Several years ago, a friend took his mother to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. His mother, a somewhat difficult woman, ordered thusly:
“I want General Tso’s Chicken, but I don’t want it breaded or deep fried, and I don’t want it to be spicy.”
Now General Tso’s Chicken is, by definition, breaded and deep fried chicken in a spicy sauce. But this waiter knew better than to argue. He took the order without comment and headed back to the kitchen.
Ten minutes later he returned to the table with their food. With great dignity, he placed a dish of chicken and vegetable stir-fry in front of my friend’s mother, pronouncing it “General Tso’s Chicken”.
And she was happy.
************************************
I’ve normally told this story to illustrate both good customer service and the wisdom of carefully picking one’s battles. But after telling this story to a friend, he suggested that it is also a parable.
According to my friend, this story serves as a warning to those of us who are engaged in missional and cross-cultural ministry. While being responsive to people’s needs and context is important, there is also a risk of giving people something that is wholly different from what we seek to offer (i.e. The Gospel). In doing this, we both undermine our mission and do our targets no favors.
Take General Tso’s Chicken, for example. There are several variations on the dish, and most restaurants are glad to accommodate customer whims and needs. But when someone demands that chicken stir-fry be presented as “General Tso’s Chicken”, it is clear that the customer neither wants, nor even understands, General Tso’s Chicken.
Like the waiter in this story, we are left with a choice: We can either participate in a charade or we can stand our ground. By sending in for the Gospel what our missional target thinks they desire, we are allowing people to remain ignorant even while we undermine our own mission.
The second choice is more nuanced: We do indeed risk displeasing our target, but we also are allowing them to reject the Gospel from a position of knowledge, rather than ignorance. More importantly, we have not compromised our mission as prescribed by a holy God.
In closing, I would suggest that the parable of General Tso’s Chicken brings up some important questions:
Do you think that missional/emergent folks occasionally participate in the charade similar to what is described in the story? Do you even think it is a fair comparison?
How much customization can be done to a recipe before it is an entirely different dish? In other words, how much contextualization can take place before “The Gospel” becomes “another gospel”?
What are the risks of customization/contextualization? What are the benefits?
Is there any way to make General Tso’s Chicken such that the breading doesn’t get soggy whilst it is in transit from the restaurant to one’s home?
As always, inquiring minds want to know.
