Cultural Grace

How God led us to live in another culture by Lieut-Colonel Maxwell Ryan

I suppose a workable definition of culture is ‘the way we do things’, referring not only to isolated acts, but also to the assumptions, priorities and needs which motivate the acts in which they are embedded.

While it was not easy for my wife and me to live in the African culture we experienced in Ghana, our distance from the Canadian lifestyle had commenced when we lived and worked in England for two years prior to being transferred to Ghana in the autumn of 1993.

Experience as a corps officer, as well as several years as an editor and writer, had nourished an interest in people, language and thought-forms - all hopefully an aid to my work as principal of a small officer training college in Tema, Ghana’s port city. The student body of Ghanaians and Liberians came from six language and tribal groups, though the common language of the college, as well as the two countries involved, was English.

I soon learned that while dictionary and idiomatic English are generically the same, in practical terms they are not. And what if a logically and linguistically correct definition does not fit the cultural grid through which the students understand meanings? What about my quickly squashed assumption that conceptual thinking was the norm? The national education system of rote learning does not encourage conceptual thinking, by which I mean the ability to take unrelated ideas and weave them into meanings that were inherent but not obvious.

Western theology, biblical and church studies and the like come packaged as concepts/propositions/questions/digression - much of which is symbolic. And it doesn’t usually fit with the West African approach to theological and biblical understanding that we experienced. There, the way to the heart and to understanding is story-telling. Many times in Africa we thanked God that His Word is a true story, about the universal Saviour.

We found it essential to have read country and local history and in this way become aware of the pervasive myths and stories out of which life-meaning is woven. We also gradually became aware of the pressuring and stifling effect of traditional culture which so often made it difficult for local  Christians to experience a full and free application of biblical principles to everyday living.

In brief, all that we as expatriate Christians could hope to do while living in another culture was to model Jesus Christ in the minutae of daily living on a compound where privacy was not important. We found that where there was interracial openness, a sense of humour and wits tuned sensitively to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as well as conscious joy in the attractive goodness of God’s holiness, these were used by Him to transcend cultural barriers.

Writer: Lieut.-Colonel Maxwell Ryan is a former Editor in Chief in Canada and the UK. In retirement he is a copy editor of theRubicon and the author of two series on theRubicon - Resurrected Writers and Thinkaloud

1 Comment to Cultural Grace

1. In our life prior to the Army, our family had the opportunity to transition from US East Coast culture to that of ministry in Romanian village culture (for 2 1/2 years) and then life in a small Welsh town for another two years. Now, serving with the Salvation Army, we are serving in a bi-cultural setting of the Northwestern US and the hard-living street culture of those in bondage to crime and addiction.

   The challenges have certainly been there, but the amazing “ah ha!” moments of clarity and understanding have made them worthwhile. Village life has helped me to understand aspects of the Old Testament so much more clearly. The interdependence of street-culture allows me to better illustrate the vital nature of Christian fellowship to hard-living “whosoevers”. The examples of how cross-cultural living and ministry have enhanced my personal walk with God are numerous - just as the number of times some of these experiences have sent me to James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. . .”

   Thanks for the reminder.

   Dana
Dana Libby on August 17th, 2009

Leave a comment