TIPS FOR CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS
Illustration:
When Hudson Taylor was director of the China Inland Mission, he often interviewed candidates for the mission field. On one occasion, he met with a group of applicants to determine their motivations for service. "And why do you wish to go as a foreign missionary?" he asked one. "I want to go because Christ has commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," was the reply. Another said, "I want to go because millions are perishing without Christ." Others gave different answers. Then Hudson Taylor said, "All of these motives, however good, will fail you in times of testings, trials, tribulations, and possible death. There is but one motive that will sustain you in trial and testing; namely, the love of Christ".
Source Unknown.
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A missionary in Africa was once asked if he really liked what he was doing. His response was shocking. "Do I like this work?" he said. "No. My wife and I do not like dirt. We have reasonable refined sensibilities. We do not like crawling into vile huts through goat refuse...But is a man to do nothing for Christ he does not like? God pity him, if not. Liking or disliking has nothing to do with it. We have orders to ’Go,’ and we go. Love constrains us."
Our Daily Bread.
HOW TO COMMUNICATE ACROSS CULTURES
1. From the model above we must see that our goal is to get the preacher’s & audience to adapt their message to the Bible. The difficulties are numerous however. Many people interpret the Bible through the perspectives of their preacher, his culture, his filtering mechanisms, his channels, & his message. Many times this can distort, confuse, or cause the audience to reject the Biblical message unnecessarily. The key is learning how to let the Bible to communicate directly to the audience as possible. Let us examine how we can successfully communicate over, around, under, & through these cross-cultural barriers that exist between the Bible’s culture, the preacher’s culture, & the audiences’ culture:
A. Study the needs of your audience’s culture & begin to speak to these concerns directly from the Bible. The needs may be in terms of marriage problems, financial problems, relational problems, extended family squabbles, social struggles, political infighting, youth-elder power struggles, sickness, anxieties, fears, hopelessness, loneliness,tribal disagreements, childlessness, demon oppression, harassment by outsiders or insiders, etc. Begin by discovering what the priority needs of the people are & begin to minister to them from the scriptures.
B. Search for an indigenous source who can train you on the audiences’ culture.
He or she can teach you about how the culture views family, kinships, marriage, children, money, politics, leadership, relationships with neighbors & outsiders, work, education, religion, history, traditions, folklores, proverbs, stories, God, Christ, The Holy Spirit, spirits, demons, salvation, heaven, hell, sin, Satan, forgiveness, truth, ancestors, The Bible, etc. . .
One of the main advantage of working through an indigent source is the developing of a trust bridge with the audience. Choose a host tutor who is trusted, credible, & look up to by a majority of the audience.
C. Involve yourself with the audience as a participant-observer. Many missionaries have succeeded in learning to communicate across cultures by living, associating, & involving themselves with the everyday activities of the people they wish to reach. By working, visiting, & studying the host culture you will also gain a deeper sense of credibility in the eyes of your audience. They will feel that you really want to become one of them. Jesus gave the supreme example in coming as an INCARNATE Christ who lived among us. We should follow his example.
D. Seek to adapt your culture & the culture of the audience to the essential messages not the culture of the Bible. It is unrealistic to expect some people to give up their cars & start riding donkeys as they did in Christ’s culture. Similarly, it would be unfair to expect everyone to learn Greek, Hebrew, & Aramaic in order to appreciate the truths of the Bible. Instead, we should seek to communicate the essential messages, principles, & lessons of the scriptures in their original contexts. For example, a pastor should preach as Christ taught the woman at the well in John 4. He said, ``It does not matter if you worship in Jerusalem or on the mountain that your fathers worshipped. Those who worship God must worship Him in spirit & in truth.’’ Jesus down played the unessential cultural aspects of worship & concentrated on WHO we worship AND WHY we worship! We must learn to major on God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Salvation, Heaven, the judgments against sin, & the maturity of believers & the qualitative & quantitative growth of the church.
E. Do not expect people to think like your culture. Instead communicate in ways the people are accustom to.
One preacher found that his cross-cultural audience responded better when he first told a stories from the O.T. & then interpreted them in light of the N.T.. However, in his culture, the people preferred thorough expository messages from N.T. books followed by stories that illustrated the principles. He adjusted to the preferred method of communication for his audience & soon won their hearts and saw many converts. Each culture has its own preference to communication styles. Study each culture you will speak to in order to adjust your style to fit the host cultures’.
F. Remember that the missionary is essentially a steward of the message the Holy Spirit is the real cross-cultural communicator. One man hired a steward to fix him eggs, bread, & milk. The first day, the steward served him fish-that’s a contradiction. Similarly, we have some preacher’s who give their cross-cultural audiences something different than they need or want. The second day, the steward served the master eggs & bread only-that’s substraction. Likewise, some preachers subtract from the truth of the scriptures. The third day, the steward served eggs, bread, milk, & bacon-that’s addition. Some preachers give their audiences more than they need or want. The fourth day, the steward served his master eggs, bread, & watered down milk-that’s dilution. Various preachers dilute the message of the scriptures by soft-pedaling the scriptures by avoiding the harsh judgments against sin. The fifth day, the steward got so angry with the master that he put poison in the milk and the man died-that’s pollution. Sadly, some preachers are preaching false doctrines to their people that may lead to their spiritual death & destruction. We must learn to be effective stewards who take the message from the kitchen of the scriptures & serve it in a way that is appealing to our cross-cultural audience. Realize that appetites differ in various cultures. What appeals to the preacher’s culture may not interest the cross-cultural audience. Explore what appetites for truth the audience has.
G. Investigate the ways that the audiences’ culture motivates their people. Some culture primarily use external motivations such as societal pressures.
For example, in one tribe in Nigeria if a man does not marry it means that he reject his society so the society will reject him. If he does not follow the societal norms for courtship he is also rejecting society & the society will reject him for not following the proper channels. Furthermore, if the man does not follow the societal expectations for treating his wife & children & extended family members, he is showing some degree of rejection of society and risks becoming an outcast to his society. Other societies are very individualistic with internal-independent kinds of motivations. Westerners usually come from cultures where the motivations are left up to the choice of the individual. What he will do with his time, efforts, occupation, choice of life partner, money, and beliefs is left to each person to decide. We need to be able to adapt our message to fit the primary kinds of motivation of our audience.
H. Examine the social structures of your host audiences’ culture. Learn something about the educational levels, the ranks, statuses, positions, & processes of the social interactions. This will help you to see how men & women relate to one another on the basis of the place in society. For example, if a man is a Colonel in the Army, you can expect that he is used to giving commands & seeing them carried out. He would be used to receiving commands as well. However, a guard would be use to listening to stories about the history of his culture before a truth would be discussed. Social structures have a way of dictating which channels of communication are opened or closed. They also affect who talks to whom, what is said, how it is said, & the authority behind the message. When Paul spoke to King Agrippa he altered his communication based upon his knowledge of the social structures of the day.
I. Study the world views of the people. World views consist of ways of perceiving reality, truth, beliefs, values, actions, & emotional responses. When a communicator can understand the way people perceive these elements of life, one has a real clue to the best ways to communicate to them from their cultural viewpoint. Some people, for example, see the world as a struggle between the spirits of the underworld & the Spirit of God. Everything in life revolves around this battle. They are continually in fear of oppression, sickness, or accidents caused by spirits of various kind. Other cultures see life as a struggle to survive all the hardships that life can throw at them. They will cheat, connive, deceive, & lie all for the justification of survival. We must prayerfully learn how to communicate with people’s world view if we are going to become successful.
J. Let us observe people’s goals, expectations, & ideals. Some cultures aim to please their ancestors. For this reason they will spend lots of time, effort, & money honoring their ancestors. One tribe refused to accept the salvation in Jesus Christ simply because they wanted to go wherever their ancestors resided-hell. They were afraid of displeasing their ancestors resided. They were willing to sacrifice eternity with God in heaven. A good preacher will learn how to accent the positive without condemning the negative parts of the audiences’ culture.
K. Try to learn the language of the audiences’ culture. Learning to express yourself in terms, symbols, & means that the people are most comfortable with enhancing cross-cultural communication. Begin by learning the greetings, then the words for God, Father, Mother, Family, Salvation, Sin, & truth. Use a translator in the mean time to assist in communicating ways that are closest to the mother tongue of your audience. Language is closely tied up with a peoples’ identity. When you speak their language they tend to see you as one of them.
L. Communicate with symbols, objects, & stories that are familiar to the people. Whenever Paul, the apostle, spoke cross-culturally, he studied the background symbols of the people. For example, when he spoke to the Athenians on Mars hill in Acts 17 he had already researched their architecture, their monuments, their palaces, their history, poetry, philosophy, & science. The more preachers can learn about an audience’s background the closer he will be able to match his message to familiar associations. Paul successfully communicated to the Athenians because he admired, complimented, & used a monument to ``An Unknown God’’ to begin to tell the gospel’s to the listeners on the monumental day.
M. Learn the lines of thinking, reasoning, & evaluating of the people. Some people reason through the consensus of the elders and then the masses follow their lead.
Other societies practice democratic representation in their decision-making. Still others practice authoritarian rule where one man decides what is best for the group. Western societies put the onus of responsibility for thinking, reasoning, & evaluating usually in the hands of the individual. Wherever the emphasis of the thought processes lie is where you should adjust your reasoning style to fit that of your audiences’. Jesus reasoned with the rich young ruler in ways that best communicated to the man’s reasoning. This implies that we may not always be able to persuade people even if we use the right lines of evaluation.
N. Learn the spiritual means of interpreting truth. Many cultures interpret truth on the basis of experience, history, or what the Fathers have to say. Other cultures insist that truth is left up to each individual to decide. Some societies rely on educated clergy to interpret the scriptures to their flocks. We must learn these interpretative mechanisms, men, & motivations if we are going to successfully communicate the correct interpretation of scripture. Scripture is always its best interpreter. (2 Tim. 3:16)
O. Learn the best ways of illustrating truth in a culture. Some societies illustrate truth with a negative-warning method. Other groups illustrate truth from a positive-modeling perspective. Listen to the way people tell stories in their conversation & adjust your style to fit that of the cultures. Paul reasoned with the Jews in the synagogues. He knew the kinds of illustrations that would best impact them. He even showed a willingness to use his own life as an illustration of a converted Jew who gave up every valuable thing for the sake of Christ. This is a great example of personalizing our illustrations. The more personal we are the greater the impact our message will have.
P. Learn the best ways of applying the truth to a culture. Learn the ways that people make applications to what they believe is true. Perhaps, they apply those truths to benefit their families. Maybe, some people will apply the scriptures in ways that stress relational reconciliation. Western societies will insist that applications are strictly left up to the individuals. African societies may first think of their extended family applications.
