Now that I’ve got your attention, neither multicultural nor monocultural teams work in the long run if team members don’t work hard to understand the ‘world’ of each member.
Teams do not work because team members do not take the time to understand another’s ‘culture’ or way of working. I can be from the same culture as other team members, but if I am a ‘thinker’ and another is a ‘feeler’, I could be frustrated by his/her lack of being able to ‘make a decision’. It may feel like he/she is always stalling our team and never wanting to come to closure. However, that is not how this person is ‘thinking’ or processing. Failing to understand another’s way of thinking will cause dissonance and conflict in a team.
Teams fail, not because of the cultural make-up of the group, but because we believe our way of seeing and dealing with reality (for example, how to do ‘team life and ministry’) is the best or ‘biblical’ way. Our own culture can create a sense of right-ness in our hearts, and keep us from humbly learning from others on our team. We can miss the opportunity to experience team in a deeper way.
It is true that when you add the ‘multicultural’ card into a team, it adds another dimension that the team must address. However, the ‘multicultural’ card will also add a dimension to any team that enhances its cross-cultural ministry capacity.
When two or more cultures come together to work on a church planting team, they must learn how to ‘bridge’ between the cultures represented on that team. They learn not only how to ‘divest themselves’ (Philippians 2), but how to ‘translate and contextualize’ what another is saying. This allows them, as a team, to be even better prepared to contextualize the message into the cultural context of the people group to whom they have been called. In other words, they gain valuable experience for their ministry from learning to work together and minister to one another as a team.
So, whether your team is monocultural or multicultural, each of us needs to start by asking at least two questions so that our team can be built on grace and honesty:
- What do I need to ask another to better understand how they think and process?
- What heart barrier (cultural, emotional or spiritual) keeps me from hearing and learning from another who seems very different from me?
Filed under: Crossing cultures, Cultural intelligence, Teams |
Thoughts Along The Journey 
Yes, you did get my attention with this title…:-)
Here are some more insights confirming what you wrote from Dr Caroline Leaf, a practising Christian neuroscientist. In her 21 day brain detox program (www.21daybraindetox.com), designed to renew our minds as commanded in Romans 12:2. She writes:
“The prefrontal cortex (the front part of the brain, just above the eyebrows, that most people know as the frontal lobe) has specifically been designed to do a few wonderful things:
to get us into deep intellectual thought; to stand outside ourselves and observe our own thinking; to make decisions and to connect us with people.
As you make eye contact and assess facial expressions, tones in voices and body language, your frontal lobe makes sense of all this.
By Day 19 you have progressed to the point where you are starting to use your frontal lobe the way God designed it to be used: to bring all those thoughts into captivity of Christ Jesus; to actively reach out in a new way, a mature way, a way that reflects the attitude Jesus had, an attitude that truly reflects the enormous change in your life. You are beginning to experience the treasures He has for you….”
Especially the ability ‘to stand outside ourselves and observe our own thinking’ and how it can still be influenced by our culture rather than God’s word, is very useful in (multi cultural) teams and in all other situations of our lives.
Blessings,
Adrian
P.S.: I am 2 days away from finishing that 21 days detox program. It is very useful for us and our disciples. One of the main problems in discipleship in general, is that they see Christianity through their old worldview rather than as it really is. This is the source of confusion in many new Christians who come to faith. They continue to carry baggage from their old ways of life. This limits their understanding and growth in their new life.
Though I’m not ready for the ‘detox’ program, I believe the Gospel truly does provide the power to ‘displace’ every idol from our hearts. I would highly recommend Thomas Chalmers work: “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection”. A daily speaking the Gospel to our hearts moves Christ to the centre, displacing all other things we may have put there.
The Gospel truly does provide the power to ‘displace’ every idol from our hearts. This is the main difference between mere (Godless) positive thinking and that Christian ‘detox’ program. The latter just gives some practical steps on how to apply the Gospel in the renewing of our minds process.
Agreed, but even those ‘practical steps’ can become a ‘work’ that we could come to believe will help us be renewed without the Spirit’s help and power of the Gospel.
True. The danger you describe is in everything we do. Romans 12:2 says:
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…
Once we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, we are transformed (passive) by the renewing of our mind (active, ongoing).
Since we are asked to do something here, it seems a good idea to plan wisely (by learning from a practicing Christian neuroscientist) for that work to be done with the help of the Holy Spirit, in the power of the Gospel.
It may be that we’re looking at the same truth, but from different ends of the ‘street’. We are sanctified in the same way that we were saved, by faith. That is the one work we are called to (John 6:28-29). Faith, receiving the Gospel gives us the power to actively obey the commandments of God. Active obedience always flows out of passive righteousness, so that we don’t start to believe it’s because of our own efforts that we have actually made any progress in our journey with Christ.
Yes, I think that is correct: Same ‘street’, different ends, active obedience, flowing out of passive righteousness.
Maybe an example will also help:
We use Strategic and Tactical Planning (STP) as one way to do our work. In order to do this best, in the power of the Holy Spirit and the Gospel, we have asked experts (e.g. Bob Johnstone) to teach us the workings of the STP.
Dr Caroline Leaf and her brain detox program is another one of those experts to do the work more efficient in the above described way.
I also see the value in taking a cultural view survey to show us how we are deal with certain situations. We took those personality tests through Worldteam but we need to either go back and find those forms we filled out and share this with our groups unless we don’t fully understand how those can be accessed within a team. Sometimes we don’t even realize we are doing things a certain way. I sold cars for a time. It was a large dealership in many states actually run by a Christian family. We also took a personality test and had to wear a badge with a graph that showed how we work together. If you memorized what those graphs meant you would deal with each person differently because you knew if they were a leader, a thinker, a follower, a feeler, etc. Carol
Thanks Carol! That practical way might be helpful to some teams.