As Christians, we are called by God to be Christ's ambassadors. That's quite a job description by any measurement! In order to fulfill our assignment, we are going to have to step outside of our insulated Christian circles and learn how to bridge the gap between Christ's church and today's world.
Bridges are fascinating feats of engineering and design. They are designed to bring things together--land masses, roads, and people. Your life as a Christian can be exciting for the very same reason--because we get to be bridge-builders for Christ. Of course, Jesus is the only mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5); but, acting under His authority, Christians have the privilege of building bridges that can attract people into His Kingdom.
What kind of bridges are still left to be built? Non-Christians often have barriers that keep them from considering Christ: intellectual, cultural, and moral barriers. We can be their bridges to the gospel. Just as Jesus left heaven to come and dwell with man in a sinful world, He's left us with the challenging task of creatively penetrating our world with the gospel of salvation He showed us how to be effective bridge builders. In a sense, then, there may never be a time when we are more like Jesus than when we are bridging a cultural gap with the gospel.
How does one become a bridge-builder for Christ? While it's true we need to understand the Bible, a measure of theology and most importantly the gospel message, we must also understand what non-Christians believe, how they think, and how they've been impacted by today's cultures. And then, as ambassadors for Christ, we become the bridge between His church and the world by communicating the gospel into the context of the non-Christian mindset.
I think most people today view cross-cultural ministry as something performed in a foreign nation. In one sense that is very true. But America today has become very secular, developing a culture of its own in an ideological sense-one very different from the cultural characteristics of the church. So today, we need to view our American culture as a place of opportunity for cross-cultural ministry! If you're a Christian in America, you live in one of the biggest most opportune mission fields in the world!
How do get started? First, by investigating and understanding the secular views of our culture. Understanding another person's world view, or belief system, is the starting point for communicating the gospel in any language, in any culture. By showing an understanding of and interest in another person's beliefs, we gain credibility and integrity with that person-and probably even a favorable hearing for the Christian message.
A bridge-builder is one who has made a commitment to understand people with different backgrounds and beliefs in order to make Christianity relevant to these people. However, in order to become an effective bridge-builder, we have to go through a process of transformation ourselves. First, we need to examine the isolation problem found in many of today's churches. So many churches today, are not actively seeking opportunities to be bridge-builders. That has to change if we are going to influence the world around us. Whether it’s our neighborhood, our community or some distant place in another part of the world, we must tune ourselves to the culture so that the gospel finds a hearing ear.
In future posts, we'll look at Christ's model for ministry which can help us overcome our tendencies towards isolation. We'll also explore how our lives can build bridges to the world. Finally, we’ll look at the need for preparation in order to be fully equipped to construct better bridges.
