Jon and Jen Quast Learning Language and Culture of Paraguay 
"Where are you going when you die?" This question is a common question that Christians ask people to get them to talk about spiritual things. We know that the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus Christ. He is the way, not a way. This question can be very effective for evangelism here in the United States, because it is a question that people contemplate in our culture. It hits a relevant nerve, and therefore can open up serious discussion.
Many people in our culture belong to formal religions. This isn’t interesting until you consider that not everyone in the world belongs to a formal religion. Many people in the world (and most tribal people) could be classified as belonging to what is known as a Folk Religion. The main difference between formal religion and folk religion is the questions that people are asking, and therefore the answers that they are seeking.
In formal religion we seem to be primarily concerned with ultimate realities. We want to know what happens when we die, what our purpose in life, where we originally came from, and what society is supposed to be like. However we would be wrong to assume that these things are what tribal people are primarily concerned with.
In folk religion they are less concerned with ultimate realities and are primarily concerned with everyday issues. A tribal person wants to know how to keep from getting sick more than he wants to know where he came from. He wants to know how to make his crops grow more than he cares what his purpose in life is. He wants to know more why people die than where they go when they do die. They questions they are asking are completely different.
The reason that this is important is because we wrongly assume that they have the same concerns as us. We go and teach them the gospel and then watch. Sadly we see them "get saved" and quickly fall into what we perceive to be apathy. It seems like they have no desire to grow as believers. They quickly fall back into their paganistic ways while still claiming Jesus. The problem is not apathy, it is we have made the gospel irrelevant to them. We haven’t shown them how the Bible answers the questions that they have in life, and therefore they are going to find the answers elsewhere in their former ways. We have with the best intentions inadvertently created a split level Christianity and without great efforts these believers won’t grow past infancy in Christ.
Paul Hiebert wrote in his superb book Understanding Folk Religion "Many (missionaries) study Scripture and theology but do not study the people." This quote in not meant to devalue the Bible and theology, but rather to show that we have to know the people that we are ministering to. Not understanding the difference between formal religious questions and folk religious questions is the reason for many failed church planting efforts. It is interesting to note that both formal religious questions and folk religious questions are answered in the Bible. They are both equally valid. We still teach unreached people groups where they came from, their purpose in life, and about life after death, even though that is not their primary concern. It is still important and they need to know the answers if they are to stand on a strong biblical foundation. But we also address their questions as well since the Bible speaks to those as well and are equally important for growth.
The issue becomes foggy when unreached people groups have mixed their folk religious beliefs with Christianity or other religions, but that is too much to get into in this article. It just goes to show that we as God’s minsters in this mission need to be careful students so we can make every human effort to make our message communicative. Ultimately we look to our Father to cause understanding. In the end we are dependent on Him for wisdom as wade through the mess that Satan has created among the lost people of this world.
