Burden of Baggage: First-Generation Issues in Coming to Christ

Overcoming Cultural Baggage One Generation at a Time. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Every person coming to Christ has baggage, but a first-generation believer, especially one coming from little or no connection to Christianity, has an uncommon amount of cultural baggage that they bring with them. This books tackles common issues and sees specific examples play out in the Iranian church as a prime example of these challenges. The Burden of Baggage explores how the cultural upbringing is expressed in the personal, interpersonal, family, leadership, and spiritual expressions of church life-contributing to both the strengths and weaknesses. Church teaching must shift the emphasis away from the self as perceived by the community in terms of honor and shame, by encouraging people to give up their honor through humility, and refocusing the attention on God and loving others. Readers will walk away knowing they are not alone in their struggles as they deal with gut-wrenching issues that often aren't able to be solved in one generation.