Developing Cultural Attentiveness: Posture Shifts
Missiology is a practical and richly theological approach to the study of the missio Dei (the mission of God). It provides us with insight as we consider our contexts and provides a framework for engaging in gospel conversations with all kinds of people in relevant ways.
Missiology tends to create unrest, helps us to resist complacency, and prompts us to challenge institutional impulses. It serves to heighten our senses and looks to God’s Spirit who invites and empowers us to be gospel witnesses whoever we are and wherever we go.
In this post, Missiology serves us well as we seek to develop cultural attentiveness. Cultural attentiveness is different than cultural awareness. Let me explain.
Developing cultural awareness implies that we’re generally conscious of our surroundings in a broad and general sense, whereas developing cultural attentiveness involves a focused and active engagement.
For example, I am culturally aware that March Madness is a big deal in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area because of the caliber of teams often associated with Duke, UNC, and NC State and their long-term rivalry. Every March without fail, basketball dominates!
I am culturally attentive to the fact that in my neighborhood, the South Asian population is growing rapidly. The 2020 US Census indicates that the South Asian population in my zip-code has grown by 65% in the past ten years. This is evidenced by an increasing number of Indian restaurants and specialty food stores in our area.
I have met numerous Indians in the workspace where I write and my husband and I have begun to develop friendships with several of our Indian neighbors. Our closest friends immigrated to the US from Mumbai five years ago and became American citizens this past spring. Our relationship has been built on an attentiveness to their culture, their favorite foods, their close family ties, and their religious beliefs-they are devout Hindus. Developing cultures attentiveness has required us to learn more about Hinduism.
They know that we follow Jesus and even introduced us to a couple who lives nearby who also follows Jesus. God’s Spirit is working in their lives and in ours as we grow as friends and engage in meaningful gospel conversations.
Developing cultural attentiveness, I believe, is an adventure that prepares us for missionary encounters in our various contexts This attentiveness—focused and active engagement–requires us to make at least four posture shifts:
A shift from being experts to becoming curious, humble learners. The changes that we are experiencing in our changed and changing American context requires us to engage as learners. We cannot afford to think that we know or understand what’s going on.
A shift from the comfort of our perceived reality and a turn toward the unfamiliar complexity all around us. Turning toward the unfamiliar complexity means that we will encounter people who believe differently than we do, whose life-choices, worldviews, values, political perspectives differ from ours. As learners and gospel witnesses, I believe we must take that risk.
A shift from making a presentation to engaging in meaningful gospel conversations. I am learning, in my experience as a gospel witness, that most gospel conversations that lead to salvation conversations take time and an emotional commitment.
A shift from selective awareness to a purposeful readiness and expectancy. The best way to make this shift is to remember that we are all God’s witnesses whoever we are and wherever we go.
I will break these shifts down in future posts. If you’re interested in developing cultural attentiveness, be sure to check out my new resource page designed with you in mind. These curated resources represent a culmination of more than forty years of ministry experience and my ongoing research as a PhD and Missiologist.
These resources, almost more importantly, represent my deep conviction that we are chosen by God the Father, born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and transformed by God’s Spirit to participate in the world as gospel witnesses—whoever we are and wherever we go.
