To All People

Language Ministries: Georges Boujakly
Friday, September 1, 2006

The United States of America has always been a country of many faces. The first settlers who came after the Native Indians were mostly Europeans. Today America continues to be a multi-faceted country. In fact, hundreds of people groups live in this vast and great nation. From sea to sea to sea, America is now multicolored, multilingual, multicultural, and multiethnic. There are efforts underway all over the country to produce students who have a global perspective and who are sympathetic to all people groups. Whether this broadening of horizons in the education of our students will bear fruit on a mass scale remains in the future. But what about the church? Is the church attempting to broaden its outlook to match the changing face of America?

Our church neighborhoods are now or soon will be composed of people who are not "our kind of people." Jesus' mandate to his church knows no bounds (none). His passion is to proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God to panta ta ethne or all the people groups (See Mark 1:14-15; Matthew 28:19-20). Yet, from my limited experience, I am not sure that our churches intentionally produce Christian disciples who are sensitive to other cultures, ethnicities, races, and languages. Why is that? Among many reasons are these two:

  1. Could it be that we still think of people groups as a matter that concerns international missionaries and not the local church? The church that is determined to be on mission in its North American context must reach the people groups that once were thousands of miles away but are now next door. Local churches can no longer simply be content to send missionaries to the peoples of the world but rather to be themselves the ones who are sent into their neighborhoods as missionaries. This takes intentionality. If we don't intend it and develop action plans to do it, it will not happen. Our concern will remain verbal with no actual results.

  2. Could it be that some churches hide behind the many distances that separate peoples and thus never become risk takers? Admittedly, the distances between us and those who are not "our kind of people" are not small. We don't speak their language; we don't eat their foods or wear their clothes; they don't have the same skin color or ethnic origin as we do. That's a lot of distance to cover. But we don't cross it alone. We cross it in the company of Jesus bearing a gospel of genuine love and care. It's a risk to be sure. But living the true gospel is a risky business.

The question must be asked, does the church know how to produce cross cultural disciples? Perhaps it is time the church recognized its responsibility to make disciples of all nations, here and abroad and begin training every member to be more familiar and more caring of other people groups. If we are going to make disciples of all nations, and all of us, churches and individuals should, then we have to have disciples who are at ease in a culture of all nations (the culture of America today). This is our challenge and our opportunity. Let's take it with grace.