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How to Share the Word of God in the Reservation
Rev. James Young Lee
Sharing the Word of God is such a greatly prestigious task.
Such work also requires huge responsibility.
There are roughly two kinds of ministers who visit the Reservation in terms of their idea of sharing the Word of God in the Reservation.
One is to avoid any chance to share, and the other is to try to share.
The former humbly excuse themselves for not knowing the locals but the latter try to share the Gospel or so.
Depending on their motives or rationales, we may say which one is better than the other, or even that it doesn't matter either way.
In any case, that will be their decision, which I can't change with a few words.
I will just go ahead to discuss how we may share the Word of God here in the Reservation based on my own humble and limited experience.
Share the ONLY Word of God.
Minimize the sharing of your own experiences, carriers, or academic achievements with degrees.
Personal stories like these do not mean much here.
This is not because the locals ignore speakers but because the stories are culturally foreign and irrelevant to them.
At best, it's a sounding gong and at worst, it can be an unpleasant bragging.
Of course some locals don't even care what the contents of the message might be.
However, that apathy is the hurdle that a speaker must overcome.
It is the task of a speaker to get through their hardened hearts and convey the message into their deep souls.
Don't be too naive to be pleased with their sweet comments or praises after a message, even a genuine expression of the message might be humbly accepted.
People are mostly nice enough to be sweet as long as you have not being hostile to them.
Minimize illustrations.
Minimize your testimonies.
Testimony may have its own virtue but that is from a totally different setting that hardly impacts the audience when it comes to how it brings change to their thoughts and lives.
In acknowledging the difficulties of impacting their lives in such a fragmented short-term opportunity, we must not waste that precious opportunity.
At the least, we have to be faithful in our service for the Word of God.
At this very point, I want to consider the goal of sharing the Word of God.
Mine is to bring change in their thoughts, faith, decisions, and actions that will bring them to obedience to God's intention for their/our lives, faith, and services by sharing the Word of God.
Knowing the Word is the truth and the power for our lives.
The realization of the Teaching of the Word of God in our daily lives is my goal of sharing.
I already have mentioned above not to disturb the core message with personal stories other than the Word of God itself.
One more thing that I want to consider is how speakers try to make some kind of cultural bridge with new audiences.
They try to establish a relationship or common ground with the audiences.
I see this in other occasions of short-term ministries in the Reservation- instances of ice breaking or getting to know each other.
For instance, some make an effort to share meals together.
Of course, eating together or treating them to food certainly helps in becoming friendly.
But a food relationship continues with food expectation.
Relationship with acupuncture service continues with needle expectation.
Only the Word-relationship lasts with spiritual hunger and spiritual relationship.
Certainly spicy seasoning helps but for a sincere spiritual relationship, we have to face them with the truly powerful Sword of the Word of God.
This is because our goal of sharing the Word of God is not just to be their good buddies.
When we share, there is a theme, a text, and a title.
Whatever the text or title you may present, they have already heard of it unless it's their first day in the church.
As nothing is new under the sun, there is no new message in the world.
If you continue with the attitude of "I've heard that message before" throughout and to the end, it may not be that bad, but it's not a good-enough sermon in achieving the goal productively.
We may have wasted such a rare opportunity.
Next, consider that even though there are not many formally educated and officially ordained pastors and there are many churches that do not have pastors in the Reservation, locals hardly invite outside ministers for the sharing of the Word of God.
That's why I NEVER volunteer myself to do that or even ask them to have somebody to be their speaker.
Even though they do not have a trained pastor for themselves and they have to take care of the situation by themselves by sharing personal feelings or testimonies, outside speakers who may have formal educations and official authentications do not mean much to them; even "Big Shots" too.
There can be several reasons for that which requires more time to be elaborated.
The point, rather, is that even though there can be acceptance by the locals for some other materialistic assistance from outsiders with that type of background, making the Kingdom of God a reality here in the Reservation with the Word of God is a different issue.
We must try to achieve the goal of Sharing the Word of God by Sharing the ONLY Word of God.
How are we going to do this?
As was challenged above, how will we overcome "bored audiences with the apathetic spoiled expectations" and share the powerful impact of the message so that they will go to the world with inspiration, enlightenment, and empowerment?
I want to share FOUR THINGS that I put my effort into for this purpose.
Share a message within the SCOPE.
Scope is from the beginning to the end, from the Genesis to the Revelation.
It doesn't mean that we have to get through the entire Bible for every point of the message.
But rather, we have to know the inclusive total picture of a particular point or teaching based on the WHOLE Bible.
This is how we give them a whole picture so that the audiences will not be conflicted by or struggle with partial or fragment teachings.
Seeing the whole picture will be an eye-opening, inspiring, and enlightening experience.
We have to share the message in DEPTH.
God's Word is deep and mysterious.
Mystery belongs to God.
As Paul was, we cannot know and explain all those mysteries.
That might be out of our own capacity.
However, if we do not even know the existence of those deep mysteries, it will be very difficult for us to share the Word of God in depth.
It is our responsibility to know, understand, feel, and share the depths of these teachings, even if the sharing may not be very obvious and clear.
We have to share the RICHNESS of the Word of God.
The Word of God is more precious than refined gold and sweeter than honey.
I don't know how precious gold is but I know how sweet honey is because I have tasted some very good local honey here in the Arizona wilderness.
Without knowing the taste, it would be very challenging to share.
The sweetness of the Word of God is not just like processed white sugar.
There are enough nutrients for our life, faith, and ministry in the Word of God.
Figuring out the nutrients in food is the responsibility of nutritionist but to figure out the goodness of God's Word is for a messenger.
Share the POWER of a message.
If we share a message as I have mentioned above, audiences should be empowered by the message.
The Word of God is more powerful and sharper than any double-edged sword in piercing, cutting, and dividing our body, mind, and spirit.
It exposes all of our inner being, eliminates impureness, and renews us.
When we read, hear, learn, and share we begin to know, understand, feel, be inspired, and eventually be empowered.
That's why I notice the importance of FEELING in the process.
This is not because that's the only important thing but because I might have been ignorant about the importance of feeling.
And also, I am concerned if there is anybody out there like myself.
Being deeply moved is rather feeling and an emotion.
Feeling or emotion has its own connotation in the Christian world nowadays.
The connotation can be more negative particularly for rationalists.
It is so because we have witnessed some negative and unproductive things as a result of emotional manipulation for certain religious activities.
We may say that there is certain degree of justice to be careful with emotional phenomenon.
However, the negative things are the pathological manifestations of emotion.
The physiology of emotion is one of the most important God-given aspects of human nature.
This feeling, which is based on the teaching of the Word, should be the source of the power which leads us to obedient action.
We have to be acutely aware of pathological manipulation of emotion, which might result in satisfying one’s personal evil desire.
At the same time, we must not overlook the importance of the physiological reality and function of emotion.
That's why we have to pay attention to the sequential order from hearing the Word to the obedient action; the order of knowing, understanding, feeling, encouraged, empowered, and being obedient.
Feeling without knowledge and wisdom can lead us into fanaticism, but feeling based on the knowledge of truth leads us to great obedience.
Without feeling there is no action.
Sharing the Word of God without a burning heart may not be better than the opposite extreme.
Even the Bible shows very strong emotional manifestation based on the truth of the Word of God.
When the Israelites heard the message from Ezra, they wept out of sadness and desperation due to their forefathers and their own sins and wrong doings.
Then, when they found out that the sad feeling was not the end but the beginning of renewing, they were encouraged, prepared and shared food, and celebrated together with great joy.
Immediately afterward, they began to reform themselves individually and communally for better obedient lives.
There is truth and FEELINGS in the Word.
I believe the POWER of the FEELING based on the TRUTH.
We see evidence of this not only in the written Word of God but also in our daily lives which will be continued.
Reading the above again, I realize the limitations of my own writing.
I am sorry to those who may be disturbed with exegetical task because of my inferiorly organized writing.
But it will be good enough for me if you think of it to be my struggle of sharing of the Word of God here in the Reservation.
I humbly wish that God may utilize those who write and read for the Word ministry to be even a little better on this earth until He may cover the whole world with the knowledge and wisdom of Him as the water covers the sea.
PS.
I used words such as "speaker/messenger" or "sermon" in this writing, but I’d prefer to try to use words such as "the one who shares the Word," or "sharing the Word of God."
I always remind myself that God the Father is the most important and greatest audience of my message.
I believe God Himself will give the message to His people when He is pleased with it.
I will still be a humble sharer and just do my best to be faithful to the Teaching of the Word of God.