Perry wrote about a person called “Bob”. Perry met Bob over a year ago at the gym and in Perry’s words “I invited him to church…and he came! (it’s amazing what a personal invite will do!)”. So Bob’s been coming to church the last year or so but as of yet has not become of follower of Jesus. Now I could go on and continue to give you the bullet points of his post, but it might be better for you to read it for yourself. After you’ve read it you’ll be better able to see where I’m coming from…and this is it: inviting someone to church is not missional living. It’s not incarnational living. It’s not the way Jesus did it. It’s not the answer for the overwhelming majority of people that want nothing to do with the church. It’s not going to reach those with a truly postmodern worldview.

I can give you countless examples of how I’ve invited people to a church service or an event the church was putting on and they never came. And they never will. Inviting someone to church is not living on the edge, it’s not radical christianity. It’s a twentieth century method for reaching a modern thinker. And please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not railing on Perry. I’m expressing my thoughts on the idea that is so entrenched in us as christians: if we’ll just invite them to church then the pastor and Jesus will do the rest. And don’t miss this either: I’m not against bringing people along to a church event/service. I’m against making that the way we try and reach those that don’t yet follow Jesus.

The point of Perry’s post was find your “Bob” and reach them by inviting them to church. I would say, find your “Bob”, and invest personally in them. Be a friend. Be real. Become a part of his/her life. Be Jesus in the simple things. And when, or even if, the time comes invite him to be a part of the church, not just the church you happen to attend.

So having cultural acumen would mean that a person possesses the ability to make good judgments pertaining to the culture in which they find themselves. I wonder how long it takes to build up acumen. I’ve been here a little over 2 years and there are certain things regarding culture that I feel like I can make good judgments on. But there are still things, even after 2 years, that I’m no closer to feeling comfortable judging now than I was then.

This all came to light as I was reading a colleagues website regarding acclimation to their new culture. This colleague recently arrived to the country and immediately started language training. Within the first couple of weeks this colleague of mine wrote about how the city (that I live in and they study in) is one of the most spiritually dark places they’ve been, that people walk around with blank looks on their faces, and spend their time wasting away in the bars.

While I would agree with the last observation, people really do like to drink here, I would disagree with the first two observations. First, this city is alive. There are not many blank looks on the faces of the people here. In fact, most seem to carry themselves as though they have no care in the world. They have immense pride in their city and country and know how to have a good time. These things can’t be noticed and truly appreciated in the first 2 weeks in a city. Another thing worth mentioning, this is not a spiritually dark city. Places like New Orleans and parts of San Francisco are spiritually dark. This city is spiritually indifferent, which may be worse than being spiritually dark. The overwhelming majority here have no thoughts towards religion. They can take it or leave it, and most leave it. As long as your beliefs do not infringe on how they live out their life they could care less what you believe.

So maybe my colleague mistook spiritual indifference for spiritual darkness. Which brings me back to my original question…how long does it take to gain an appreciation for and understanding of a culture? I don’t know that I have the answer, but I have some principles that I’ve followed in the 2+ years I’ve been here:

• be quiet. just sit, watch, and listen
• go where the people are - downtown, parks, festivals, restaurants
• plug in - sign up for an art or photography course, join a knitting group, get involved in some athletic group/team
• ask a lot of questions, be patient in waiting for response, don’t judge the response or the response giver and then repeat the first principle

These are just a few things I’ve tried to incorporate into my daily life as I try to develop my cultural acumen.

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

Apostles Creed

When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.

Desmond Tutu

A) invite him and his family to come to church with you and yours.
B) invite him to a special men’s event your church is hosting.
C) invite him and his family over for dinner, fully expecting to talk about spiritual things. You prepare yourself by reviewing the 2 spiritual diagnostic questions, the Romans Road, and the 4 Spiritual Laws.
D) get to know him over the course of several weeks through numerous conversations. After finding out his likes/dislikes/interests you ask if you can come along to his next _______ (you fill in the blank).
E) None of the above (had to add this as no good multiple choice question leaves this answer out).

Be honest with yourself as you think through how you would “witness” to your neighbor. Don’t be too quick to dismiss how entrenched we all our in our consumeristic christian sub-culture and how that influences how you become Jesus to those around you.

… in your conversations with non-believers, what are you thinking during the conversation? How are you setting up the conversation? Are you trying to direct the conversation at all (I think I know the answer)? Do you feel the H.S. is leading you during the conversation?

I ask this because I encounter different people all day long. I work with others whose beliefs are very screwed up and they attend church. I find myself wanting to pull my head back into it’s shell and write others off. The very anti-thesis of what you both are saying/living.

So, everything that you believe, everything that you’ve learned on the field… can you break it down for someone who constantly struggles to hopefully live a life worthy of a high calling and some how, some way be Christ to those around me?

Before I give you mine and Margie’s response I want to say that Todd is not alone in his struggle to live a life worthy of his calling. I struggle with that. I can only assume that Margie struggles as well. In fact, if we’re being honest as followers of Christ I would hazard a guess that we all struggle from time to time with these types of things. I also want to mention that neither Margie or I are experts. We are simply sharing our experience. With that said, I want to directly quote my response to Todd, and Margie’s response. I responded first to Todd’s email:

I guess one thing I’ve learned is that I have to pay a lot more attention to what’s being said in conversations than I used to. It’s very much active listening. Another thing, and this is not universal, but people like to talk, and most of the time about themselves.

For me, I never force a conversation in a certain direction. My opinion is that people can see through that. I typically go into a planned meeting or time with someone else with a simple pryer that God would give me opportunities to point the person to Him. Sometimes it happens, sometimes is doesn’t. But I never force it.

If you listen closely there are opportunities to turn a conversation. For example, our neighbors came over a few weeks ago to celebrate a birthday. We were talking through dessert about the youth violence in the area. The wife was talking about the reasons (the causes) for the youth to want to act out violently. Things like education, poor economic situations, and poor parenting were mentioned. At that point I asked the question, “Do you think that the lack of a focus on religion and spirituality has anything to do with the violence?” It was a normal part of the conversation, but it turned the conversation. That one question led to a discussion about their beliefs. At one point she asked me about my specific beliefs and if I knew for sure what would happen to me when I die. I was able to walk through my beliefs with them….all of them. Now, it didn’t end in any conversion experience. I didn’t plan for it to. But I continually look for times that little conversations like this can take place, and hope that God is using them to draw my neighbors to Himself.
A lot of the time asking a question instead of making a statement can move a conversation in a direction you want it to go. I don’t know that the conversation with my neighbor would have gone the right way had I started out by saying something like, “Well, these kids need Jesus” or something similar.

All of that to say:
- go in with the idea that you’re making relationships with others, not just seeing them as a possible “convert”
- don’t put pressure on yourself to force a conversation a certain direction.
- listen for subtle hints or places that a question can be asked
- in fact, ask a lot of questions
- don’t start with the end goal being “conversion”. Start with the end goal of glorifying God and moving the individual a step closer to Him.

But again, this is just one man’s opinion.

And here’s Margie’s response:

First of all Todd, I want to say, “good on you for asking these questions!” Seriously, just the fact that you are evaluating how to share and build relationships with non-believers is a significant first step. Too many people never do that and spend a lifetime being ineffective.

Listening and asking questions is the key. You will never be able to meet them where they are if you don’t seek to find out by getting to know who they are.

I think the only thing I would add is praying and asking God to really break your heart for lost people. You mentioned wanting to pull away and write others off. I am going to be honest here and I hope I don’t offend you. I think one of the biggest weaknesses of the American, evangelical church is our satisfaction with being with the family. What I mean by that is this….the church has become everything, the center of our spiritual growth, our social network, our political party, everything. We have created a subculture from where we never want to leave. We talk about reaching the lost but what we mean by that is inviting them to church or preaching to them from a distance. We don’t want to hang out with them, be their friends or really let them into our lives. We reserve that right for fellow christians. The result I think is a fear that hanging out in the world will pollute us. We get almost disgusted by the lostness we see around us. That wasn’t Jesus’s heart at all. He felt compassion. He lived among broken people. We have to see sin as brokenness. We are here to mend brokenness. That means we have to get our hands dirty. We have to get out among the broken. We have to open our lives to them. We have to minister. I would ask that God would break your heart. That you would see their brokenness as he does. That you would enter their lives not to just give them a message but to share your own life with them. I would challenge you to leave your subculture, seek the broken and patiently and gracious share the gospel with them as God provides opportunity. That would be my prayer.

My only other advice is…treat them like people not projects and you can’t go wrong. Truly love and care and you can’t help but reflect Jesus. Share the truth with love and grace and you can’t help but penetrate their hearts with the gospel.

I have to say, what Margie said to Todd really resonated with me. I never understood how entrenched in the American Christian subculture I was until I moved away from it. Before moving here I could count on my hands the number of lost that I interacted with on a daily basis. Now it seems to be the other way around. That’s not a point of bragging, but a point of what a re-focus can do for you. I think as we grow closer to Christ our draw towards the lost increases. It has to…simply because that was the heart of Christ. And I constantly have to ask God to break my heart for the people I’m around. For me, this hasn’t been a once and done type of situation. It’s a continual, daily process.

Hopefully this has been a help to someone. I think it was a help to Todd, and I know that it was a help to me.

Frankly, the greatest obstacle to Christianity - is Christians who don’t look like Jesus.

Bob Roberts, Jr. from today’s post on Glocalnet.

And now back to your regularly scheduled program.