Cross-cultural evangelism important, says Smith

SHERWOOD – Robert Smith, professor of Christian preaching at Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., spoke on the necessity for being cross-cultural in evangelism during the Arkansas Baptist State Convention’s 2012 State Conference on Evangelism and Church Growth.

Smith“I think if we’re going to reach across Arkansas or across any land, we have to do it cross-culturally,” Smith said.

He explained that culture is more than arts and music.

“But in its simplest form, I think culture – it has to be defined as ‘that which is genetically acquired and socially learned,’” he said.

Smith said sharing the gospel is similar. Those in love with Jesus cannot help sharing about Him because they “have His spiritual chromosomes in” them.

However, Smith explained, “Evangelism has to also be socially learned.”

“We have to learn the dynamics,” he said. “We have to learn the process. We have to be disciples so that we know how to not only define the gospel, but articulate the gospel and put it in our own words.”

He pointed to the Great Commission and the phrase “all nations.”

“And when we get to the place where we are comfortable in our own cultural context with people who look like us, who are just like us, and we plan to stay in that context in our churches and in our mindset all of our days, then we are culturally truncating, shortening, abbreviating the Great Commission,” Smith said.

He said he thinks God wants Christians to look like quilts, comprising “every economic, every social, every spiritual, every culture in the world, so that we’re sewn together not by our ethnicity, but sewn together by the Spirit of God.”

“What makes me your brother has nothing to do with biology,” he said. “What makes me your brother and makes my wife your sister is the fact that we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.”

Smith pointed out some hindrances to cross-cultural preaching and communication that Christians may encounter.

One such hindrance is isolationism, which Smith said is demonstrated by the priest and the Levite who walked around the wounded man before the Samaritan found him in Luke 10.

“What do we do when we see individuals who need the gospel but they are not like us, and we pass by on the other side?” Smith asked.

He said favoritism is another hindrance to preaching cross-culturally. Smith said Peter demonstrated this attitude in Galatians 2:11-16 when he stopped eating with Gentiles and disassociated himself from them when the Jews came.

On the other hand, transformation was the attitude of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Rather than circumventing Samaria, he found the woman at the well and dealt with her regarding her racism, religion and reputation and transformed her into an evangelist to her town.

Along with the idea of transformation is the idea of identification, said Smith, explaining Christ identified with humans by becoming human.

Smith pointed to Isaiah 36:11-22, using the Rabshakeh, (which was sort of a chief of staff at the time) who had been sent by the king of Assyria to speak to the Israelites, as an example of how to speak cross-culturally. First, Rabshakeh was bilingual. Second, he was “idiomatically relevant.” Third, he was able to adapt to his audience.

Similarly, Christians must also be “bilingual” in a sense so they can translate the gospel to make it meaningful to others, including those who have no church background and do not understand the terms.

Christians should take the time to learn about cultures, including their idiomatic expressions, he said. They should know the teaching styles of other cultures and be able to teach in that way.

“You’ve got to learn – I’ve got to learn – how to change my style without changing the text,” Smith said.

He encouraged the crowd to “use metaphors and images that mean something to people.” 

Finally, Christians must be adaptable to the audience. Smith pointed out that Jesus was adaptable to His audience. 

Smith said congregations might respond differently than one is used to.

However, he added, “You got to take what the congregation gives you, and I don’t care what it is. You got to take it and let the Lord use you in it. We got to speak because God has already spoken.”