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Cross Culture — Communicating Christ Clearly to a Secular World

By Randy Hurst

When He was crucified, Pilate ordered the inscription on the cross to be written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek—the languages of the three major cultural groups of that era.

Jesus lived and died at the crossroads of humanity. When He was crucified, Pilate ordered the inscription on the cross to be written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek—the languages of the three major cultural groups of that era. The forgiving fact of the Cross reaches across cultural barriers, and so must its message. 

Foreign missionaries must learn to communicate the gospel across cultural barriers. The church in America needs some of those same skills and sensitivities to reach our secular society. America has long been considered a Christian nation, but it really cannot be described as such any longer. In the last several decades, America has increasingly become a post-Christian culture. The church now faces the challenge of communicating the message of Christ in an intercultural context, as do foreign missionaries. 

To effectively communicate Christ to a secular society, we must recognize that we are communicating from a church culture to a secular culture. We may be communicating to Americans, whose culture we share; but if we have spent much of our lives in the church, we have acquired the perceptions, values, and even the vocabulary of the church. The Christian and the unbeliever may both speak English, but the Christian often uses church terms that are unfamiliar or mean something different in secular culture. When we use Christian jargon freely with unbelievers, we erect a communication barrier. Words such as "saved," "gospel," and "anointing," have commonly accepted meanings for us, but are confusing to people who are unfamiliar with those terms. Unbelievers must be reached through their vocabulary, not ours. 

In Colossians 4:2-6, the apostle Paul wrote, "Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt so that you may know how you should respond to each person."¹ 

Paul demonstrated a dependency on divine activity in the evangelism process. He asked believers to pray that God would open a door for his message and also that God would help him make the message clear, to help him speak as he ought to. Though we depend on God to open a door for the Word, we must also depend on God to help us make the message clear and act with wisdom toward those outside the church. 

We need to be prophetic, boldly proclaiming the good news about Jesus in the Spirit's power. But we also need to speak the language of the listeners, recognizing with the apostle Paul that we must make the mystery of Christ known clearly and with wisdom² toward others. 

The term Paul used—"outsiders"—is especially descriptive. We have all been in settings where we have been outsiders. The insiders have private jokes and expressions. We don't understand, so we are left out because the meanings are private. But we are not to be private with Christ's message. We must be public. 

When Jesus dealt with people, He always used language and concepts they could understand and to which they could relate. In New Testament times, one of the greatest cultural barriers was between Jews and Samaritans. Yet Jesus penetrated that barrier. 

The Parable of the Good Samaritan came in response to a lawyer's question: "Who is my neighbor?" The real question the lawyer asked was, "Who is not my neighbor?" What he really wanted to know was whom he was not obligated to love as himself. It is obvious from the parable that the man in the ditch was a Jew. Those who passed him were also Jews, but the Samaritan acted as a neighbor to the man in need. As simple as it sounds, the Samaritan cared for the man just because he was there. That is who our neighbor is—whoever is there. 

In the context of foreign missions, each new generation is an unreached people group. The same is true in America. Our neighbors in America—the people who are there—are very different from those of preceding generations. And they must be reached. 

When Jesus dealt with the Samaritan woman at the well, He used language and ideas she could understand. He dealt clearly with the issue of sin, but He did it by centering the conversation on the woman's needs and interests. Jesus guided the conversation but did not totally control it. He responded to the woman, as Paul exhorted us to do.³ 

While Pentecostal Evangel editor Hal Donaldson and I walked the streets of Moscow, we interviewed several people. Hal introduced the subject of God to one girl and she replied, "I believe in God, but I'm not certain He has the power to solve Russia's problems. I don't go to church because mostly older people are there, and they won't let me wear pants." 

It was troubling to me that this girl's exposure to the gospel was hindered because she did not feel she could go to church just as she was. In many altar invitations the choir sings, Just as I Am, but we sometimes expect people to come to Christ on the church's terms. 

How can Christian believers communicate more sensitively and effectively with people in a secular culture? I suggest three things: learn, listen, and love.

LEARN
Give thought to and study Christian vocabulary and concepts that may be foreign to secular people and learn to convey Christian truth in their language. My missionary parents always befriended unbelievers and related effectively to people with no Christian background. To act with wisdom toward outsiders, we must know and understand them. To do that requires spending time with them. Jesus' first call to His disciples was simply that they might "be with him."⁴ We need to be careful not to see people only as eternal souls without valuing them as individuals.

LISTEN
Don't just preach—answer questions. Don't dominate conversations, but guide them. Remember the apostle Paul's admonition to "respond" to outsiders. The apostle Peter said that believers should "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."⁵

LOVE
Simply love people. "Love covers a multitude of sins,"⁶ even cultural blunders. Cultural mistakes can be forgiven if the person making those mistakes demonstrates sincere love. 

Communicating Christ across cultural barriers is not an option for the Church, but a necessity—a biblical mandate. In Colossians 4, Paul twice uses the Greek word dei, which is a strong imperative meaning, "must" or "necessary." Paul stated that the message of Christ must be spoken clearly⁷ and we must respond to each outsider with wisdom.⁸ 
God has placed the Church in the world to be salt and light—to affect the world around us. Whoever is there—must be reached. The Church must not be isolated from secular society, but should penetrate it—taking part in God's sovereign work, calling people "out of darkness into His marvelous light."⁹

ENDNOTES

1. All Scriptures are from the New American Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.
2. Colossians 4:5,6
3. Colossians 4:6
4. Mark 3:14
5. 1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)
6. 1 Peter 4:8
7. Colossians 4:4
8. Colossians 4:5,6
9. 1 Peter 2:9