DBF7
Each reply must be at least 150 words (maximum 300 words).
Response #1
Cross-cultural workers and empowering of local churches and church planting movements
The word of God teaches people that for humans to succeed in all their endeavors, they need to work together and exchange ideas. Build a strong foundation and community for everyone to call home. Even the word of God spreading across the world is work that takes a team effort and hence this task cannot be entirely left to missionaries and preachers of the gospel. This brought the need for cross-cultural workers who could interpret the word of God across all cultures by understanding their worldview and putting into context the word of God so that people from a different culture can accept the word of God and receive salvation. Cross-cultural workers are however met with a lot of frustration coming from the language barrier and cultural rigidity and this makes empowering of local churches a difficult ask. Hence, in the spreading of the gospel to foreign lands and cultures in Africa and Asia, cross-cultural workers use local churches and church planting movements to transform a few local people into believers who would help in the spreading of the gospel to the rest of the population. This partnership results in success of the church where the cross-cultural worker establishes the word of God, communicates the visions of the gospel to the people, formulates relevant strategies on how to mobilize locals and expand, extend and expose them to the glory of God so that they can enjoy eternal salvation. [1]Cross-cultural workers need to stay humble, observe appreciate and respect the specific culture they are establishing the local church in, learn the local language as well as mission organizations, love the local people, local pastors, and the local church, be simple in conveying the word of God and continually make believers out of the locals who will, in turn, bring in more people to be transformed.[2]
[1] Sparks, Carole, Effective partnering: the church and cross-cultural work on-task together (The Exchange, 2017), 1
[2] Hawke, Alex, Cross-cultural church planting: A plea from a missionary (Upstream, 2017), 1
Response #2
Forum 7 (Module 7) – TurabianCOLLAPSE
Glenn Schwartz writes in his article, “Dependency”, of the great importance of local funding of mission work. He cites in his passage multiple lessons that point to the need to have local missionaries support tithing (giving) and providing for their own living (working).
Schwartz emphasized in his article that missionaries should emphasize supporting their own mission work – not encouraging local congregations to always expect support from others1. Local churches should be encouraged to raise their own support and work together to pool together local resources to meet the needs of the community2. These practices should take precedent over becoming overly dependent upon support from cross-cultural missionaries (those from sending organizations who come from outside the local community).
Bibliography
Schwartz, Glenn. “Dependency.” Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader: Fourth Edition (WIlliam Carey Library: Pasadena, CA: 2009).
