Missional Studies: Cultural Investment

Investment in the daily life of the community. – It’s not enough to be involved and work with people, a missionary (and anyone invested in community really) must be willing to interact on a personal level. In most cultures this is centered on mealtime, but it can play out in a variety of situations and venues. Intentional use of coffee shops, tea houses, and markets will greatly increase the opportunity to be a part of the culture and not simply an outside agent implanted in the culture.

Investment in developing relationships. – People matter. Individual relationships not only help us grow in our understanding of the world around us, they also give us insight into avenues to offer Christ  as well as illuminate the gospel within us. Growing closer to people in their lives, in their businesses, and in their own spiritual experiences isn’t just an exercise in evangelism it’s a direct pattern emulating Jesus’ ministry.

Open and Honest lifestyles and interactions. – To show others what Christianity is all about we must be committed to the truth, not only when it agrees with us but also when it chastises and rebukes us. (Daniel 9:6) This life is meant to be lived outward toward God for the sake of others. To live this way our conversations and actions must be open to ridicule and in the open not hidden or separated from inspection.


Investment in adaptation and growing with others. – A missionary needs to be flexible. Political climates, cultural norms, and levels of devotion cannot be predicted; therefore reaction and adaptability can be integral to the evangelistic efforts in any region or group. Assessment of the culture requires the integration of all these separate principles. Community, relationships, openness and sacrifice play into the fluidity of any response to culture. Growing with others involves separating from the pride of “having the truth” and being willing to grow in the context of the people surrounding you. (anti-pride?) A large hindrance to progress in relationships between where people live and where revelation of Christ can bring them is our inability to grow with them. Condescension and self-righteousness is hard to find internally but easily pointed out from the outside. Being willing to simply “be” with people instead of constantly teaching or presenting is vital to integrating into the surroundings.

An embrace of humility and sacrifice. – Finally, a commitment to engage and redeem those far from God is ultimately a commitment to the cross. The Cross in this instance isn’t a symbol of hope or religion but a literal symbol of the level of sacrifice we are called to. If we share in his suffering we will also share in his comfort. (Rom. 8:17) The life of people exposing their beliefs in such a raw and dependant way invites a high level of ridicule and sacrifice. This embrace is beneficial in two ways: (1) it portrays a realistic and honest picture of the Christian life presented in the New Testament so that converts are not tempted into a Christless Gospel full of blessing and far from any obligation or the clear call of Jesus to abandon this life and embrace the life offered by God, and (2) it prepares the way for others who follow into the work of evangelism, so hopefully they won’t have to be distracted by the weight of sacrifice and can focus more on the actual work of pouring into ministry and others.

Deconstruction: arts and crafts

-We craft for ourselves a God we want to serve then we strive to appease and impress this false image.

-We incorporate religious exercise into our schedules to prove devotion

-We judge others on an imbalanced and sliding scale while judging ourselves in absolutes

-We fight with our faith family and offend our real family all the while rarely ever going out of our way to connect with others who are in “real” need.

“We trade intimacy for busyness and relationship for ritual.”

In all this we set ourselves up to feel and be disappointed. This god we’ve attempted to construct is never like the God that is; he cannot be satisfied, he always expects more and will guilt you into a lonely, secluded, intellectually pompous and barren grave.

It starts with us being too prideful to admit that “we” honestly have no idea who He is or what He wants. So we start to “do” things in hopes to make up for our lack of knowledge – then we guilt others by our seeming scholarship and devotion.

Performance is and always will be a poor substitute for living in the will of the Father. Our expectations should give way to our desire. Our expectation is reward and punishment but our desire is Love; overpowering, unabashed, everlasting Love. And that’s exactly what we find when we stop striving and allow Him to reveal Himself without our instinctive preconceptions and limited ideas.

Failure to Launch. . .

I always caution the new enthusiastic believer to take time to fall in Love with the Living Christ, to literally be "selfish" with that time. You only get one chance to fall in love with Him (IMHO), and that's at the beginning of the relationship. Allow me to elaborate. I know there are open objections to this train of thought, mostly leaning on the side of "what do you mean 'one chance', anyone can fall in love with jesus at any time?" True, anyone can fall in love with Him anytime, but there is something special at the beginning of a relationship where you get to be lost in someone else's life. That singular instant doesn't last forever, soon there comes relational difficulties, frustrations, obligations, maintenance, and endless distractions. He spent three years face to face with the disciples showing them how to live in God relationaly and not religiously. He allowed them to make mistakes and forgave them and built them up, just like falling in love. Out of that simple devotion came the most powerful change the world has ever seen, the creation of romantisicm falls on the shoulders of the christian church. Look for romance for the sake of romance in history before Christ; you can literally count the epic romances on one hand, but soon after the Christos it becomes the central theme of all story. It's because up until then God was trying to groom a child but In Christ he woos a bride. The response to that wooing changes the world.

Take the time, before ministry, before obligation, before failure, to just love Him. If His purposes and example revolve around relationship and the building of that relationship we MUST commit to that development, not the act of service but the reality of falling in love.