The Westminster Confession (1646) declares that the 66 canonical books of the Old and New Testaments are: “All which are given by inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life (I.II). It also adds: “All synods or councils since the apostles’ times, whether general or particular, may err, and many have erred; therefore they are not to be made the rule of faith or practice, but to be used as a help in both” (XXXI.IV).
So it is to the Bible rather than collective human wisdom that we look as our primary authority and guide in seeking to understand how to exercise and develop multicultural ministry.
This, however, presents us with an immediate problem. For, David Bosch points out:
The Bible is not to be treated as a storehouse of truths on which we can draw at random. There are no immutable and objectively correct ‘laws of mission’ to which exegesis of Scripture gives us access and which provide us with blueprints we can apply in every situation.
The Bible neither stipulates what should be done in any particular cross-cultural situation nor provides universally applicable ‘laws of multicultural ministry’. Does this mean that we are kidding ourselves when we treat the Bible as our rule of faith and life with respect to multicultural ministry? Does the Bible just end up saying what we want any particular practitioner wants it to say?
Bosch is in danger of marginalizing the Bible when he states:
Our missionary practice is not performed in unbroken continuity with the biblical witness; it is an altogether ambivalent enterprise executed in the context of tension between divine providence and human confusion…The church’s involvement in mission remains an act of faith without earthly guarantees.
Firstly, let us affirm what is correct in Bosch’s statement. All multicultural ministry is subject to uncertainties that arise from the workings of divine providence and human confusion. It is certainly true that as the church engages in multicultural ministry it is totally dependent on God to accomplish what he purposes and that, therefore, there are no “earthly guarantees”.
What are the implications of this? Workers engaged in multicultural ministry, in living out a faith-relationship with the sovereign Lord, must seek to understand how to minister in a culturally relevant and effective manner to those sought for Christ. Since there are no hard and fast rules there will often be no absolute certainty that the particular ministry practices adopted are either right or wrong.
Secondly, though, let us take issue with what is incorrect in Bosch’s statement. Notwithstanding the uncertainties faced by workers engaged in multicultural ministry there is in fact an unbroken continuity between current practice and the biblical witness.
John Stott has observed: “It is the Bible that gives us the mandate, the message, the model, and the power we need for world evangelization. He also speaks of the Bible, of God, and of Jesus as being models for cross-cultural ministry. Here has in mind how God’s “cross-cultural ministry” involves “identification without loss of identity.”
In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 Paul’s considerable flexibility in identifying with Jews and Gentiles has obvious relevance to cross-cultural ministry. It should be noted, however, that, in context, the primary point of application concerns Christian willingness to adapt behaviour in order to identify with weak Christians in the Corinthian church. The key point which Paul emphasises is that his identity is determined by the gospel and it is for this gospel and its fruits that he lives. This is why he is able to discriminate so clearly between flexible identification and compromise.
Paul himself experienced the “tension between divine providence and human confusion” as he went about his ministry. Yet, by ministering to people in a culturally sensitive and adaptive manner without compromising his gospel-determined identity Paul did engage in practice which stood “in unbroken continuity with biblical witness.” Indeed, in a context which concerns cross-ethnic relations, Paul urges his readers to maintain this same unbroken continuity when he exhorts, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).
Posted April 7, 2008
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