Tag: Cross-Cultural Training
Crossing Cultures: Capacity and Insight
Expectations for new missionaries as well as for their sending bodies should include a long-term developmental perspective that recognizes on-field difficulties as expected and as the normative shaping events God intentionally uses to develop cross-cultural ministry capacity.
An Interview with a Missions Leader in China (3)
International mission agencies can offer guidance. We need guides. I don’t mean a simplistic, short-term orientation course. But neither do we need a boss who only gives commands and does not truly walk with us. I mean each missionary needs a genuine guide.
An Interview with a Missions Leader in China (2)
My vision is for training with the goal of fruitfulness. There is a great movement happening in the Chinese church, but there isn’t a great deal of actual church planting happening. How do we help them to bear fruit?
An Interview with Mike Frith, Founder and Director of OSCAR
ChinaSource is excited to partner with OSCAR, which stands for One Stop Center for Advice and Resources. The UK-based website offers both in-person and online courses, including the British Culture Orientation course. Find out about this course and more aspects of OSCAR’s work in this “3 Questions” video interview with Mike Frith.
The Culture Tree
Culture Learning: A Book Review
“One of the beautiful things about symbolizing cultures with trees is that this picture captures the essence of variation and uniqueness among groups… The image of the tree allows you to first think about commonalities by acknowledging all trees have the same parts, and then to address differences by thinking of the many different types of trees.”
Skills No Longer Needed
Re-entering a country that is “home” can be confusing. There is an unlearning—a releasing of some of the strategies that were only needed in a place with different rules and ways of living. We do not return as people who have stayed as we were before we left. There are things to shed; there are things to keep.
FieldPartner Helps Workers and Sending Churches to Cross Cultures
For missions to be successful, cross-cultural workers need to be equipped to understand the new culture. Churches need training on how best to support their workers. FieldPartner is creating online content in English and Chinese to support both workers and sending churches.
Reverse Culture Shock
Having been back in Australia for a few months now, we have well and truly entered the stage of transition that follows the initial happy honeymoon phase—and have plunged down on the reverse culture shock curve.
Chinese vs American Family
Don’t Tell Me What to Do!
I didn’t understand that by disagreeing with my parents and older people that I was not showing them respect and returning the care they had given me.
Cultural Identity—East vs West
Or Why They Cause Me Stress
In Asia I experienced a lot of cultural stress but didn’t know why. Not only was I trying to adjust to a different culture, but I was also dealing with unconscious American and Japanese cultural values.