Dear Editor,
Paul Hinton (en December) shares his disquiet over church plants that produce churches full of students and young professionals, but neglect the huge estates which have no witness at all. This is sad, as church logos often indicate a wish to reach out to all.
There is a simple explanation: the residents of the estates are a people-group with a different culture. Just as an intending missionary from England to, say, India, has to learn how to minister to Hindu culture, a church planter to an estate, who has a Christian background, must learn how to evangelise people who may speak his own language but still have a very different, secular, culture. These ‘studenty/professional’ church plants are not cross-cultural.
The leaders were not trained for it – theological colleges please note! Their preaching assumes a Christian world-view and a good level of education, which are not usual on the estates. Churches can reference Greek and Hebrew words, while the estates people-group read The Sun. Preachers rarely illustrate the Bible passage or the doctrine with stories of how the gospel changes the lives of people like those who live on the estates. They have never heard of The Wordless Book or other gospel aids for people with little education.
Cross-cultural missionaries are specially trained – leaders of these church plants mostly aren’t.
Yours sincerely,
