My passions are “Honor, Shame and the Gospel” … cross-cultural partnerships with great leaders in the majority world … adult learning theory and creative communications. I love integrating these passions to contribute my bit in sharing the transforming grace of Jesus Christ among the peoples of the world.
View all posts by Werner Mischke →
An article by Jackson Wu about honor and shame in the Chinese church appeared in the October 2011 issue of Global Missiology. (Permission granted for use of image above.)
To what extent does Chinese culture emphasize the value of honor and shame? How does honor and shame affect the beliefs and practices of the church in China? When Westerners visit or serve there, what should they be aware of—concerning themselves and Chinese cultural values?
Here’s an article with many insights and suggestions. “Authority in a Collectivistic Church: Identifying Critical Concerns for a Chinese Ecclesiology” by Jackson Wu (pseudonym), appeared in the October 2011 issue of Global Missiology. The author has graciously given me permission to promote his article on my blog and include it on my Resources page. Don’t be put off by the title. It’s a readable paper about honor-shame dynamics in the Chinese church—born of much research and ministry experience living among the Chinese.
Wu’s article provides an overview of how honor and shame is woven into the beliefs and practices of the church in China. “In particular,” Wu summarizes, “we see that collectivism and an honor-oriented value system are fundamental to Chinese identity. Our examination of Scripture highlights key areas of overlap between a [Chinese] community and biblical conceptions of the Church.”
Wu’s applications include …
“Chinese church leaders can become more conscious of their decisions in light of western influences and their own cultural assumptions.”
“Missionaries can assess their strategies and better serve Chinese churches.”
“The reflections offer a richer reading of the biblical text.”
This pocket-size booklet tells the Good News of Jesus Christ through what is commonly known as “The Story of the Prodigal Son.” To see the booklet page by page, simply scroll down.
The artwork (by Robert Flores) is now done! He did a great job. I am excited about the potential for this to bless many peoples. Our team at Mission ONE is hoping it will be translated into many languages—and help thousands of people around the world find hope, salvation, and honor in following Jesus Christ.
Developed in a team approach—incorporates ideas from people from America, the Middle East, and Central Asia
Contains The Story of The Prodigal Son—Luke 15:11–32
20 pages, fits into a shirt pocket
Uses the Easy-To-Read Version of the Bible (ERV) so that people—for whom English is not their first language—can more easily understand the message (immigrants, international students, refugees)
Will also be available in a digital version for iPad and smart-phones
Designed for interaction and easy conversation
Explains the Gospel of Jesus in the language of honor and shame
Lovingly designed for people from societies whose pivotal cultural value is honor and shame—to understand the basic message of Jesus Christ
Will be made available for translation into various languages, beginning with Arabic and Spanish
While there are certainly similarities between shame and guilt, the differences are enormous. There are big implications for how we bless the peoples of our sin-sick world.
SHAME: Self “split” into observing and observed “selves”
GUILT: Unified self intact
Impact on “self”
SHAME: Self impaired by global devaluation
GUILT: Self unimpaired by global devaluation
Concern vis-à-vis the “other”
SHAME: Concern for others’ evaluation of self
GUILT: Concern with one’s effect on others
Counterfactual processes
SHAME: Mentally undoing some aspect of self
GUILT: Mentally undoing some aspect of behavior
Motivational features
SHAME: Desire to hide, escape, or strike back
GUILT: Desire to confess, apologize, or repair
Here is a beginning reflection on the implications for Christian ministry:
Shame tells us: “I did that horrible thing” , whereas guilt tells us: “I did that horrible thing.”
Simply stated, shame is about who I am; guilt is about what I’ve done. It follows, as stated above, that shame is generally more painful than guilt.
Could it be that the cure for guilt is not nearly as urgent and transformative as the cure for shame? Could it be, that when we teach God’s Word with a focus on guilt—while ignoring the pathology of shame common to all of humanity, that we are, by default, withholding that which most deeply heals the human soul?
The data presented by Tangney and Dearing indicate that shame has far more pathological (negative and sick) effects on people than does guilt. Their research found that shame motivates people to “hide, escape, or strike back”. In striking contrast, guilt motivates people to “confess, apologize, or repair.”
Simply stated, shame is more likely to lead to hurtful behavior, whereas guilt is more likely to lead to healing behavior.
Could it be that when we present the gospel of Jesus Christ solely as the cure for our guilt—and ignore the biblically-based truths and principles which address the problem of our shame—we are not just truncating the gospel, we are withholding the most crucial truths necessary for the transformation of the people of God?
Many mission and culture leaders recognize that Majority-World peoples have as their pivotal cultural value—honor and shame. Could it be that when Christians present the gospel of Christ to Majority-World peoples in a way that only addresses humanity’s guilt before God, that resistance to the message of Christ’s Gospel is actually appropriate?
“Appropriate resistance to the Gospel”? I know that sounds weird. But consider what it would be to have as your constant, every-day drama—the avoidance of, or cure for shame, along with the pursuit of honor. This is your very life and identity. Your life is moving in a deep, powerful river whose current is honor and shame.
Would not people living and moving in this river of honor and shame inherently know some things? Wouldn’t they instinctively get it—that the supposed Good News which only solves the problem of guilt—is not really deep enough, powerful enough, good enough—to rescue them from the deepest danger of their heart—that being the anxiety of shame?
Contrast this with the Good News which also solves the problem of shame! Imagine if the Atonement of Jesus Christ was not only presented as the solution to the problem of guilt, but also as—the covering of our shame and the restoration of our honor before God. See Luke 15:11–32. Wouldn’t this be more attractive? Wouldn’t this more likely be a treasure worth dying for?
Presenting the gospel of Christ in such a way that the message includes both the removal of our guilt and the covering of our shame is especially wise—when sharing with people whose pivotal cultural value is honor and shame.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
(Matthew 13:44-46 ESV)
The following nine assumptions sum up a complex problem that must be addressed:
Mission and culture experts recognize that the majority of the world’s unevangelized peoples are from societies for whom the pivotal cultural value is “honor and shame”. This may be distinguished from the primary cultural value of the West, which is “justice/guilt” or “innocence/guilt”.
Many of the unreached peoples are also highly resistant to the Gospel. Christianity is perceived by many as a Western religion—an American-style religion—opposed to their own cultural values.
Because of megatrends such as globalization and the migration of peoples, most North American cities have growing communities of Latin American, Middle Eastern, East Asian, South Asian, and African peoples for whom a primary cultural value is honor and shame. Our cities now include individuals and families who have settled into communities here in North America; many are from among unreached, unevangelized and even unengaged people groups
In our cities there is a clash of cultures between the “new residents”—peoples who are largely from the East/South—and the “old residents”—peoples who are more Western in their orientation. This clash of cultures is, in part, the result of deep misunderstanding between immigrant peoples who hold primarily to an honor/shame value system versus a justice/guilt value system.
The increasing diversity of North American cities represents a huge opportunity for Christians to share the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ with their neighbors.
Despite the amazing opportunities to share Christ and the blessing of the Gospel—with new neighbors from distant lands—the vast majority of evangelical churches and their members are afraid, untrained and unprepared to share the Gospel of Christ with people from other cultures.
God’s Word, the Holy Bible, is a book which arose out of Eastern societies. It is God’s truth for salvation; it is God’s truth for every aspect of faith and practice for God’s people, the Church. And because the Bible was written by people with the particular culture values of the Ancient Middle East, the Bible also has as its pivotal cultural value—honor and shame.
There is a standard way for Christians to present the Gospel message; it is to focus on the salvation work of Christ as an answer to the problem of guilt—not the problem of shame. This standard way is a truncated way—it is true, but it is not the whole truth. The Bible, being a book which arose out of an ancient Middle-Eastern context, has much more to say about the problem of shame than what the vast majority of Christians realize. While the Bible certainly does address humanity’s problem of guilt before Almighty God, the Bible also addresses the problem of humanity’s shame before Almighty God.
There is a vacuum of resources for Christians to learn a simple way of sharing the Gospel of Christ with people from honor/shame cultures. We are aware of no currently-available Gospel tracts, no books, no resources to make it easy for ordinary believers to share the gospel of Christ in this way.
We intend to address this problem—through the soon-to-be-released Gospel booklet, “The Father’s Love.”
Here’s a free Bible study on world missions in English and Spanish. Each Bible study is one page—appropriate for a series of one-hour discussions. Through this study, you and your small group will discover the wide-ranging biblical basis for God’s global purpose to bless all the peoples of the earth. I am grateful to the folks at SIM whose team in Latin America translated this Bible study into Spanish.
The topics are as follows:
1. Abraham and the Global Blessing: GENESIS 12:1–3, HEBREWS 6:13–20 God’s promise to bless Abraham’s “family” — foundation for global mission
2. God’s Passion for His Glory:
EXODUS 9:13–16, NUMBERS 14:21 The ultimate catalyst for mission
3. Tell of His Glory Among the Nations:
PSALM 96:1-12 Can global mission be saturated with joy and glory to God?
4. Glory, Forgiveness, Mission: ISAIAH 6:1–8 How does a holy God send redeemed sinners on mission?
5. The Involuntary Missionary: JONAH 1–4 How God’s people use “resistance strategies” to avoid God’s mission
6. The Man for All Peoples: VARIOUS VERSES FROM THE GOSPELS The “all-nations, all-peoples” salvation message of Jesus Christ
7. Our Lord’s Great Commission, part 1: MATTHEW 28:18–19 All authority / All the peoples
8. Our Lord’s Great Commission, part 2: MATTHEW 28:20 All that I commanded / All the days
9. The Glory of The Story:ACTS 1:6–8 Working together for mission — Author, Helper, Hero…and Church Member
10. The Glorious Mission of the Christian Community: EPHESIANS 3:1–10 The church of Jesus Christ — new community for global mission
11. Beautiful Feet, Powerful Word:ROMANS 10:8–18 “How shall they hear without a preacher?”
12. A Glorious Aspiration: Glory to Jesus from All Peoples:
ROMANS 15:8–21 Worship and glory to Jesus as the ultimate motive for mission
13. The Joy of Partnership: PHILIPPIANS 1–4 The vital role of partnership in fulfilling the Great Commission
defines the behaviors of machismo, marianismo, and humilde in the Latin American context of Honduras,
describes in compassionate detail how these entrenched behaviors and attitudes in a very poor community are an endless cycle of sin and shame, and
explores the ways that the Atonement of Jesus Christ—his work on the Cross—beautifully brings healing from sin and shame to followers of Jesus Christ.
I am grateful that Dr. Baker has given me permission to put this on my blog and include it in my list of resources. This 18-page essay touched my heart—it’s really worth the time. You’ll discover how the saving work of Christ on the cross not only saves people from the guilt of their sin; the cross of Christ can also transform the values and behaviors of people ingrained in a cycle of poverty and shame—into more authentic loving, forgiving, gracious, confident—indeed, honorable—human beings made in the image of God.
I love Dr. Baker’s article because it teaches that when people find both their salvation—and honor—in Jesus Christ, it truly sets them free. I commend this article to you. Click here to read.
“Big Shame or Big Honor? Exploring the Dynamics of Honor and Shame in Cross-Cultural Partnership” — digital slide presentation
Note: Since this was first posted, a fuller list of resources is available on the HONOR-SHAME RESOURCES page for this blog. Click here.
This digital slide presentation is now available for viewing and free downloads. The corresponding video of the full presentation is available here. Presented at the 2012 COSIM conference, this teaching:
Examines the key dynamics of honor and shame from a social-science perspective— with examples from Scripture.
Explores honor and shame as the pivotal cultural value of the Bible, and of most of the Majority World / unreached peoples.
Examines applications to cross-cultural ministries and partnerships through understanding the dynamics of honor and shame.
You can use this slide presentation to:
Learn about the pivotal cultural value of honor and shame—both in the Bible and in many Majority World cultures.
Present the material yourself to your own friends and colleagues engaged in cross-cultural relationship-building.
Begin a conversation to explore the implications of honor and shame in your own cross-cultural relationships and partnerships.
Other resources on honor and shame:
Free 30-page article:Honor & Shame in Cross-Cultural Relationships:Understanding Five Basic Culture Scales Through the Cultural Lens of Honor and Shame—with Application to Cross-Cultural Relationships and Partnerships
Four 10-minute lessons on honor and shame. Click here to learn more.Here are four short lessons—10 to 15 minutes each—to introduce to you some of the
principles of the pivotal cultural value of honor and shame in the Bible—and how it relates to building relationships—with God and across cultures.
Skit about honor and shame in refugee ministry. Give this to your friends who are dramatically inclined. And let them introduce the subject of honor and shame in building cross-cultural relationships—especially with refugees. Two skits compare relational skills. Funny and warm. Click here to download.
Gospel tract: Present the life-transforming message of Jesus Christ in the language of honor and shame—through the story of The Prodigal Son. Here is a gospel tract in development which may radically change how you share the gospel. Check it out here.
You can do these four lessons in about 10 minutes each—and learn about honor and shame in the Bible
Download this free 4-page Bible study about honor and shame. Each lesson should take just 10 minutes. Click here to download.
The lesson objectives are:
Understand the two sources of honor and be able to identify them as they occur in the Bible.
Observe that wherever there is a conflict in the Bible, the ultimate issue is not winning and losing—but who gains honor and who is shamed.
Examine the sevenfold bestowal of blessing upon Abraham as a prototype for the person who follows God.
Examine the restorative love of a father as he runs to protect his son from shame, and then restores his honor in a great celebration.
This is being developed as part of a seminar I am doing later this month at a church in Tuscon to help Christians develop new skills for building relationships with people for whom honor and shame is a primary cultural value.
The little four-pager introduces the subject of honor and shame to participants, the intention being that they’ll invest 10 minutes a day the four days before the seminar. In this way, the material about honor and shame will not be brand new to them the day of the seminar—and everyone will enjoy the learning experience a little more.
Imagine how terrifying it was for Jesus’ disciples to encounter a naked man inhabited by a legion of demons … and then to see Jesus set him free. What a liberation!
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain (that’s the official statement from Wikipedia). We Americans love to go boating, have picnics, watch fireworks, be with family and friends—all to celebrate our political freedom from England.
Indeed, freedom is a precious thing worth celebrating! Liberation from any form of bondage—whether internal or external—is to be celebrated.
This morning I read in my Bible the story of a great liberation. A great Man rescued a pitiful man. The pitiful man was hopelessly enslaved by supernatural evil. The story is known as “Jesus healing the demoniac” as recorded in Luke 8:26–39. Jesus got in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, sailed across with his disciples, and met a man who was inhabited by a legion of demons. He confronts the Legion, sends this host of demons into a herd of pigs. The pigs, in turn, run off a cliff and drown. After Jesus was done with this astounding rescue mission, the local people freaked out—they were afraid of Jesus and his mighty power. So Jesus simply returned to the other side.
Jesus knew this horribly enslaved man had only one hope—liberation from evil by the intervention of the Son of God.
I hope to listen to the story of this man’s liberation from supernatural evil when I get to heaven. What an Independence Day he had!
Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
Here is a project I have been working on for the past six months … designing, listening, writing, modifying, seeking more advice, rewriting, redesigning … you get the picture. What a learning journey! (Be sure to scroll down—it’s all there!)
Please Note: This post was updated on July 30, 2012 to reflect modifications made to the gospel tract/booklet. The primary change was in the title. The initial title was “Two Lost Sons”; this has been changed to “The Father’s Love”, as this is the main point of the story. Other changes have also been made to reflect this emphasis on the love of the Father. –wm
It’s a pocket-size booklet that tells the Good News of Jesus Christ through what is commonly known as “The Story of the Prodigal Son.” (Did you know that this story has been often called “the Gospel inside of the Gospel”?)
This is currently being circulated for final comments and suggestions. I want to know what you think, too.
It’s been beautiful to be part of a team of followers of Jesus from around the world working together on this project. We’re still awaiting final versions of three illustrations. I am excited about the potential for this to bless many people. I am hoping it will be translated into many languages.
Developed in a team approach—incorporates ideas from people from America, the Middle East, and Central Asia
Contains The Story of The Prodigal Son—Luke 15:11–32
20 pages, fits into a shirt pocket
Will also be available in PDF for iPad and Smartphones
Designed for interaction and easy conversation
Explains the Gospel of Jesus in the language of honor and shame
Lovingly designed for people from societies whose pivotal cultural value is honor and shame—to understand the basic message of Jesus Christ
Will be made available for translation into various languages.
