Finishing The Great Commission PDF

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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY

Research Paper: Finishing The Great Commission And Intercultural Communication

Submitted to Dr. Matthew Chittum, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of

GLST 650 Intercultural Communication and Engagement

by

Nathan D. Varnadore March 7, 2021

Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………….…… Page 1

Content…….………………………………………………………………..………… Pages 1-2

Conclusion.……………………………………………………………………………… Page 3

Bibliography………………………………….………………………………….……… Page 5

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Introduction Many Christians today look at the Great Commission as a charge for those that are called to be missionaries. The fact is, all Christians are called are called to follow what Christ commanded in Matthew 28:18-20 “18 Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, [a]

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of [b]

[c]

the age.”1 This command made by Christ is for all of Christ’s disciples to go out into the world and make disciples in His name. I recently was able to sit with the missions director at our church to ask her about the programs she was involved with during her time as a missionary in Iraq and what it took for her to prepare and thrive in that setting.

Content The cover that she (our missions director) had that allowed her to interact with the Iraqi people in the manner she did was through a program known as the Acts group. This allowed her to be an English teacher, and build relationships with people that would then give her the ability to present the gospel to them. The number one thing that she had to learn was the value of being a servant first, even though she was in a position of authority. The idea of servant leadership was pressed upon her, and as Paul Pettit would explain about that, “servant leadership is primarily expressed in the inner motivation of the leader”2. Even though she was an educator and held a position of authority, she was in a country where women have to tread lightly and play the role of 1 Unless otherwise noted, all scripture referenced is from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Publishing, 2017) 2 Pettit, Paul Foundations of Spiritual Formation: A Community Approach to Becoming Like Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2008).

2 a servant just as much as an educator. Something that she expressed to me when I was asking her about why she was able to thrive with her gender playing a major role in how she was limited in her interactions, she pointed out to me that building genuine relationships was key. She came in portraying herself as their equal instead of doing what many Americans can do and carry themselves in a manner of superiority. She said that she always took into consideration that she understood how power exchange3 could come into play if she didn’t stay aware of how she presented herself. In order to get the gospel out to her students, she always remembered that she could never try to use her position to leverage them or else, they would remove themselves from the educational institution or even report her and have her arrested. She even explained to me that on the first day of teaching, she had to be extremely cognoscente of how she carried herself and the amount of eye contact she made to the men. Even her conversational regulators4 she need to be exaggerated to make sure that when she was speaking to her students that her nonverbal expressions would make up for stumbles in her language speaking. The effort to do that brought her closer to her students over the time she was with them. The Iraqi students she taught became very close to her because they saw that she genuinely cared and wanted to connect with them. The idea that an American would come in and just love on them was something they were not used to apparently. It was because of these relationships and connections that she was able to present the gospel to many of her students and disciple them and equip them. She even went as far as to have private scripture sessions with the students that gave their lives to Christ.

3 Lingenfelter, Sherwood G, Leading Cross-Culturally: Covenant Relationships for Effective Christian Leadership (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic Publishing, 2008). 109 4 Ting-Toomey, Stella “Understanding Intercultural Communication” 2 nd Edition (New York, NY. Oxford Press, 2005). 143

3 Ultimately, the Acts Institute lost its funding from the United Nations and is now privately owned and is now solely in Bangalore, India. The major problem that was exposed was the fact that most of the teachers in the institute were Christian and getting the gospel out in a Muslim population that had their faith locked in with their government. While they did provide a quality education to many students, the United Nations couldn’t justify having closet missionaries being funded by them. When I asked Rebekah (our missions director) what happened to her students that she met with, she said that they still secretly meet and check in with her through various platforms. Some of them have been able to keep their Bibles and have reached other students in the area with the gospel. Conclusion While experience that I just wrote about was not my own, I was fascinated with Rebekah’s passion for the gospel and spreading it across the nations. The key that I noticed with Rebekah and her success that she experienced is that she has a CQ drive5 that I envy. We say we understand the Great Commission, but it really looks like being burdened for the lost and reaching them regardless of our individual norms and values. If an American woman can go to Iraqi during a time of war and make a Kingdom impact simply by teaching English as her platform, I really have no excuse for having a low CQ drive. In order to live out the Great Commission the way Christ commanded us to, we must be willing to go where God calls us to, and be willing to comply to the local norms and customs. When relationships and trust is built, then we can have an opportunity to spread the faith, hope, and love that is Christ.

5 Livermore, David Leading With Cultural Intelligence: The Real Secret To Success 2 nd Edition (New York, NY: AMACOM Publishing 2015). 49

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Bibliography Lingenfelter, Sherwood G, Leading Cross-Culturally: Covenant Relationships for Effective Christian Leadership (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic Publishing, 2008) Livermore, David Leading With Cultural Intelligence: The Real Secret To Success 2nd Edition (New York, NY: AMACOM Publishing 2015) Ting-Toomey, Stella “Understanding Intercultural Communication” 2nd Edition (New York, NY. Oxford Press, 2005) Pettit, Paul Foundations of Spiritual Formation: A Community Approach to Becoming Like Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2008)...