The R. I. N. Strategy of Missions II

This is the second post of a three post series dealing with the R. I. N. Strategy of Missions. This post will address the importance of "Indigeneity".

Indigeneity --
Indigeneity is simply asking the question, what would it look like without any outside influence? Every culture and every person in the world has indigenous qualities. Some examples of these indigenous qualities can be described as follows:

The type of housing one lives in.
The foods people eat.
The language they speak and how they speak it, i.e., accents
The type of clothing that is worn.
What and how a people celebrates significant events.
The process for making decisions.

Indigeneity is also seen in how people of faith worship and live out their daily walk with the Lord. Do they meet in a building as church, or do they gather in a house, or even under a tree? Do they sing translated English hymns or sing their own original songs? Does their service last an hour or 3 hours? Do they meet on Sunday or another day or night of the week?

It is in the area of indegeneity that we tend to impose our own cultural preferences upon those with whom we work. For example:

In many cultures around the world missionaries modeled wearing dress suits or a white shirt and tie as proper attaire when one preaches. Today, many pastors of differing cultures insist on wearing clothing that is not idigenous to their own culture.

One can normally track the influence of missionaries by simply observing an order of service in another culture. Many times it will follow almost exactly a U.S. church model.

It is important to note that if a particular cultural expression of a people groups faith is not contrary to Scripture, then chances are good that we probably do not need to suggest that they alter or change their practice, even if it seems strange to us. Indigeneity means allowing people to express from their unique cultural context their understand of God.

Here are some examples of local indigenous Christian practices that are not contrary to Scripture but seem strange to a U.S. context.

* Worship begins at 10:30am and Sunday School begins at noon.
* A speaker is placed on the roof of the church so that the community can hear what is happening inside the church.
* The men sit on one side of the church and the women sit on the other side.
* Periodically, the pastor will stand and read the names of church members who do not appear to be tithing or giving to special offerings.
* Anyone who wishes to sing, share a testimony, or even preach a sermon may do so prior to the pastor preaching.

To understand indigeneity means that someone has take the time and the effort to do research into the worldview of the people with whom they wish to share the Gospel message. A worldview study will reveal bridges and barriers to hearing and understanding the Gospel. It will also reveal gaps in their knowledge that also need to be addressed. Worldview reveals other indigenous characteristics such as heart language, literacy levels, how does a person make any significant life decision.

While we were working among the K'ekchi' we learned that it was culturally appropriate to speak about a person to another individual while that person was present, even though you acted as if they were no where around. What an incredible evangelistic process to witness to someone while speaking to someone else. This is indigenous to them and does not work in all cultures.

Paul recognized indigeneity and worldview issues when in Acts 17:22ff he begins is presentation of the Gospel acknowledging that they were a religious people and pointed out that they had an alter to an unknown god. He also understood this principle when in I Corinthians 9:19-23 he speaks of the need to adapt to others in order to share the Gospel with them.

The Great Commission of our Lord was to make disciples, not North America Christians of the world. If we do not take note of indigenous issues, many will reject not the Gospel but the Gospel that is packaged in another cultures expression.