Missionary Skill No. 80: Curiosity

Curiosity: bad for the cat, good for a Christian on mission.

If you’re going to reach out beyond your comfort zones in order to interact in meaningful ways with people who are not like you, it’s helpful to foster a healthy sense of curiosity. Curiosity, of course, is a strong desire to know something. It’s the drive to explore, to study, to investigate, to understand. It’s the reason we try new things or take things apart.

Applied to culture, curiosity is what leads someone to explore the different ways people from all walks of life express themselves and solve life’s challenges. Have you ever wondered why people in the West tend to greet one another with a handshake while folks in the East greet with a bow? Have you ever thought about how meals in cultures around the world have basically the same categories and set out to explore the ingredients that make them unique? Have you ever heard the story behind a cultural expression and found it so compelling that you incorporated it into your own? These

People who aren’t curious are content to navigate life with just as much insight and understanding as they currently have. These are people restricted to deal in assumptions, stereotypes, and ignorance. But God’s people know that there is always more to learn. Our pursuit of Him (and His pursuit of us) compels us to explore nuance, details, perspectives, and effects of the world around us. This curiosity makes us better missionaries.

How to foster a sense of curiosity:

• Ask why? If you know any 3-year-old children, you’ve heard them ask why? “It’s time for dinner.” Why? I’m sorry, but you can’t have ice cream for breakfast. Why? We only draw on paper! Why? Their young brains are trying to understand the world around them, and the answers to why? help them make connections and see how one thing might relate to another.

  Adults, likewise, should ask why? Literally. Make it a habit of responding to everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or feel with this simple yet profound question. Like solving a mystery by following a trail of clues, each why? will lead you to another piece of information. After a while, you’re bound to stumble upon something that interests you.

• Thought exercises. Consider the most interesting thing you’ve observed in the last day or so. Maybe it’s something remarkable, maybe it’s something mundane. Stop and give yourself 10 minutes to think through how that thing works. Traffic: a chain reaction to someone not merging from one lane into another in a timely fashion. A stapler: a lever that makes it easier to push pre-formed pieces of metal wire through sheets of paper and then conveniently bends the ends of the wire in on themselves in order to fasten the pages to one another.

  These thought exercises may not at first be very fulfilling, but eventually you’ll start to see patterns in the series of small things that make up more complex things. Entertain hypotheses about things you can’t easily know, and then test those theories with a quick Google search, “How does work?”

• Share what fascinates you. Did you know that "huh?" is the closest thing humans have to a universal word? Can you believe that fortune cookies are not from China? (try San Francisco.) You may be surprised that Muhammad (or one of its variants) is the most popular name in the world? Sharing something that you find remarkable is a great way to connect with other people. It can also add social incentive to be more curious–if you are always on the lookout for interesting tidbits of information to share with your friends and family, it might spark curiosity about a variety of things.

• Try new things. Eat food from another country. Wear clothing that isn’t your first preference. Listen to music that you may initially find off-putting. Push yourself (and those you’re discipling!) to try new things on a regular basis. As you do, resist the urge to point out what you don’t like about the new thing, and try instead to find something that you can affirm. The more you try new things, the better at it you’ll become. Before too long, your old standbys will seem boring; new and different will be more interesting to you.

Why should God’s people foster a sense of curiosity? Because our mission is to make disciples–not only of people who are like us, but also of people who are not like us. This requires interaction outside our comfort zones. Curiosity motivates us to expand (or ignore!) our comfort zones, which opens up opportunities to relate to people across cultural, linguistic, political, and social barriers.

What’s more, God made humankind to have a lot in common with each other. Whatever it is that you’re curious about–stories, art, math, science, medieval dance, chemistry–odds are that someone who is quite different from you shares that same curiosity. Your curiosity can be a great opportunity to relate to people!

Missionary Skill No. 29: Take Up A Hobby

Bass boats, television series, politics, the local food scene. For God’s people it’d be easy to see these things as temporal, fleeting, worldly, distractions. Who has time to read a book, play a sport, or shop for a used motorcycle? We want to invest in these things matter!

Pastimes, hobbies, and entertainment may seem trivial, but to the people around us, they can be sources of influence, community, and even identity. Our friends and neighbors spend inordinate amounts of time (and money!) participating in things that occupy their time and energy. These are the things people enjoy doing, and they are opportunities for you to connect and make disciples of Jesus.

You may notice that for an increasing number of people, hobbies are becoming more than just hobbies. People often find community around their favorite activities. See, for example, the Talking Dead community around the popular AMC show “The Walking Dead.” What started as a forum for discussion about the show has grown into a full-fledged community with meetups, conferences, and viewing parties. Similar communities have formed around many other hobbies, comic book culture gathers around events such as ComiCon, diy home renovators and decorator now routinely make pilgrimages to Chip and Joanna Gaines’s Magnolia farm in TX, and the Good Guys car shows are basically family reunions of classic car enthusiasts.

Maybe it’s because we have more free time than ever. Maybe our connectivity enables it. But people increasingly find their identity in their hobbies. Our chosen areas of interest have somehow come to shape who we are (or, at least, how we see ourselves). You’re not a guy who rides a Harley-Davidson, you’re a biker. Star Trek fans are Trekkers (not “Trekkies!”). Political policy fans are wonks. It isn’t enough to do a hobby, you have to become a fan.

Unfortunately, the sense of belonging and identity people get from their hobbies can compete with the Creator for our affections. For many, hobbies have become socially-acceptable idols–the thing people orient their lives around. It’s important that God’s people maintain God-centered as they engage in hobbies so that these free-time activities stay just that!

Despite their potential for misuse, participating in a hobby is a key missionary skill. A hobby can provide connection, understanding, and communication assistance while helping God’s people be subculturally present with the people to whom we’ve been sent. Here are some things to keep in mind as you take up a hobby in your pursuit of God’s mission among all people:

Be a learner. As disciples of Jesus, we maintain the posture of a learner. When it comes to culture, we are careful to avoid the posture of consumer and instead study culture for the benefits of connecting and communicating with people. As learners, we should ask lots of questions and allow our assumptions to be challenged while we measure everything against the teachings of Jesus.

Choose wisely. All hobbies are not created equal. Some require great financial investments. Others take lots and lots of time. Some push you into isolation, while others may facilitate interaction. Hobbies that fuel pride or envy (some social media, ), arouse lusts (adult discussions, some arts), or glorify evil or violence are dead ends for Christians. Book and movie discussion groups, outdoor/sports activities, music-making, cooking/dining, and local community service are great places to start.

Join where you’re interested. God made you unique! What appeals to you may not appeal to everyone around you, but may certainly appeal to someone out there. As you consider all the things you might spend time doing, look for something that appeals to you. If you’re interested in the hobby, you’re likely to have more in common with others who share that interest. Your interest may also help you bring the gospel to bear on the perspective of fellow enthusiasts!

Be on your guard. Culture is not neutral, it actively tries to pull you into human-centered thinking and behavior. Songs and stories are powerful things that can have even subliminal effects on how we see ourselves and the world around us. As you deliberately allow yourself to be exposed to cultural influences, be on your guard: prayed up, informed, filled with God’s spirit, and ready to combat the lies of the world with the truth of God’s Word.

Don’t go alone. The Christian life was never meant to be lived alone. This means that our orientation is toward community. As you wade into the pastimes of those to whom you’ve been sent, take someone with you. This will provide an opportunity for discipleship, as you model how God’s people should relate to cultural influences, but it will also provide a certain level of accountability. God’s people on mission never go alone–not to the ends of the earth, not to the multiplex, and not to neighborhood association meetings.

Find bridges. Most cultural influences involve some level of narrative– books, movies, television, podcasts, etc. all include agendas of some sort. As you study the messaging, evaluate it compared to the truth according to scripture. Oftentimes, a neighbor’s commitment to fishing is less about the fish and more about getting away from the daily grind and being alone in the calm of nature. Movies can be an escape from reality or illustrations to help us understand real-world problems in new ways. Investigate what it is about these hobbies that attracts people, and there you’ll find a gospel application to the human condition.

As God’s people on mission to make disciples, we must look for ways to connect with the people to whom we’ve been sent. We actively seek out opportunities to join people where they are and call them to repentance and faith. As we take up hobbies, we can proclaim the gospel clearly and model it personally for others to see and respond to.

Missionary Skill No. 64: Empathy

The word, empathy means “entering into someone else’s feeling.“ It’s often confused with sympathy, (literally, “to feel with”), but where sympathy carries a connotation of pity or feeling sorry for, empathy is more about putting oneself into the shoes of another and feeling the same thing he or she is feeling.

When we feel what people are feeling, we can know how to communicate the gospel to them in a way that demonstrates God’s goodness, nearness, compassion, and love for them. The alternative is to stay at a distance from people, maintaining the disconnection between the message and its intended recipients.

What are people feeling? When we remember that those who are not in Christ are utterly dead in their sin, it’s easier to understand that they might be feeling hopeless, helpless, frustrated, angry, alone, lost, anxious, curious, self-righteous, put-upon, etc. To all these concerns, Jesus is the answer. But it isn’t enough to simply say that Jesus is the answer; we need to show it, too.

Empathy is a missionary skill because without it, God’s people remain at a debilitating distance from those to whom we’ve been sent. Our mission is to close the distance between ourselves (as Christ’s ambassadors) and the recipients of our message so that we can not only communicate the Good News about Jesus, but also apply that Good News to real life situations. We become like those who do not know Christ in order to communicate and demonstrate what life in Christ might look like in the cultures in which we find ourselves.

In the Incarnation, Jesus modeled this sort of missionary posture for us. Hebrews 4:15 reminds us that our high priest (Christ) is able to empathizes with our weaknesses because he was tempted in all the ways we are. It’s important to note that though he entered into our feeling (empathy), he did not join us in sinning. Likewise, it is the job of a missionary people to join people where they are (in feeling, station, location, concern, rhythm of life, etc.) but not participate with them in sin.

To practice empathy, consider these steps:

• Pray. God knows and loves the people to whom you’ve been sent. Pray that God would give you love, insight, understanding, empathy, and patience as you seek to empathize. Remember that the Spirit of God enables us to love even our enemies and to bless those who may even be antagonistic toward us.

• Move close to people. Proximity is essential to sympathy. This includes physical proximity (being where they are, spending time in the same environments and conditions) as well as emotional proximity (connecting in a personal and emotional way). In every case, moving close to people requires action on our part- action that will likely be uncomfortable, challenging, and risky.

• Listen and observe. We gain insight by paying attention. In order to empathize, we must do our best to understand were people are coming from. Ask questions, and listen to their answers with the goal of understanding. This allows us to address the questions people are actually asking (rather than the ones we assume they have).

• Let your guard down. When we allow ourselves to feel what others are feeling, we become connected to them in ways that facilitate discipleship and community. In order to do this, we must suspend judgement, be slow to take offense.

• Reflect. As you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes (metaphorically and maybe even literally!), be sure to take time to stop and think about your own feelings. I recommend keeping a journal (or a private blog of sorts) that can help you record and process. Self-awareness will help you lean in to someone else’s pain because, lets’ face it– we all seem to have pain of our own, so joining someone else in their pain can be, well, painful.

• Echo. Try to articulate the feelings of the other person in your own words, but in such a way that the they identify with. This will help them feel understood, and will help you know if you’re understanding.

• Comfort with the gospel. Sometimes, when we join people in their pain, we try to comfort by minimizing their problems or with self-help solutions. But the ultimate comfort is that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! Be sure our empathy points people to Jesus.

Missionary Skill No. 28: Eating What's Put Before You

In Luke 10, we read about a time when Jesus sent his disciples on a short-term mission trip. The instructions he provides in verses 2-12 (the pre-trip orientation, if you will) are vague and slightly confusing. I imagine type-A mission team members would not be satisfied with a pre-trip orientation that consisted of: “If a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.” Nevertheless, one guideline Jesus lays out for his sent-ones is simple: “When you enter any town, and they welcome you, eat the things set before you.” (v.8)

God’s people on mission eat what’s put before them.

The idea is further explained in 1 Corinthians 10, where Paul gives believers the go-ahead to eat whatever unbelieving hosts may serve them “without raising questions for the sake of conscience” (v. 27) “for the glory of God.” (v. 31) . It turns out that our willingness eat what’s put before us in order to “please everyone in everything,” (v.33) is directly related to people hearing the gospel!

The missionary skill here—eating what’s set before you— has to do with our posture before those to whom we’ve been sent. Because we represent the Sender, and our job is to make sure His message gets through to people, we’re supposed to be good guests.

Believe it or not, eating what’s set before you can be quite difficult for Christians today. Coming from environments where food is plentiful and options are many, we’ve all become quite picky in our eating habits. We tend to focus on taste, texture, and nutritional value of what we eat. But what if we made sure to consider mealtime an event? An opportunity to spend higher-quality time with others? When you eat with someone, you engage with them in a personal, vulnerable sort of way. Food reflects personal culture–our family, our story. When someone serves you a meal they made, they’re inviting you into that story.

As someone who has had the opportunity to eat bugs, dog, offal, and possibly, things I thought were something else entirely, I know what it’s like to want to just say no. But I’ve seen first-hand the difference it can make for a personal relationship when we just eat what we’re served. And, though I’m not proud of it, I have put up my share of barriers between me and my hosts by turning up my nose at the food they’ve set before me.

5 Steps to get you ready to eat what’s put before you:

1. Prayerfully decide to put your personal preferences aside for the sake of the gospel. This commitment will make all the difference when whatever is on your plate is staring back at you.

2. Practice eating outside your comfort zone. You may be a “meat and potatoes” kind of guy, but the majority of the world eats, well, other things. Fortunately, we live in a society where we have access to all kinds of food from all around the world. Expanding your culinary horizons will at least help you get used to eating foods you’re not, well, used to.

3. Be respectful! Remember that in the world, food is precious. Too many people on the earth do not have enough food to eat, and cannot afford to be picky. If you keep this in mind, you probably won’t be tempted to waste, turn up your nose, or make fun of people who eat this strange food.

4. Don’t ask what’s in it. Sometimes, it’s not the food that our taste buds reject, it’s the association our minds make with the ingredients. Sometimes, it’s better not to know that this chewy stuff is intestines or that the slimy stuff is maggot cheese or whatever.

5. Smell affects taste. Some fearless food tasters find that holding their breath while eating can help make a strong-smelling food go down a bit easier. Another trick is to associate this new food with something more familiar (“Tastes like chicken!”).

6. Ask about the story. How is this food prepared? What does the host like best about it? When is it typically eaten? Asking questions can help provide insights that open up opportunities for good conversation.

It’s no wonder God’s people are encouraged to eat whatever food is served to them: being a good guest can establish the kind of social posture that can provide opportunities to share the gospel, build relationships, and make disciples.

Missionary Skill No. 37: Identifying Community Challenges

Everywhere people live, you’ll find issues related to living well together. Investigating these can be a great way to learn the story of your city and have meaningful conversation with neighbors. But beware! Choosing to engage with one side of these challenges may negatively affect your ability to engage with the other side. Many well-intentioned Christians accidentally offend people before they even understand the implications of taking sides.

Here are a few examples from the U. S. :

A cab/rideshare driver can be a great cultural informant.

Uber/Lyft vs. Taxis

If you don’t ever use these, you’re missing tremendous opportunities to engage with people in your town. But be careful which option you choose! In many places, traditional cab drivers are being put out of business by unfair practices.

Here’s a great article explaining the issues.

Supporting neighborhood schools can be a complicated matter.

Public vs. charter schools. If you have kids, you need to know the issues around public and charter schools. Even if you don’t have school-age children, it’s a discussion that resonates with every citizen and goes way beyond the education system: should the government support alternatives to public services?

Here’s a summary of the charter school debate.

Public transportation. If you live in the U.S., you may not have the best public transportation system, but trains, trams, and buses help with traffic, pollution, and poverty. Those who rely on these don’t usually have the influence to improve them.

Wired did an article on this that’s worth reading.

Zoning laws. The local government decides how land in your city may be used: residential, commercial, industrial, mixed-use, etc. Oftentimes, zoning designation is arbitrary and may prevent a neighborhood from developing what it needs. 

Here’s a perfectly nerdy explanation.

Your community has many challenges like these. Investigate them with an open mind, and see what opportunities God provides! #mission #tradecraft #disciplemaking