INTERCULTURAL DISCIPLESHIP

A PAPER PRESENTED FOR

WM760 CS14

March 11, 2021

 Jay Moon’s Intercultural Discipleship1 was by far the most practical book in this course.

What I have found most helpful in my ministry is, of course, its approach to intercultural

discipleship, as well as its emphasis on rituals and symbols in order to fill the cultural gaps that

go by unaddressed by an overly Western style of teaching and discipleship.

Monocultural & Intercultural Discipleship

The first chapters of the book were very interesting and have already proven to be

effective in my ministry and I look forward to implementing some of its principles in our staff

training program each year.2 A helpful aspect of Moon’s chapter on intercultural discipleship is

his general distinction between a “Cognitive Culture” and an “Emotive Culture,”3 where he aims

to include the best of each culture in the effective discipleship of a whole person, regardless of

his or her background. “While a monocultural approach focuses on either side of the equation,

intercultural discipleship combines both the cognitive and the emotive experience of God, such

that the ultimate becomes intimate” (Moon, 10, emphasis mine).4 Though I’ve never been all

that good at a “both/and” approach, I can certainly see the value in what Moon is saying here.

In terms of the school that I run, where Moon talks about “ultimate issues,” I hear

something like systematic theology. Systematic theology has the ability to provide

comprehensive, though not exhaustive, to life’s ultimate issues by beginning with God and his

life and working down to our lives. Since our school is a biblical studies program, working book

by book through the whole Bible over nine months, most of the training I’ve done with our staff

1
W. Jay Moon, Intercultural Discipleship: Learning from Global Approaches to Spiritual Formation (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017).
2
Our School of Biblical Studies (SBS) runs from September to June each year, and one month prior to the school
starting is when we do the bulk of our staff training and school preparation.
3
Cognitive cultures are belief driven, focusing on what is right and wrong, guards against errors, emphasizes
ultimate issues, and has clear lines drawn for who is in and out. Emotive culture, by contrast, are driven by feelings
and perceived needs, and desires, therefore to experience truth in the intimate issues of life.
4
Ultimate issues are life’s big questions, “Who am I and why do I exist?” “Who is God?” “What will happen when
I die?” By contrast, intimate issues are smaller but more immediate questions, such as, “Will my new business
succeed? Why did God let me get in a car accident? How will I be protected from the ghosts in the village?”

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has revolved primarily around hermeneutics, biblical history, and principles for effective study

and teaching. It would be of tremendous benefit to take our staff through at least a crash course

of systematic theology (doctrines of God, man, church, eschatology) in the weeks leading up to

our school and work it into the rotation of our training times throughout the school. This process

would probably feel comfortable to the foreigners on my staff (all from the West) but would be

stretching for the Cambodians. Moon said that the aim of intercultural discipleship is to combine

the best of both the cognitive and emotive cultures “such that the ultimate becomes intimate,”

which I’m in full agreement with, but I’d like to keep the dialectical relationship more intact.

The ultimate becomes intimate, and the intimate is informed by the ultimate.

Where I understand Moon’s “ultimate issues” to be synonymous with systematic

theology, “intimate issues” could be described also as practical theology. I’d like to be able to

pick a handful of more pressing and immediate issues, culturally sensitive to Cambodia, for our

staff to think about, and consider how these intimate issues should be theologically considered.

These topics could include ecology,5 how a Cambodian Christian should relate to his or her non-

Christian family members and their Buddhist rituals, and why poverty and suffering are still so

common throughout Cambodia, even though it is a developing country.

As our SBS staff gathers for our training time, one full month before the school starts, I

would hope that these approaches to intercultural discipleship would be the catalyst of fruitful

theological conversation among our staff, would make each staff member a better teacher who is

more aware of and able to communicate meaningfully to their multicultural audience.

The Place of Symbols & Rituals

Moon’s chapters on symbols and rituals are directly related to the conversation about

ultimate and intimate issues. Without dismissing the critical importance of ultimate issues,
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There’s a huge dump near our campus and there is terrible smoke from all the burnings throughout the day.

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Moon points out that an unbalanced emphasis on ultimate issues (common in the West) runs the

risk of leaving the intimate issues to be explained by means other than the gospel, thus creating

what is called “split-level Christianity.” In split-level Christianity, believers may ace their

systematic theology exams, but they are unable to account for intimate issues in life. Since

intimate issues are seldom dealt with in systematic theology books or in Sunday preaching, a

wedge is driven between ultimate and intimate, and the disciple consults other non-gospel

mediums of wisdom (unbelieving friends/parents, TED Talks, podcasts, etc.) for their intimate

issues. Thus, Christianity is perceived to deal with the ultimate, but not the intimate.

Moon suggests that symbols and rituals fill the gap left by an ultimate issue only kind of

Christianity. According to Moon, symbols have the unique ability to represent and make visible

and tangible that which is invisible and intangible (68), such that the multi-sensory experience of

the symbol can knit the head and the heart, making the person want to do or believe that which

they know to be right and true (76). Similarly, rituals can be understood as enacted symbols,

which bring intimate issues into the sacred space and time (Moon, 82).6 Here then is the

interplay between ultimate issues and intimate issues; if done right, ultimate issues can provide

the framework by which intimate issues are understood, but rather than expositional preaching

and teaching (my forte), symbols and rituals have a unique way drive the meaning into the mind

through the heart and senses (major weakness of mine).

As I have reflected on this idea, I’ve begun thinking about how to be more intentional

about the use of rituals in the intimate issues in my family life, community life, and ministry.

With regard to my family life, our new ritual revolves around our daily Bible reading. Every

weekday at 7:05am, I clear our table, turn on worship music and bring our family Bible to the
6
“Sacred space is qualitatively different from ‘normal space’ in that the power and presence of the divine God are
more acutely felt.” Similarly, “Sacred time, instead of being linear and progressing forward, is ‘indefinitely
recoverable, indefinitely repeatable.” A ritual, therefore, is an enacted symbol by which time and space are
temporarily altered by the presence of God. Moon, 82 – 83.

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table. This action serves as a signal that everyone is supposed to take the next ten minutes to get

everything else ready for the rest of the morning, so that from 7:15 – 7:30, we can focus on

reading the Bible, a short devotional, and a time of prayer.7 Once the final “amen” has been said

I place the Bible back in its box and put it back in my room, which serves as the transition out of

our sacred space/time back that sets the stage for the “normal” space/time. When our baby is

born in April, we’ll have to change this to some degree, but we are all enjoying the process so

far.

One of the greatest aspects of being in YWAM is the amazing community we have

around us. Presently, my wife and four other wives, each of whom are good friends of ours, are

pregnant and all due within six weeks of each other. My wife and I have begun talking about

how we can put together8 a ritual/event to bring this occasion into sacred space and time,

especially since some of these women will be having their first babies. Moon (104 – 110)

suggests eight steps for constructing powerful rituals,9 some that are helpful here and others that

are not. In this setting, there aren’t any fears or sinful habits sinful habits that need to be dealt

with (steps 2 and 3), and since newborn babies will be involved, as well as toddlers, the sacred

time that is meant to be protected at all costs would probably be much shorter than Moon would

appreciate (step 7). Having identified the issue (newborns and firstborns), selected key biblical

texts (Gen. 1.27 – 28; 5.1b – 3; 17.7; Gal. 3.25 – 29), we hope to host a dinner at our house, with

the meal first (allowing the kids to drain some initial energy, thus enhancing sacred time later),

and a ritual blessing at the end. After dinner, each father will stand up, holding his baby if
7
This has been helpful for me in centering my personal Bible reading in the morning by allowing me to double dip
in the text, using the same chapter for my personal devotion that we use for our family devotion.
8
This sort of thinking, while incredibly interesting to me, is definitely not something I’m great at, which is probably
why some of my terminology sounds more mechanical. We’ve all got to start somewhere, right?
9
1) Identify the intimate issue. 2) Identify the primary roots to address. 3) Identify the individual roots to be
addressed. 4) Choose adequate symbols to complement the ritual. 5) Select proper biblical themes. 6) Carefully
select the ritual specialist. 7) Create sacred space and time. 8) Include aspects of separation, transition, and
reincorporation into the ritual process.

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possible, committing to his wife first, then the rest of the group, to love and lead his family.

After this commitment (pre-scripted and read so that there’s no stammering), he and his wife will

light a candle and pray for God’s blessing on their new child. Once each family has done their

part, I will close us in a final prayer, at which point desserts will be brought out, which will be

the transitional close to the evening.

Finally, with regard to my work in running a biblical studies program, the options are

seemingly endless with regard to implementing new rituals and symbols. There are a few that

I’d like to incorporate as soon as possible.10 First, I’d like each class to begin with a Trinitarian

prayer revolving around revelation.11 The Spirit of revelation was sent (Acts 2.33; Eph. 1.17), to

glorify the Son (Jn. 16.14), who came to make known the Father (Jn. 1.18), who, in the

scriptures, makes us wise for salvation (2 Tim. 3.15).12 Beginning this way has the potential to

be both brief and powerful, confessing our inability before the Triune God and asking for his

faithfulness to teach us his word. Secondly, since our school is rigorous and work can often be

done alone, there is a need for an increased “family feel” throughout the nine months that the

school runs. Among our staff, we can host a once-a-month school dinner, which is partly sacred,

oddly enough, because it is not a study setting, but rather, one of celebration. The evening would

consist primarily of games and food (potluck style to increase involvement and contribution), but

would also include a time where each student and staff is free to share how a particular passage

or book in the last month was powerful for them. The night would be closed with a prayer from

the host.
10
As I write this paper, I am currently in a two-week quarantine after a recent trip to the capital. I will return to
work on Mar. 15th.
11
This is more evidence of my lack of familiarity with rituals. There is no “liminality” in this setting, nor are there
any symbols beyond written content that is read aloud. This does serve as a way increase the sacredness of the
process of Bible study. As every Bible student knows, it is easy for such study to become dry rather than steeped in
Trinitarian thinking.
12
Other trinitarian themes could revolve around life (Jn. 5.24, Father and Son; 6.63, Spirit), salvation (Eph. 1.3 – 5,
13 – 14), and others.

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Summary

Reading Moon’s book has been incredibly helpful to me in the last months. I feel

confident in my ability to have a solid theological understanding of ultimate and intimate issues,

and I feel a bit of regret that I’ve undervalued the role of symbols and rituals as effective

teaching tools. To be frank, whether I’m in Cambodia or elsewhere, the world has become so

globalized that even were I to be in ministry in America, there will certainly be numerous people

in the church who have come from the majority world who will need more than just Western

theological thinking to deal with their fears and questions and likely issues with identity as they

settle into their new foreign home.

Bibliography

Moon, Jay E. Intercultural Discipleship: Learning from Global Approaches to Spiritual

Formation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017.

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