Breaking Barriers: Reaching Your Neighbors in a Diverse Community

By Stefan Johnsson

"For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility."

Ephesians 2:14

You were created with a purpose. You exist to be a light in your community, a reflection of Christ to those around you.

 

As globalization makes the world feel smaller and brings cultures closer together, it might be easy to feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable.

 

Our reflex might be to place barriers between ourselves and diversity, but the gospel compels us to break down these barriers and illuminate the world with the light of Christ. The truth is that this mixing of cultures creates an opportunity for the advancement of the gospel like never before.

 

This is a call to action and a challenge for you—not to blame you or shame you for inaction, but to empower you with the gospel truth so that you can seize the mission field on your very own doorstep.

 

Breaking Barriers is a personal and practical guide to help you understand and interact with cultures different than your own. Stefan brings a fresh, personal perspective to remind you what the Bible is already telling you to do.

 

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Included at the end of each chapter are questions for personal reflection or small group discussion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A Frank Voice Publishing
• Release date: Jul 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781732458475

Book preview

Breaking Barriers

Praise for Stefan Johnsson

Stefan’s analysis of our society’s hesitation to embrace other cultures is spot-on. This read is an inspiring and practical guide to meeting people where they are with the message they need the most: the gospel of grace.

- Cameron Frank, author

Breaking Barriers

Reaching Your Neighbors in a Diverse Community

Stefan Johnsson

A Frank Voice Publishing

First Edition published as Reaching Our Neighbors in a Diverse Society in 2020 by Stefan Johnsson

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Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®

Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM

Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Copyright © 2020, 2021 by Stefan Johnsson

All Rights Reserved

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Cover Design by Cameron Frank

Published with A Frank Voice

www.afrankvoice.com

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1st Edition ISBN-13: 979-8666352205

2nd Edition Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-7324584-6-8

2nd Edition ePub ISBN-13: 978-1-7324584-7-5

Contents

Introduction

Who Is Your Neighbor

Section 1

1. Love for All God’s People

2. Become All Things to All People

3. Being the Good Samaritan

4. Inviting Foreigners

Being Spirit Led

Section 2

5. The Two Visions

6. Following the Holy Spirit’s Call

7. Philip, Samaria, and the Ethiopian

8. Speaking to Anyone Who Will Hear

Seeking Diversity

Section 3

9. Finding Your Friends

10. Let Not Language be a Barrier

11. Fear of Other Religions

12. Diversity, Not Conformity

What Can You Do Now?

Section 4

13. Begin Your Mission

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Notes

Introduction

The short, two-word, answer to the question of how we can fix the ethnic and racial divisions in our world today is Jesus Christ. Without Jesus, there is no way we can truly bridge the gap and mend the brokenness that society has created. Yet, most of us stop there. We let our words speak more than the actions we take. We do not pray or listen to the Holy Spirit speaking in our lives, and we do not seek God or obey His commands. Instead, we let society influence our thoughts and actions, and the principles of Christianity are left on our bookshelf or at the church door. Fear grips us and we fail to become effective witnesses in our calling to reach people from all ethnicities, races, cultures, and nations. Following Jesus Christ is difficult without humbly realizing that our worldview may not align with His.

This means that the long answer to the question above becomes a lot more complicated. How do we change our view on diversity within our community and the cultural differences that may stand between us? How can we change our way of thinking that may have built an invisible wall of segregation between us and those not like us? Are we seeing people the way that God wants us to see them, through His eyes and not our own? We need to take a step back and dwell on these questions before answering quickly.

Far too often we let culture and media influence the way we treat our neighbors instead of looking to Jesus for how we ought to treat one another. We develop stereotypes and separate ourselves from those who we fear may do us harm. We listen to what the world tells us instead of dwelling in God’s presence and calling for our lives.

First century Christians lived with boldness and a strong conviction to reach those around them while constantly facing the fear of death. They spread Christianity far and wide and it was through their faithfulness that our religion is the largest in the world. Christianity is far from dead—rather it is continuously growing. At the same time, sin and the lies of Satan hold us back from being truly effective.

This book is meant to bring a fresh perspective—to remind you what the Bible is already telling you to do. The teachings of Jesus are simple and profound, but they are left behind as we go about our busy lives. We interpret Scripture to fit our worldview instead of the other way around. We are to be a light to those around us, no matter the race, skin color, ethnicity, religious background, or nationality that they may hold. This is simple to understand but very hard to remember and harder to practice. We grow up with ethnic and racial differences being taught through nurture. It is not what God intended, nor what should separate us as human beings.

I want to encourage you to break this mold, these lies, that our society has taught us to believe about ourselves and others. In doing so, we can focus on the positive impacts that diversity can have in our community, rather than the negative. We need to renew our minds daily to look at culture and people through the eyes of Jesus. As Romans 12:2 says, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Let us go back to the Scriptures to develop a deeper understanding about how to reach others through a diverse culture that we are living in today. Let us look at how Jesus taught us to act and use the Bible as a focal point for these arguments.

This book will help you realign your mind with that of Christ so that you can be a bold witness to all people and nations in a diverse community. Not only do I want to use the Bible as the main point of reference, but also to bring in real-life examples of how this can be carried out in our society today. It is important to bring to life what the Bible is trying to teach us. As we read in 2 nd Timothy 3:16, All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

Our society today is continually growing and integrating globally more than any other time in history. Other faiths, secular views, and cultural ideals are being pushed on us more than ever before. Truth is being taught as subjective and we are to accept everyone’s view of the world as legitimate while Christians are considered intolerant and closed-minded. We cannot let society change our faith–we have to stand firm in the Lord. At the same time, we have to realize that the global and integrated society requires us to rethink how we approach people and witness to others.

God is bringing people to us from all over the world more than ever before. It is easier to be a missionary at home than by going abroad. Many of us do not realize how important the mission field in and around our community truly is or that it even exists. Few places in this world are untouched by globalization and the migration of people groups that has created an ever-increasing diverse society. Let us use this knowledge to our benefit in order to reach all nations, ethnicities, and races for Christ.

Are we to sit back in fear? No, we are to reach out with boldness, preaching the gospel wherever we go or wherever we are. We need to align with Jesus’ calling for us, which is reaching others (who may not always look or act like us) with the words of the gospel. We are called to be God’s kingdom on this earth and our actions and words have to show this daily. Only with this mindset can we reach all nations for the glory of God.

If we do not spread the message of the gospel to all nations, then who are we and what purpose do we serve? We are to be open-minded and willing to see people through the eyes of God. We are all born in God’s image and are His creations.

This book will look into the different ways that you can reach out in faith to those around you—how you can reset and rethink how you are going about your daily life, interacting with others who are different from you. I want to specifically focus on the diverse community created through globalization that is changing the landscape of your city and how, as Christians, we can use this to our advantage. How should we act on this? How should we, as Christians, make a stand on the changes around us? The chapters that follow detail ways to reach out in faith. Reflect on these and look at how God wants to move in your life to reach others. All of us are capable and all of us should be missionaries for God, whether locally or globally.

Who Is Your Neighbor

Section 1

Ido not believe that I have ever fit in to any one place or culture. Even in my early childhood, I felt different from my classmates. I was born as a missionary kid in Sweden and raised by parents from two different backgrounds and cultures. My father was saved through U.S. missionaries who were stationed in Sweden and my mother was born and raised in the Bible belt of the Midwest with a heart for missions.

I grew up with the neighborhood kids in Sweden, having the privilege of being taught Bible stories by my parents throughout my childhood in our own house. Slowly, with time, the neighborhood kids stopped attending the Sunday school that my parents had set up. Their parents made sure they stayed busy and away from our house on Sunday mornings, as they wanted to withhold their kids from hearing more about God. They wanted their kids, just like the rest of Swedish culture, to grow up without seeing any value in Christianity. The school would reiterate the teachings of atheism to all students and the effects spread throughout the country.

My parents would take trips every few years to the U.S. for furlough, to update the churches supporting them on their ministry in Sweden. I remember how I felt going to school in the U.S. at that time, being treated differently by those around me and being told to go back to my country. I felt hurt and did not know how to respond. All I could do was try to survive, not spending much time with the kids out of school who treated me differently than the rest.

It was after my return to Sweden following the completion of my second grade in the U.S., which truly made me feel out of place. I was considered as a traitor and treated as an outcast, someone who had left the country and no longer deserved to be considered a Swede. They began to tell me to go back to my country, just like the kids in the U.S. had done. Where did I belong? I did not know or understand at that time.

My skin color may have looked the same as everyone else, but I was no less treated like a foreigner. It was during this same time that my parents, who were reaching out to Swedes, became frustrated with the lack of openness to the gospel. Instead, they began to reach out to the immigrants who had arrived from all over the world. This included countries such as Lebanon, Thailand, and Chile. My mother would host a women’s bible study that included multiple languages at one time.

Those who had come from a different country ended up being the ones who accepted my family and me the most. Not only this, but they were the most receptive to the gospel message. I believe that seeing my parents reach out to these immigrants shaped my life more than I first believed. I was rejected by those whom I felt closest to but accepted by others who already knew they were considered outcasts. This began to change something deep inside of me; a connection to those who were different.

My parents decided to move to the U.S. permanently as I was beginning sixth grade. I often felt left out, unable to assimilate and never fitting in with any social group. My first few years were the hardest. I often believed that Jesus was the only true friend that I had, as no one else wanted to spend time with me. My faith in God solidified and grounded me from the harm that I often received from school, even from such an early age. I do not know where I would be without Him.

My best friend during seventh and eighth grade, in a small town in Illinois, ended up being a kid from Asia, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. He was the only one who truly accepted me as a friend. As my family prepared to leave the small town, following the conclusion of the eighth grade, he was the only friend who gave me a parting gift. It was a way to show his friendship to me and that he would miss having me there. I have kept his gift to this day.

It was also significant for me that the only close friend that I had was the only one who realized what it meant to be an outcast in a country that made you acutely aware of your differences. I couldn’t understand how some people from a diverse country such as the U.S. could be so against immigrants. My mother would say that where she grew up in Michigan, people were more jealous of you based on how close you could trace your lineage to overseas migration. It seems that a lot has changed in just a half century. Treating immigrants like outcasts was not a characteristic of the culture that my mother grew up in.

High school wasn’t much easier. It was better as I had begun to adjust to living in the U.S., but I still found it very tough to fit in. I was unpopular in school and had only a couple of good friends. I was not liked and often made fun of.

Who cared about me more than others? It tended to be those who were also treated differently. They showed a care that far exceeded many others who were born in the country we lived in. I had a few friends that were born and raised in the U.S., but I never truly felt that I connected with them the same way I did with those who looked and spoke differently than me.

This connection—this common bond was that we were foreigners. It allowed me to see that having citizenship in God’s kingdom was the only true bond that we, as Christians, can have on this earth. It was an understanding that my neighbors are not those who are like me, but those who are different from me. My earthly citizenship may be to the U.S. and Sweden, but it is forever tied to the kingdom of heaven. This is how we should live our lives. My past has given me the experience of what it means to be an outcast and an understanding of how we are to live in an ever-increasing diverse community of people.

1

Love for All God’s People

"We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus

and of the love you have for all God’s people"

- Colossians 1:4

Paul’s words in Colossians resonated with me as I began to write this book. What verse encompasses Christian brotherhood and sisterhood in a way that reflects the faith and love we have for one another? Colossians 1:4 helped bring the answer to the above question and describes what I believe is the essence of Christianity and the unity we have in Christ Jesus. That is, when someone from the outside looks at the church body, they should see something real, something that they do not have, and this will draw them in. The church is a place where love for all is continuously present, no matter who you are or where you are in your walk of life. It is an outpouring of the love we have for our Savior that permeates the entire church body.

The church in Colossae was not the only one in which Paul begins with a similar sentence. Paul writes in Ephesians 1:15, For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people. This shows that the church in Colossae was not the only one practicing the all-encompassing love for others.

The mention of love for others didn’t just pertain to a church congregation, but also directly to individuals. Paul speaks highly of Philemon. In Philemon 1:5, Paul writes, I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. Love for others is an important factor for a church and to each believer in general. More than just talking about it, how we are living out our faith is what matters. What Paul heard from others was something real and tangible. People were talking about it, and Paul felt the need to mention it. Shouldn’t Christians in our present day make others want to be like us and share in the love we have for each other?

This love for everyone is a core tenet within Christianity and one of the main commandments that Jesus gives us. As He said in John 15:12, My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. This love for all God’s people transcends the social, economic, racial, and cultural barriers that society has created. It is something that is ingrained into the very soul of what it means to follow Jesus Christ. The idea that God so loved the world, as is written in John 3:16, pertains not to a specific race or group of people, it covers everyone on the earth. As 2 nd Corinthians 5:15 says, Christ died for all and thus, all who call on the name of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are able to receive the free gift of salvation.

If God does not make a distinction between people when it comes to salvation, then neither should we. As Romans 2:11 says, God does not show favoritism. We see this theme continued in Galatians 3:28 as Paul writes, There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. God left no room for us to view people based on the criteria that the world uses to judge each other. We are called to see each and every person, no matter who they are, as a unique image of the Almighty God; a human being that He created and fully deserving of our love.

God’s love for all people is as simple as Peter describes it. He says in 2 Peter 3:9, that God is not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Paul continues this same theme in 1 Timothy 2:4, [God] wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. We are then not called to make a decision of who God has shown His mercy to, or who God has extended His Holy Spirit to, but to share about His love for everyone. We should want all people to come to know God and the love He has for them, no matter if they will or will not accept the truth that you share. This is what we are called to do as the kingdom of heaven here on earth.

Too many times in our lives we make a calculated decision of who we think deserves to hear the message of Jesus and the people we want to befriend. We tend to pick those who agree with us or who are close to us. These may be people that God wants you to pray for and reach with the gospel message, but it limits your range of influence to areas of personal comfort.

The way we judge others, either consciously or subconsciously, causes us to turn our backs on those who seem too unworthy or too different from us. We make a presumption of who deserves to hear the gospel message instead of listening to the Holy Spirit telling who He wants us to reach. We do not seek to make friends with those who are not like us, or those who may seem like our enemies. Much of it may be a subconscious reaction ingrained in us from a young age, but this is not an excuse. It is important as believers to continually seek to break down the barriers which stop us from being effective witnesses and to be more like Christ in our mindset.

Our sinful nature gets in the way when we become too familiar with the people we know. How we treat new members that come to our church shows a lot of the character of Christ within the congregation. Our tendencies are to form cliques within the community of believers. This leads to racial, economic, and social divides, even within a diverse church, and may cause newer members to feel unwelcomed as they are on the outside looking in.

Martin Luther King Jr. once noted that Sundays are one of the most segregated days of the week. He isn’t far from the truth. Our ability to shun those who are different from us, even in church, makes it very hard to share the gospel with those around us. It makes me wonder how many churches in the western