Our family had been in our host country for less than six months. We were attending our first formal banquet. I had one job: introduce my family. I stood with nervous confidence and said, “Let me introduce you to my family. My name is Cris. This is my eggplant, Dena.”
Yep! That’s a cross-cultural misstep. This mistake wasn’t my first, and it certainly wouldn’t be my last.
The chances of cross-cultural missteps are pretty high in a city as diverse as Houston.
A Multicultural City
What are your chances for cross-cultural missteps? You might think it only happens overseas, but cross-cultural interactions happen all the time in Houston. We encounter an amazing diversity of people in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and restaurants daily.
The chances are pretty high in the church, too. Increasingly, we find ourselves in fellowship with believers from a wide variety of backgrounds as we worship, attend small groups, and serve on ministry teams or church staff.
Most missteps are pretty harmless. We use the wrong word, the wrong gesture, or the cultural habits so familiar to us. I still joke that in America, the line forms at the rear, while in East Asia, the line forms at the front. If you ever go to pay your phone bill only to be continuously outmaneuvered by little old ladies twice your age, half your size, with three times your determination, you’ll know what I mean.
But some cultural missteps are more serious. We worked with a minority Muslim people group in East Asia. They don’t eat pork. We also worked with believers from the majority people group in East Asia. They do eat pork. Some of these Christians believed that you couldn’t baptize a Muslim background believer until they ate pork!
An Age-Old Struggle
These serious missteps are not new. In the book of Galatians, Paul dealt with an issue in his mission work similar to the one we faced in ours. Jewish believers insisted that Greeks become Jews first, then followers of Christ.
Peter dealt with a different issue. Jewish believers were overlooking Greek-speaking widows in the daily distribution and nearly split the early church. Paul understood that nothing less than the truth of the gospel was at stake in Galatia, while Peter understood that nothing less than the unifying power of the gospel was at stake in Jerusalem.
The deeper we go into cross-cultural relationships, the greater the danger of our missteps causing lasting—even eternal—harm.
Wrong words or gestures can easily miscommunicate the gospel.
Cultural blind spots can cause believers to miss open doors for the gospel with neighbors and co-workers. What we see as an interruption in our schedule, might be an invitation into a genuine relationship.
Cross-cultural missteps can wound believers, break fellowship, and render any multicultural staff ineffective.
Cultural misunderstandings can turn church planting partnerships into shallow, contractual agreements that have little hope of weathering the challenges of kingdom advance.
Cross-cultural missionary teams, a growing phenomenon in international missions, suffer when one culture dominates the others.
How can we sharpen our skills to be more effective in cross-cultural interactions?
A workshop to grow your CQ
We want to help churches grow in their ability to work cross-culturally, so we’re collaborating to host a Cultural Intelligence [CQ] Workshop.
Cultural Intelligence was developed by David Livermore, who has a background in cross-cultural ministry, a masters in systematic theology, and a Ph.D. in sociology. His industry-standard training is offered in more than 100 countries to equip businesses and nonprofits to work together with those from different backgrounds.
Hal Cunnyngham from the International Mission Board (SBC) will lead our workshop. The IMB uses Cultural Intelligence to train their growing number of multicultural missionary teams. Though designed for international missionaries, this workshop will help anyone wanting to work more effectively in cross-cultural settings.
Thursday, April 4 from 9am - 3pm
Faith Center, 8009 Long Point Rd, Houston, TX 77055
$20 per person - price includes lunch and the Cultural Intelligence assessment
Registration is limited.
Please register by March 1. This will allow you time to complete the assessment and pre-assignments.
C. S. Lewis once remarked, “Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.” I would add that two cultures are better than one for the same reason.
As the Senior Consultant for Sending Pathways, Cris Alley helps support the local church in thinking and acting like missionaries.
Photo by Fa Barboza on Unsplash
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