What’s it Like to Counsel Christians from Different Cultures?
Suffering and sin are equal opportunity offenders. All creation groans under the grip of the fallen world, and the redeemed human heart is not exempt from struggles this side of eternity. The influences of the fall have a way of squeezing out the inward battles of the heart. Skin color, ethnic privileges, or economic standing do not exempt people from being sad or fearful.
Around the world, people face similar challenges: some worry, some wrestle with anger, some long for approval, and many battle diseases or sadness that feels insurmountable. These shared battles reveal a core truth: the language of sin and suffering is universal.
Yet, God also speaks to his people universally through his Word. One way the Word goes to his people is through biblical counseling. The purpose of counseling is to build up a weary saint to behold God through Scripture and be transformed from one degree of glory to another. The power of God’s Word to mold and heal hearts through every kind of life’s battles makes biblical counseling a vital channel of growth for believers around the world.
Jesus Christ came so that he could “sustain with a word him who is weary,” whether in the Middle East or in the Midwest (Isaiah 50:4). He had to become like us so that he could be a sympathetic high priest for all who believe in him and die for our many sins. His light shines in the darkness, and darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5).
Counseling addresses the innate quest for hope and rescue at a deeper level by being grounded in gospel promises that transcend cultural boundaries. And it fulfills the Great Commission task of teaching and training disciples to love God and his commands on a personal level (Matthew 28:18-19).
CHALLENGES TO CROSS-CULTURAL COUNSELING
Although God’s Word sharpens all, the Spirit’s ministry is not one-dimensional. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to every problem in life. People are affected differently by the experiences, interpretations, and perceived needs within their host culture. As international workers, these cultural barriers can sometimes magnify problems within the ministry. Cross-cultural counseling works to deepen the effectiveness of sharing God’s Word by carefully applying biblical truths to an individual’s unique stories.
One of the most important challenges to counseling in different contexts is discerning the nature of cultural influences on an individual. Some differences, though labeled cultural, are simply sinful. Issues like power misuse, even if normative in a particular society, need a firm biblical response from the pulpit as well as in private interactions.
Other challenges stem from cultural practices that are not overtly wrong but may hinder healthy relationships or spiritual growth, like unhealthy marital expectations shaped by family traditions. The counselor, understanding the gap between biblical wisdom and cultural practices, can avoid insensitive fixes and patiently show what God expects of his people. Additional barriers include social norms that are limiting, such as gender restrictions in counseling or language dissimilarities that require care and clarification.
And each of these challenges requires a uniquely prayerful, Scripture-guided approach.
GOSPEL UNITY IN DIFFERENCES
These differences may knock us out of our comfort zones. Yet as Christians, the sum of our differences across barriers of land and language is not more than the blood-wrought common ground we stand on. Though our struggles may take many shapes across the oceans, our stories of sin and suffering are similar.
As Christians, the sum of our differences across barriers of land and language is not more than the blood-wrought common ground we stand on.
More than that, we stand united by the same account of our Father’s love, the Son’s redemption of us, and the Spirit’s sanctifying work. Counseling recognizes the many differences and works within them to see saints increasingly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
Counseling’s ultimate goals and prayers are the same as any other ministry of the Word. Our work aims not only to see new converts but also to establish them in their faith. We beseech heaven’s throne for resilient disciples ready to live and suffer for Christ. We hope for mature disciples to build God’s church and its witness. Our confidence in this journey is set on God’s promise that his Word does not return empty but accomplishes that which he purposes (Isaiah 55:11).
