A Great New Book..... Ministering in Honor-Shame Cultures: Biblical Foundations and Practical Essentials

Ministering in Honor-Shame Cultures is an awesome book! 

Authors Mark Baker and Jayson Georges have tied together both the basic needed foundations and practical examples/applications for understanding and ministering the gospel in cultures where honour-shame dynamics are dominant.

I have greatly appreciated interacting with Jayson Georges via the internet over the past few years from when I found him at honorshame.com and as we have shared (along with a growing number of others around the world) a common desire to see honour-shame dynamics play a greater part in reaching the Majority world with the gospel.  I was thrilled to discover he was writing a book with Mark Baker and reading the finished product was exciting!

The Authors

Both Mark and Jayson bring the 'best of both worlds' to their book.  They both have theological grounding as well as practical intercultural experiences to draw on.  The reader really gains a ' ourfold' benefit from the book - 2 scholars and 2 mission practicioners.  And while the 'home' culture of both authors is the USA, they served in different mission contexts, one in Central America and one in Central Asia.  This brings breadth as well as depth to the book, as examples are not from only one honour-shame cultural setting.  

The Book Structure

The book has been structured into three parts with three appendicies. 

Part 1 deals with the 'cultural' side of honour-shame.

Part 2 deals with the 'theologial' side.  

Part 3 builds on both the first two parts, to give 6 sub-sections of practical ministry application: Spirituality; Relationships; Evangelism; Conversion; Ethics; Community.  Each topic is examined as to how honour-shame as a dynamic effects the understanding and outworking of those aspects in a life and society which is rooted and directed by the governing social requirements of honour-shame.

The appendicies list for the reader: 1- Key Scriptures on Honour-Shame; 2-Biblical Stories Addressing Honour-Shame and 3-Recommended Resources

It is assumed the reader is a Westerner who has a guilt-innocence emphasis worldview and is having cross-cultural ministry into honour-shame emphasis contexts.

The Strengths of the Book

There is so much 'good stuff' in the book, it is hard to separate out particular points.  So much of the book reflects my own observations, analysis and conclusions that I often felt like the authors had somehow read my mind and beat me to writing my own book! But here are some highlights:

1. The book is the permeation of practical field examples of honour-shame dynamics working out in the real lives of real people. It not only connects the theory to the practical, but it helps build a pattern of how to look more deeply at what you might be observing.  One of the key issues in ministering in honour-shame dominant cultures is learning to identify and understand what is going on in front of you and to have a collection of examples will be beneficial to any reader.

While I am a very 'practical ministry' oriented person, I am also take a scholarly approach to ministry.  I want to be thorougly biblical and a student of the Word, for the purpose of bringing truth to the hearts of people for very grass-roots practical life transformation.  This book hits the mark.

It is a book of good balance - not too long, not too short, not too academic, but deep enough to warrant some serious thinking.  It is well rounded, keeps the reader interested with its balance of 'theory' and 'practical' and is a great place to start on a journey of effective ministry in honour-shame cultures.  

2. The book does well at 'debunking' various myths about honour-shame.  It is not always done in an obvious way, but I was impressed with how many myths they dealt with over the course of the book.

Just one example occurs on p37 - where they deal with how honour-shame cultures are often contrasted with 'right-wrong' cultures, inferring that honour-shame cultures don't have 'right-wrong' morality. This is pointed out as a wrong understanding, rather that honour-shame cultures just define right and wrong differently - according to community expectations and relationships.

3. I was impressed with the Biblical Theology section where they give the 'Baker-Georges Amplified Version' of the Beatitudes (p93).  My ministry and practical theology 'hobby-horse' is Deliberate Discipleship.  The foundation of such intentional discipleship is that we have to teach God's word and we must do it in such a way so that the hearer 'takes in' the word.  It has to resonate with them. It has to connect with their heart and thinking. Helping folk understand the realities of honour/shame in God's word through clearer translation/paraphrasing is vital.

Just as Westerners need the practical examples of honour-shame functioning in society to help us 'see' it better, we also need practical examples of how Scripture is soaked in honour-shame dynamics, so we can 'see' it more clearly.

4. On page 50 there is a diagram of several flowering plants growing in a garden to demonstrates that so many 'cross-cultural' observed differences ('plants') are the product of a soil type called 'honor-shame'.  Understanding the deeper root and soil issues overcomes the tendency to focus on the list of 'plants' - ie the neat sets of inter-cultural characteristic categories. When we focus on the plants and not the soil, we actually miss recognising the other 'plants' that maybe aren't 'on the list' and we also miss the opportunity to link the ' plants' together. We end up dealing with separated superficial behaviours rather than common root heart motivations.  If we are going to understand and deal properly with the 'plants' we have to know the soil they are in.  

5. Another strength of the book is the chapter on Ethics.  It deals with the 'good and the bad' so to speak of honour-shame emphasis cultures.  It helps the reader to see good where they might normally only see bad, as well as alert a reader to understand the areas that might need particular biblical attention for God-honouring change.  The need for teaching and showing a new honour code is emphasised, and I couldn't agree more!

6. Finally I want to list some 'quotables' which are great in themselves, but will also give you a further 'feel' of the book:

..patronage is the de-facto economic system. Honor, not money,, serves as the primary currency facilitating the tansaction of goods and services. p52

...truth in communication is defined relationally not logically p53

...Western communication is like a dowload that efficiently transfers information, Majority world communication is more of a dance where you avoid stepping on toes p53

...people determine status and identity by who they gather with not by the tasks they accomplish p54

…humans base their perceptions of other cultures more on emotional responses than cognitive reflection p61

...to only view the concept of honor-shame as an exegetical tool for reading biblical texts misses the forest for the trees. Honor and shame are foundational realities in God's mission and salvation that flow through the entire bible. p67

…sin breaks relationships (not just laws) p70

…any Christian theology of sin devoid of the theme of shame is clearly sub-biblical p73

...Jesus taught that honorable behaviour in God's eyes comes from things most often associated with cultural disgrace p95

..Shame is not an Asian or Arab issue; shame is an Adam and Eve issue p118

...our hearts fear what shame might do. Shame controls and defines us only when we live in fear of it p127

...Observing social rules all the time is never an obligation, but honoring people is a commandment from God, and that must be done in a way that makes sense to people. p160

...the church functions as a surrogate family whose gracious welcome frees people to unmask their shame p185

...Shame, not just guilt, is God's piercing voice, making people aware of their need for salvation p196

…Christians should not abandon the pursuit of honor. Rather they should passionately pursue the right kind of honor. p211

Other Comments

I hesitate to criticize but I do want to comment on something that I am glad to say in my own ministry, I am seeing is being 'proved wrong'…..

On page p35 the comment is made: "No group of people would self-identify as an honor-shame culture."

- in our corner of the world, we are actually beginning to see Africans (particularly on the academic end, but not only) understanding and describing their own culture as honour-shame. This is not so different from we as Westerners coming to understand our own cultures as 'guilt-innocence' and talking and writing in such a way so as to mention or reflect that.  I think when they come to understand that this is not a derogatory term but simply an observation and reality, and that guilt-innocence is no better or worse than honour-shame but both can be sinfully misplaced, then there is no need for hesitancy.  And as they come to realise that their honour-shame culture is just like the biblical world, they will come to see there is 'no shame' in being like people and society in bible times.  We certainly aim to not infer any inferiority when we talk to locals about it, but we do desire that they begin to understand it.  It actually helps them a lot to understand the basic anthropological differences as they also begin to understand why so much 'Westernism' seems to bring tension to their societies but they don't know why.  When we explain to them these dynamics, suddenly life around them starts to make sense. 

Who is the book for?

This book is rich from cover to cover and a 'must-have' for every missionary, every cross-cultural worker, every missiologist, every intercultural studies faculty member or student, every pastor, and dare I say, every Christian who wishes to reach out to his/her neighbour according to the great commission in our multi-cultural world.  I don't say this in a trite way, but because I truly believe it. 

This is an excellent book I hope will have wide readership and deep impact.

I received this book for free from the publisher, IVP Academic, in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Don't be ashamed to hang onto your pen!

photo credit

I don't feel old, but maybe its a sign of the reality of my age as I pass another birthday that puts me closer to 5 decades than 4, that I still prefer to sometimes hold a book and a pen in my hand rather than an electronic device.

I get excited when my 4 year old African 'grand-daughter' (who is proficient at playing learning games apps on her dad's touch screen smart phone) , comes to visit and says 'Gogo, I want to write!' ....so she goes and gets her little pink plastic 'lap table' from under my day bed with her pens and pencils and crayons and notebook and colouring book to 'write'!

('Gogo' is the Shona word for Grandma and is pronounced closer to a goo-goo sound as in 'book')

I spend hours at my laptop each day, researching, reading and typing away and there are many times I am very thankful I was taught typing so I can speed type - it means I can get thoughts down much faster and with less hand strain, than using a pen and paper.

But there are times that a keyboard and computer screen just don't 'make the grade'.  Drawing a chart or diagram on a computer is often too slow for me to get down what is whirling around in my mind. I need a pen and paper for that.  So alongside the files buried in the computer hard-drive is a ringbinder file full of 'jottings'.

I must say, that in our modern world of technology its almost too easy to feel ashamed if you don't use an iPad or iPhone and instead you carry a pen and notebook in your pocket.

But I want to say 

DON'T FEEL ASHAMED!   

&  

 DON'T GIVE UP YOUR PEN AND PAPER!

My hairdresser commented the last time I saw her, that our huge local power problems have reminded her that all our access to information is subject to power!  If Google was to collapse, or our power supply fails suddenly, we have no access to data. But this is not the only reason to not give up your pen.

Our brains actually function differently with our fingers on a keyboard and looking at a screen than with a pen and paper in our hands...and the pen and paper comes out on top!

I found a TedTalk on YouTube about the importance of the pen, by a young guy in his 20s, Jake Weldmann, who is the youngest Master Penman and an advocate of keeping the pen 'alive'.

He also explained that writing with your own hand is better for imprinting data into the brain than typing it.  He warned that although he is also a user of technology, if we are not careful, our 'clever' modern generation might find that technology is fast-tracking ourselves into illiteracy!

Watch the video here

He isn't the only one finding negatives with our 'attachment' to the electronic keyboard and computer screen.

Some University lecturers are even prohibiting tech devices in their lecture rooms and forcing students to take hand written notes.  (we are encouraged, since we do the same for certain parts of our discipleship programs).

An article in the Washington Post tells of a Professor of Media Studies at New York University, Clay Shirky who "allowed his students to bring laptops, tablets and phones into class and use them at will. But he just told students to put them away. He explains why below in a piece that first appeared on medium.com."

Writing on paper and reading a hard copy book is also good for our eyes.  While there are times I value the bright clear computer screen and the ability to enlarge the font, there are also other times when my eyes welcome the restfulness of a real book.  Sleep is also assisted by reading a 'real book' but is significantly hindered by the light of the screen in reading an e-book.

MedicalDaily  in a recent article listed some points about why we should put aside the ''e-reader' and start reading paper books again.

1. You're missing out on important information: "A 2014 study found that readers who used Kindles were less competent in recalling the plot and events in the book than those who used paperbacks."
2. E-books get in the way of sleepytime: "A recent study out of Harvard University found that reading an e-book before bed lessened the production of an important sleep hormone known as melatonin. As a result, people took much longer to fall asleep, experienced less deep sleep, and were more fatigued in the morning."
3. Screens=Stress: Reading helps you de-stress faster or just as fast as listening to music, taking a walk, or having a cup of tea or coffee, according to a 2009 study. When researchers measured heart rate and muscle tension, they found that people relaxed just six minutes into reading.But reading on a device might cancel out this effect, and may even impact your stress levels negatively.

And what about the effect of technology on our devotional and church life.  

Although there are electronic forms of the Bible and Commentaries etc etc and they are extremely helpful (I use them), and there are Apps to help organise your prayer life (which I don't use but some folk say they find helpful), I wonder about the distance we are putting between ourselves and our real paper bible and a pen in our hand. ...the tactile reality is better to imprint truth into our brain and the distractions are fewer. 

A pen and paper are also not as socio-economically exclusive as technology devices.  While many in the Western world have the access and funds to be able to buy such devices in multiple forms, there are many in the world that don't have that privilege.  If we aren't careful we may sadly make 'books' and knowledge the privilege of the elite!...

And here is a note to preachers - as much as there may be some positives in preaching from an iPad, I would like to suggest differently.  It is much more tangibly clear that God's word is the authority when the 'flock' can see that their shepherd is speaking from his open Bible.  

If you are visiting Africa to preach, please don't use your iPad for your notes out in the village church, or maybe even in the city church.  Please don't set a standard that the 'most honourable' and 'high' positioned preachers must use technology - because that is how it will be viewed by most who will see you.  Allow the most poor and 'lacking in technology' listener to know that power in preaching doesn't come from access to technology but from God and His word.  Let them see that they are equal to you and we are all one in Christ Jesus - neither Jew or Gentile, neither slave or free............neither user of iPad or Pen! 

It seems I'm not alone in my concerns, as just today I received an email highlighting a link to an article by African-American Pastor HB Charles Jr about 'Little Screens and Corporate Worship'. That article and another by him a while back, On Technology and Transcendence, reveal the issue is not one we can just turn a blind eye to.  He said :

"While I am grateful for all the ways the technology makes our lives easier, I am concerned about anything that aids our trivialization of the Almighty. And any medium that gets in way of the message. As we integrate our gadgets into our worship lives – or before we do so – we should think long and hard about whether our gadgets dull our sense of the majesty of God in worship or help us to see and sense the supremacy of God more clearly and deeply and joyfully. Could it be that using mobile devices in worship can be just as dangerous as texting while driving?"

So whether you are a mum who likes to read, a student at University or a Pastor preparing sermon notes......don't just 'go with the flow' in our world's rivers of technology.  

As Christians we should be the ones to 'consider our ways', the ones to want to allow ALL to access knowledge, and to encourage literacy (both reading and writing).  

Maybe we should consider, for all the immense knowledge and power of God, He chose to write with his own 'finger' into stone when he gave Moses the Law - you can't get more tactile than that.  I'm not saying we must all go and carve into stone, but we should not be too quick to leave the 'tactile' behind.

So.....Think before you turn on the screen, and instead reach for a real book, paper and pen.

Is Technology Helping or Hindering Missions?

For sure there are many ways in which technology is helping advance the gospel, especially in the areas of IT and the internet.

---Just to start with, the ministry we have been able to do with the Pocket Preacher Audio Player filled with over 300 hours of bible teaching and the audio bible is mostly the result of sourcing and communication that we are able to do over the internet.

---It is true that the cell phone has almost totally invaded Africa.  

Folk in remote villages far out in the centre of the Kalahari Desert even have cell phones. (although a large number don't have funds to make calls, they have a phone so they can receive calls!) - even our little 3 year old 'grand-daughter' knows how to use many aspects of her father's phone including the camera!

---It is also true that in the urban areas in particular a growing number of people have email addresses and some have smart phones, and there are 'dongles' available from cell phone companies to be able to access the internet via the cell-phone network.

---We have greatly benefited from the use of email to send communication to home offices, supporters and family, which not only speeds up processes but saves money.

In that way, of course the Internet is a help.

However, this picture can be very deceiving.  

What may appear to a Westerner that all of Africa now has total access to all that is on the internet, is simply not true.  

To use our context as an example:

• firstly a person has to have enough money to be able to buy internet time, and its not cheap when compared with western prices, 
• and they need access to electricity in some form.
• many people do overcome the need for power/cash by only using their office/work email address if they have one. This means though that they should only be attending to personal internet matters in their lunch break and what they can download and print off may be limited and they have no access at all in their non-office hours (weekends/holidays/after hours - the very times when a person actually has some time to read, they have no access).
• the best internet is available only through copper wire post-paid landline phones (pre-paid customers who are many, are not eligible) which a large part of the country doesn't have access to.
• - and that service is mostly incredibly slow.  While sometimes speed can be almost acceptable there are times when it has taken us 1.5hrs to download a 6.5MB document!
• if a person doesn't have access to a landline phone but has an internet equipped cell phone or a 'dongle' for their computer(if they have one), then they can buy 'airtime' for internet access.  But again speeds can be incredibly slow - so slow that secure webpages that require passwords sometimes can't be opened because the server times out during processing.
• there are no free wi-fi 'hot spots' that we know of except in high-end restaurants and many require you to be a patron before you can be given a code to gain access.  And not all restaurants have this service available for free, many charge a fee for a limited number of minutes.  
• there are a few internet cafes but the charges they have are prohibitive for most folk to do anything beyond a few minutes quickly checking a few emails.  And if the power is out, and the cafe has no back-up generator, there is no internet access at all.

Last week while Andrew was in town, he stopped at a cafe and was going to make good use of time and get some internet tasks done. He discovered the cafe charged a fee, but he decided to pay the fee anyhow, for the convenience of internet access.  However, just after he typed in the code and the timer started ticking, in walked someone he hadn't seen for ages. The person spotted him and came over for a chat.  By the time they finished chatting the time was almost 'up' and the money wasted.

So ............when a Western 'ministry' group announces with pride that they now have all their resources available for free on the internet, that isn't the whole story. Most people in Africa probably still can't access it.

We have just had word that yet another evangelical international Christian ministry, that up to now produced their excellent magazine in printed form, is no longer going to do so.  It will all be on the internet.  

So now, we can no longer subscribe to receive a printed copy.  

More than half the reason we subscribed was not just so we could read it, but so all the people who come through our house can read the copy from our coffee table, or borrow it later.  And when the copies get to be a couple of years old we send them to a Bible College for their library so all the rural pastors from various parts of Africa doing training there can have access to it for many years to come. 

These are people who now will NOT be able to benefit from the content of the magazine.  

Africa so desperately needs access to good solid bible teaching.  Printed teaching resources that are available to multiple readers is a great way to do this.

Of recent days/years we have had another major international daily devotional producer cease making printed copies available to Africa (we are not sure if anywhere else in the world can still get them). When we enquired we were told that people can now find them on the internet. 

We also know of a major strong, biblically sound producer of printed bible study booklets and sample sermons on CD who stopped producing both, saying they are now available on the internet for free.

Rather than being missions and 'God's global church' focused, the West is being very narrow minded and self-focused in making such decisions.

When an item is only available in electronic form or on the internet, that has impact in ways most Westerners don't even begin to comprehend:

• most people won't have access, but if they do ......

• only one person (the one who owns the computer or smart phone) can access the material and no one can access any other material similtaneously- essentially it can't be shared except with another person with current access to the internet on a separate device.

**** a book/magazine on the other hand can be read by many people over many years and even while the 'original owner' is reading something else!

• the material can only be accessed while the person has money, access to the internet and power to keep their device charged. If they want to re-access the same information later they have to pay for internet time again

****printed material can be read anytime and is not reliant on internet access or power or a charged device and can be read over and over for no extra expense

• if the material requires printing off or downloading, the person has to have a device large enough to store the data along with other data and/or ability to print off the material

****the cost of buying a book or bible study notes or other materials is actually normally cheaper than printing off one copy of the book even if there is no purchase cost, and the quality of the finished product is much more robust and long lasting than a bunch of A4 printed sheets that then have to be bound (more cost).

• to access something on the internet you have to fairly much already know what you are looking for specifically and go directly to that site/article or type a specific key word into a search engine

- whereas a book or magazine on shelf or a coffee table is there to browse even if you weren't thinking to do so or had never heard of it.

When sound Biblical teaching in printed form is withdrawn there are consequences...

When evangelical publications cease to produce material in printed form (whether books, cheap magazines or free booklets), it doesn't leave some neutral void. 

We can't just say: "its sad, but 'so be it' ". 

No, people will still read what they have access to - material from the cults and the like.  The JWs are still distributing literature.  The big 'Prosperity Gospel' churches such as "Pastor Chris of the 'Christ Embassy'", still distribute thousands if not millions of his basically free devotional book every year around the world, particularly across Africa. (see blogpost from Pastor Conrad Mbewe in Zambia about Pastor Chris to get an idea of the type of teaching that is flooding Africa)

And yet here we have strong, sound biblical resources not increasing the light of Christ in places like Africa, but shrinking it - shall we say hiding it under a 'bushel' (Luke 11:33) - the bushel of the mostly inaccessible internet.

So though Technology may be helping some aspects of missions, there are more and more other ways in which we feel it is actually taking missions backwards.  And it really saddens us. 

- not so much for ourselves
(though we prefer to not have to read everything on-line, we can make the effort to do so - but the truth is that less will be read).

.......but.....

......We are sad for Africa.  

......We are sad for Pastors who will now never read this magazine and the wealth of its content which could help equip them. 

......We are sad for new Christians who we can no longer 'sign up' to receive the daily devotional, and growing Christians we can no longer even buy some of the cheaply available great bible studies that were produced in printed form but are now only available on-line. 

We can't even afford to be printing all these items off, let alone find the time to do it - the average African hasn't a chance. 

In fact it almost makes us more than sad - it almost makes us mad!  

Is this really 'loving one another' when we don't make provision for those who have less than ourselves? 

We might give to missions in the Sunday offering but are we really thinking about what it means to be part of God's mission to the world?

What does God think?  

Is He Sad?  Is He Mad? 

Would Jesus have had a similar reaction to what he did in the temple when those who purported to be providing a service to God's chosen people were actually more interested in their finances than truly serving?...and thus many of those who wanted to be able to sacrifice couldn't because they simply didn't have the resources available to access what they needed or they had to spend more than they should to obtain it. Jesus called it theft!

Now those people would never have called themselves thieves or thought of themselves that way - they would have just thought they were maximising their financial opportunities!  

They didn't see themselves as guilty. ( Scripture tells us we are all busy doing 'what is right in our own eyes'.)  But they should have been ashamed of themselves.

But what about God's perspective?  For sure the money changers got a bit of a shock to be publicly labelled as thieves!  

We need to take a closer look at God's bigger perspective on this issue of cancelling printed media in favour of internet media only accessible to those with the wealth and a piece of technology to access it.

Supposed 'Cost Effectiveness' seems to be overtaking a missional perspective.

On one hand we hear so much about the need to 'Reach the Unreached' and yet some of the effective means to reaching many who are unreached are actually being removed.  Access to solid teaching in forms that many of the 'unreached' need it for it to actually 'reach' them, is being reduced.

Whatever happened to trusting the Lord for the further resources needed to reach those who need to hear who will not hear without a preacher - even if that preacher is a book/magazine/booklet?  

Whatever happened to innovation and creativity - maybe making the magazine smaller or produced less often or fewer colour pages or cheaper paper or...or ...or?

We would really like to somehow send a 'wake-up call' to the wider Christian world, with a plea especially for sound biblical groups to make every effort to NOT stop printed media and consider being 'missional' before simply being 'economical'!

This doesn't only affect places like Africa.

What about those in the 'West' who don't have a computer?  Not everyone does and its not only the elderly who don't.  The poor, the elderly and anyone else for whatever reason doesn't have access to the internet are all excluded as well when print media is removed.

However, in the midst of bad news there is some good news!

 - we want to mention one organisation that is not following the trend.  Randy Alcorn/Eternal Perspectives Ministries does make their magazine available on-line and does include a request with their printed versions that if a person can access it on-line to please do so.  However, when we wrote to them explaining why we still subscribe to a printed copy, they were right with us.  Thank you Randy and EPM!

That little magazine is read over and over again by various ones who come through our door and lives are being impacted.

What can you do to encourage a true missional perspective over supposed 'cost effectiveness'?  

What can you do to encourage and better love your brothers and sisters in other parts of the world?