Thank you, DR. Watson, for this enlightening article about cross-cultural Christianity. Even here in the USA, with the migration of various people groups from various cultures from around the world, regardless of where we live, our local assemblies will eventually have to effectively deal with these issues. It can be either a blessing or a curse dependent on whether we’re properly prepared or not. The fact that the GMC aspires to truly be globally inclusive puts it ahead of the learning curve. We need to pray that this intentionality can properly seep down into the local congregations.
Thank you for a powerful reminder (from your firsthand cross cultural experience) that we will need a big dose of humility and teachability as we walk alongside our international brothers and sisters in ministry. The Holy Spirit has much to teach us all; may it not only unify us, but sanctify us as we listen to one another.
Water is precious! Like many other countries, Kenya experiences an annual drought. After 3 days of accumulating red dirt, I needed to wash up for a local Methodist church service. There was no water in Matuiti, so water was carried into the town by women. As I tried to wash my hair with a bucket of water, I started weeping, realizing some woman had carried that bucket a long distance just for me to wash up! The next morning at church it was time for Holy Communion. The women took the two of us outside the church and washed our hands with water that had been carried a very long distance. It was a very emotional experience. When it came time for the offering, an older woman came forward and put one egg in the basket! That did it, I couldn't stop crying. I had so much, and they had so little! In Kenya, it is difficult to be a woman!
Like your experience, some women had so little, especially during the aids epidemic. I understand the tradition of a man being required to marry his brother's wife if his brother had died. Caring for a widow was admirable, but during the aids epidemic, the brother quite often also died, infected by his additional wife! I also have no answer, other than recommending that there be no physical intimacy with the additional wife! For a lot of reasons, the church should point to the New Testament words of Jesus that the "two shall be as one." Thank you again for sharing your wisdom!
Once again timely, well written, and challenging. The line "No presentation before the congregation, no YouTube video, no Zoom call can recreate the experience of immersion in a world that is not your own" is so true. I too have been flummoxed by the polygamy discussions and look forward to you expounding more on that as you think about it. This year one of our drivers basically said they were trying a common sense approach - those in a polygamous relationship coming to Christianity were not being told to break up the family (lots of issues if you go down that road) but that the husband should begin being faithful to his first wife while acknowledging responsibility for the others, and then teaching the children that one man, one wife, is the way going forward. Thanks again for a good article, now I'm more excited than ever to get back for my third trip this coming Spring.
Exemplary post! Please give us more exacting writing like this. The writing was fresh and acute, accented with a glimpse of the school room. If our writing would improve, maybe our discernment would too.
It is so easy to say we are a global church. But to actually BE a global church is a very different thing. I believe this is God's call to us, and it is our desire to be faithful and obedient. But this post and this story explaining just one particular issue reveals how much we need the Holy Spirit's wisdom each step of the way. To BE this church as we are called to do can only be accomplished with deep prayer and His guidance moment by moment.
Engaging as usual. But you left us hanging. How did you give a theologically sound answer to polygamy? I usually tell folks to go back and read the stories of the Bible and tell those fellas were happy. lol.
What a great question and post. I'm very curious about your answer to the questions posed. I have ideas of my own, but I'm interested in how you responded and how that response was received. I can see a lot of mirroring in the GMC/UMC split too.
Thank you, DR. Watson, for this enlightening article about cross-cultural Christianity. Even here in the USA, with the migration of various people groups from various cultures from around the world, regardless of where we live, our local assemblies will eventually have to effectively deal with these issues. It can be either a blessing or a curse dependent on whether we’re properly prepared or not. The fact that the GMC aspires to truly be globally inclusive puts it ahead of the learning curve. We need to pray that this intentionality can properly seep down into the local congregations.
Thank you for a powerful reminder (from your firsthand cross cultural experience) that we will need a big dose of humility and teachability as we walk alongside our international brothers and sisters in ministry. The Holy Spirit has much to teach us all; may it not only unify us, but sanctify us as we listen to one another.
Water is precious! Like many other countries, Kenya experiences an annual drought. After 3 days of accumulating red dirt, I needed to wash up for a local Methodist church service. There was no water in Matuiti, so water was carried into the town by women. As I tried to wash my hair with a bucket of water, I started weeping, realizing some woman had carried that bucket a long distance just for me to wash up! The next morning at church it was time for Holy Communion. The women took the two of us outside the church and washed our hands with water that had been carried a very long distance. It was a very emotional experience. When it came time for the offering, an older woman came forward and put one egg in the basket! That did it, I couldn't stop crying. I had so much, and they had so little! In Kenya, it is difficult to be a woman!
Like your experience, some women had so little, especially during the aids epidemic. I understand the tradition of a man being required to marry his brother's wife if his brother had died. Caring for a widow was admirable, but during the aids epidemic, the brother quite often also died, infected by his additional wife! I also have no answer, other than recommending that there be no physical intimacy with the additional wife! For a lot of reasons, the church should point to the New Testament words of Jesus that the "two shall be as one." Thank you again for sharing your wisdom!
Once again timely, well written, and challenging. The line "No presentation before the congregation, no YouTube video, no Zoom call can recreate the experience of immersion in a world that is not your own" is so true. I too have been flummoxed by the polygamy discussions and look forward to you expounding more on that as you think about it. This year one of our drivers basically said they were trying a common sense approach - those in a polygamous relationship coming to Christianity were not being told to break up the family (lots of issues if you go down that road) but that the husband should begin being faithful to his first wife while acknowledging responsibility for the others, and then teaching the children that one man, one wife, is the way going forward. Thanks again for a good article, now I'm more excited than ever to get back for my third trip this coming Spring.
Exemplary post! Please give us more exacting writing like this. The writing was fresh and acute, accented with a glimpse of the school room. If our writing would improve, maybe our discernment would too.
It is so easy to say we are a global church. But to actually BE a global church is a very different thing. I believe this is God's call to us, and it is our desire to be faithful and obedient. But this post and this story explaining just one particular issue reveals how much we need the Holy Spirit's wisdom each step of the way. To BE this church as we are called to do can only be accomplished with deep prayer and His guidance moment by moment.
Engaging as usual. But you left us hanging. How did you give a theologically sound answer to polygamy? I usually tell folks to go back and read the stories of the Bible and tell those fellas were happy. lol.
I did not advise divorce. If the man were to divorce a second wife, he might deprive her and her children of the little financial support they have.
What a great question and post. I'm very curious about your answer to the questions posed. I have ideas of my own, but I'm interested in how you responded and how that response was received. I can see a lot of mirroring in the GMC/UMC split too.
I did not advise divorce. If the man were to divorce a second wife, he might deprive her and her children of the little financial support they have.