Follow UP on "Jesus and Jazz"

On the Desiring God Blog you will find a short blog written by Jason Harms that is awesome. Please take a moment to read it... http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1587_Jesus_and_Jazz/ or you can click the Desiring God Blog link to the right. This blog explains how beautiful the Lord works in culture and how we must take individuals as well as people groups into account......not just Americanized form of the gospel. God can use so many different ways to show the same message and we should pray that he will reveal that to us as we witness. But here is the question, "Why do we only think cross cultural reach out is reaching out to other countries?" I don't know why so many focus like that. What I see as I think about my own situation is this... there is a married couple above me from somewhere in Latin America, just a few apartments over there are Asian families that live there and most of them can't speak english well, depending what mall we go to it shows the way we would talk to people (high vs. low class), one neighborhood can be predominately white, the next Asian, then the next African American. So how can we look at our own neighborhoods and town or city any different? We have barriers right here to break through. Study who you are going to reach out to...get to know them and don't be the American Christian that brought the gospel wrapped in an American package that is difficult to understand, but be the guy from a different place that understands the culture and the ways of living and knows how to share effectively.

http://www.thearda.com/

Check that site out. It will help you see the diversity in your own town and possibly help you know how to minister to the community around you.