Review: Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility

Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility by Duane Elmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One eye-catching feature would have to be the endorsements of the book in the first pages from the who’s who in the cross-cultural field. The book provided for a highly engaging, enjoyable and perhaps even captivating read. I cannot emphasize how brilliant it is that the content was presented as succinct as it was. As an Asian young adult who is largely influenced by Western education/thinking that clashes with the more traditional culture/worldviews of my elders, I appreciated that this book was extremely useful in that it was thoughtful, reflective and insightful. It seemed that much of his material was highly intuitive and logically, and yet I often wondered to myself: “now why didn’t I think of that?”

The mix of his own anecdotes with quotes/stories of others was just right. His breadth of knowledge in the subject matter is seen from the variety of sources he draws inspiration from, seemingly never over-quoting (like some other authors) to the effect that it was merely a paraphrase reproduction of another’s work. His dedication and passion in the subject matter (theology held in tandem/tension with anthropology) are also illustrated by his ever insightful experiences that he shares in the book.

As the title indicates, the primary substantive is that we are called by Christ to cross-culturally serve and not to boss/lord over those whom we perceive need our help/expertise or ministry. This is exceptionally helpful in our day of Instagram social work or short-term missions whereby it is “cool,” fashionable even, to broadcast to one’s social network how noble one was to have volunteered one's time and energies. Whilst this book is no silver bullet to make a proud and egotistical minister become a magically humble servant overnight, it should raise enough red flags to prompt the readers into introspection, reflection and a desire for change.

I heartily recommend this book to all Christians, not only those involved in cross-cultural overseas missions/ministry work as all of us are called to evangelise and minister wherever we are placed and not only to a homogenous people group from which we hail. A great companion to be read alongside this would be Lingenfelter’s excellent title Ministering Cross-Culturally (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/102044).

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