Reaching the Heart of Culture

By Stephen Mann

"Culture," said one wag, "is like an onion. It has many layers, and as you peel each one, you do a lot of crying."

As Americans in England, we are considered cross-cultural wimps. Every piece of cross-cultural literature we read seems to end with this disclaimer: "Of course, this does not apply to Americans who move to Canada or England."

English culture seems civilized, very Western. Lifestyles and language are not radically different; compared with the differences missionaries face in the rain forests of South Asia, England must seem like a piece of cake. However, subtle differences can confound the North American in England . To understand another culture, we must peel back the layers of language, lifestyle, mindset, and values, until we reach its heart desires.

Layer One: Language

Churchill once commented that the British and Americans are "a people divided by a common language." What we call cookies , they call biscuits; what we call French fries, they call chips. When we say pants , they hear underwear. This can be especially tricky (and embarrassing) when your mistakes are made in the pulpit. We once had an American children's worker encourage the kids to "do the motions" to the songs. He was unaware he had just told the kids to have a bowel movement!

There is no such thing as a British accent. There are many British accents just as there are many American accents. Much British humor bewilders Americans because it is based on a regional accent with stereotypical characteristics. British Northerners, for instance, are known for their humor. Just as a Brooklyn accent strikes an American funny bone, a Northerner can sound funny without even trying.

Accents also reflect class divisions. Classes are determined not by income but by education and jobs. Middle-class accents are "posh" with tall, pear-shaped vowels. Middle-class people are university-trained and think in linear, conceptual logic. Working-class people are the blue-collar workers of England. They may earn the same income or greater than the middle class, but they work with their hands and prefer stories to abstract concepts. Traditionally, the working classes have been ignored by the Church, and vice versa. However, in England 's history, revival broke out whenever the gospel connected with the working class. In 1739, when John Wesley united with George Whitfield to preach to coal miners in the open fields near Bristol, revival swept the country.

Words, accents, and attitudes towards words reflect something deeper-history, backgrounds, value systems. Americans delight in cross-pollinating words to form new hybrids. This often gets up the nose of (irritates) the Englishman who will search for precisely the right word to properly express his thought. Disagreements can occur over words so close in meaning that Americans may not perceive any difference.

The best way to cope with cultural differences is to appreciate the value system they reflect. Hairsplitting over words was frustrating to me until I realized that the British sincerely desired to be precisely understood, not to be superior or pedantic. This came into focus when English friends visited us in America and began to discuss church issues with my parents. Strangely, they were using the same words and agreeing, but neither group understood what the other was saying within their cultural contexts. I had to call "time out," and "translate" the words for each one.

Layer Two: Lifestyle

The new missionary to England will soon discover the difference in lifestyle. In recent years, that lifestyle is becoming more Americanized, but not everyone is happy about it. When we first came here, there was no Wal-Mart. Supermarkets were viewed with suspicion. Most refrigerators were miniscule and slotted in under the kitchen counter. People were used to shopping daily rather than weekly at the small shops which lined the High Street (or Main Street ). Many still yearn for the small shops-the butcher who knows their name, the green grocer whose produce is locally grown, not imported green from Spain. In their thinking, bigger is not better.

Lifestyles tend to be more frugal. Cars are smaller. Appliances are tinier. Houses are diminutive, crammed together in close neighborhoods. To Americans who value "progress" and "success" (which to us means growth and prosperity), this can be frustrating. We value convenience and size. To us, "thinking small" equals "small thinking." To many Englishmen, quantity means loss of quality, and quality means everything. They are wary of luxury or excess. For years, they resisted cable TV with its hundreds of channels because they feared the loss of quality in their four land-based channels.

This "thinking small=small thinking" attitude can cause value conflicts with the American church-planter who wants the church to grow, grow, grow and pushes the congregation to aggressive evangelism. We measure success by accomplishment. They measure success by integrity. The key is to find out how to have both.

Layer Three: Mindset

When we first moved to England, driving was completely frustrating. In order to get to the grocery store that was fifty yards away, I had to drive through a series of roundabouts, detours, and one-way schemes. Every time I drove there, I ground my teeth and murmured nasty things about the road planners. Finally, my wife mentioned that they were just trying to save lives. They preferred to avoid cars turning across oncoming traffic. I hated to admit it, but my mindset valued convenience over safety.

The American mindset of customer service is absent here. Instead, to "sell" a product means it is inferior, and the seller is flattering you to dupe you. Advertisers in Britain realize this, and their commercials are less direct. One advertiser commented, "Americans like to be sold a product. The British like to think they have bought it." This has tremendous implications for our evangelistic approaches. Friendly evangelists with wide, toothy grins might be perceived as shysters. "Drawing the net" seems like pushiness and often turns people away rather than drawing them nearer Christ.

Layer Four: Value Systems

In our first church in England, we planned a work day. My assignment was to clean a window, so I climbed the ladder with all my supplies. Just as I was about to start cleaning, a lady came around with a tray and asked, "Would you like a cup of tea?" I hadn't done any work, but I looked down and everyone else was stopping, so I climbed down and had a cup of tea. This happened every thirty minutes. Before the morning was over, I must have drunk six to eight cups of tea. Not only was I floating-I was fuming: "How am I ever going to finish this window if she keeps interrupting me with tea?" But I realized that where my American value system prized accomplishment, the British value system placed a higher priority on fellowship. They were not just there to clean the church. They were there to spend time together. Drinking tea was an expression of their values. An English newspaper once ran a contest asking the best way to get to London . The winning answer was: "in good company." Until I learned to appreciate this layer of the culture, I shed many tears.

After I had lived in England for a while, I flew back into Atlanta . No one warned me about reverse culture shock. I remember driving the Atlanta freeways (with six lanes all going the same direction) and being terrified- not by the volume of traffic or the wide roads, but by the lack of lane discipline. In England, traffic on the "motorways" is very disciplined. According to the Highway Code, "One only pulls out to pass, but once one has passed, one checks traffic, signals, and returns to the left lane." In Atlanta , people were passing on the left, the right, the middle, the shoulder. If they could have passed over and under, they would have. They were crisscrossing in front of me like Model Ts in an old-time movie. I realized the difference in traffic patterns was caused by value systems. What do the British value? An orderly society. The Brits are crammed onto a tiny island. People have to move in concert with one another. But what do Americans value? Freedom! Individual rights! No one is going to tell us which lane to drive in. We'll drive in whatever lane we want.

Value systems are so much a part of our culture we are hardly even aware of them. We accept them as givens until we take time to carefully examine them.

Layer Five: Desires

At the root of culture is the human heart, and that heart is inherently sinful. Even those value systems we admire are tainted by the effects of sin. Scripturally, desire is a function of the heart.

When people live in violation of what God says, it is because they are acting according to the old nature. Ephesians 2:3 reads, "we had all had our manner of life in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath." To live for Christ is to die to the old desires and live according to God's desires.

As citizens of heaven, this is where the real culture clash takes place. We have a value system that is determined by eternity while the value system of this world is rooted in the here and now. Ultimately, value systems will be measured by our estimation of God Himself. If we desire above everything to please Him (2 Corinthians 5:9), then everything is colored by that. If I would rather do what I want than what God wants, or if I value the good opinion of others more than God's will, then my culture is driven by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

In this sense, every Christian is a cross-cultural evangelist representing the culture of God's kingdom in a foreign land. Cutting to the heart ought to be our goal, and it ought to bring us to tears.