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MY RESEARCH continued...(2)
How do we view evangelism (communicating
the gospel)?
Think about the following
statement: "You need to receive
Christ as your Lord and Savior."
Did you understand what I said?
Did you understand what I meant?
What exactly did you understand?
A North-American brought
up in an evangelical church would probably understand me to
say that receiving Christ is the first step to salvation. He
or she would understand that I wanted him or her to become a
Christian. But what would a rural Indian in the Andes
understand? My experience is that an Ecuadorian Indian would
understand that I wanted them to receive some kind of
spiritual blessing, and that my intention was to help them
improve their poor condition.
The same message is
communicated in the same way, but different people, living
in different places, understand it in different ways. Why
the difference? Since their experience is very different
from mine, we are not going to see the same thing in the
same way. On the contrary, we are going to interpret the
same message in very different ways. If I really want to
communicate the gospel message to them, first, I'm going to
have to understand their experience and comprehend their way
of thinking. Otherwise, what I want to communicate to
them will be very different from what they really understand
from me.
Now just how might one go about
understanding another people's way of thinking?
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