Comparing Apples to Oranges

Oranges and apples are amazing things. One has an edible thin skin; the other has a sour tough skin. One is a bright orange color, (this is supposing that it is an American orange that has been forced to ripen; our oranges are a light yellow green), and the other can be many shades of green, yellow, or red. One is crisp and makes a crunch, the other is soft and can spray juice all over a person’s hands.

But, the main difference between an apple and an orange is the way in which a person eats them. Most people in America will peel an orange, then divide it into its equal pieces, and then eat them one by one, seeds and all. The apple on the other hand is totally different. We just grab the thing out of the refrigerator and begin to bit. We start at one side and work our way around until we have removed most of the skin, then we start over, going deeper into the apple. Finally at the end, all the person has left is the core. They are both fruits, but the approach most people use in eating them is totally different.

We have all heard the old saying. “He is comparing apples with oranges”. This cliché means that someone is trying to compare two different groups, while pretending that they are all the same thing. This seems to happen to many people that work in missions today.

They lump all people into the same group whether they are African, Asian, European, or South American. In these peoples’ minds, all people are the same. (This to an extent is totally true). Just like in the fruit family, we have many fruits that can be grouped together, and we can state certain facts that are true about all of them. All people have souls, sin, and equal value in this world and in eternity, but that does not change the fact that an orange is not an apple, and an apple is not an orange.

Just like the Fruit Family, the Human Family has different kinds of people. Like the orange and apple, the approach that a person takes to reaching the seeds or core of their lives must change depending on what kind of ‘fruit’ they are. Some people are oranges and others are apples. A missionary talking about presenting the gospel to these two groups, if he tries to say that they are the same, is just comparing apples to oranges.

Today, we are going to describe these two kinds of fruits and try to learn from them.

THE ORANGE- the Westerner

In the family of fruits, the Westerner is the orange. He loves uniformity, and order. There is a little difference in size and shape, but he is an orange. He has a thick outside, which many times is hard to remove, and can be quite sour.

The most amazing thing about the orange is not the outside, but the inside. The orange is an amazing example of order. All parts of an orange are ordered and in place. Each part is separated by thin membranes. Each piece has its own seed or seeds, and the whole inside is neatly divided into groups. With very little effort a person can divide up an orange, and if the orange is ripe he can do it with very little mess. One by one, the parts can be consumed and the seeds removed.

This is a perfect picture of the inside of a Westerner. His life is ordered. Each part is in its separate box. Each part of his life has a seed, and it is easy to take his life apart one piece at a time and get to the seeds (our life principles) of this part of his life. The Westerner has home, work, school, church, and community, split into individual groups and knows how each fits together to make a whole. In the Western mind, spiritual is spiritual and physical is physical, and the two only meet when they are side by side in the ‘orange’. They are separate parts of a whole life. The hardest part about reaching a Westerner is getting through the sour rough outside, but once a person gets past the skin, the inside parts tend to be softer.

In Western societies, if a pastor or youth pastor sees a problem in one area of a person’s life (i.e. problems at home, or school, or work), he will quickly pull out that part of the person’s life, look for the seed (problems) and remove it. Because the Western life is not very holistic, (meaning that most areas of live do not totally bleed over into other areas), then the problem can be dealt with in the place it is found in the life.

For example, a younger missionary that I am working with here has been pushing me to confront a convert about the church that he attends. The missionary sees the problem in a very Western mindset. This convert attends a Charismatic Baptist church. The foundational teachings are somewhat the same, but there are some very serious problems with the church’s teaching. The young man attends many of our Bible studies and likes to help us. He is currently thinking about getting baptized. The young missionary wants me to address the boy in a very blunt way, stating all the negative areas in which the church will harm the person’s spiritual life. (This term- spiritual life- gives great insight to the Western mindset, indicating that this part is somehow removed from the physical life). To him it is a simple matter. It is true that the boy needs to remove himself from the church. In time it will greatly harm his spiritual grow, but the point is not that he needs to be removed from the church. The point is the way that we teach him about this need.

Should it be approached like an orange or an apple? If he was an Orange, and I had made it past his tough outside, then I would cut up the problem for him to see, pull out the bad seed (problem), and fix it right away. The problem is though, that he is an apple not an orange.

THE APPLE- the African

In the Fruit Family, the African is the Apple. He loves variety. He comes in many different colors, shapes, and size. He has a very thin skin that covers a thick inside.

The apple is a whole, not parts. It is a solid mass of juice, flesh, and seeds. Every part of the apple is interconnected and supplies support and flavor to the whole. Unlike an orange, where one piece can be dry and another juicy, the whole apple must be juicy for it to be sweet. An apple can have bad spots, caused by a worm or because something is pressing it too much from the outside. The African thinks of life in much the same way. But if left alone, the whole thing, in his mind, will grow or die equally.

An African does not divide his life into secular and sacred. To him, life is completely interconnected. He does not go to school just for learning, but for social interaction, for spiritual interaction, for community harmony. His church is not just his spiritual life, but also his family and community. It is like the flesh of an apple. It is one solid mass.

When a missionary tries to help someone to make a spiritual decision that will change his or her life, he cannot deal with the spiritual implication only, but how this action will affect the whole man. For that is how the convert sees his life. Therefore he does not rush to peel off the skin and pull out the offending piece, and spit out the seed. He works at it like eating an apple. He starts on the outside. He teaches the truth, and works it around the whole scope the person’s life. For the person to really change, he must allow the change to cover his whole life: the home, church, and community. The missionary needs to be patient and let the truth slowly eat away around the surface, and then, as time passes, it will move to the seeds.

If the missionary rushes, and pushes a man to a snap decision, trying to cut out the seed to quickly, then he produces a syncretist. The person will act a certain way at church, but the truth will not have covered all the other areas of his holistic life. He will be like a apple that has been half-eaten.

Case in point- the young African convert. The younger missionary wants to just cut him off from the other group. But as I have watched him, he is not ready yet. He is coming closer, but the truth has not made it all the way around the apple yet. If I were to jump on him now, and tell him to leave, one of two out comes will result. First: he will obey to please me, not God. It is not his personal conviction, and he will still keep his unofficial ties to the people and community of his old church. His outside will change, but his heart will still be connected. Second: he will resist and run. He will have great trouble in his mind. He does not see this as separating from a church, but cutting up his whole life. He will weigh the amount of help he will get from us and fear the loss of contacts and friends. The cutting off from community (his church) will lead him to other fears that he might not be ready to face. Very possibly he will run away and only keep minimal contact with us.

This is the difference between reaching and teaching an apple and a orange. If a minister of the gospel tries to lead different people groups to decisions the same way, he will end up with syncretists, or runaways. For people that are heavily influenced by African culture or other groups that are very holistic in worldview, they will need more time before they can make decisions that will impact their whole life. In the West, we value the maverick, but in most places the maverick is not a hero, but a shriveled up apple that is going to rot.

Let me give the reader a final story from the United States to help explain. Pastor Steve Pettit was a youth pastor many years ago in Saginaw, Michigan. He was trying to work heavily in the intercity schools and had many young people that he was trying to reach. One young man was named Marvin Corr. Marvin trusted Christ as his Savior. He attended Saginaw High, a very difficult place to live as a Christian. Marvin was being told to carry a Bible to school and to witness. At first, this was very hard for him to do. Being a young man from the intercity, with a very holistic life, his friends, school, and community all worked together to compete for control. At first, Marvin said that he would do what was right when Pastor Steve was around, but when Pastor Steve left, it was right back to the same old patterns and activities. Despite this Pastor Steve, led him, but he did not push. Marvin said that one day it clicked. His “friends” at school were mocking him for hanging out with the white guy when he realized that that white guy cared more for him than all the kids at his school. He made a decision that he was going to do what was right, no matter what others thought.

What had happened? The teaching had made its way around the whole apple. The truth had finally surrounded his whole life and changed his whole life. For those of us that see life like oranges, and work with apples, this is very important to understand. We must teach holistically so that converts will be able to change, but know that this holistic teaching will take longer to affect change.