Cross-Cultural Servanthood

Serving the World in Christlike Humility

Duane Elmer

• Verlag: IVP
• Jahr: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780830874835
• Thema: Theology & Religion
• Thema: Christian Ministry

Duane Elmer asked people around the world how they felt about Western missionaries. The response? "Missionaries could be more effective if they did not think they were better than us." The last thing we want to do in cross-cultural ministry is to offend people in other cultures. Unfortunately, all too often and even though we don't mean it, our actions communicate superiority, paternalism, imperialism and arrogance. Our best intentions become unintentional insults. How can we minister in ways that are received as true Christlike service? Cross-cultural specialist Duane Elmer gives Christians practical advice for serving other cultures with sensitivity and humility. With careful biblical exposition and keen cross-cultural awareness, he shows how our actions and attitudes often contradict and offend the local culture. He offers principles and guidance for avoiding misunderstandings and building relationships in ways that honor others. Here is culturally-savvy insight into how we can follow Jesus' steps to become global servants. Whether you're going on your first short-term mission trip or ministering overseas for extended periods, this useful guide is essential reading for anyone who wants to serve effectively in international settings with grace and sensitivity.

Part One

Servanthood

Basic Perspectives

1

Servanthood

Its Burden and Challenge

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

Albert Schweitzer

“We are not called to help people. We are called to follow Jesus, in whose service we learn who we are and how we are to help and be helped.”

Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon

“So what would you like for breakfast tomorrow morning?” inquired my wife. The answer slipped easily from my mouth: “Eggs, bacon and toast.” We were on our honeymoon, and this would be the first meal she would cook in our married life. The next morning I heard the pots and pans, and soon the aroma, the right aroma, drifted past my nostrils. The words “It’s ready” brought me to the kitchen, where she was seated at the small table, candle burning in the center and expectation in her eyes.

I sat down and said, “Let’s give thanks,” but before I closed my eyes to pray I caught a glimpse of what was on my plate. Startled I said, “Oh, what’s this?” to which she answered, “That’s your eggs, bacon and toast. Why?” Concern had replaced the look of expectation. Innocently, I responded, “What did you do to the eggs?” “I poached them. Why do you ask?” she queried. It was my turn to answer in this exchange of questions that wasn’t going to take us anywhere good. “Why would anybody do such an immoral thing to an egg?” I said with some seriousness and some playfulness. It was too late to be playful. I was hoping for a discussion on the art of cooking eggs, but she had already left the room in tears.

Sooner or later it was bound to happen. My wife, born and raised in Zimbabwe with a Canadian mother, brought a strong British influence to our marriage. I, being raised in rural southern Wisconsin in a Swiss community, grew up on fried eggs cooked over medium, lots of bacon and crispy toast. Occasionally my mother would scramble the eggs just to stretch our “horizons,” but we knew that tomorrow morning she would be back in the groove. I had never seen a poached egg, and when it lay there on my plate, barely cooked (I should say barely warm!), tactfulness got lost in the confusion surrounding a simple difference in the way we enjoyed eggs.

My wife’s desire to serve me in this simple but meaningful event was misinterpreted and badly handled by me. I was not thinking servanthood. I didn’t understand her cultural history, and she didn’t understand mine. Both of us felt rejected. What should have been a beautiful moment turned sour.

This story marks both the simplicity and complexity of cross-cultural servanthood. Servanthood is revealed in simple, everyday events. But it’s complex because servanthood is culturally defined—that is, serving must be sensitive to the cultural landscape while remaining true to the Scripture. That is both the challenge and burden of servanthood—and of this book.

The following pages will unpack the idea of cross-cultural servanthood. While not being easy, it is the calling of every person who wishes to follow Jesus, whether in your home culture or beyond. The principles in this book apply to a wide range of Christians—in one sense, to all who want to serve others. Illustrations from marriage, inner-city ministry, community development programs, church planting efforts, Bible schools and seminaries, relief and development activities, and reconciliation efforts will reveal the relevance of these principles in a wide variety of situations. Because these thoughts are drawn from the Scripture, from cross-cultural research and the experiences of people from numerous countries, the intended audience is not only Westerners but those who wish to serve God and his people regardless of their home country. Whether you are going short term or long term, engaging in relief and development or church planting, teaching in a Bible school or working in medicine, whether the ministry is rural or urban, this book should help you achieve your first priority: to serve God and those around you.

The Son of God Entered Human Culture

The ways we are effective in culture are also the primary ways we serve others. We serve people by entering into a relationship of love and mutual commitment. As the apostle Paul says, “We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (1 Thess 2:8). In the early stages servanthood may be best seen when we are willing to adjust to the local cultural patterns, including learning the language. Jesus came into our human context (Jn 1:14), adjusted to the Jewish culture (Lk 2:52) and lived among us so that when the time was right he would accomplish the redemption of all who would believe. This, of course, is task effectiveness. Jesus served us exquisitely in each of these three areas, suggesting that in the same way we can be a servant to others.

This book is about servanthood, focusing primarily on relationship factors and the adjustment factors. I believe that most people going overseas are quite well equipped in task effectiveness; that is, they are technically competent to do the job because most schools and workshops focus on job skills. This book focuses on relational and adjustment competency so that the servant spirit we wish to portray will, in fact, be seen and valued by the local people. All three competencies must be present in the servant for any of one them to be successful.

A Most Unnatural Task

I must confess that anyone writing a book on servanthood must be a little audacious—maybe more than a little. It’s really quite an unnatural task. Writers should not only know their topic but also live consistently with it. Few Christians I know would claim to know about being a servant much less say they live a servant life in a cross-cultural situation. Most of us in international or interethnic ministry, however, do have it as an aspiration. This book is for those, including myself, who aspire to be cross-cultural servants.

Furthermore, I have no pretense about superior knowledge of the topic and I certainly lay no claim to modeling servanthood better than anyone else. In fact, I probably struggle more than most. In reality, I think I am below average on the matter.

Finally, it isn’t really my choice to write this book. For fifteen years I have been reading and researching the topic, gathering stacks of articles and ideas and interviewing people in numerous countries. Many people, having heard me on this topic, have asked if the material is in print, and it wasn’t, until now. Nevertheless, I have procrastinated in every way possible, hoping to avoid this moment. Yet here I am writing and still resisting, certainly feeling inadequate. But I am convinced God has birthed this work—at least I pray so.

I have been around missionaries much of my adult life. In fact I was a missionary for a good chunk of my life. The repeated ambition among missionaries is to be a “servant.” “I want to serve God, serve the people, serve the church” is the frequent theme heard within this community of people, and it certainly is a worthy and biblical goal.

While I was hearing future missionaries describe their desire to be servants, I was also traveling widely in other countries. As I made initial friendships and renewed old ones with various international people, I asked many of them one question: What could missionaries do to more effectively minister the gospel of Christ in your culture? I was not sure what I was expecting. But the answers did surprise me. Many said that they valued the missionary presence and the love they felt from them. But many said, with hesitation but conviction, “Missionaries could more effectively minister the gospel of Christ if they did not think they were so superior to us.” Several said virtually those exact words, and others made statements approximating it. I was stunned. I assumed, at first, that I was just talking to a few discontented people. But over time I realized their motives were pure and their comments were made out of deep concern for the integrity of the gospel in their country.

My Own Confession

Upon returning to South Africa and talking with former students of mine, I learned from them that I too fell into the category of acting superior. I didn’t know it at the time and would have been mortified to have thought it true, but it was. Plain and simple, it was true of me, and I am ashamed.

The need for teachers was critical, and there was no time for culture learning. Since instruction was in English I could plunge in. But I could only teach from my cultural context, so my illustrations, emphases and applications were all more fitting to a North American church culture. The issues among the believers in South Africa were very different. Furthermore, I am not sure my ability to learn about their culture was very well developed. Consequently, I easily fell into the heavy lecture mode and went home at the end of the day feeling good that I had “taught” them. A devastating assumption was buried deep within me: I had been trained and I knew what was good for these students. That raw arrogance spilled over into other parts of my missionary life and, while evident to my students and other local people, did not emerge into my own awareness until years later. That awareness led me on a journey.

Having found myself among the guilty, I resolved to understand several things. First, why are some people, who say they intend to serve, perceived as having attitudes of superiority, paternalism or neocolonialism—all opposites of servanthood. Serving while holding an attitude of superiority (even unconsciously) is like, as someone has said, “trying to push a bus while sitting inside of it.” It’s not going to happen!

Second, I wanted to find out how the people in other countries perceive servanthood. What does that mean for anyone who wishes to serve Christ and the people of other cultures? Third, I wanted to find out how the Scripture defined servant. In the Old Testament the nation Israel is frequently called a “servant,” and so is the Messiah as well as Moses and other leaders. In the New Testament Christ came as humble, obedient servant (Phil 2). Servanthood is a powerful theme in Scripture and the character and function of a servant are quite well defined.

Fourth, I wanted to find out what the social sciences have discovered about the effective cross-cultural worker. Social science researchers do not use the words serve or servant very often but are deeply committed to effectiveness and adaptation. Last, I wanted to know if there was some agreement between what host-country people, the Scripture and the social science literature said. If there were congruities, what would the servant person look like?

Preliminary Thoughts

Many missionaries may be like me: well intentioned, dedicated and wanting to serve, but also naive and in some denial about what it means to serve in another culture. The reality is that many of us want to serve from our own cultural context. That is, we believe that servanthood everywhere else probably looks like it does in our own culture. In fact, I am inclined to think that there’s a little switch in our head somewhere. When we call ourselves a servant, the switch is triggered and we automatically believe that everything we do from there on will epitomize servanthood. In other words, calling ourselves a servant means we are a servant. If others cannot see it, that is their problem.

Many missionaries may be like me in another way: I am often guilty of a superior attitude. Submerged deep within me, it is evasive and hard to identify. I quickly rationalize and deny its presence. Usually superiority appears in disguises that pretend to be virtues—virtues such as

• I need to correct their error (meaning I have superior knowledge, a corner on truth).
• My education has equipped me to know what is best for you (so let me do most of the talking while you do most of the listening and changing).
• I am here to help you (so do as I say).
• I can be your spiritual mentor (so I am your role model).
• Let me disciple you, equip you, train you (often perceived as “let me make you into a clone of myself”).

These and other so-called virtues corrupt our attempts to serve others. I think my students saw these “virtues” in me. Superiority cloaked in the desire to serve is still superiority. It’s not our words that count but the perceptions of the local people who watch our lives and sense our attitudes.

Added to this hidden and evasive superiority is the dilemma of living in a North American culture that often tells us we are the most powerful, the most technically advanced, the richest, the best educated, the leader of the free world, the . . . Even though these are at best partially true, the message of superiority seeps into the brain, revealing itself in subtle but offensive ways. Because it’s unthinkable for most of us to name these subtle expressions as superiorities, we spin them as virtues. Yet others may see them for what they are: an attitude of superiority. The Bible calls it pride. I speak primarily to people, like myself, who were socialized mostly in mainstream, white American culture and assimilated the cultural values, often uncritically. I leave it to people of other ethnicities and nationalities to judge these matters for themselves.

Cultural Misinterpretation

I don’t believe, however, that the problem can be attributed only to a superior attitude. I know too many missionaries who don’t have an attitude problem. Even so, they may still find themselves charged with exuding superiority—but for another reason: cultural misinterpretation.

Craig Storti tells of an employer, Mr. Coyle, giving an employee, Khalil, a performance review. Mr. Coyle gives Khalil high marks in nearly all categories but notes a couple areas for improvement. Mr. Coyle closes by assuring Khalil that there are no serious problems and hands him the written report. Khalil’s final comment is, “I’m very sorry to disappoint you, sir.”

Middle Eastern societies are very sensitive to shame and to losing face. Khalil has felt the sting of severe criticism even though Mr. Coyle was quite pleased with Khalil’s performance and intended no severity. From Khalil’s cultural history, any form of criticism is offered with great discretion and usually in an indirect manner. Thus, to have Mr. Coyle state the criticism directly could only be interpreted as severe disappointment. Storti continues:

We must remember here that Khalil naturally assumes Mr. Coyle is bending over backward to be as sensitive as possible to Khalil’s honor. If that is true and this is the best Mr. Coyle can do—if this represents absolutely the best face Mr. Coyle can put on the matter—then Khalil’s performance must be very poor indeed.

How, then, should Mr. Coyle have handled the matter? Mr. Coyle’s proportions are off; he should have spent most of the interview ...