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.
I remember the first time I saw the little purple flowers on the mountains in Tibet. They were soooo simply beautiful. And I thought, what a pity that no one but me may ever see these. And then I thought, maybe God makes beautiful things, not to make us happy, but for His own pleasure and because He just enjoys making and having beautiful creations.
This was about 4… Read More....
Dear Family and Friends,
As always, time goes by so quick. The spring semester flew by and now I am in the process of moving to a new city. After the whirlwind of activities over the last few months, I finally have a few minutes to catch my breath before summer camp starts so I thought I’d take a moment to update you on how He is working… Read More....
School has begun! I started teaching on Monday of this week. I am teaching in the English department of my school and am very excited to be working with my students. I have loved all my students from year one to now but because these kids are English majors their English is a little better so we can discuss more in-depth topics and get to know each other a little… Read More....
Latest Comments