Becoming a
Babylonian Insider
By Mike Zehnder
My son
has successfully "campaigned" for a certain brand of mp3 player he has wanted
for two years and finally won our vote. In helping to set it up for him I
noticed there were some pre-loaded songs and videos already on it courtesy of
the manufacturer. At first I thought, "How Nice" until the title of one, "Let's
Make Love and Listen Death From Above" set off my "dad-protect-radar", as I
couldn't imagine anything good coming from a song with that kind of title.
How can a
Christian parent react to that? Write angry letters to the manufacturers? Start
a boycott? Recently, in our neighborhood there have been teams of people standing
on busy street corners with megaphones, shouting out words like "repent" and "Jesus
is the only way" and "get down on your knees right now and ask Jesus into your
heart."
Religious
isolationists like these have forgotten how to communicate simply and naturally.
This creates more contempt for Christianity than a listening heart. The
presumption that anyone is even remotely ready to listen to this as they drive
by is amazing.
In
"Learning the Language of Babylon" by Terry Crist (Chosen Books, div. of Baker
Books), he uses the experience of Daniel and his friends as a clue to how we might
be better witnesses, better preachers, better neighbors, better worship leaders
as we try to plant the Gospel seed in what sometimes feels like our own
Babylon, a seemingly foreign land and culture. Daniel and his friends graduated
at the top of their class after a three-year crash course in Babylonian culture
and "God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom" (Daniel
1:17).
Crist
gives five practical ways to "learn from misguided missionary efforts of the
past and learn to communicate effectively with postmodern Babylonians". Here they are in highly truncated and/or restated form:
1. Observe Your Neighbors and
Co-Workers. Instead
of using your brilliant Christian rhetoric and leadership skills, quietly
listen and watch what shapes their lives like sports, politics, entertainment,
television, etc. Based on your observations, build relationships that involve
these activities and interests.
2. Eat at New Restaurants Outside
Your Normal Preferences. Find
and visit local hangouts for teens, college students, and special interest
groups, but warning: leave your judgmental attitude at home or bury it once and
for all! You are there to learn how to connect for the sake of reaching them
and others like them.
3.
Turn Off PBS and Watch Diverse Television Programming.An
immense part of our culture is framed by the entertainment industry. As
postmodern reformers, we must reclaim the positive elements in this powerful
medium. Generation X is moved by the visual even more than the auditory, so
check out what is showing on MTV and VH1. Seek practical ways to incorporate
the power of the visual in our worship services! (emphasis mine)
4.
Spend the Afternoon at Barnes & Noble Reading Everything in the
Magazine Sections. Crist asks the challenging question, "Can your sermon titles begin to
compare with this level of creativity?" He also notes that most effective
television programs and music videos seem to have three or four themes running
simultaneously with the picture and story-line constantly shifting. That's a
great clue for organizing our messages.
5. Go on a Journey of the Internet.Ask
someone who is a savvy web-surfer to take you on a journey of what men, women,
and young people are focusing on today. St.
Paul, of course, is our apostolic prototype, examining
his culture and beginning his famous sermon with, "I perceive that in all
things you are very religious..."etc.
I'd like to add to these excellent observations that our
own cultural discourse wouldn't begin with how "very religious" people are, of
course. They have no idea the idols they are worshipping and wouldn't think of them
in those terms. But as we mention their "interests" and quote their "songs,"
just as Paul quoted the Greek poets of his day, we grow in our ability to
"become all things to all people that by ALL means we might save some" (1 Cor.
9:22).
Crist profoundly notes that, "The issue at stake is not
what I need to know [about culture] as much as what I need to become." Outsiders
to the culture are easily rejected and treated with suspicion. So our game plan,
just as God used Daniel and his partners to become expert witnesses in a
foreign culture, is to become what I am simply calling "Babylonian Insiders"
that we might gain a hearing and remain culturally effective as we speak and
live the truth in our own Babylonian generation.
