Jesus Creed

Jesus Creed

Cross-cultural Ministry

posted by Jesus Creed Admin | 12:20am Wednesday November 19, 2008

If you are working at crossing ethnic lines, or if you are frustrated with stereotypes, Eric Bryant’s new book, Peppermint-Filled Pi?atas: Breaking Through Tolerance and Embracing Love,
is a book I highly recommend. And especially if you work with youth — this book is even better. Bryant ministers at Mosaic in East LA (with Erwin McManus).

Eric Bryant, who once tried to be a stand up comic and didn’t make it, is a comedic writer… this book is filled with funny and witty stories and lines. But Peppermint-Filled Pinatas — his attempt to be cheap once for a birthday party — is anchored in ministries. Ministries that are at their very heart a missional work to cross ethnic and cultural boundary lines in order to draw people to God.


Here are his major ideas: people matter the most and that means:

1. Getting off the couch to make friends
2. Partying as a way of expanding our influence
3. Finding a common cause to create community

Love is the new apologetic and that means:

4. Proving that God is real through civil behaviors
5. Seeing past stereotypes
6. Reaching across the ideological divide
7. Engaging others in a post-sexual revolution world
8. Building relationships with the religious

This is a very good book. It is not accusatory, so don’t worry that he’ll make you feel guilty. Nor is it agenda-driven — it’s a pastor’s advice on how to carry on a ministry in a world that is becoming increasingly diverse, and how to enjoy yourself doing it.



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Attie

posted November 19, 2008 at 4:06 am


Looks like a book every youth pastor should have. I am going to order it.



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Henry Zonio

posted November 19, 2008 at 11:47 am


This is a great book! Like you (Scot) said, it doesn’t make you feel guilty for not having lived out what he is advocating. Instead, I think it does a great job of motivating people to see ministry from a more missional context… in that I mean approaching ministry in North America (or anywhere for that matter) as a “good” missionary would in a different country.
I loved his stories. Especially his story of how he found himself empathizing with the lesbian partner of his wife’s classmate.
One of the things I appreciate about Eric’s writing is that he is humble in how he approaches his views on missional living. It was also neat to see how he has come to “understand” the world in which minorities live in. He is a white boy from Texas… and he got “it” when it comes to what minorities go through. Being a minority myself, it is hard to find “white” people who sincerely get it.
Anyway, my two cents… go buy it and read it.



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