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“If a PC computer user said, “I use a PC because the MAC computer is just garbage, it can’t process anything!” A MAC user would reply, “No way, the MAC is the best!” Well, says the PC user, “I can prove the MAC is a hunk of junk right now!” “How can you prove that to me?” says the MAC user. “Okay, I went to the computer store and bought a program for my PC. I took it home, put it in my computer and it worked fine. I took the exact same program and put it into my friend’s MAC and it wouldn’t work! Nothing but garbage came out. It is a junk computer!”

Anyone who knows about computers knows that this conclusion does not make sense. It is based on what the PC user sees happening but he doesn’t understand why it is happening. Anyone who knows a little about computers knows that the Mac runs on a different operating system and therefore, it cannot read the programs written for the PC. The PC and Mac seem to do the same things. They both can do word processing, spreadsheets, play media, etc. but the way they process information is very different. Therefore, programs that work in a PC produce only garbage in the Mac. Does this mean that the Mac is faulty, stupid, no good, cursed, evil or junk? No, it just means we must put the program into a language that the Mac can understand and compute.

We make this same faulty conclusion with the gospel. We know what worked to show us that Jesus loves us and is our God, so we automatically think that these same things will work for people of other languages and cultures. However, each language and culture has its own unique worldview (The way in which it processes data that it receives). Therefore, specific programs need to be written for each one. This is what we call “Culture Specific Evangelism.””