Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – Complications of Communicating the Gospel: Why We Should Take the Culture of the People Seriously

By Adrian de Visser
April 2007

Aristotle viewed communication in relationship to three points of reference: speaker, speech and audience.1 Based on his view, a simple hypothetical assumption about communication can be developed:

SPEAKER  →→→  SPEECH  →→→  AUDIENCE

In reality, communication is a more complex process because the truth communicated does not travel in a vacuum before the audience encodes the message; rather, it travels through an already programmed mind, which has a distinct worldview and culture. The figure below illustrates this reality:

Culture X

   Culture Y
 

      Worldviews/Ways of perceiving the world       

  

 S          M

E   E

             Cognitive process/Ways of thinking

 M   R

E  D      E

 O        E

U N      S

   C    S

       Linguistic forms/Ways of expressing ideas

 S  E  

P S    O

 R   O

C  D

             Behavioral patterns/Ways of acting

 S   C    N

D   A  O
  E       A    D         E

 

When the source in “Culture X” encodes a message, that message passes through a cultural grid or screen, which largely determines the way in which that message will be decoded by the respondent in “Culture Y.” This grid or screen has seven dimensions, which collectively influence the message and the way in which the respondent will decode the message.2

Communicating to the Buddhist Community
Communicating the gospel to the Buddhist community in Sri Lanka could be illustrated by the figure below:

           Buddhist ascetic worldview   

C P E G    

H R N O    

             Sinhala Buddhist culture

   M D B

          E E U B 

R E C S

I A O P

             Sinhala linguistic forms

          S C D E

          S O D L

S C D E

T H E L 

  Sinhala Buddhist behavioral patterns

          A D H I

          G E I E

I E

A R

      Buddhist Sinhala social stucture 

          E D S V

                 T E
N       Media motivational resources                     R

In the above context, the message communicated will be decoded from a perspective of the Buddhist worldview and culture. This is a major barrier in communicating the gospel to the Buddhist community.

If communication is so complicated, how can we communicate effectively without taking the culture of the people into consideration? For effective communication we must take into account not only the culture of the people, but also the following:

  1. The culture and worldview
  2. Their understanding of the scriptures or their prejudice
  3. Their cognitive knowledge (i.e., Am I speaking the language they understand?)
  4. Their felt needs (i.e., Do I know their real needs?)

Rev. Adrian de Visser is the Lausanne International Deputy Director for South Asia. He is also senior pastor and president of Kithu Sevana Ministries, a church planting ministry in Sri Lanka. De Visser serves as vice president for partnership development for Asian Access, a ministry committed to developing leaders across Asia.