A Life in Exile

I’ve been reflecting on various lessons I’ve learned from living abroad, and so hope to be able to share some insights in the coming weeks in my Mission Monday posts. This topic of Christ over culture is probably the most important, not only because we are to be first and foremost ambassadors for Christ, but also because the struggle is real, no matter where you live or serve and no matter how old you are. Though, as of this coming June, I’ll be fifteen years back stateside, I find this issue is as important in the local American church as it is for people of any nation serving in another country or among another people group.

Divided Loyalty

Paul, in writing to the church in Corinth, knew that personalities, cultures, and religious backgrounds were all competing for loyalty by these new believers in Christ. He wanted nothing of it and told them this was the reason he was very careful not to become the focus of anyone’s attention.

For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.

1 Corinthians 1:22-23 CSB

The bottom line is that Christ is the power and wisdom of God. It is to Jesus that Paul wanted the people to put their loyalty, not in any man or human wisdom. That is our message today as well, but sometimes we get in our own way. We want people to listen to us and model us, not because we reflect Christ to them, but because we think our way of doing church or living the Christian life is the way.

Woe to anyone who preaches anything as having more importance than belief in the crucified Christ.

The Cultural Question

I remember the day I left for the Cote d’Ivoire or Ivory Coast, West Africa. I had a new perm, wore a linen blouse, and carried two new Samsonite suitcases. I was as American as I could be for 1986. I had no idea what heat, humidity, a European washing machine, and lice would do to that look, but I was soon to find out. Unfortunately, it was not just my American genes and look I carried to the West African nation.

Over the next two years, I would learn a lot about Ivorian culture. I also had to learn about West African culture in general, because the publications we produced at the Baptist Publication House needed to fill a need for the entire region. I began to see a transformation in the French-language and American-geared material. With time, it gradually became more local-language-oriented and contained topics important to West African culture. How would this Jesus affect homes where polygamy was practiced? How could African believers follow Christ without mixing in tribal beliefs? How could African believers share Christ with Muslim friends and family?

As a twenty-three-year-old college graduate, I was unprepared for the issues I would face in Ivory Coast. Sitting in my Sunday School class of single girls in their teens and twenties, I thought their biggest problem would be to find a date or get married. Marriage was on their minds, but not before they were able to prove they were fertile. What? Did I miss something? What does Christ say about that? How could I answer such issues with my American Sunday School knowledge? I knew I needed help.

Run to Jesus and the Word

Life in the Ivory Coast was the impetus for me to go to seminary—not to be a great scholar, but just to get into the Bible. I knew what I had from my typical American-church upbringing was not enough. I had to strip off culture, cut out pat answers, and dig deep into Scripture. After graduation from seminary and a few years in an Arabic-language church in Texas, I thought I was prepared for my new destination of ministry in the Middle East and North Africa. God showed me that I still had some layers to peel yet.

Does this mean that I don’t live out my Christian faith as an American woman? No. God plants us within families and cultures of his choosing for a reason. I can serve out of my cultural background in the midst of other nationalities as long as I don’t elevate my culture over Christ. There are times when I sacrifice my need for punctuality and order to serve a people who are consistently late and disorderly (to my mind). I can worship the Lord with nationals on pews, in chairs, or on the floor. I can teach using an outline and paper or by sharing a story.

When I lay my head down at night, I’m still a white, southern, American-bred woman, but I can sleep in peace knowing that I have been able to lay aside my way to let Christ and his way be lifted high among a people group vastly different from me. I might dream in French, Arabic, or English, but I serve in the heart language of the people he brings my way.

One of the amazing things I love about our God is that he has given us a book that speaks across all national and ethnic boundaries and to all languages. The Bible has proven true in the lives of girls in the Ivory Coast; women in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria; refugees hurting in foreign lands, and Americans living in the comfort of a family home. Christ is sufficient for every need and every person in this world. His Word is powerful and a guide to the nations.

Whether you are serving him in your home country or cross-culturally, pray that God will help you to always sacrifice culture at the expense of making Christ known to those he brings your way.

Grace and Peace

If you missed the last Mission Monday post, click HERE, or check out these posts on the topic of culture: Live Such a Life, Losing Self in Contextualization, Square Peg in a Round Hole, and Where Our Loyalties Lie.