Insensitivity to cultural ways can have serious repercussions.
Many years ago a non-Asian missionary had a leadership role in an Asian ministry. The missionary came from a culture that uses confrontational strategies to deal with interpersonal problems. People would speak out as a means of resolving difficulties.
The missionary was therefore dissatisfied with the non-confrontational approach by Asians when they communicate wth others about problems. One day, a young Asian in the ministry team wrote a note about some problems. The leader rebuked that team member for writing and lacking the courage to speak face to face about the problems. The leader did not realise that it had actually taken a lot of courage to write the note.
The missionary continued to train other Asians, who were taught to be outspoken and to confront others when there were problems. Sadly, this leader was insensitive to the cultural differences between non-Asians and Asians.
In time, those who were trained became leaders. As the ministry grew over the years, older ministry leaders began to realise that the younger leaders were becoming increasingly non-Asian in some of their ways and approaches. Insensitive leaders usualy leave their mark and affect a work.
Discussion questions:
1. If you were another young Asian in that ministry team, what could you or others in the team have done after hearing about the rebuke by the leader to your team member?
2. If you were a culturally sensitive leader who had observed the cultural differences in that team, what counsel would you have given to the leader and the young Asians?
* reprinted with permission from Navmedia.
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Answer to Q.1 and 2.
remind the senior that this is not corporate world but God’s.
Practice the attitudes that Jesus shows to His disciples and the world at large during His time on earth. Restrain and forgiveness are hallmarks of great christian leaders that have been written all this while, not confrontational beings. An ability to see different perspertives is good, but always do a self check before criticising others.