Key principles for successful intercultural living, communication, and ministry

Key principles for successful intercultural living, communication, and ministry

     The key principle for successful intercultural living, communication, and ministry is bonding. According to Elizabeth S. and E. Thomas Brewster, bonding is crucial for a healthy relationship in which they contribute this to the first hours a newborn infant is with its mother. They go on by comparing this importance of infant/mother bonding. They explain how it is just as critical for a missionary to bond with a people group, early within the relationship.[1] Brewster’s state, “Like the first day of an infant’s life, the first two or three weeks of a newcomer’s stay is of crucial importance.”[2] The missionary must become a belonger in the sense of belonging to the people group they are called too.  Some factors that contribute to becoming a belonger, are communicating what the missionary’s needs are, learning the language, and by living with a local family. There is a heavy risk involved for those who do not become belongers and those who do not take the risk and immediately totally immerse themselves in the new culture usually do not return for a second term of service.[3]

            William Reyborn expounds the idea of becoming a becomer by focusing on the ideal of searching for a point of identification. His whole focus centers on the point of identification in which he propounds that a major aspect of the missionary task is to search for a connection or point of contact.[4] This point of contact is by submersion of the missionary’s life into the culture, customs and ways of the community in which they are now part. Reyborn expresses the belonger and the point of contact with other people groups with the willingness to surrender and to step out of the comfort box in which the missionary is familiar with.  Communication is a key in building the bond between the missionary and other cultures. Everything we do is in essence a communication –intended or not. Moreau states, “The ability to develop communication patterns that build trust is an invaluable missionary skill.”[5] Without understanding the importance of communication, bonding will not occur and will therefore quench the Spirit to move. 

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     [1] Elizabeth S. Brewster, E. Thomas Brewster “The Difference Bonding Makes” in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, (2009). 466.

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid. 469

[4] William D. Reyburn “Identification in the Missionary Task” in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, ed. Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, (2009). 471.

[5] Scott A. Moreau, Gary Corwin, and Gary McGee. Introducing World Missions: A Biblical, Historical, and Practical Survey. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, 2004. 267

Global Mission

     William Cameron Townsend, who founded the Wycliffe Bible Translators, was born in 1896 in Eastvale, California. Townsend was brought up in the Presbyterian faith according to Winter and Hawthorne, [Townsend] “Starting out as a student to distribute portions of the Bible in Spanish, he was overtaken by the conviction that Spanish Bibles were inadequate for the Indian tribes of Guatemala.” [1] This inadequacy leads to Townsend to engage in linguistics to be able to reach others hindered by the language barriers in proclaiming the gospel to all. Once Townsend had settled in with the Cakchiquel Indians, he realized the importance in learning their language; after all, he had Spanish Bibles among a tribe of people that were not Spanish nor understood the language. According to Hibbard, Townsend’s secretary, “In 1926 Townsend made a structural analysis of the Cakchiquel verb system and became one of the first men in the world to succeed in analyzing a complicated vernacular language system in reference to its own structure.”[2] This not only opened the doors to the Cakchiquel Indians but to other “Bibleless” people in other regions in the world.

     The structural analysis Townsend made was by far his major contribution to global mission history. According to the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, 

 In 1934, Townsend with colleague Leonard L. Letgers, took over a small farm near Sulphur Springs, Arkansas and created “Camp Wycliffe”. Within a short time Townsend had begun his Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) and Wycliffe Bible Translators and by the beginning of American involvement in World War II had nearly a hundred missionaries in place in Central and South America working on translations for small language groups. Aided by the rapid expansion of American involvement around the globe that followed the war, Townsend was able to greatly expand Wycliffe’s potential reach, even as it’s adventurous Gospel exploits appealed to many potential missionary candidates back in North America.[3]

Without the dedication and conviction to reach those people who were without the Word of God, many mission areas would not be reached. Townsends work has been a platform appealing to many. His dedication and obedience to the convictions he had is a fruitful work continued to be seen today. William Cameron Townsend died in 1982 at the age of 85 years of age.  

Bibliography

"Cam Townsend." Cam Townsend. Accessed March 30, 2015. http://www.wheaton.edu/isae/hall-of-biography/cam-townsend.

Hibbard, Calvin. "William Cameron Townsend 1896–1982." Biographical Sketch of William Cameron Townsend. Accessed March 30, 2015. http://www-01.sil.org/wct/wct_bio3.html.

"Tribes, Tongues and Translators" In Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, edited by Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, by William Cameron Townsend, 327-328. Fourth ed. Pasadena,, Calif.: William Carey Library, 1981

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     [1] William Cameron Townsend, "Tribes, Tongues and Translators" In Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, edited by Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, 327

[2] Calvin Hibbard, "William Cameron Townsend 1896–1982." Biographical Sketch of William Cameron Townsend. Accessed March 30, 2015. http://www-01.sil.org/wct/wct_bio3.html.

     [3] "Cam Townsend." Cam Townsend. Accessed March 30, 2015. http://www.wheaton.edu/isae/hall-of-biography/cam-townsend.

Current phenomenon of missionary movements from the non-Western world

Describe the current phenomenon of missionary movements from the non-Western world

     The current phenomenon of missionary movements from the non-Western world is exploding at a rate unlike ever before seen. Whereas most missionaries have originally emerged from the west, such as Europe, the rise of global mission is now advancing from many fronts in other foreign countries. The CSGC reports that "of the ten countries sending the most missionaries in 2010, three were in the global South: Brazil, South Korea, and India."[1] While the United States leads the mission field of sending missionaries to foreign countries, the advancement of the global south has risen at an unprecedented rate.   

     Current global missionary movements are a result from the seeds planted by other missionaries many generations prior to our current era. Huneycutt gives us three eras of modern mission movements that planted the seeds for future harvest. The first era, “to the coastlands”, marked by William Carey was of European dominance and geographic strategy – who “was convicted by the Church’s mission responsibilities regarding the Great Commission being limited to the 12 disciples, led a movement spreading the gospel to every continent in the coastlands.”[2] From this, Huneycutt reports that a transition took place into the second era, “The Untouched Inland Areas”, ushered in by Hudson Taylor, whose heart was broken for the unreached millions in the interior of China. Taylor’s appeals to send missionaries to this untouched region were resisted and in turn, he formed a new mission that was called, China Inland Mission”[3] From these two eras, seeds were planted and harvest was soon to sprout in areas never once thought could be penetrated. The third era, called, “To Unreached Peoples,” Huneycutt states, “… is now in full swing. The mission force is rapidly changing to a more non-western face.”[4] After generations of seeds planted with a European/American dominance, and a geographic strategy, this new era is non-Western dominance, and non-geographic strategy focused on people groups – a phenomena of rapid gospel advance among socio-ethnic populations.[5]

      The current phenomenon is a result of fertile grounds prepared by missionaries from past eras – through prayer and support among other believers and a unification of Christians as a result. Johnson and Lee state, “Global Christianity is a phenomenon, not of uniformity, but of ever-increasing diversity.”[6]

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     [1] "Christianity in Its Global Context, 1970–2020 Society, Religion, and Mission." Christianity In Its Global Context. June 1, 2013. Accessed April 6, 2015. http://wwwgordonconwell.com/netcommunity/CSGCResources/ChristianityinitsGlobalContext.pdf.

[2] Yvonee Wood Huneycutt, “New Pioneers Leading the Way” In Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, edited by Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, 377-378

[3] Ibid., 378

[4] Ibid., 379

[5] Ibid., 379

[6] Todd Johnson and Sandra S. K. Lee, "From Western Christendom to Global Christianity" In Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, edited by Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, 392