By Dr. John David Smith, President

Two fish were passing each other, and one asked, “How’s the water?” The other responded, “I don’t know. I just swim in it.”  

Our view of culture many times is the same. We really do not understand culture, even our own culture . . . we just swim in it. For this reason, often we are unknowingly dominated by our culture. The greater culture infiltrates our churches in ways contrary to scripture. We do not know how to speak the gospel into current culture, and we are imprisoned in antiquated methods that reflect a culture from times gone by. 

There is never a time the gospel enters a cultural vacuum; there is always an existing culture in every place the gospel arrives. The relationship between the gospel and culture is less about the first time gospel and culture meet and more about the developing relationship in each locale. 

Culture can be defined as an integrated system of learned patterns of behavior, ideas, and products that offer coping mechanisms (Hiebert). The interpretation of that definition is that culture is learned behaviors, not genetic predispositions. Culture fits nicely into a system that is a whole and not merely random parts; one of culture’s primary functions is to provide coping mechanisms whereby we live in our culture like swimming in water. We do not really think about it, we just live in it as naturally as breathing.

Culture has been likened to an iceberg. Much of an iceberg is under the surface of the water; however, we tend to judge the iceberg solely on the part that is visible. Similarly, we visit a new culture and declare that all people are basically the same all over the world. That is true from the observation of the part of culture that is “above the water line.” 

However, the deeper realities of culture are not seen in a brief visit and/or superficial analysis. That is why cross-cultural mission practitioners have to learn languages, discover worldviews, uncover values, and pay close attention to behaviors in order to understand and function in a different culture. All of the bold verbs in the previous sentence indicate that the process of adapting to a new culture is an arduous endeavor which demands great energy and time, hence the demands of the process of adjusting to a new culture.

Three primary areas must be considered in the gospel/culture relationship. First, worldview is the lens through which we view the world. It is our default setting to reality. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus started with the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Jesus is not simply providing propositional truth here for rote memorization. He is challenging the dominant worldview of his disciples’ day . . . a religious/works-based righteousness that was man-centered through Judaism. All of this was packaged into the reality of a foreign invader that brought about a cultural identity issue and a longing for hope among first century Jews. You must know worldview in order to communicate the gospel more effectively. 

Another area of culture that must be addressed is communication. Jesus demonstrated his ability to communicate in his culture by using parables. He always used key examples from his culture such as fishing, farming, shepherding, etc. He communicated through the cultural system of the rabbinical method where the rabbi would choose a small group of men to teach and train at one time. 

The last area we will mention is that of building relationships in a cultural context. Jesus was perhaps most counter-cultural in his relationships. He both chastised the Pharisees and accepted their dinner invitations. He left many scratching their heads in the way he treated and conversed with women in public. Perhaps most challenging was his culturally frowned-upon friendships with “sinners” of all types. He constantly challenged the existing culture in relationships, personal identity, and inherent value of individuals with parables, such as the publican and the Pharisee and the parable of the good Samaritan. Next time, we will take our conversation on culture beyond the meeting with the gospel as discussed when the gospel and culture collide.