THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in our Multicultural World ! 1 THE GLOBAL GOSPEL Achieving Missional Impact in our Multicultural World Werner Mischke 27 September 2013 © 2013 by Werner Mischke / Mission ONE / [email protected] !!!!! THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in our Multicultural World ! 2 © 2013 by Werner Mischke / Mission ONE / [email protected] !!!!! THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in our Multicultural World ! 3 GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in our Multicultural World CONTENTS Introduction The baseball try-out that forged in me a shadow of shame!...................................1 Section 1: It’s a multicultural world and it’s hard to understand!.......................................5 1.1!Unreached people across the street and around the world!...................6 1.2!The Bible: It’s not your book!!...............................................................11 1.3!Why our blind spot about honor and shame?!......................................17 1.4!The canopy of biblical truth!..................................................................23 1.5!Does it hurt or does it heal?!.................................................................29 1.6!The pathology of shame in our world!...................................................33 Section 2: Hidden in plain sight—dynamics of honor and shame in the Bible!.............41 2.1!Love of honor!.......................................................................................42 2.2!Two sources of honor: Ascribed and achieved!....................................50 2.3!Challenge and riposte!..........................................................................54 2.4!Image of limited good!..........................................................................60 2.5!Body language!.....................................................................................66 2.6!Concept of face!....................................................................................69 2.7!Patronage!............................................................................................74 2.8!Purity!....................................................................................................85 2.9!Name / kinship / blood !......................................................................101 2.10!Honor-status reversal as a motif of the Bible!.....................................119 Section 3: A global gospel for our multicultural world Overview about contextualization / The seed of the gospel / Conversation within Scripture /!..........................................................................136 3.1!A gospel shaped by the “love of honor?”!...........................................144 3.2!A gospel shaped by the “two sources of honor?”!...............................148 3.3!A gospel shaped by the dynamic of “challenge and riposte?”!...........152 3.4!A gospel shaped by the “image of limited good?”!.............................156 3.5!A gospel shaped by the dynamic of “body language?”!......................157 3.6!A gospel shaped by the “concept of face?”!........................................162 3.7!A gospel shaped by the dynamic of “patronage?”!.............................166 3.8!A gospel shaped by the dynamic of “purity?”!.....................................172 © 2013 by Werner Mischke / Mission ONE / [email protected] !!!!! THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in our Multicultural World ! 4 3.9!A gospel shaped by the dynamic of “name / kinship / blood?” !..........179 3.10!A gospel shaped by “honor-status reversal?”!....................................183 Summary: Believers have no honor deficit!.......................................................187 ADDENDUMS #1: Read the Bible and see the honor/shame dynamics!....................................190 #2: Witness of the Word, the world, the church— leads to what next steps?!...................................................................................191 #3: Does the Bible have a single overall emotional landscape?!........................192 #4: He gave me his blessing!..............................................................................193 BIBLIOGRAPHY!................................................................................................194 © 2013 by Werner Mischke / Mission ONE / [email protected] !!!!! THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in our Multicultural World ! 1 INTRODUCTION The baseball try-out that forged in me a shadow of shame This is the baseball glove I had as a boy— an “Al Kaline” Wilson-brand glove. A LOVE FOR BASEBALL I remember as a boy going to bed at night and secretly listening to the radio broadcasts of the Rochester Red Wings. The announcers painted a picture of the game, the players, the drama. Would he get the big hit? Would my team win? Winning feels so wonderful. I did not want my parents to know that I was doing things like this. My affection for baseball was a secret. My parents didn’t care about baseball. They were German. When I was in tenth grade, I decided to go out for the high school baseball team. I decided to go for it, and try to make the team. The process was to stay after school and meet somewhere outside. It was called “try-outs.” You would practice and you would do your best. If you were good enough, you made the team. Of course, I had to have my baseball glove along for try-outs. But I remember on the first day of try-outs, I forgot my glove! How could I do that? It was so new—bringing my glove to school. This glove that I nurtured had always represented a non-school activity. Now I was connecting love for a game with school. Plus bringing my glove to school meant explaining to my mom or pop, German-born Americans with no appreciation for baseball, that I was bringing the equivalent of a toy to school. That was an obstacle right there; bringing my glove to school. What would I tell them? Something like, This is what I’m doing—and I don’t much care what you think. It feels a little dangerous, risky, unsettling—even today. I don’t remember exactly what I told them. In any case, I was out there. I was trying. I had my glove. I felt unsure of myself; this was all so new, but I was asserting myself to prove I could do it. © 2013 by Werner Mischke / Mission ONE / [email protected] !!!!! THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in our Multicultural World ! 2 My dream was to play and score and be on a winning team. Would I succeed? Would I make the team? Would other guys want me on their team? Would I be good enough? My little manhood was at stake. MY “POP”—GERMAN FATHER WITH AN ILLNESS My father, Guenther Mischke, was born in Germany in 1925. He died in January 1992 at age 67. I called him Papi as a little boy, and Pop as I became a teenager. Pop was tall, about 6-2. He was warm and had a good sense of humor. I remember him laughing and I loved it when he laughed. He deeply loved my mom and his three children. He loved me and I loved him. With his family, he attended Latta Road Baptist Church. He and my mom took us to church every Sunday. I believe that one of the defining things about Pop was that he saw himself as a failure. Although I loved him, as a teenager I saw him as a failure, too. As a little boy, until I was in my early teens, Papi gave me affection and discipline. When I needed to be spanked, he occasionally did so. He kissed me once in awhile, maybe every night at bedtime. He pretended to be Santa Claus at Christmastime. Sometimes, he was fun and laughed very hard. Pop became mentally ill when I was 14 years old or so. He lost his job taking care of the tools at a tool-and-die company where he had worked all the years that I remember. He never had another full-time job. I remember my mother gathering my two sisters and me in a little sharing time. Mom said something like this: “Pop is sick. He has manic depressive psychosis.” This disease is now sometimes called by another name: bipolar disorder. This is why he lost his job. This is why my mother had a nervous breakdown. This is why there was once a huge conflict between my father and my uncle as they sat in our driveway in his car. This is why there were so many heated arguments between my mom and pop in our home. This is why I would go to bed at night and pray, Lord, please give me wisdom to say the right things so that there isn’s so much anger and conflict and yelling. I felt this crazy responsibility of behaving in such a way that I could bring a modicum of healing to my family. This is why Pop embarrassed me and made me feel ashamed. ====================== It was springtime, probably March of 1971. I remember going out for the baseball team at Greece Olympia High School. I was in tenth grade. I had not yet made a growth spurt because I entered puberty later in my teen years. I think of myself as being skinny with moderate height. Nothing impressive, physically. We were outside on the front grounds of the school—not on a baseball diamond. The varsity High School team was out on the real baseball diamonds in the back of the high school. The drills were simple. The coach would hit a ground ball and I would gather it in my glove and throw it back. We had begun doing this drill. I remember I was not fielding the ball very well, always hoping to do better the next time. Then I saw my father nearby. © 2013 by Werner Mischke / Mission ONE / [email protected] !!!!! THE GLOBAL GOSPEL: Achieving Missional Impact in our Multicultural World ! 3 I’m thinking: Oh no! What is Pop doing here?