Pursuing the Call: A Plan for New MissionariesSample

Surviving culture shock is an important hurdle in mission work, but whereas culture shock is a short-lived phase of your time abroad, if you continue as a missionary for the long term, the need to have a culturally informed ministry never goes away. The gospel message and the Bible are universally true and universally applicable. However, the nuances of how ministry is done from one culture to another can differ without diluting the core message. This is known as contextualization.

The Bible gives us many examples of cross-cultural ministry that we can learn from. In the Old Testament, we see people like Joseph, Daniel, Nehemiah, and Esther serving in God-ordained ministries in foreign cultures. In the New Testament, we see Jesus ministering to Samaritans, Philip evangelizing the Ethiopian eunuch, and Peter preaching the gospel to Cornelius. Perhaps the biblical figure that we most think of when we consider cross-cultural missionaries is Paul. Paul was a Jew who was so deeply entrenched in the Jewish way of life that he killed those whom he thought posed a threat to Jewish beliefs, but he became a missionary primarily to the Gentiles.

As you read today's reading, consider what these two passages from the life of Paul can teach us about cross-cultural ministry.