Sipping a Latte at Firehouse Coffee in Prescott, Arizona, I came across this in my required reading of “Intercultural Communication for Christian Ministry” by Frank Tucker:
1: Combine an understanding of the Gospel with an understanding of contemporary worldviews.
2: Challenge contemporary worldviews where necessary and present the big story of the Bible.
What I got from this chapter was to listen first. I need to learn their worldview before I prayerfully assert mine. It’s difficult to “listen” in the traditional sense on social media. Listening can look like lurking on social media.
People on social media participate sometimes through quiet scrolling. They are the “listeners” of the online world. They read your statuses, pray for you, and stay informed, but rarely participate online. This, too, can be a way of learning another’s worldview in order to know how to serve that person and use contemporary ways to deliver the truth of the Gospel to them.
It’s especially important if the person online is from another country. If you don’t know the culture yet, you can fall into miscommunication fairly easy.
More later on this. I am 30% done with this book. It’s one of the required reading books as an appointee with WorldVenture. Sometimes, there just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done.