I am obsessed with culture. Culture is invisible, powerful, and hard to articulate. And because we are swimming in its waters, we are often unaware of how powerfully those currents of culture are shaping who we are, what we do, and why we do it.

My family and I lived abroad for four years. Serving on staff as a worship leader at a church in the United Kingdom. When you are removed from the familiar, your invisible culture quickly becomes visible. The same is true when you inhabit a new culture. In returning Stateside, I assumed that navigating American culture would be easier - it was my culture after all. But armed with the experience of another culture, and with an awareness of my own, I realized that all ministry is cross-cultural.

All ministry is cross-cultural because we live in the world but as followers of Jesus we are not of this world (John 17:16). All ministry is cross-cultural because although we may be citizens of a particular country, our true citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). All ministry is cross-cultural because we are all temporary residents, passing through as exiles in a foreign land (1 Peter 2:11, Jeremiah 29:7).

We minister to those inhabiting a world and a culture that seems normal and familiar. Part of our role is to show there is a greater kingdom, one that is near, now, and not yet. We live as ambassadors of this heavenly kingdom. We must be students of the culture - the one we inhabit right now, as well as the one to come - to point people to the beauty of the better Kingdom. As we study our cultures we can see that all culture-making is an attempt to build what is only truly realized in the culture of Christ’s kingdom.

There is beauty in this world and in our cultures. There are things that can be redeemed, and things that need to be rejected. And part of the work of cross-cultural mission is helping people identify the difference between the kingdom that is fading away and the kingdom that will last forever.