Discussion: Communicating an Unchanging Gospel Message
Post your response of 200 words each to the reply prompts below, you must support your assertions with 2 scholarly citations in Turabian format as well as incorporate 1 biblical citation.
Student Reply 1 (QF)
How do the practices of intercultural communication and cultural intelligence provide insight and understanding as we seek to communicate an unchanging gospel message to people from diverse cultures and contexts?
Even when the Great Commission was inaugurated back in the first-century, many diverse cultures and contexts were around, making it a challenge to share the faith. These barriers of language, beliefs, customs, norms, and values continue to have a much greater impact on the spread of the gospel than many care to discuss. So, how is one to overcome these challenges? How are they to effectively obey the Lord’s command to go and make disciples of all nations instead of taking a knee to the cultural hurdles that lie ahead of them? One must always remember, that with the Lord, no hurdle stands too tall to conquer when it comes to sharing the unchanging gospel. After all, that is what each and every believer is called to do (Matt. 28:18-20, NIV). So through Christ, working on intercultural communication tactics and increasing our cultural intelligence is an excellent way to proactively prepare for the Lord to work in our lives as He seeks to present us with opportunities to share the truth of Christ wherever He takes us.
While many aspects of any given culture change over time, one thing never does: God and His Word. The gospel then acts as an unmovable anchor, aligning Christians from every nation with God’s reality as their cultures and the world around them toss and turn. While being a Christian in the East may differ wildly from being a Christian in the West from a cultural standpoint, the gospel bridges the gap and reveals the ultimate, unifying Truth behind this reality–Jesus Christ (John 14:6). So how can we best bring this Truth, this anchor of peace, to cultures that we may currently know nothing about? Ekblad argues that one should be aware of their own cultural and theological assumptions to start.1 This provides insight and understanding in itself as one may become more aware of certain assumptions they never took into account, to begin with. Upon realizing one’s own assumptions and presuppositions, it can then lead to a growing interest in identifying the same things in other cultural groups and the barriers that might be present when sharing the gospel with them, something Ekblad also advocates for.2 This growing cultural intelligence can be essential as we seek to share the gospel as effectively as possible. In Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The Real Secret to Success, Livermore presents numerous reasons why leaders should seek to grow their CQ. He notes, “Cultural intelligence offers a way through the maze that’s not only effective but also invigorating and fulfilling.”3 The cross-cultural mission of sharing the gospel with others who are culturally diverse could also certainly be seen as a “maze.” So how much more true does this statement become in the context of leading with the Great Commission in mind? We all as Christians should desire to live lives leading others toward the truth of the gospel. Increasing our cultural intelligence and intercultural communication skills as disciple-making Christians then becomes an excellent way to serve the Lord and His purposes for our lives as we discover more about how to connect others to the life-changing truth that is Jesus.
Bibliography
Ekblad, Bob. “Reading Scripture for Good News that Crosses Barriers of Race/Ethnicity, Class, and Culture: A Journal of Bible and Theology.” Interpretation 65, no. 3 (07, 2011): 228-48. http://ezproxy.liberty.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Freading-scripture-good-news-that-crosses-barriers%2Fdocview%2F879074305%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D12085.
Livermore, David. Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The Real Secret to Success. 2nd ed. New York City, NY: American Management Association, 2015, 24.
Student Reply 2 (SM)
The practices of intercultural communication and cultural intelligence provide insight and understanding as we seek to communicate an unchanging gospel message to people from diverse cultures and contexts in several ways as established in their definitions. First, “cultural intelligence is the capability to function effectively across national, ethnic, and organizational cultures.”[1] Secondly, “Intercultural communication is defined as the symbolic exchange process whereby individuals from two (or more) different cultural communities attempt to negotiate shared meanings in an interactive situation within an embedded societal system.”[2] The “symbolic exchange refers to the use of verbal and nonverbal symbols.”[3] The Great Commission commands believers to reach the world for Christ, specifically saying, “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19, NKJV). This alone informs the Body of Christ that God intends for the Kingdom to include all people from every corner of the world. It also suggests that the church should prepare for how to do that before going into a particular part of the world. What works in one culture may not be effective in another culture. It becomes necessary to adjust and adapt as needed to share the gospel effectively. There must be a shift in how you think and communicate when engaging with people who are different. Reaching people for Christ requires communicating verbally and nonverbally, where people sense genuine and authentic love.
Paul paints a vivid picture of what it looks like to engage in intercultural communication and cultural intelligence for the sake of sharing Christ.
First Corinthians 9:1-22 says,
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some (NKJV).
Paul is declaring a willingness to step outside of how he usually ministers or operates and adjusts to the culture of those he is trying to reach. In intercultural communication, there is a “process, refer[ring] to the interdependent nature of the intercultural encounter.”[4] The authors cite this example “A Japanese businessperson may be bowing, and an American businessperson may be ready to shake hands. The two may also quickly reverse their nonverbal greeting rituals and adapt to each other’s behavior.”[5] If those in the secular world can adjust, so should the church. We must adapt and shift from our homogeneous ways of thinking about ministry. Though the gospel is unchanging, we are called to change in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
