A couple of weeks ago, I spoke with a PCA pastor who expressed his struggle of trying to get his congregation to understand the value of cross cultural ministry to African Americans. He expressed how some of the church’s members are moving to other parts of their city in search of better schools and housing because of the influx of African Americans. What is a pastor to do?
We can all agree that we feel more comfortable with people that look like us and share our common interest, but what are we to do when the very people we are most uncomfortable with enter our neighborhoods? Simply put, we love them. We don’t turn them away. We pursue them like Jesus pursued us.
Trust me, it is extremely difficult to love someone who makes you uncomfortable. That’s why we have Jesus. Mark 8:34-35 says, “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, ‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.’” God is calling His people to live a life that is different from those around us. We as God’s people are called to do the hard things, like love those who make us uncomfortable so that the gospel may be preached and lived out.
Ephesians 2:19-22 says, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” God no longer dwells in temples made by men. We who were once afar off from God have been brought near through Jesus Christ. Do you see it? God is calling His people, the church, to invite strangers and foreigners into your life so that they may see God’s Spirit dwelling in you for the purpose of grafting them into the household of faith. God is building the temple, made without hands, so that those who are afar off, those who are different from you, those who make you uncomfortable, may be brought near.
What profits a man to gain the world and all it comforts, and lose his very soul, which God’s kingdom is after? God wants souls. He looks beyond race, gender, disabilities, and cultures. He wants His people to reflect Him.
And so, to that pastor who is struggling with getting his congregation to do cross cultural ministry, I say remind them of how far off they were, how uncomfortable it was for Christ take on human flesh, and how badly God wants His people to reflect Him. Yes, cross cultural ministry is hard, but God who is rich in mercy gave us His Son, who gives us the power through His Spirit to do what is hard…in fact God delights in His strength being made perfect in our weaknesses.
