Cultural Evangelism v. Cross-Cultural Discipleship
My devotion today by Fr. Richard Rohr explores this theme. Rohr says we evangelize those like us but true discipleship moves us to people not like ourselves.
I thought of Acts 1 and 2 as a good description of the difference. In Acts 1:8, evangelism starts in Jerusalem and then extends to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the world. We begin with those most like ourselves and closest to home and reach out from there.
The Pentecost story in Acts 2 emphasizes the presence of all known language groups at the start of the mission of the church to the world. We are to imitate this cross-cultural reality in what we do in local congregations.
What could we do at First Lutheran to make our congregation more like the gathering at Pentecost?