Culturally Speaking

In between times of deputation, Mark has assisted our local church here in Jacksonville by teaching a mid-week class on cross-cultural ministry. Not only has Mark gained cross-cultural life and ministry experience from the many different cultures he has worked in his missionary assignments, he has a love for the peculiarities that are unique to different cultures around the world.

Living, ministering and assimilating into a different culture can be challenging. Knowing that one of the top reasons for attrition among new missionaries is the inability to assimilate to a new culture, we feel compelled to assist and mentor future missionaries in the nuances of understanding some of the rudimentary dynamics and differences that exist between cultures. The main purpose of the course is to increase CQ; Cultural Intelligence.

Topics of our class include discussions concerning blind monoculturalism, ethnocentrism, power distance, individualism, high versus low context, event versus clock time orientation, culture shock and re-entry. Other interaction between classmates concerning their own cross-cultural experiences makes discussion quite interesting.