“The fifth condition for a missionary encounter with our culture, [Newbigin] would list the necessity for help in seeing our own culture through Christian minds shaped by other cultures” (Newbigin, 1986, 146). I can remember the first time I heard of an international missionary being sent to America, my question was simple, why? Why would anyone send missionaries to America when we are so focused on sending missionaries around the world? My perspective has since changed, and at this point in my ministry, I understand, at least in part, that we need one another to help us see how big and good God really is. No one person, culture, or church has God completely figured out. Again, from the very beginning, God’s mission and kingdom were intended for all the nations (Gen. 12:2-3).
The sixth essential for the missionary “is simply the courage to hold and to proclaim a belief that cannot be proved to be true in terms of the axioms of our society” (Newbigin, 1986, 148). Since the time Jesus started his church, empires have come and gone, cultural elites have risen and fallen, the church has been under intense persecution, and yet the church remains. What the Christian has to face today is not new or threatening to Jesus. With that, we can stand with courage based on the truth of the gospel and proclaim that the Kingdom of God transcends the narrow modern worldview of our society. Science isn’t going to provide all the answers one needs to discern if Jesus really is God who can redeem and restore all things—including a lost sense of individual identity and purpose in this life. Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6, NIV), and we can rest in his sovereignty, even though we may seem like fools to our culture.
The final thing Newbigin suggests is that “[t]his humble boldness and this expectant patience are not the product of some kind of human heroism. They are the spontaneous overflow of a community of praise. They are the radiance of a supernatural reality” (Newbigin, 1986, 149). The church is called to live in tension. On one hand, we must maintain the posture of a servant, for this is considered the highest position in God’s Kingdom. And at the same time, we are sons and daughters of the King and Creator God. This is our truest and deepest identity. Our identity in Christ produces an essential Christian characteristic of “humble boldness.” We must not settle for being confined to live according to the dogma of our secular society. We must not sacrifice who we really are in our time. We serve the mission of our Father, who transcends every culture and society at all times and in all places. There is nothing that we will face that could keep us from giving him our praise.
