Yesterday, I made Lauren cry. I didn’t yell at her. I didn’t spank her. I didn’t take away her toys.

I simply shaved off my moustache.

She is only four years old and had never seen me without my moustache. I have forgotten how many years I sported the ’stache,, but it has been longer than she has been alive! She is used to furry kisses, hairy hugs, and whisker rubs.

And in her opinion, that naked lip is just WRONG!

A few months ago, she looked at our engagement picture, taken LONG ago, when we were still young, starry-eyed, and with much more hair on top (speaking of myself). She said to us, “I know the girl is Mommy, but who is your boyfriend?” She didn’t even recognize her dad without a moustache. She had become accustomed to one view of me and she is NOT enjoying the new view. Lauren is facing culture shock!

We recently had a guest here from the States. As I showed him around our country, I failed to remember how different Moldovan life is from life in the US . I am accustomed to the carbonated water, sandpaper toilet paper, and language barrier. I forget that most people don’t swerve around gaggles of geese as they drive through the village.

The first time he headed to the squatty potty and saw the hole in the floor, it was culture shock.

The first time we stood to pray before AND after the meal, it was culture shock.

When we hung out at youth camp, surrounded by only non-English speakers, it was culture shock!

My sensitivity-meter was dead. I forgot how different life is in Moldova .

Many Christians are in the same situation. They have become accustomed to the culture of the church, and they fail to realize how “strange” that culture is to someone from the outside. They are used to three fast songs and four slow songs. They are used to a preacher speaking to them for thirty minutes while they politely listen. They are used to kicking something into the offering (hopefully their 10%), raising hands in worship, and using all the latest Christian jargon.

And their visitor is now in full-blown Culture Shock.

For years, the Church’s approach has been to bring in the outsiders, let them experience “church,” and ask them to join the “family”. They never think how strange everything is to the outsider. They never think about culture shock.

I think when Jesus told the Church to go into all the world and make disciples, he intended his followers to cross the culture gap and not vice versa. If someone has to experience culture shock, let it be the Christians! Let’s get out of our cozy nest and bring the greatest message the world has ever seen—Jesus’ grace and forgiveness.

It might mean that you start visiting with your friends in a smoke-filled room while they drink adult beverages. You might possibly have fun with your neighbors while they crank out music and painful decibels. You might have to go to prisons or youth detention shelters, nursing homes or sports bars, or even to the far side of the globe.

You might need to become culture-shocked.

1 Cor. 9:20-21 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law…so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law…so as to win those not having the law.

No longer shocked in Moldova ,

Andy Raatz