Unity Between Cultures

As our churches become increasingly culturally diverse, how do we make sure that we are united in Christ? As leaders, how do we set an example in this?

Face your fears

One point is we need to face our fears. Naturally, we'll have concerns, we'll have worries of not knowing what we're getting into, of not knowing exactly where things might go, where we might get things wrong. Will I say the wrong thing? Will I offend my brother or sister because I don't know them culturally?

One thing to keep in mind is, as an international, I'm much more concerned about you approaching me and saying hello and giving me an opportunity than I am of you getting my culture wrong.

I'm going to be very gracious if you get something wrong culturally, as long as you've come to me and made the effort and I see love and interest from your part. Let's not worry so much about getting things wrong. Let's worry more about actually approaching, including, welcoming our brothers and sisters.

But there's fear in that. Obviously, we might not know the language. We might not know how people will respond.

We might not know what that person is expecting. There will be fear on both sides. There will be fear from the guests and there'll be fear from us as the host.

But let's make the effort. Let's go for it. The other fear that comes is where will this go? What if things get a bit out of control? I don't know what this person will do, what they might say, if they'll say something that will culturally shock my church.

But is it worth the risk? Is it worth investing in that and taking a chance? So these are things that we must face as our natural fears and worries that come in our churches. 

Welcome people into your life

Another point would be we need to welcome people into our lives. We need to make space for new people.

As guests come, they will come from different cultures. They have left families. They have left their homes, their comfort zone.

They're looking to connect with a brother and sister here in the UK. How do we do that well? Can we invite someone for a meal, for a coffee, for a tea? Many countries won't drink tea, but we have wonderful Yorkshire tea. We have wonderful English tea.

We can use that and teach our culture and teach the highlights of being British in a way that will show love and will show welcome, will show interest to those that are coming to us. So let's welcome them into our lives. Cook them a nice meal.

Bring them to your home. Go for a walk. Show them the areas in your city.

But let's make sure that we make the effort to welcome people into our lives. Remember that gospel culture is much more important, is above our natural cultures. Gospel culture, Jesus culture, demands me to change, demands me to grow, demands me to try new things, to face my fear, to leave my comfort zone for the sake of the gospel. So we must be willing to do that.

Identify your assumptions

The next thing is we need to identify what are our assumptions, because sometimes those assumptions are not helpful.

What are some cultural assumptions that we make? One thing we might tend to do is that we tend to think that people that come in from another culture, from another country, from a foreign country, they're naturally less spiritually mature than we are.

That they're coming because they need help. They're coming because they need the gospel. They're coming because they don't know anything about Jesus.

And that may be the case sometimes. But sometimes God is sending mature Christians. Sometimes maybe God is answering our prayers of asking for help for those people to come in and step into leadership in our churches.

So we must be careful with these assumptions. People from other cultures are not necessarily less spiritual than we are. They're not less theologically sharp than we are just because they're from somewhere else.

They might have a PhD. They might have a theological degree. They might have experience that we don't have.

So we must keep that in mind as well and avoid these kind of things. Also, one assumption is to think that things that are done in other cultures will never work here in the UK. So be careful to say things like, oh, that just worked in your country, but that won't work here in the UK.

Praise God for his blessing

And lastly, we must praise God for this blessing. We can rejoice that our unity in Christ overcomes all cultural barriers. There is great richness and blessing in unity between different cultures.

We will enjoy a variety of food, worship, prayer, welcome, fashion, ideas, passion. Our diversity will strengthen and help us complete one another.