Common Ground
Patterns and habits are made to be broken, aren’t they? The pattern for Rivers of the World (ROW) has been for us to travel down remote jungle rivers, stop at villages along the way and announce that we would like to set up a medical clinic. We instruct everyone who is sick or in need of medical care to form a line and then we begin checking everyone to see how we can help.
ROW staff and volunteers go through the day conducting medical clinics, praying with the people, worshipping together and giving thanks to God for allowing us to share information and for providing health care to people in need. This predicable pattern is efficient, successful and certainly a lot of fun.
A few months ago we were in Venezuela traveling down the Manamo River when we came to a small gathering of very primitive huts. The operator of our boat yelled into the jungle, “Hey, we’ve got clinic, could you all use some help?” It was then that our pattern was broken and I heard something I’ve never heard before in all my travels. The leader of the small village looked back at us and said, “Well, God has been good to us. We are all healthy. Thank you for the offer but I don’t think we need a thing.”
I was simply speechless. It was hard to imagine that there were no needs in this very remote village. It was such a tremendous blessing. How about you today? Are you speechless thinking about how God has blessed you or others you know?
In order for the people of this remote jungle to have even known about God somebody had to travel to their primitive huts and present the Gospel. To be an effective witness in such a situation, a person must find common ground with the people they’re trying to reach. The next time you have an opportunity to share God’s word or simply demonstrate the love of Christ to someone, remember Paul’s approach to witnessing, found in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23:
“To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”
If we are to be successful in reaching people for Christ, we must break our typical patterns and allow Jesus to help us relate to people on their level. Using religious language in speaking with someone who has never been exposed to church will do nothing but cause frustration and confusion. Instead, let’s meet people right where they’re at in their lives.
