On Cross-Cultural Mission at Home

I just returned from my first motorcycle funeral. It’s the first time I ever conducted a funeral service in jeans, T-shirt, and boots! Well over a hundred of us gathered at the local VFW to remember and to celebrate the life of a man who was killed on Sunday when a van pulled out in front of the group he was riding with. After the service we rode out to the accident site for a committal service and to erect a memorial cross on the roadside, and then we went back to the VFW hall for a meal. It was obvious that everyone appreciated the fact that, as a biker myself, I could ride with them and share this experience with them. One or two of my church members were part of the event, but many of the people were relatives of members. You know: the people who show up on Christmas and Easter and feel really out of place in the church. Or that renegade daughter or brother that good church-going people worry about. The deceased, in fact, was the son of a World War II generation couple in my church that died several years ago; the only times I met him were at his parents’ funerals. Several strangers came up to me and asked what church I’m from. Hopefully we’ll have a few new guests at worship in the coming weeks. During the meal, someone (the boyfriend of the sister of one of my church’s elders) suggested that we hold a “blessing of the bikes” event in the spring. A few of us talked about it, and it could be an exciting way for our church to connect with a different group in our community. Perhaps one of the good things that can come out of this sad experience is an opportunity for my ministry and my congregation to become relevant to a new segment of our community.

This got me thinking about cross-cultural mission. Fortunately, most of us now realize that “mission” doesn’t have to mean traveling to far-off lands. But for many of us, “cross-cultural” still means “cross-ethnic.” That, of course, is one form of cross-cultural mission. I remember a conversation I had with the pastor of a Presbyterian church in Florida who never even thought of having a Creole Bible study to reach to the growing Haitian community in their neighborhood. But even within an ethnically homogenous community, there are many cultures. As I saw today, even members of the same family can be in different cultures. If we want to participate in Christ’s mission to the world, we need to find ways to break out of our typical patterns. There are a lot of people right at the fringes of our church life who don’t feel comfortable with the typical church culture but are open, and maybe even eager, to expressing and exploring faith. What are we going to do about it?