Peoples on the Move. Anthony F. Casey

Lingenfelter calls becoming the 150 percent missionary.9 The idea flows from the model of Jesus being the 200 percent person—fully man and fully God (Phil 2:5–8). He was born and grew up in a local culture (Luke 2:46). He was fully recognizable as a local Jewish man. Yet, he was without sin. He was fully God.

      Similarly, we are all born into a culture and one-hundred percent fully acquire that culture growing up. We know by heart the language, customs, family systems, food preferences, and cultural roles common to our area. We like grits, or clams, or lutefisk, or fried chicken. We say y’all or you’se guys. This process is called enculturation and it happens naturally and almost subconsciously. Our culture forms our worldview and shapes our values. We know what it means to be on time, late, or early. We are familiar with our expressions of church.

      Then one day, in response to God’s prompting, we attempt to minister in a different cultural context. In order to simply communicate we must begin making changes, learning a new language and a new culture. However, it is impossible to fully give up who we were. At the same time, we can never fully take on all aspects of the new culture. We must adjust, giving up some of our old ways and taking on some of the new ways. We become bicultural, a 150 percent person with maybe 75 percent of our old culture and 75 percent of our new culture. This process of cultural acquisition and learning in order to have a more effective ministry is where the rest of this book goes. Such learning does not always come naturally, and certainly comes at times with great frustration and difficulty. But it is possible for those who make the effort. As we have seen, taking incarnational living and cultural learning seriously is not something we have the luxury of avoiding. If we truly want to follow the biblical pattern, we will, like Paul, seek to learn all we can about the people to whom we minister so that we might win as many as we can for the sake of the gospel.

      9. Lingenfelter, Ministering Cross-Culturally, 24.