In Curtis Sergeant's book, The Only One, he suggests the discipline of writing poetry as part of our Bible reading.  

"Poetry is by nature a limiting form of expression. I find that it forces me to think deeply as I search for just the right word to convey the nuance I am contemplating."

As I have immersed myself in the first few chapters of John these past few weeks I decided to give it a try and tease out the nuances of what I've been contemplating. It was a rich experience and forced me to wrestle with what I feel the Lord has been highlighting for me. Writing poems from my Bible reading won't become a daily discipline, but I'll certainly come back to it when I come across a passage of scripture that I really want to dig into.

I'd encourage you to give it a try sometime.

Here is my poem, "Come and See" that I wrote as I dug deep into John 1:29-51.  It may not be great poetry but it certainly helped me meditate and learn from this passage of scripture.

I wrote about the idea of inviting people to come and see for themselves in last week's post, Come and See.  You can read it HERE.

In the first few chapters of John an interesting pattern emerges.  The numbers of those following Jesus begins to grow as his followers simply invite their friends, family or, in the case of the woman at the well, entire village to "come and see."

• They don't invite them to read a book about Jesus.
• They don't invite the to come to church where someone else - a professional most likely - can tell them about Jesus.
• They don't try and explain who Jesus is theologically or convince them of their sin.
• They don't simply focus on doing kind things for the person in hopes that one day they'll be asked why they're so nice.

To be sure, none of those activities are wrong and God uses all of them to help people come to faith - they are simply not the example of Jesus' first followers in the first four chapters of John (John 1:39; 1:41-42; 1:45-46; 4:28-30).

For them, "come and see" was enough.

It seems they knew that if they could just get their friend to spend some time with Jesus - even a cynic like Nathanael - that would be enough.  And Jesus is still enough today.  Like his first followers, we can ask our friends to come and see Jesus by sharing the stories of Jesus from the gospels and by inviting them to read these stories.  

We can do this by inviting them read through one of the gospels with us or we can invite them to into a discovery Bible study using one of several story sets:
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• Creation to Christ (short version)
• Creation to Christ
• Stories of Hope
• Signs of John

My default has been to invite people to church or to open up deep philosophical conversations with my far from God friends. God has of course used both of these tactics, but increasingly I'm learning (and trying to learn) to default to simply asking them to come and see Jesus for themselves by inviting them to read the gospels with me. 

How about you?  How have you been inviting people to Jesus lately?

It is not hard to imagine why, in a country where for thousands of years families most likely  lived in grass huts with snakes being an ever present issue, the custom of how to enter buildings developed differently than it did in England.  It's also not hard to imagine the looks of confusion and even disdain this British gentleman must have received from Nigerian women as he emphatically ushered them into their potential death by snake bite.
  
This cultural nugget of difference is multiplied thousands of times with every new cultural context we enter.  Some issues are minor while others can lead to tremendous damage to relationships and potential opportunities to share the gospel. As disciples of Jesus it is important to first realize that those differences, both the deep and the shallow, will always be present when we move into cross cultural settings.  We then must do the hard work of trying to understand these differences to see where God is  already at work and how we can join him there.  This is hard work.  Just when we think we’ve figured something out we’ll run into nuances that will confound us once again.
  
If cross cultural ministry is something that you are or will be a part of then it is vitally important to do some homework.  Cross cultural ministry can happen in varying degrees wherever you are.  Crossing the ocean to engage with people from a different religious background that speak another language is of course more complex than a midwesterner traveling to New York City, but both are cross cultural ministry.
  
Regardless of the complexity and depth of difference between cultures, we can train ourselves to do better at recognizing both the differences and the opportunities they present.  Part of that training could be reading books like Foreign to Familiar by Sarah Lanier or Global Humility by Andy McCullough.  Context specific books like the one shared above can be a next step.  There are also great trainings for missionaries preparing to move overseas at places like Mission Training International and the Center for Intercultural Training. 

At Everywhere to Everywhere, we are dedicated to equipping and empowering the local church for cross-cultural ministry in their own communities. To support this mission, we’ve created a fun and interactive one-day training called the Strangers No More Training Module. This engaging experience, which can be done in any city in about 5-6 hours, includes:

• A Discovery Bible Study
• Interactive lectures and activities
• Lunch at an ethnic restaurant
• A cross-cultural scavenger hunt, where participants visit three to four immigrant-owned grocery stores
• A debrief session, enjoying snacks purchased during the scavenger hunt

This training has been a powerful way to help local congregations move beyond fear and build relationships with their new American neighbors—many of whom come from Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or Animistic backgrounds and have never had the opportunity to hear the gospel.

The goal of the training is twofold: first, to raise awareness of the diverse cultures around us, and second, to provide a foundational understanding of cultural differences. By doing so, participants can learn to love well and share the gospel with greater confidence and effectiveness.

If you’re interested in hosting your own Strangers No More Training Module, you can find a full event description and all necessary resources by clicking the button below.