The American Church: Part 2

[Paraphrased]: To become leaders, we must become followers (of Jesus).

I have heard this many times in many different churches over the past many years.  I think I first heard it when I was a newly graduate from NC State, at the church I was attending in Raleigh, NC.  It sunk in and meant a lot, in many perspectives and many ways, and in the many different steps I have taken as a Christian.

Tonight was a wonderful night.  Pastor Erwin McManus came to speak to a group of leaders and volunteers tonight at my church Mosaic Church Charlotte.  It was great to learn about his past and how Mosaic Church L.A. became what it is today.

One thing that caught my attention tonight was "culture".  Although, it wasn't quite audible from Pastor Erwin's conversation with us, it was a word the Holy Spirit laid in my heard as I was listening to his story about Mosaic L.A.

In my own understanding, Pastor Erwin was tired of the church norm.  Society has put us in a box, a standard that we have to adhere by.  Even the church has gotten its own traditions and rituals.  But as creative beings that God has made us to be, we are to create the future, fighting the social norm, be unique and create our own culture for the world to follow.  In the first blog, I wrote that the church is not here just to survive, the church is here to serve humanity.

Let's talk about culture for a minute.  Each country has their own culture: language, food, traditions, rituals.   There are many times I have heard well-meaningful Christians go to other countries to establish and plant a church the "American" way.  Or they have their own theology of how it should be done.  And many times, these churches fail.  Why?  These church planters go expecting for the local culture to conform.  They have their ideology that the church should have a steeple, a pastor, board members, committees.  Failure happens then there is a misunderstanding and disconnect between the two cultures.  This ideal "church culture" clashes with the local culture.

The church should be a universal force.

One thing that Pastor Erwin spoke about tonight is seeing people the way God sees people.  God sees people as human beings.  People who are fragmented and broken.  This is the premises of Mosaic Church: to bring broken people (pieces) together to create a beautiful mosaic.  When followers of Christ start to realize this, Christians will treat people as people and not as a church project to bring them into a legalistic church.

Then we realize that our cultural battle is not between Americans vs. other countries.  It is against God and Satan.  In each country, there are broken people, torn by their own country's ideal of what a country should be.  Christians in America are no different.  American culture is fueled with the idea to be successful (monetarily), to look sexy, to be cool.  But the real church of Christ, those who see people as broken beauty and who serves humanity, creates the culture and the future that we are an unstoppable force of loving, serving people.  This carries over and reaches far more than the typically American church ideology.

I recently read an NPR article about morality in China.  In summary: it's bad.  Throughout the culture of China, there is an air of mistrust amongst them.  They just simple don't trust each other or even their own government.  If someone is in need (if they had fallen down the stairs, or get hit by a car), it could take 20 people passing by before anybody helps.  There have been cases where people pretend to be hurt, to only rob innocent people who try to help.  The other problem is that people expect the others to help.  And with the 1.3B people in China, sometimes I feel they do not have the same thoughts and feelings about human life as some people have in Western society.

But what brings me hope in this situation are missionaries in these type of countries.  A friend's mother was a missionary kid in Taiwan in the 60's and 70's.  Taiwan's culture is somewhat similar to China.  In one instance, a child on a bike was hit by a car.  The father of this missionary family immediately ran to the middle of the road to help the child, carried the child to the sidewalk and yelled someone to call for help.  One person asked him, "Why do you do this?  You don't even know this child."  "Because I am a follower of Christ."  People surrounding this event saw the compassion of this man.  They may not understand his thoughts but they saw his actions.  In countries like these, Christian missionaries work best by working on compassion and setting an example.

"Because I am a follower of Christ..." leads us to all understand the heart of God, and the compassion that God has for His people.