The 3D Gospel: Which Dimension Do You See from the Gospel?

The Gospel for All Cultures: An Interview with Jayson Georges

When I moved to Cambodia, I realized that I viewed the Gospel from one dimension.  Understandably, I had only lived in one country and only one state, Texas.  I grew up in one culture, the South.  Furthermore, I had been raised in one religion, Christianity.  I, like most North Americans, view Christianity from what is termed a “Western” perspective.  Before moving to Asia, I emphasized the Gospel message from a cultural context that had the most meaning to me.  During my time in Asia, God has taught me how to see the Gospel from multiple cultural dimensions. He  has shown me the importance of viewing the Gospel as 3D.
 

              Did you know the Gospel is presented in 3D (meaning 3 different cultures)?  Western Christians (typically North Americans or British) view the Gospel from what is called the (1) “Guilt-Innocence” culture.  This is a culture where people who break the law are guilty and seek justice or forgiveness to rectify wrong. (2) Shame-Honor culture (common in the East like Cambodia) is where people, shamed for not fulfilling group expectations, seek to restore honor to the community.  (3) Lastly, Fear-Power cultures (typically tribal or African) refer to cultures where people, afraid of evil and harm, pursue power over the spirit through magical rituals.

A Global Map of Culture Types available @ HonorShame.com

               

God speaks to the primary heart desires of all cultures – innocence, honor, and power.  

              Now, not everyone is 100% one culture or another. Most have a combination of all three. However as Westerners, many of us predominately see the Gospel through the guilt-innocent lens.

              Did you know the Gospel message was written in 3D to capture all people in all cultures?  Paul explains the three components of salvation in Ephesians:

1)Guilt-Innocence: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins”.  God “made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions”

2)Shame-Honor: “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ”.  “You are no longer foreigner’s and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household”.

3)Fear-Power: “That power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at this right hand…far above all rule and authority, power and dominion”

While theology from Western contexts address guilt/innocence, and emphasizes how God forgives and acquits guilty sinners, the Majority World cultures desire honor to cover shame and power to mitigate fear.  Despite the prominence of shame-honor and fear-power dynamics in global cultures, there remain conspicuous blind spots in most Christian theology.  The cultures of the Biblical world were primarily shame-based and fear-based.  The salvation story of the Bible presents a theology and missiology for all three types of cultures.  The contemporary church must also present the 3D Gospel in various cultural contexts.

            To learn more about the 3D Gospel or if you are planning to join a short-term mission team on a journey into a new country, then I would encourage you to read The 3D Gospel: Ministry in Guilt, Shame, and Fear Cultures by Jayson Georges. It is a short read just 74 pages!  I would also encourage mission pastors and ministers to ask their mission teams to read this short book so they are prepared to share the Gospel in a 3D cultural context.

TAKE THE CULTURE TEST TO FIND OUT WHICH CULTURE YOU IDENTIFY WITH MOST:

 theculturetest.com

Blessings,

Tricia

             

             

Frangipanis and Cats

Frangipanis in bloom

This week our team had a local teacher training at a small boutique hotel. The hotel had beautiful flowers everywhere! There were even fresh flowers on my bed and the towels. The smells and sites were amazing! And there were a couple of cats. The cats roamed around the lobby. Everyone loved it, BUT for those of you who know me I am very allergic to pollen and cats. By the end of the first night I had a bad headache.

Cat waiting for me in the lobby

At first my reaction was frustration. Why did our team use a place with flowers and cats? Why did the hotel use so many flowers? And cats? It wasn’t working for me. I began to think what people of today might do. They would definitely complain to their team. They would probably post a nasty TripAdvisor hotel review warning everyone to stay away. Some might even demand to be moved somewhere else. The goal would be for the hotel to change to suit me.

Flowers everywhere!

Then I started looking around. The local teachers with us and all the guests of the hotel were taking photos of the flowers. They were sitting in the lobby just petting the cats and enjoying a quiet, cuddly moment. The explosion of colors was stimulating and invigorating. Great place to get the creative juices flowing for a training.

The problem wasn’t the hotel, it was the focus on me. If I demand the world change to suit me then what does that do to the world?

I was reminded of what the Apostle Paul says “Love does not insist on it’s own way”.   “…in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Teacher learning math games

In our culture today if everyone keeps demanding their own way, we’ll soon have a cold colorless world.  Other’s advocate for a world without boundaries to avoid that. In both cases the focus would be based on ME (the individual) and what I want and feel.  Biblical standards provide a higher standard for us than our personal feelings.

Graduation

After all the purpose this week was to help local teachers be better teachers and reward them in some small way for the very difficult job they do in rural villages. My purpose was to give and learn too. So I took an antihistamine, was a little groggy for a couple of days, but had a great, fulfilling time in a beautiful place.  As cross-cultural, workers Tricia, the boys and I are constantly challenged to lay down our own personal comforts for the sake of others. I’m wondering if there is a lesson in this for today’s culture. If we don’t stop demanding our own way I’m afraid we’ll soon face a very cold, colorless, cookie-cutter world, or one of utter chaosJ

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Celebrating 45 Churches Planted!

Some days it feels like I’m dreaming. I’m astounded at God’s hand and His heart. We are in a unique moment in Cambodia where people are open to the Gospel and churches can be planted as quickly as people are discipled and leaders raised up.  In 2016 I had the pleasure of working with a team to start a new initiative called the Cambodia Church Planting Center  This initiative has been birthed out of the 20+ years of church planting experience of New Life Fellowship. The goal is to share that experience with other church planting networks in order to inspire, equip and unite church planting groups to plant 200 new churches and eventually increase the number of churches being planted in Cambodia to 400 per year.

Last month we finished our second church planter “Boot Camp” where 45 church planting leaders were trained in a 32-hour course on the essentials of church planting. So far this year we trained 86 leaders in church planting. In addition to our “Boot Camps” we are also providing consulting, regional roundtables, conferences and church planting grants. We have been amazed already at seeing what God has done.  In the second half of 2016 and first half of 2017, we have been honored to be a direct partner with the planting of 45 new churches this year!

Here are just a couple of testimonies of what God has been doing through our partners:

Operation Christmas Child in Cambodia distributes approximately 90,000 Christmas shoebox gifts each year. With every box the gospel message is shared. In 2017 the National Leadership Team for OCC developed a new initiative. They engaged their network and denominational partners and asked for 35 individuals who would be interested in following up this year’s shoebox distributions and the new relationships with children and families for the purpose of planting new churches. The CCPC partnered with OCC in developing their plan and providing training and discipleship resources to the 35 volunteers. By mid 2017, 37 new house churches have been planted!

Elim Pentecostal started their first Khmer national church in the capital of Phnom Penh. Over the first 6 years the church grew and flourished. As elders and leaders were developed in the church they began to dream of planting churches in both villages and cities across Cambodia. In 2016 Elim began looking at ways to put those dreams into action. The CCPC and New Life Fellowship’s church planting team began consultations with Elim about strategies for church planting and as Elim’s vision became clearer they sensed God was calling them to plant 125 churches over the next 5 years.

Elim Church Grand Opening

In January 2017 the leaders of Elim began outreach points in the provincial capital city of Kep and in 3 other villages. Their team attended the CCPC “Boot Camp” church planting training in March. Sarak Dong, the leader in training for the Kep city church, reflected on his experience at Boot Camp “Before (Boot Camp) I had a vision, but now I understand the importance of having a clear strategy and I’ve developed targets and goals”

When Elim started offering English classes in their Kep location 120 students enrolled. After 5 months of classes and outreach Elim conducted their Grand Opening ceremony on June 10, 2017 and had 180 people in attendance. In addition to their English classes Elim’s leader has been asked by local school and government officials to start soccer program for local teachers and students. Elim has a strong leadership team and is seeing greater Kingdom impact than they were expecting!

There are too many stories of God’s grace to fit into this update, but let me know if you would like to hear more specifically about church planting. I’m really excited about this initiative and would be happy to let you know how you could be involved.

Your gift makes the work of the Hester family in Cambodia possible, and we work hard to maximise each dollar entrusted to us. We are grateful for the generous support of many individuals and organisations that share our commitment to informed, responsible and effective service in Cambodia. To partner with us in 2017 Click Here