Church and Culture

Two of my seminars this semester relate to topics that, at first glance, seem different: emerging churches and cultural anthropology. The key word there is "seem." I am amazed (and thankful) how much these two seminars fit together and are impacting my work. Cultural anthropology is about studying why people live, think, and act like they do. How does that culture impact the way that we share the gospel? It's a subject traditionally saved for missionaries. On the other hand, the emerging church "movement" in the US and Western Europe (especially Britain) is very much about impacting culture by living in it, which means studying why people live, think, and act like they do.

One great example of how this study is impacting my work is through a book called To Every Tribe with Jesus: Understanding and Reaching Tribal Peoples for Christ by David Sitton. As the title suggests, it's a book about unreached tribal peoples and, more specifically, about animistic cultures. I must admit that I first thought the book would be the first of the semester that didn't relate to my life in France (or the US). I was wrong. Ralph Winter suggests in the foreword that the book has much to say for those working in postmodern cultures, and he's right. Our world is very much affected by animism. Here in France, there are more fortune tellers and astrologists than there are ministers or priests.

It is a valuable exercise for us as missionaries, pastors, or church members to step back and consider our own world as another culture. When we come to our community as learners of culture, we might very well discover that all our reaching out is, in fact, cross-cultural missions.