility can lead to true knowledge, which enhances love and respect and empowers our shared mission.
Free Methodist World Missions now works in 98 countries. We also celebrate the existence of 19 general conferences, each governed by its own Book of Discipline, bishops, and boards. We embrace the way of intercultural engagement, moving beyond old mindsets toward profound cross-cultural collaboration. The church in many countries sends missionaries to reach other tribes and language groups in their own country, as well as to evangelize and raise up leaders and churches in other nations. In the U.S., we welcome Christian leaders who immigrate here, recognizing their unique ability to organize new churches filled with immigrants from their region of the world. In all these cases, we acknowledge our own limited vantage point and recognize how God has designed the body of Christ to cooperate for the greater good.
Similar efforts are beginning in the church here in our racialized American society, but the process involves hard work and gets pretty messy. I asked an African American pastor friend how she sees our reality. She replied, “It has been my experience that most people within the church are open to having a multiracial church but not a multicultural one. This happens because we are open to allowing others to come and share our experience, but we are not so eager to allow others to come and change our experiences. Others are allowed to become one of us, but we do not always allow them to remain true to themselves. What’s missing is deep (and often painful) conversation to build meaningful relationships. We need to explore different perspectives on history, culture, the gospel, and politics. That takes a lot of time and energy. There is no way around this. There are fewer people willing to sign up for that type of collaboration!”
Made for Oneness
Collaboration is essential to being human. Why? Because even God is not solitary but exists in a perfect community of three-in-one. Being made in God’s image — as we all are, completely, equally — means we are made for relationships of love and mutuality. God’s design is for shalom, “a peaceable interrelatedness that actively seeks the wellbeing of others” (Free Methodist World Missions’ “Theology of Mission”).
God wants all people to experience this shalom. Tragically, the earliest chapters of Genesis show terrible division resulting from the fall of the human race, beginning with enmity between the man and the woman, then between their sons Cain and Abel, ultimately involving all human society. The rest of the story of the Bible reveals God’s long game to reverse the curse and recreate shalom. Along the way, God invites people to co-labor with Him in this epochal redemptive work of repairing the breach, creating oneness among all peoples under the lordship of Christ.
As Jesus’ disciples watched, He challenged them to open their eyes and see the fruitful harvest among the Samaritans. The work of convincing them that God’s mission extends to all people groups had just begun. Kingdom collaboration took a baby step forward. Jesus had collected a diverse band of disciples — Jewish men whose politics and livelihoods would never have blended into a community of oneness without Him. As they followed and learned, He not only invited them to see these Samaritans as candidates for His movement; He showed mercy to a Roman centurion, an enforcer of the hated oppressor. He surprisingly welcomed women to travel with them and provide financial support. He touched lepers and accepted a woman with a less-than-pristine reputation’s offer to wash His feet. He ate in the homes of tax collectors and sinners. He fearlessly, graciously overcame the barriers that divide people into in-groups and out-groups.
Whenever we experience supernatural oneness that transcends natural human divisions, we discover that we are part of the answer to Jesus’ fervent prayer. Right before His arrest, crucifixion and resurrection, He prayed:
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and you in me — so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:20–23).
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