This course is best when worked through in community – with a team or small group, but you can also study the lessons independently. When studying with a small group, you might progress more slowly – looking at one lesson for some time and reflecting personally, then connecting with others to discuss the content. Practitioners …
Here are three possible ways to enrich the learning from this course. Begin a Cultural Learning Journal A journaling practice will help you see and remember areas where culture impacts your life. You can purchase a simple notebook, use a part of your regular journal, create a note on your phone, or use the course …
Culture and Decision-Making Decision-making is one of the eight culture map scales. Let’s study this scale a bit further. Decisions are often the building blocks of our leadership. Our culture influences our drive to make decisions, communications about decisions, and the decision-making process. How we navigate intercultural decision-making will significantly impact our team’s effectiveness and …
Practical Action Intercultural Team Discussion Here are some questions to consider. First, from the case study: How do you feel about this solution to the wealth imbalance on the team? What principles of awareness and sensitivity did you identify in this example? Now consider the dynamics on your team. Please feel free to adapt these …
Consider another true story from our movement. (The identity, voice, and personal details have been changed.) Please select this story or one of the other case studies from the languaculture, gender, or race lessons for focused learning using the Posture and Paradigm tool (Add link). This story illustrates how one national leader approached the dynamics …
Content not used – partly for course length and also not as relevant to intercultural teamwork. Consider this true story from our movement. (The identity, voice, and personal details have been changed.) For the sake of this exercise imagine you are the National Leader responsible for this city and cross-cultural leader. Answer the questions following …
Resource-abundant or Resouce-limited In the missionary world today, it is not uncommon for leaders from resource-abundant countries to serve alongside leaders from resource-limited countries. Although we are all required to have stable finances to work full-time in our organizational environment, the different amounts available for expenses can contrast highly. Unfortunately, when lifestyles differ significantly, this …
Teams need a common language in order to communicate and cooperate in ministry. In many contexts globally, that will likely be English. Many teams will consist of native English speakers and others who speak a variety of different languages. The most obvious challenge is not knowing the common language well enough to follow the conversation …
Questions to consider as the second-language speaker: How might you feel if you were on a team as a second-language speaker? What would help you feel part of the team and bring your best contribution? What might you do to improve this situation? What would you like your teammates to know and how might you …
This is a true case study from our global movement. The identity, voice, and personal details have been changed. Please select this story, or another story from the wealth, ethnicity and race, or gender sections for deeper study. Use the Posture and Paradigm worksheet (Add link) to learn from the experiences of our fellow staff …
Questions to Consider How do gender value differences show up in your context, and what challenges do they create? Are they similar to or different from your culture and values? To our organisational values? How does unconscious bias around gender influence the distribution of power and influence? Discuss a gender challenge in your team, context, …
Consider this true story from our movement. (The identity, voice, and personal details have been changed.) Please select this case study or another story from the languaculture, race, or wealth lessons for deeper study using the Posture and Paradigm (Add link) tool. **For the sake of this exercise, imagine you are a Regional Leader, and …
We will use the “Posture and Paradigm” worksheet to help us work through various examples of power dynamics as they show up in our context. In each of the following lessons, there is an opportunity to learn from staff members in our movement through their experiences. Please read through all the lessons, then dive deeper …
Once you’ve used the Posture and Paradigm worksheet to reflect on the case study, reflect on the questions and take time for the practical actions for deeper learning. Time to Reflect This story describes a complex situation. There may be several power imbalances that influence this story. How has unconscious bias around ethnicity and race …
This is an actual experience from our global movement. The identity, voice, and personal details have been changed. Please select this story, or another story from the languaculture, gender, or wealth lessons for deeper study. Use the Posture and Paradigm worksheet (Add link) to learn from our fellow staff member’s experience. https://www.ldhr.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/226/2022/05/IC-Leadership-Ethnicity-Race-Case-Study.mp4 Transcript Hello! I …
Because of sin, we no longer experience unity-in-diversity, an aspect of Shalom, but often see historical and modern-day practices and systems of forced conformity and dominating “others.” This alienation often manifests itself, both individually and corporately, in prejudice, sexism, classism, racism, nationalism, and injustice. Sin also distorts the nature of individual human beings as God’s …
Our cultural struggles as intercultural teams come from power inequity. Some of the most common areas where we experience power imbalances are language, gender, ethnicity and race, and wealth. Each of the above topics is vast, and may present themselves differently depending on the context. For instance, in some places, older age means more power, …
Unconscious bias is challenging for all of us because, by its very nature, it is something that we cannot see until someone points it out to us. Our biases are hard-wired into our thinking, and we do things almost automatically, like breathing or blinking. Watch this short video that helps explain this concept and think …
Practical Action The Culture Test (If possible, have your whole team do this and discuss the questions together.) Take The Culture Test regarding yourself. The questions it uses help identify the extent to which you lean towards each worldview. In the test results, you will see your dominant leaning and how much the others play …
**Content not used. (removed field observation cycle as less pertinent to the course) Practical Action Small Group or Team Reflection and Exercise Think about it: How can I/we grow in not jumping to conclusions but instead learn from our observations by validating our assumptions? Using the field observation cycle, what patterns can I/we establish to …
**Content not used. Need to shorten the course and seems more apt for cross-cultural situations. How will I pause and reflect when faced with behaviour that causes an emotional reaction in me? What questions do I need to answer to determine where my drive to confront or withdraw originates? How do I err on the …
Another way to discern the difference between biblical standards or beliefs and cultural expression is to utilise the following framework designed by Dr. Alan Scholes, a theologian serving with Campus Crusade for Christ. Conviction-level beliefs are crucial to salvation, such as the full deity and humanity of Christ. Persuasion-level beliefs are matters not central to …
Consider how this values lesson reflects metanarrative. The flip boxes give some ideas. The Fall Often, our sinful response to people with different values is to look down on them – consciously or unconsciously – and view our values as superior. The brokenness and conflict that result from our sin directly result from the Fall. …
**Content not used for sake of shortening the course. A word about hybridisation of worldview… Hybridisation is a subject that people often think about when considering the three bases of worldview we are thinking about. Now that travel around the world is so easy, and has been for decades, with us living around people from …
Where do you keep your ketchup? Diversity on a team broadens the team’s frame of reference, as explained in the audio clip below about ketchup. As we listen to the podcast clip or read the transcript, we will hear how different ways of doing things increase the options we can consider. REPLY ALL courtesy of …
Practical Action Identify Your Personal Values Fill out this Personal Values Inventory to reflect on your highest values. What do you notice or learn about your values and how they might impact your life and relationships with others? What connections do you notice between your values and your background? (You may want to refer to …
How do we see the biblical metanarrative showing up in this lesson? Take some time to record the connections you see, then flip the boxes to confirm or learn more. Creation The culture map scales do not have a better or worse score. Both sides of each scale can reflect God’s glory. Reconciliation Through quality …
Where do we see the Scripture’s metanarrative in this lesson? Think about it yourself. Then flip the boxes to see possible answers. Creation God mandates the creation of culture pre-fall deeming it “good” and a natural strength. The Fall The combination of diversity + sin can lead to conflict, cultural dominance, and team dysfunction (to …
Studies have shown that multicultural teams are either highly ineffective or highly effective but seldom average. The graph below reflects Dr. Carol Kovach’s and Nancy Adler’s research, showing the relative productivity of four to six-member problem-solving teams. Kovach and Adler’s study concluded something remarkable: culturally diverse teams have the potential to outperform monocultural groups significantly. …
Take a moment to complete these true or false statements about the effectiveness of multicultural and intercultural teams. Which of the statements challenge your ways of thinking and doing things?
For the sake of the Gospel… A reinterpretation of “El Greco” by Russian Artist Vladimir Zunuzin, “St. Peter and St. Paul (El Greco Improvisation)” oil paint on canvas, 2007. Used with permission. “St Paul and St. Peter” by Spanish artist El Greco in 1587. El Greco was one of the first painters in Spain to …
For this exercise, we will ask the Holy Spirit to reveal where we have developed a “single story” narrative in our own hearts towards a culture or group of people. This “single story” could be between other CCCi leaders of different cultures, within or outside our borders. The existence of a “single story” indicates the …
From “Single Story” to Reconciled Relationship **Choose one of the following options. Study the passage and record your thoughts. Discuss the reflection questions with your team (or another small group) if possible. Option 1: Zacchaeus Read Luke 19:1-10 or listen to Simon Yu, a Taiwanese-American serving in South Korea, read the passage.: ”Christ And Zacchaeus” …
Consider the metanarrative of Scripture outlined in the cards below. Where else in Scripture is unity shattered? Identify the sources of their broken unity. (For example, Esau and Jacob, Joseph and his brothers, the Prodigal Son, etc.) Creation (Genesis 1:26 -27) The Bible starts with God creating Adam – identified as ādām which means “humankind.” …
It’s crucial to note that this creation of culture is pre-fall. Read Psalm 139:14-16 and Revelation 21:22-27 in your heart language. Alternatively, click the links below to hear them read in English by some of our global staff. As we read or listen to these passages, let’s keep two things in mind: First, the word …
Discuss together: How would you describe “The Cultural Mandate”? How might Psalm 139 relate to our understanding of our ethnic identity? Focus on Revelation 21:26. What is God’s ultimate desire for the nations (ethnos) of the world? What does it mean that the nations will bring their “glory and honour”? What does this say about …
Before discussing intercultural teams, we want to define some key terms. Let’s start with culture. For our purposes in this course, this definition will guide us. CUL · TURE (noun) | ˈkəl-chər the customs, beliefs, values, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group the characteristic features of everyday existence …
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