Every Christian wants to see indigenous churches in all cultures. That's pretty much a given. But sometimes we fail to recognize the complexity involved with a person from one culture ministering to people in a different culture. Such a failure can seriously hinder a would-be indigenous community of believers, especially when that cultural outsider has a position of influence.
One reason for this difficulty is that we assume so much about how we do things in our home culture. So much of how we view life lies below the surface of our conscious awareness. This came to mind today as I was listening to a Planet Money podcast from NPR entitled, "Making A Life On $2 a Day." Although some of the particulars are different for Tanzanians in the low-income boat, I thought they did a fine job describing the complex economics involved with living with such a low income. It's worth a listen.
Here's my point for the cross-cultural missionary: If you don't understand local economic systems, you're going to flounder when it comes time to make application of biblical texts dealing with money. Your default Western applications in non-Western contexts will kill indigeneity.
Yet we wonder why dependency is such a problem. Or worse, we blame this problem on "them."
And economics is only a small slice of the cross-cultural puzzle!
I have been following your blog for some time now, and I do appreciate your view on cross-cultural missions, what an encouragement to see what God is doing through your ministry in Tanzania!
Posted by: Mark Williams | July 21, 2009 at 06:23 AM