The show today is a flashback to one of the most watched sessions of the 2022 church Mental health summit with Wilson Phang.
Wilson has been in full-time minister and an educator to those who are global workers. These are individuals serving in missions, cross-culturally.
He is the founder of Ministry Personnel Care and serves those who are unable to acquire care due to financial constraints or the lack of availability of adequate confidential care.
In his summit talk, he addresses how our worldview and our communication differences can be either a barrier or a bridge to sharing Jesus with different cultures.
Now I know I’m a bit different. I don’t say that in a self-deprecating way, I think we are all a little bit odd because we all have unique perspectives, opinions, and approaches to problem-solving.
For example, my husband and I are complete opposites. We rarely agree on how to do something like recently we have been doing some painting don’t and had to move some furniture around. When we moved it we did the classic 1,2,3 lift.
And we quickly realized that we think approach that differently. One of us lifted on three, and the other lifted after three.
In just about every area or problem, we instinctually think the opposite but we have remained married for 15 years because we respect and value the other person.
If you work with people, meaning that you, support, and care for people then you know that everyone has an opinion and it’s often different than yours.
For example, what I think is funny could be felt as offensive to others and a great example of that is a few months ago in my weekly newsletter I have a gif of someone yelling, “You can’t tell me what I can’t do”. I was using it as an illustration that if someone tells me I can’t do something I’m suddenly determined to do it.
I thought it was funny but shortly after I sent it I received an email saying that they did not appreciate opening an email and having a gif appearing like someone is yelling at them.
Wow, a perspective I totally did not see.
I had two choices. I could be annoyed and defensive. That person is so touchy or label them as sensitive or I could try to see the situation from their perspective.
Daily we are faced with this choice when our efforts and support are not met with the expected response we can choose to be annoyed, and defensive or we can avoid offense and see it from their perspective.
HOW WORLD VIEWS AND COMMUNICATION STYLES VARY
Wilson Phang brings culture into this conversation. We live in a multicultural world and our individual worldviews and communication styles can vary.
I love how Wilson identifies 3 world views that can influence how people accept both the gospel message and the care we offer.
- Shame and honor cultures,
- Fear and power cultures, and
- Justice (guilt and innocence)
Wilson shares that these broad categories affect how people act and perceive each other and understanding these differences requires a great deal of humility and patiently working towards understanding each other, especially in care ministry.
WHAT PROMPTS A PERSON TO REJECT THE GOSPEL
There are a couple of reasons why someone may reject the Gospel and Wilson shares that this may be because of:
- The Gospel is being presented by people who are disingenuous
The Good News as shared in the Bible to some people is agenda based. Matthew 28:19 highlights the Great Commission where Jesus Christ urges his apostles to make “disciples of all the nations” and “baptize” them.
This calls for people to encourage others to become followers of Christ. Much as this is light to others, it can be a problem to other people who are not concerned about what the Great Commission has to offer.
We are called to disciple people and not make them Christians however through our work and ways we can encourage them to become followers of Christ.
- It is being presented in a way that is inditing them
When we speak to people about repatriation for sin, some may feel judged by individuals who also fall short and because of this it is hard to convince them about the Good News
- They find the Gospel not relevant to them
The Gospel is written to different people and scenarios that may seem irrelevant to individuals in different settings.
As Christians, we should be able to understand where people stand at the moment and draw relevance from the Gospel to how it applies to their lives.
It is important that we address people from where they come from as this will help them easily internalize the Gospel and get closer to God.
CONNECT WITH WILSON PHANG
Socials: LinkedIn
CONNECT WITH HOPE MADE STRONG
Websites: HopeMadeStrong.org
Socials: Facebook – Instagram – Twitter – YouTube
Join the Church Mental Health Facebook Group! In the Facebook group, we chat about how to care for others, and what are your challenges as well as share tons of resources. This is a great community of pastors, clinicians, and those with lived experience and we want to get to know you.