{"id":584,"date":"2013-10-05T16:46:23","date_gmt":"2013-10-05T16:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vxbd7vrmeo.wpdns.site\/?p=584"},"modified":"2026-09-30T15:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T15:39:13","slug":"culture-is-local-really-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/culture-is-local-really-local\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture is Local &#8211; Really Local!"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cGod had an only son and He was a missionary. A poor, poor example of Him I am. \u00a0But in this work I now live. And in this work, I wish to die.\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\n(David Livingstone, 1813-1873; Missionary to Africa)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>God has given BCM Worldwide (BCMW) the privilege of training biblical counseling trainers around the world. Our strategic objective \u2013 assisting in the initial creation and continuing development of national biblical counseling training and certifying organizations \u2013 is being realized in the Philippines, Australia, the CIS, Russia, various European nations, and in the Middle East. Both of our delivery systems, leadership training (modular programs) and academic training (degree programs) eventuate toward this same goal.<\/p>\n<p>A comprehensive listing of biblical illustrations of cross-cultural ministry is too long to rehearse here. Some obvious examples would include the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Abram was told to go to a foreign land that God would show him.<\/li>\n<li>Joseph\u2019s favor with his father resulted in him going from pit-dweller to prisoner to prince in a culture that was radically different from his own.<\/li>\n<li>Moses was assigned the task of moving millions of God\u2019s people from a known culture to an unknown culture.<\/li>\n<li>Joshua later marched those millions of Hebrews into foreign territory to confront people who were different than them in some scary ways.<\/li>\n<li>Daniel and his colleagues experienced cross-cultural education \u2013 and testing.<\/li>\n<li>A few generations later Zerubbabel and others returned \u201chome\u201d to a place significantly changed by several generations of \u201cothers.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Paul traveled all over his world to share the gospel, plant churches, and strengthen the believers.<\/li>\n<li>And Jesus was, of course, the ultimate, cross-cultural missionary leaving the glories of heaven to live among fallen, wicked people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In each of these cases people were called by God to represent Him among \u201cstrangers,\u201d people whose languages and customs seemed peculiar.<\/p>\n<h5>How Local is \u201cLocal\u201d?<\/h5>\n<p>Lebanon is a small nation. But while southern Lebanon and northern Lebanon are not far apart, the former is controlled by terrorists while the latter was the site of one of my family\u2019s three-day vacations\u2014safe and beautiful!<\/p>\n<p>I was raised in a farming community in western Michigan. I attended an all-white high school. Because of a heritage of Dutch influence, people in my town were at least religious and moral, if not born-again.<\/p>\n<p>So imagine the culture shock I experienced (although, in truth, I didn\u2019t know that was what I was experiencing) when, in 1981, I was called to pastor a church in northwestern Indiana. I was thrust into an urban, multi-cultural, multi-linguistic environment in which the economy was driven by the steel mills and unions. And our relocation covered barely more than 100 miles!<\/p>\n<p>A different culture could be just blocks from where you are. It\u2019s the place where people think, choose, and perhaps, speak differently. Decisions are made with different values that derive from different beliefs based on different worldviews.<\/p>\n<h5>So What?<\/h5>\n<p>If, as I\u2019ve argued, culture is very local, what does that mean in our people-helping ministries?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It means that, even in America, even in your town, there are a variety of cultural perspectives.<\/li>\n<li>It means we must be aware that these differences will impact our attempts to provide gracious soul care.<\/li>\n<li>It means that we must carefully define our terms and ask those we\u2019re helping to carefully define their terms.<\/li>\n<li>It means that we must ask a hundred questions concerning background and perspectives, and then ask a hundred more. You simply can\u2019t have too much \u201ccultural information.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>It means that one size doesn\u2019t fit all and therefore personal ministry can\u2019t be done in an assembly line.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Biblical counselors should never underestimate the \u201clocalness\u201d and impact of culture. Like Jesus and his apostles, they must be willing to reach out to those who are culturally different, but spiritually the same, in need of the gospel\u2019s transforming grace. They must be acutely aware of how to offer counsel from Scripture in terms that convey the intent of God\u2019s Word.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cGod had an only son and He was a missionary. A poor, poor example of Him I am. \u00a0But in this work I now live. And in this work, I wish to die.\u201d (David Livingstone, 1813-1873; Missionary to Africa) God has given BCM Worldwide (BCMW) the privilege of training biblical counseling trainers around the world. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1438,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sq_banner_image_id":1161,"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-training-leadership"],"meta_box":{"group_4rft1b1l2tt":[],"video_id_or_url":"","itunes_url":"","language":"","duration":"","type":"post","featured":"0"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1486,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584\/revisions\/1486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bcmw.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}