Reaching Resistant People

Anon.
Updated Feb 08, Dec. 11

This is an outline and rationale of an approach to a resistant people group. In the past, we thought this people group was very unresponsive. But we've learned some things in the last few years. It has brought some people to the Lord, but most of all it has uncovered great openness to the Gospel.

One of the biggest factors is too big for this paper. What is the Gospel? According to Mark 1:1, it is the story of Jesus and His teachings. But there are other equally biblical ways of defining the Gospel. In Romans, it is basically explained as a set of theological ideas. In 1 Cor. 15:3,4 it is described as the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Obviously they overlap very greatly, but they can operate very differently in different cultural contexts. For the purposes of this paper, the Gospel is the way to know God by placing personal faith in Jesus the Messiah.

As I became involved in this ministry, I was surprised that the main factors that affected resistance to the Gospel were those I had brought. The people were basically quite open, but much of what was done by well-intentioned people to spread the Gospel had the opposite effect; it encouraged them to refuse it. We have found that confrontational approaches are highly counterproductive. Here's a quote from a colleague:

We need to abandon altogether the conflict between great world religions. Each time I share the Word, the question that almost always arises in the minds of the hearers is: 'What is your religion?' If we share just the Word, it is not obvious what our religion is. If the Word makes sense and the hearers want to embrace it, they want to check first if it has any unspoken conditions - hence the religion question. I am becoming more and more convinced that the first point in our message to them is that God (and therefore we) is not looking for changes in religion but true worshippers or new creations within every people grouping on earth.

Here's another quote. Remember that these people are supposedly fiercely resistant to the Gospel:

It had been arranged for representatives from all the families in each of these villages to gather at the times we expected to arrive in each village. I share a few words in each village. We asked people to pray that that God would be glorified, the message will be understood and that all parties will be served well. As I watched video footage later, I was absolutely amazed at the freedom we had to share the Word without hindrance. Lord willing, we will do the same again in 2-3 more villages next week.

 

Identity

Our ethnic group is clearly not receptive to people entering their communities with the identify of evangelists sent to reach them with the Gospel. Regular support for full-time national workers almost certainly causes them to be identified as Christian workers, and leads to them either being ostracised or forced out of the community.

Consequently, we encourage national workers toward bi-vocational ministry. This is not primarily for financial reasons, but for reasons of identity and ministry effectiveness. It is much better to be seen to have an ordinary secular job as primary identity in the community, and this quickly creates opportunities for normal social contact.

We have followed the practice of identifying ourselves early as a follower Jesus the Messiah, without using the word "Christian," which has seriously negative overtones. When entering a new area, workers should not immediately provide full information about their long range intentions and identity but should gradually reveal their full identity carefully, deliberately and progressively in their relationships with contacts, seekers and new believers.

 

Cultural Learning

One of our big mistakes in the early days was to presume that we understood their culture. We just assumed that it was basically the same as another major ethnic group nearby with which we had much experience. This presumption was very unsound.

We needed to invest much more time in cultural learning. They were very unlike what we had been led to believe. We found many things that were normal in our previous ethnic group, but offensive or at least undesirable in the new cultural group. 

One of the biggest lessons learnt in cultural understanding was that we needed to separate Christianity from church stuff. We had to offload a lot of religious baggage.

Another of our biggest lessons was that we need to learn the ethnic language. Even when the national language is adequate for communication, we found that the ethnic language is the one that counted. I don't know that using the ethnic language made most team members more effective, but it clearly opened doors that would have otherwise been difficult. It opened a small window on culture and larger window on credibility. Our workers were willing to be seen as especially valuing that particular ethnic group and becoming identified with it.

 

Baggage

In short, separate Christianity from the church stuff. Even intercultural missions can carry a lot of unhelpful theological baggage. You probably studied this at college, but actually doing it is quite another thing. The issue is subjective; your cultural baggage is probably invisible to you.

We noticed that Christians try to add a lot of cultural baggage to the Gospel. Some are very committed to their own kinds of religious forms, apparently because they feel the need to create their own cultural identity. These include terminology, social relationships, symbols, worship styles, and organizational structures (which include money, power, ecclesiology). In short, this means, "And if they become Christians, they have to become Christians like us and join our denomination." It look like the motive is to sell a brand of church like a club membership.

They push the "Gospel and church" package deal. The idea is that people must accept Gospel and get integrated into my denomination. They preach "You must:

They might add that "a real believer" also needs to change government ID cards, get a baptismal name, move away from home, family, job and culture and live somewhere else under a new name.

From a ministry team viewpoint, it can be quite difficult to gain the support of existing churches for several reasons. First, some have hunkered down in a "fortress of the persecuted" kind of mentality. Second, some cannot separate Christianity from their church culture, and insist that new believers join their denomination and become "Christians like us."

 

Re-define Christianity

We have been committed to seeking creative ways to borrow concepts within their culture, pour new meaning into them, where necessary, and use them for God's purposes. This principle is especially important in the context of ministry to resistant peoples with whom believers have a long and tragic history of miscommunications.

If one attempts to communicate the good News without adapting the presentation to the local context, it gives hearers the impression that they must adopt some foreign culture, along with believing in Jesus the Messiah, before God will accept them. This constitutes a works-based salvation and a false Good News. We have been eager to avoid communicating such a disastrous impression.

Many people in our ethnic group have a wrong idea of Christianity. Many think that Christians have false gods, worship idols, eat unclean food and often dress immorally. Christians don't use understandable religious words, or seem understandable to them but are grossly misunderstood. Some just don't know anything about Christianity except that is like a false cult.

They might be very open, but dislike "church" and Christian culture. Institutional Christianity is a liability and it has been best that we have not acted as part of it. We were basically immune from a great deal of political and social pressure as the main form of persecution was to burn church buildings. It is odd that Christianity was not persecuted, but the institutional church.

Christians also bring unhelpful theological convictions to the process and their conception of the gospel stimulates its rejection. They believe they have understood the Gospel and want people to accept a lot of information in one lump. However, we need to differentiate between what is theologically necessary and how much a person needs to really know God. It is very easy to add a great many doctrines to the list of "Necessary to believe for salvation", but if you don't know them, so what? Not only is there usually some latitude for different views but one soon faces the difficult problem of justifying additions to the Gospel.

The light is reflected more by character than by information, so information-based ideas of the Gospel and proclamation are not very helpful. We are not just telling the news but making disciples.

To further add to misunderstanding, Christians had a great many false stereotypes about the religion of that ethnic group, for example:

In reality, however, they often know very little about their Holy Book and do not obey it in many ways. Many are at heart animists or, similar to Christianity, are very committed to traditions and theological teachings that have accumulated over the centuries. (In fact, there are some teachings of their Holy Book that would make our task easier if they believed them.)

We tried hard to establish a culturally resonant conception of our faith. A main difficulty is that local Christians defined their faith in terms of their church subculture. Contextualization became a major issue, and we had to establish our own approach.

It is wise to remember that they are justifiably proud of long and rich cultural heritages at both ethnic and civilizational levels. They have built major universities and made major scientific contributions. Many are pacifists. And they are not homogenous; there are widely differing streams of religious belief, varying greatly due to local cultural factors and various "denominations". It is almost always a mistake to say that "They believe . . . " because there is such a wide spectrum of belief.

Besides, Christians seldom understand enough about how the people in the resistant ethnic group are thinking, and each person is a little different anyway.

Christian explanations almost always didn't make sense to them; they only made sense to other Christians. This considerably frustrated Christians (especially college-educated westerners) who had trouble moving out into another paradigm.

We found the thought structures of the people we sought to reach to be more logical (and in some things more O.T. biblical) than Christians would give credit for. Christians often assume "If they believe it then it must be wrong" and that the rules of discussion are "I'm always right and you're always wrong." Arguing religion will normally mean that you lose the person. And after all this is said, you won't make sense until you've won some credibility anyway.

 

Take Time

Take time to build credibility and foster openness. Technically this is pre-evangelism. For us, pre-evangelism is all about building trust and credibility. Later on, when we found culturally resonant ways we found it could involve a religious component. But by that time, we know how to express a message that people found to be easy to understand and quite credible.

A main goal at this stage is not to win converts so much as to foster openness. It is wrong to expect people to be already open, although traditional evangelism (at least in the tradition of Donald McGavran) looked for openness. We found that openness did not need to already be there as long as we put in the time early. Openness and credibility were basically the same for our people. If you had become credible, it followed that they had become open.

In our experience, putting time and personal commitment into credibility is the main job.

A friend of mine once got a plaque, "Influence is like a bank account; the more you take out, the less you have." That's the basic principle. Build more credibility than you need. You will need it in cases of unavoidable personal misunderstandings and presenting small parts of the Gospel. Later on, evangelism is much easier because you are reaching people who are basically open.

More traditional kinds of pre-evangelism (i.e. proclamation that is preparatory to calling for commitment to the Gospel), were a high risk and often counterproductive.

The notion that  acceptance and friendship is an adequate basis to communicate the Gospel can be quite destructive  for some people groups. One really needs to build credibility, which is more than gaining acceptance. Building credibility took a lot more time than we thought. Missions normally seem to give insufficient time to building credibility, and then conclude that people are closed to the Gospel. We have seen a couple of instances where workers had moved into communities, built up huge credibility, and then left at the time they could have been most effective. In hindsight, this was extremely disappointing.

People in the ethnic group might well be potentially very open, but need the time. They might be culturally conservative and resist all kinds of new ideas, not just the Gospel. They have a long, very logical heritage that must be rethought if are even to understand new ideas, because acceptance of new ideas often requires a worldview shift.

So here's a good extra hint: A group bonding experience gives people the idea that "These are nice people to be with." Personal loyalties to friends can make a fairly rapid shift. Remember camps as a teenager?

 

Build Credibility

The first thing is to make superficial but necessary cultural adjustments: clothes, jargon, meeting styles, music, food, avoid offensive things. Their religious jargon/terminology usually comes from their holy language, and I think we are wise to use it when it is natural and appropriate to them.

But credibility is more than that. There is no discount or fast track. If there is a key, it is that they want to know that you are committed to them, that you will be on their side if things turn bad. Basically, you give yourself to them.

To do this you will have to sacrifice some of your own ethnic identity and change to see life from their viewpoint. You can't fake the attitude; they can easily pick a fake. Missionaries generally think they have made the commitment before they have; they believe they have committed themselves when they are really only pretending.

Look at your motives. Are you out for their best interests, or something else? (Church, money, etc.) Many nationals validly ask the question, "Are you paid by a foreigner to make me change my religion?" It's easy to answer "No" if your motives are really for their best interests.

Value them as individuals; they are not the "enemy", targets, or statistics (Don't keep fighting the Crusades). Get past stereotypes and make friends; we found that supposedly resistant people were easy to befriend and that many were very nice people.

Avoid stereotyping them. They can be very different from each other. They have grumpy and good days, weaknesses and strengths. Some are model citizens and some are crooks. Some are open, some are not. Don't expect them all to know much about their religion.

Value them also as ethnic groups: "It's good to come from your ethnic group." There is probably an "us-them" attitude to Christianity; you want them to think of you as "us" rather than "them". Learn their language, history, art forms, and ethnic sports. Live near them if practical.

Some aid and development projects are good. Keep them equally open to local Christians and non-Christians to avoid the impression that it is bribery to change religion. Be very careful what strings you attach to aid; give open-handedly, without retaining rights over what you give.

 

Let People go Through the Steps

It might take longer than you think. Be patient, give them time to adjust. Remember the analogy of light: Not everyone moves towards the light at the same speed, and if they are unresponsive, give them only as much light as their eyes can stand. Blinding them with too much light doesn't help.

How many Christian friends will they make? I think it is helpful if they can make friends of Christians of their own ethnicity.

Our message will require people take some time to think it through. We are making a big ask: give your whole life (and anything in your life that you realize later on).

You might want dramatic conversions, but it's seldom like that. It is better to see it as a long process, with faith in Jesus the Messiah as a minor part of the whole. The real goal is not to make converts but to make disciples. It really helped to breaking the process into attainable steps, then put the steps in an order that works in that cultural setting.

The point of actual conversion during the steps is not really worth arguing about. Some disciples are no more than enthusiastic sympathizers, while others may be non-communicative genuine converts. The point is that people work through the steps so that the reality of their faith become clear. The whole process is discipleship. Conversion is not separate; it's just one point in a continuum.

There is no set speed for people to go through the steps. If people plateau (stop going further through the steps), just give them time to start moving again. If people stop moving through the stages, let them sit at the level they are comfortable at. This is better than creating resistance through confrontation. However, there is an element of risk at any stage when a facing a person with the challenge of moving to the next step.

If any stage starts to get too hard for team members, it is easy to break it into smaller, more attainable steps, and check that the order works. That way team members could still make progress and have something valuable to report at team meetings.

Each succeeding step may take longer than the step before it, except that pre-evangelism (credibility building) seems to take longer than anyone had previously thought. We generally expect to get a lot of people at level 1, not quite so many at level 2 and so on up the levels. That's not so much a problem, as long as people have the opportunity to move along the levels. But occasionally, some people will sometimes jump through several steps very quickly, or work through the steps in a different order.

People have found this series of steps helpful:

Step 1. Make friends and gain acceptance.

Step 2. Gain a level of credibility. (We've already talked a lot about this.)

Step 3. Gain the ability to talk personally. The topic will vary between cultures. (Concern at the death of a loved one, expression of concern or support when people really need it, etc.) Expect people to "test" you first to see how you react. People in some cultures will give you a second chance, but others won't. Our experience is that people are more perceptive of your real attitude than you think (e.g. whether you really accept and respect them).

Step 4. Gain the ability to talk about personal faith.

Step 5. Foster openness to knowing God personally, Jesus the Messiah, going to heaven, and new birth. At this stage, non-confrontational pre-evangelism can help; it is a simple attractive message that casts spiritual things in a positive light.

Step 6. After a while, individuals will come to a personal, fragile faith. We need to be sensitive to the struggles of people who only have a mustard seed faith. They understand a little and perhaps misunderstand a lot. They profess simply what they believe. They are still facing moral issues in their lives and might face family pressures. How much can they heart-accept now?

Many foreign workers are unsympathetic to the "personal, fragile faith" of new believers. They would like dramatic unambiguous conversion stories, although they are by far the exception.

Step 7. Give personal follow-up in the form of personal visits and discussions about applying faith in practical life.

Step 8. Meet with other believers. This can be difficult or stressful, especially when it involves some kind of church meeting, however contextualized.

Step 9. Meet regularly with other believers.

Step 10. Declare faith to friends or family. This is difficult and can be dangerous; although people have an ability for finding the right time and place

Step 11. A full understanding of Christ's death and resurrection might come only months after their first profession of faith. Much as we'd like this to happen earlier, it doesn't help if introduced too early.

Step 12. It might only be very much later (or never) that they will say that their religion is false are that its founder wasn't a true guide. This will often take a long time coming. It may be that they say that their religion pointed them on the path to Christ, and still have considerable regard for the Holy Book of their old religion.

 

Some Tips

Here are a few practical tips. Some might be obvious to you, but I can't presume that they will be obvious in your situation.

  1. Most of what we do is more effective if it is invisible. Most ministry comprises personal friendships in homes and workplaces.
  2. We found that missions achieve more by working together rather than arguing over turf or being concerned who gets the credit.
  3. We also need to take sensible risks.
  4. Keep converts in their own communities if possible. They need to stay where they can be lights to others. Extraction is detrimental. Converts who have been institutionalized in the church are usually no longer helpful for evangelism, but some "evangelists" even deliberately do extraction to eradicate traces of their ethnic culture.
  5. We have heard of other ministries exhibiting converts as prizes. They easily get the "Tour of churches by convert giving testimony" syndrome. The ego trip suggests to them that they could make money out of it and it ruins their faith.
  6. Find out what is the best ethnic group to work with them. (It might not be white people.) We found that is was more productive to train members of another ethnic group, with whom they occasionally intermarry, than to do most of the frontline work ourselves.
  7. Being an evangelist is a spiritual gift, and not everyone has it. So don't expect training to solve these problems, because training won't change gifts. Let me tell you about a worker we once had. He thought that reaching a particular ethnic group was very difficult because they were so resistant. He was a well-meaning guy, but he was a pastor of a church. It's not that people were unresponsive, it's simply that he didn't have the right gifts for the job.
  8. In church planting, the point is to bring people together in ways that reflect the spiritual functions outlined in the NT without unscriptural "changes in religion" baggage. We don't have a suitable model of "church" planting, and most ministry has been in personal visits. We anticipate that these networks of friends will form into groups that meet on the template of a home meeting of their old religion. The meeting style will be familiar and useful, but will not be syncretistic in any way.

I couldn't resist this very helpful quote, paraphrased here and anonymous for security purposes. It originally mentioned a group who was resistant for religious background reasons: