Going Native

When I was working in industry as a consultant one of things we were warned against was "going native." I would be tasked to go into an organisation to analyse the way they worked, particularly their manufacturing processes, with a view to challenging them to change to become more efficient. Short term assignments would not present a problem, but longer term assignments - those taking months or even years - could result in one becoming to empathetic with the people, becoming "one of the lads" which would make it more difficult to implement change, or more commonly, not notice where change was needed.

This week at the WEBA Ministers conference we had a speaker - Malcolm Duncan - who suggested that this can happen when we are reaching out to the community. We start with an intent to meet the needs of people and share the gospel, but end up being one of the people and forget why we were originally doing this. I must say that I believe he is correct; I have seen many amazing projects and initiatives over the past few years that began as a way to share the gospel, but ended up being a social enterprise with the message of Jesus hidden or even absent.

As a church with a clear community vision we have to ensure that we keep the gospel of Jesus in our hearts and minds, and that our continuing desire reflects the words of the Northumbria Canticle that Jesus is "in the hearts of those to whom we speak, and on the lips of those who speak unto us." That whilst we go into a community to meet their physical, social and emotional needs, we are clear that our strong hope and ultimate objective is that they will come to know the Jesus that we know. We will not keep him hidden, but through our words as well as our actions we will be proclaiming the truth of Christ.