The protestant's point of view on challenges within cross-cultural relationships in a mission

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The protestant's point of view on challenges within cross-cultural relationships in a mission

Annotation

The article presents research in cross-cultural relation area. Author tries to show communication difficulties in Church mission and importance of challenging it. The understanding missionary cultural specificity of each country is essential of protestant perspective. Analysis of protestant activity is presented in the article.

The stages of becoming of missionary activity are investigationed by an author. The special attention displaces on circumstance that Christ must be the centre of missionary activity. Clear principles of character of announcer are certain. An important value in missionary work plays that every country has the special going near the contribution of health, religion and personal relations to subjective pleasure by life as to single unit.

Keywords: cross-cultural relationships, challenge, mission, Gospel.

Анотація

У статті представлені результати дослідження міжкультурної сфери відносин. Автор намагається показати труднощі спілкування в церковній місії і важливості його виклику. З протестантської точки зору важливим для місіонерства є розуміння культурної специфіки кожної країни. У статті проводиться аналіз протестантської діяльності.

Автором досліджено етапи становлення місіонерської діяльності. Особлива увага звернута на той факт, що центром місіонерської діяльності повинен бути Христос. Визначено чіткі принципи характеру благовісника. Важливе значення у місіонерстві відіграє те, що кожна країна має свій спеціальний підхід до здоров'я, релігії і особистих стосунків у суб'єктивне задоволення життям як єдиному цілому.

Ключові слова: міжкультурні відносини, виклик, місія, Євангеліє.

The disciples of Jesus Christ living in our time, lowered the fact that the existence and development of the Church of would be impossible without a personal hearing of Christ.

The Apostle Peter came to Jesus for the personal testimony of his brother of Andrew. For the first found of Christ, then he just went to of Peter of and told him about his great discovery. And of so he brought of Peter of to our of Savior, who had found himself.

From the protestant point of view, missionary work is distribution of dogma and religiously- moral ideas of protestantism through the specially prepared messengers (missionaries). Biblical motivation of missionary work is base on words of Christ : "Go, and teach all people"(Math. 28:19). Leading direction of protestant missionary work is propagating "information about Christ". To that end scale edition, distribution, propagating and study of Bible, especially evangelic texts that are considered the kernel of Scripture, comes true.

Missionary work is part of aim of eternal God. Yet to creation of man God planned to send Jesus with the special mission - to atone humanity. Therefore missionary work has the special value for God, and it is inalienable part of history. By means of missionary activity God carries out His plan, reconciling humanity with Itself by means of cross, and creates powerful invincible Church of Christ (Eph. 2: 13-15) ".

Christ understood that one of aims of His mission consisted in that, to leave after Himself followers that in future would continue him to the robot. Therefore Christ chose twelve students, sent them in the world to make followers out of all people. Coming from it, between the mission of Christ and mission of students there is direct connection - it is not simple to proclaim Gospel, but directly to prepare students. Jesus laid the foundation of missionary work the activity. He is not only brang to the people good information but also prepared students, that they could carry good information to all people.

Missionary activity of followers of Christ began from the day of Pentecostal, when Spirit Saint got off on them from the promised force (Acts 1:8, 2:1-4). A spirit Saint is direct force for missionary work and plays it an enormous value and influence.

If to talk about protestant missionary work, then the initial stage can be traced in XVIII century. In this period to history conducted the activity of gernguters, motion of pietism began. In 1795 London missionary society that united such directions of protestantism is created, as congregationalists, and representatives of episcopacy church of England. Missionary societies of protestants were actively created in North America.

Missionary advices, agencies and representative offices are set in correlation with executable activity and mode of that church to that they belong. Among the spheres of employment of missions are: Christian educational establishments, educations and studies, social activity, health protection. Co-ordination of protestant missions began the existence in XIX of century the First World protestant missionary conference took place in Scottish Edinburg city in 1910 International advice of protestant missions (1921) was Afterwards created. On the row of important positions (evangelization, work with young people, charity) protestant missionary work is near to activity of modern catholic missionary.

It is necessary to notice that protestants do not put the aim the obligatory christening those, who is overcame by their missionary work. A main concentration is done on awakening of the realized interest in protestant studies.

Analyzing the state of modern missionary activity of Church and in general gospelisism, in a sermon about Christ to other people it is possible to find her weak points. These areas can be named calls that it is necessary to decide christians. One of problem places of modern gospelisism is him wrong maintenance. People, it is preached that in the process of missionary activity, tell that they would like.

An apostle Paul wrote about veritable maintenance of Good information, it is a face of Jesus Christ: "Paul, slave of Jesus Christ, called apostle, chosen for information Gospel of Divine, that He before that promised through the prophets in saint Limning, about Son It, that a body was from seed Davidic, and appeared Son Divine in force, after the spirit of holiness, through resurrection from dead, about Jesus Christ, Lord our, that through Him we accepted plenty and apostleship on obedience of faith through the Name of Him between all people" (Rom.1:1-5).

People value sincerity. Analyzing evangelistic collections and missionary service, it is possible to notice an enormous desire all forces to interest society people. Thus it is very important to tell the truth, preach that, how God looks at the world truly, however loves a sin and as thankful.

Important aspect in realization of missionary measures - to show one side of Christ not only, is love and gladness, but also difficulty, suffering, self-sacrifice.

We understand that intermingling with people means and other themes, but the center of missionary activity must be Christ. Torrey said that if you call to the man that searches God, it is better to begin with direct questions in an order to understand his attitude toward God. For example: are "you a christian"?, Are "you the saved man"?, Did "you outlive birth from above"?, "What is base on your hope on eternal life"?, Do you "hear the confession Jesus Christ openly before people"?, Did you "subordinate all of itself and all, that you have, to Christ"?. Sometimes well, if you will begin your conversation with direct questions even with the casual meeting. As a rule is it better to be set by a question: "you are the saved man"?, what are "you a christian"?. In this case more credible, that man will be thoughtful.

Also we must remember about a practical benefit of Gospel. There is a large break in time and culture between biblical information and modern life. Main reason of that a sermon is not of the use, and people go, consists in that on their understanding a sermon is torn off from that real life that they live in. And that authority with that such sermons eulogize does them yet more unpleasant. When a message sounds plausibly and has direct attitude toward the real life, she in to the soba carries authority and confirms the authenticity; it is therefore necessary not only to talk authoritative phrases, it follows to show validity and expediency of that a preacher, what it is talked about. Then people will listen with kind regards.

Therefore it costs to look at it on the other hand, from the point of view of listener, but not preacher, from creation, but not expiation. Because a listener lives in the created world and, being the most "fantastic transformer of information, that is only known to the world", wishes to understand all complications of human experience. In an order to help him herein, a preacher "must walk up to the question of creation (the phenomenon of human life), with the same exegetical zeal with that he would investigate the fragment of Limning.

The Globalization process has an powerful influence. It is incredible how the world was changed in last two hundred years. The Industrial Revolution radically changed farming patterns of life... It was marked by a population explosion...it transformed the social structure of Europe" [1, p.77].

"As more nations, people, and cultures adapt to the ever changing international community, diplomats, politicians, and representatives must meet and deal with accordingly to the needs and wants of nations. Diplomacy can be exerted in many forms; through peace talks, written constitutions, field experiences, etc. Culture is a familiar term and remains unchanged by definition. However, globalization and international relations have constantly altered culture both positively and negatively. Globalization increases worldwide technology, and the readability of fast, effective communication and consumption of popular products" [2, p.2].

Christianity and its world mission has to deal with cross-cultural relations within the different nations. "Mission - a group of envoys to a foreign country, a team of specialists or cultural leaders sent to a foreign country" [3, p.474].

There are some challenges for church mission in postmodern age. First of all, we should emphasize that every country throughout the World has its special approach to the contribution of health, religion and personal relations to subjective satisfaction with life as a whole. Peter Theuns in his scientific research cultural specifics of West, East Europe and Africa concludes: "The experiment shows that Algerian participants are present in 3 of the 4 clusters. For a majority of Algerian participants the religion/spirituality domain has a great importance for overall subjective wellbeing (clusters 1 and 3). This finding is in line with survey results which indicate that religion is omnipresent in the Algerian society and that it therefore impacts significantly on subjective wellbeing. Sixty percent of the Belgian participants and 35% of the Polish are in cluster 2 where satisfaction with Religion/Spirituality hardly contributes while Personal Relationships has a strong effect. Fifty percent of the Polish participants show in cluster 4 where Religion/Spirituality contributes but clearly less than Personal Relationships, while only 24% of the Algerian and 17% of the Belgian participants are in this cluster. In clusters 2 and 4, comprising mostly European participants, the effect of satisfaction with Religion/Spirituality is clearly smaller than in clusters 1 and 3, which consist mainly of Algerian participants. This indicates that in this cluster satisfaction with Religion/Spirituality has an important effect on overall subjective wellbeing, but only in case a sufficient satisfaction level is achieved for Personal Relationships" [3, p. 596]. protestant missionary christ evangelist

On the protestant's point of view the church mission is understanding every cultural specific in country we have deal with. As Peter Theuns concluded that cultural differences in the conceptualization of overall satisfaction with life exist, and that differences between cultures result from different distributions of these conceptualizations. It is found that the contribution of satisfaction with Personal Relationships, Health, and Religion/Spirituality in overall satisfaction with life is strongly related to the culturally transmitted importance of personal relationships, the development and accessibility of health care, and the importance of religion in one's society. For further research it would be interesting to investigate if similar results would be obtained for nonstudent participants and to study how other life domains contribute to overall satisfaction with life across cultures [3, p. 605].

Globalization is defined as a process of increasing the connectivity and interdependence of the world's markets and businesses (Investor Words), however, many people and governments interpret globalization differently. Depending on the status of a country or nation, globalization can have a positive or negative effect on the international relations and the host culture. Highly developed countries such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, and France, just to name a few, have experienced an overall satisfaction of globalization. Internet, telecommunications, a variety of products and services, has contributed to stable economies, governments, and households. Easy, fast, effective communications make it easier for people to travel, communicate, and do business on an international scale. Negatively, globalization has demonstrated that certain people, governments, and nations are exploited for resources (usually by the highly developed countries) and experience competitive pressure with other nations or people. It clearly is a double-edge sword; one side benefits, one side suffers. Culturally, globalization may connect some cultures or people, but it often pressures or ignores culture world, and shows little or no acknowledgement of less common, sometimes rare cultures [2, p. 3].

We should admit that there were some positive and also negative parts in missionary work. For example "Africa the missionary movement represented the first and most important facet of Western contact. Christianity provided access to a civilization and culture pattern which was bound to conquer African societies. The adoption of Christianity also meant acculturation into the world of Western civilization, ideas and technology, with Christianity went also Westernization. Despite the instructions of the nineteenth-century missionary thinkers and theorists, Christian missionary enterprise was of prime importance in the Westernization of Africa" [5, p. 258].

We can also notice that the most of church activity is concentrated in big cities. This might be effective, but it is not full biblical pattern. "When people had come to faith in Jesus Christ, he organized them in new communities as ''ekklesiai" that met regularly, usually in the private homes of new converts. This was basically the only possibility in the context of the political and legal conditions of the Roman Empire and of autonomous cities to gather groups of like-mind people without official registration and acknowledgement. Jesus preached not only in towns and cities but also in villages and small hamlets" [6, p. 1544].

The most important doctrine or teaching of the church is none other than "Jesus Christ" So many churches, in the worthy exploration of scripture sometimes begin to place their primary emphasis upon other things, or various aspects of scripture or doctrine. Obviously, every church should teach and proclaim the "whole counsel" and the broad scope of God's Word - but as it relates to Jesus. You see, Jesus is the focal point of all doctrinal teaching. He is the intersection at which all teachings converge. When anything else begins to take center-stage - that is, when anything other than Jesus Christ, such as traditions, doctrines, or interpretations become the primary focus - problems and even deception can enter in.

The founding of mission societies across denominational lines provided an opportunity for ecumenical cooperation, and in several cases led later to mergers of denominations. The Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910 began with the stated hope that cooperation on the mission field would extend to greater collaboration at home. Representatives of most major Protestant denominations and inspired generations of Protestant Christians to pursue missionary work around the world attended it [7].

We are reminded of the Pharisees who held such high regard for the scriptures. They equated their intellectual knowledge of scripture as the basis for spirituality and eternal life. However, Jesus explained to them that the scriptures, themselves, were not the "end," but a "means" to bring them to the true objective which is Himself - Jesus Christ! He said to them, "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me" (John 5:39).

Is there a difference in the way Christians are motivated to do their work? Does lower salary, shorter holiday periods, and lack of other fringe benefits prevent a Christian from being of maximum service to an organization? On the contrary, these may be of advantage to the worker [8. p. 187]. We live in an hour in which people frequently claim revelations of so-called deeper truths, which have sometimes served as a diversion away from the basic character and practical life application of Jesus Christ. Some claim that they now have so much "deep spiritual understanding," that they really cannot relate to those who are "less spiritual" or inferior. This is ridiculous. Such persons may not realize that although Jesus was our highest example of spirituality, yet he was so humble, so down-to-earth and simple he could relate simple practical truths to sinners.

Any intricate, exotic teaching, regardless of how Biblical or spiritually deep it may seem to be, unless it lifts up Jesus Christ, together with His character or the practical truths and principles He taught, is probably irrelevant to you as a Christian. It may even lead you astray into an attitude of intellectual arrogance, false spiritual superiority, or heresy. Always remember that the doctrine of Jesus Christ is Christ-centered, simple and practical. Paul warned believers from being confused by complicated teachings which would lead away from the simplicity of Jesus. "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Cor. 11:3).

Although Paul was an intellectual giant, trained as a Pharisee at the feet of the great Jewish scholar, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), he limited his preaching to one basic thing: "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). It is Jesus that has all the answers to life's problems. It is Jesus that changes men's lives, if we will but proclaim Him and present Jesus to the world. "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself' (John 12:32).

In particular, the resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, and is the great cornerstone of the entire Christian faith. The Apostle Paul said that without the resurrection, the whole concept of Christianity would be invalidated. "And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain" (1 Cor. 15:14).

We try to mark some principles of character of gospelist: the personal valued mutual relations with Christ. It is important to remember, that our modern youth does not have such ideals for the sake of that they would be ready to die. It is not necessary "orator" that teach to the good moral them (to the teenagers of nonbeliever), they are supersaturated to all these in the schools, they need something real, for the sake of what they were ready to die, forgetting about the empty idols. They must see it in gospelist, that he is ready to do for the sake of Jesus (Phil. 3: 7,8). They do not need "dry" religion. On the other hand it is important to report sense Gospel about Christ, that gave the life for people, but not sermon about doctrines or history of Church that takes from a main theme. The man who want to have good results must be ready to expect results that can be not soon. He must to pray about Goodness assistance, that Saint Spirit opened a sinfulness. It is important for gospelist to be divided by truth, which must be permanent in a heart, and own life must be living Gospel. We must not interrupt people, give an opportunity to speak out them. When they are set by a question, then to be not afraid of those on that not able to answer, not to mince word, if does not know an answer. It is necessary to use possibility to learn something a new( 1 Corint. 2: 1,2 is an example of Paul). It is necessary to be sincere, polite, to be not afraid to specify on the problems of people, through what of them are at the mercy of slaveries of sin: drugs, deception, debauch, villainy; do not be afraid to be set to them by a question: "In what sense of life"? To put an accent on Divine holiness and His love, divide to those, by whom personally for a missionary there is Christ and why he decided to repent, that did induce him to come to Him? This man has to talk about strength of Mind Saint, that He can help to live with victory over a sin, does not promise "gold of mountain", not to mince word, that there are difficulties and problems in life of Christians, but they have a helper - Jesus Christ. It is very important to have basis young people for their life; That, Who can understand; That, Who can truly sympathize to them (Hebr. 4: 15,16).

Not squander time on spores, not to defend the opinion. If see that a man wants only to argue and does not want to listen that talk, then it is necessary simply to leave him with the world and not forget to say that God loves her.

For Church missionary activity is a debt, and also commission that must stand on the first place. A church is the consequence of missionary work, and also serves him to continuations. In other words it is possible to say, that this missionary work reason there is Church on that. Missionary work is the law of life in Church.

Making conclusions we can notice that:

- every country throughout the World has its special approach to the contribution of health, religion and personal relations to subjective satisfaction with life as a whole;

- satisfaction of cultural nation's part with Religion/Spirituality has an important effect on overall subjective wellbeing, but only in case a sufficient satisfaction level is achieved for Personal Relationships;

- on the protestant's point of view the church mission is understanding every cultural specific in country we have deal with.

Christian should continuously try to understand rap's place in contemporary culture, for such music provides a window into popular spirituality. Understanding how the rap community reaches for transcendence, for instance, will suggest angles from which Christians has bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to that audience, though of course no audience analysis will change the essential content of the message [9, p. 96].

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2. Culture, Globalization, and International Relations. By Danielle MATTHES International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy. - Ecole De Management, Strasbourg, France. - 2010. - 5 p.

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5. Christian missions in Africa and their role in the transformation of African societies by Viera Pawlikova - Vilhanova. - Asian and African studies, 16. - Institute of Oriental Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2007. - 357 p.

6. Shnabel Eckhard J. Early Christian mission. - Apollos, Leicester, England, 2004. - 1928 p.

7. Mission and Expansion: Protestantism http://www.patheos.com/Library/Protestantism/Historical- Development/Missions-Spread-Changes-Regional-adaptations?offset=2&max=1

8. Bernard M. Lall, Ph. D., Geeta R. Lall, Ph. D. Dynamic Leadership. - Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1979. - 270 p.

9. Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Charles A. Anderson, Michael J. Sleasman. Everyday Theology. - Baker Academic, 2007. - 287 p.

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