Many thanks to the course design team for their excellent work. We are grateful for their heart, experience, and many hours invested in this course. Andy Dixon Lauren Dixon Jae Lee Bayta Schwarz Carolyn McDonnell Haswell Beni Elspeth Liebenberg Ruth McNeill And thank you for engaging with this course! We would like to hear your …
Time to Reflect Scan what you have written in your Cultural Learning Journal and consider the following questions: What main themes do you observe in what you recorded? Which topics stand out to you? What new questions does your learning journal surface? How can you continue to explore answers to these questions?How will you continue …
So far in this course, we have studied the biblical background and necessary mindsets and tools for intercultural teamwork to succeed. One of the most significant challenges we face in intercultural teamwork is cultural power dynamics in leadership. There are many ways that power impacts our actions and decisions as leaders. Sometimes, this challenge appears when …
We all have values. They are shaped from many different sources and grow and develop throughout our lifetime. Our family upbringing, relationships, culture, community, and faith impact our values. Values are individual beliefs that motivate people to act one way or another. Not only do we have personal values, but cultures also have values that …
As we seek to understand and address the cultural and power dynamics intercultural leaders face, we inevitably encounter the topic of money. Before looking at the case study, let’s reflect on some Biblical principles about wealth: Wealth comes from God (1 Chronicles 29:12, Deuteronomy 8:17-18a). We must love God, not riches (Matthew 6:24, 1 Timothy …
Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same thing, but learning another way to think about things. Flora Lewis Languaculture means that a language includes the elements of grammar and vocabulary, as well as past knowledge, local and cultural information, habits, and behaviours. Michael Agar, author of the book SHOCK: Understanding …
How do gender dynamics impact our intercultural teams? Who leads? How do we develop leaders? What decisions do we make? To understand the cultural and power dynamics related to gender, we will examine them through the lens of the four grand metanarrative topics of scripture: Creation, The Fall, Reconciliation, and Oneness in Gospel Witness. Click …
A note on wellbeing… We want to acknowledge that conversations about ethnicity and race can be draining for our staff members experiencing personal and/or systemic prejudice. Here is a brief word from Latasha Morrison’s “Be The Bridge” Foundation in the United States about the impact of prejudice-driven trauma. We especially encourage staff members who have …
Is it biblical, personal, organisational or national? We have spent time learning and thinking about our worldviews, values, and cultural differences. Now we want to wrestle with how biblical standards relate to personal, organisational, and national cultural expressions. Sometimes we mistakenly ascribe biblical standards to what are actually personal, organisational, or national cultural differences or …
We’ve seen how our values significantly impact how we live our lives and make our choices. Our worldview also profoundly influences how we view the world around us and how we interact with others. A worldview is the set of beliefs about fundamental aspects of reality that ground and influence all one’s perceiving, thinking, knowing …
Each intercultural team in our organisation will have many different cultural perspectives, affecting how we work together. We want to grow in knowing and respecting diverse views and pursuing unity – these are crucial for working well as missional teams to advance the Great Commission. International business expert Erin Meyer provides a culture “map” to …
Now we will look at various mindset shifts and tools that can support our desire for healthy intercultural teamwork. In the next section of this course (Navigating Cultural Power), we will apply many of these resources to case studies for more thoughtful application practice. Watch for the icons below as they guide us through the …
How does intercultural learning increase our fruitfulness in the mission? One of today’s great temptations in ministry is to be driven by demographics and strategy. As a global leadership community, we may ask only the pragmatic question, “How will we reach every person in the world?” without considering culture. However, there are many biblical examples …
The “single story” One byproduct of shattered diversity is the promoting of a “single story” about those who are culturally different from ourselves. This contributes to our unconscious bias. The “single story” about David would be that he is an adulterer and a murderer, yet he is referred to as a “man after God’s own …
Unity in Diversity Shattered When sin entered human history, it forever changed how we relate to one another. Every culture’s history shows evidence of civilisations and kingdoms promoting exploitative economic, political, and legal systems. (Isaiah 10, Amos 2, Habakkuk 1) The global sin of “othering” Does prejudice exist in cultures and nations without distinct biological characteristics …
As Jae mentioned in the video, we see God’s cultural design woven through our origins as Imago Dei, God’s image-bearers. In Genesis 1:28, God calls humanity to live as stewards of His creation, to “fill the earth and subdue it.” As God’s image-bearers, Adam and Eve extended God’s creative work by engaging in what theologians …
Embracing God’s Multicultural Design with my Whole Self Our global movement exists to help fulfill the Great Commission. Taking the gospel message to all nations requires crossing cultures and working together interculturally for the glory of God. But even more, multiculturalism is part of God’s intentional and good design, which we embrace with our whole …
As Haswell mentioned in the video, this course will primarily serve intercultural teams with no singular “home culture” or culture audience. An important reminder – we can all learn from the course content, but not all concepts will apply to every other kind of team. Course Elements God’s Multicultural Design Mindsets & Tools Practical Actions …
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