I’ve been in many discussions where the topic came up about relating to people that we witness to.  Do I have to be like the people that I am witnessing to in order to witness to them?  Is that a pre-requisite for successful evangelism?

When we look at the life of Paul, we see a man who is Jewish going into a wide variety of countries and cultures on his missionary journeys.  Paul was a man who most definitely learned the cultures that he went to.  But does that mean that we must be like the people that we preach to?

The distinction between missions and witnessing

Missions

What is a mission?  I would define a mission as predominantly crossing a cultural boundary with the chief purpose of bringing the cross of Christ into that culture as an outpouring of Christ in your locality.  I get this definition from Matthew 28:19-20 where Jesus says:

therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

These verses show the perpetuity of the commission and the range of the commission.  The preaching of the gospel starts where you are and spreads to where you’re not.  Missions primarily take the gospel outside of a culture. A mission usually has more of a culture-drenching element to it, as you are typically living amongst the people.  You will find that like Paul at Mars Hill, learning as much about your culture is beneficial for you to convey timeless spiritual truths relative to that culture’s current understanding.

Witnessing

Witnessing is the act of proclaiming the gospel.  Witnessing should be the central thrust of every mission.  Witnessing will involve me bringing a person into an awareness of sin, God’s wrath, and Christ- the provision for sinners that appeases the wrath of God.

Do I need to be like them to witness to them?

I think that to a degree when you are a missionary you will take on enough of your culture to properly engage it.  For example, if they speak a language that we do not understand, you must learn a bit of their language so that you can properly communicate.  If I want to show them what Christ looks like in the context of their culture, I’ll need to understand their culture so that I could show them what the Bible has to say about the good and the bad of their culture.

However, at the core of missions is the gospel- I do not need to be culturally similar to a culture to preach the gospel.  If I want to live amongst them and disciple them, then I need to learn the culture.  However, preaching the gospel does not require that I be like them to “relate”.  We relate on the basis that, despite our cultural differences, we are identical in that we are sinners like our forefather Adam.  We are culturally different, yes.  The power of the gospel is equally experienced by the person in South America as it is by the person in Africa.  The gospel is experienced by the Emo kid and the Hip-Hopper.  The basis of our similarities shouldn’t be in our upbringing, our culture, gender, etc. but in the universal indictment upon all mankind- we are born fallen!

Let’s not be afraid to preach the gospel to people simply because we can’t relate on other levels, for we all are the same in our need for Christ!