introduction
“And there were Christian radio stations too, so many, many stations, and the voices on them seemed so enthusiastic and committed. They sounded like they sincerely believed in what they were saying, and so for once I decided to pay attention to these stations trying to figure out what exactly it was they were believing in.
“The stations talked about Jesus and salvation, and I found it was pretty hard listening, because these religious types are always so whacked out and extreme.
“They all seemed to be talking about Jesus non-stop, and it seemed to be this crazy orgy of projection, with everyone projecting onto Jesus the antidotes to the things that had gone wrong in their own lives. He is Love. He is Forgiveness. He is Compassion. He is a Wise Career Decision. He is a Child Who Loves Me.
“I was feeling a sense of loss as I heard these people. I felt like Jesus was sex – or, rather, I felt like I was from another world where sex did not exist and I arrived on Earth and everyone talked about how good sex felt, and showed me their pornography and built their lives around sex, and yet I was forever cut off from the true sexual experience. I did not deny that the existence of Jesus was real to these people – it was merely that I was cut off from their experience in a way that was never connectable”
(from “Life After God”, by Douglas Coupland, p182-183).
welcome
When did you last get angry or very offended – how did you deal with it?
worship
What is God speaking to you about at the moment?
word
brainstorm
What kind of jargon is used in Christian circles? Give examples of words or phrases.
World mission means crossing cultures. It means talking with and listening to people whose worldview and most basic assumptions about life can be very different from yours. This can lead to misunderstandings.
For example, the first Moravian missionaries to Greenland couldn’t call Jesus the ‘Lamb of God’. Why? Because sheep were not known on Greenland. Also, the tribal religion of Greenland didn’t involve any animal or other sacrifices. So how do you explain what Jesus did on the cross?
Another example – the Sawi people of Papua New Guinea prized treachery as the highest virtue. So, in the gospels, Judas is the hero, for betraying Jesus. How do you get around that one?
By communicating the gospel across cultures – how the apostles did it.
Look at the following 4 examples. In each case, look at how Peter or Paul shape their message in a way that their hearers will understand.
groupwork
It might be worth breaking up into four small groups, with each group looking at one passage and feeding back their ideas. In each case, make sure people are given the background information before they look at the passage.
read
The Jews were the people of God, and they were waiting for the Messiah. They believed that the Old Testament contained prophecies about his coming.
read
The ‘God-fearers’ were non-Jews who were attracted to Israel’s religion, either because of the belief in one God, or because of its high ethical standards. The Jews did not regard them as equals.
read
‘Primal’ religion is usually concerned with ‘mundane’ daily matters like how to ensure that the crops don’t fail or how to recover from illness. Survival itself is hard enough without worrying about ‘higher’ matters.
read
The Greek poet Homer wrote down most of the poems and stories about the Greek gods, and the ancient Greeks began to realise that their gods were a spoilt, fickle and capricious lot. In response, Greek philosophers like Plato developed a religion that believed in a single God, although they thought he was far removed from this world. Philosophy sought to find God and to understand what right living was.
application
Feedback from each passage, and try to work out if there are some common principles you can apply.
witness
Discuss how you as a group can communicate the gospel more clearly to your friends and fellow students. Also, think about how you might communicate it to the international students you have got to know since the first session (you have got to know some, right?).
