Building Cultural Intelligence in Church and Ministry

The church today is gradually becoming a place where many diverse cultures meet to worship God. As we worship together, there are often challenges on how you build constructive friendship within these diverse cultures. The purpose of this book is to enable individuals and churches with diverse cultures to achieve local and global effectiveness and friendship in mission and ministry through cultural competence audit, assessments, and improvement. In a diverse city and world, we have so much in common and are also very different. We cannot all be the same; we are created by God in a very unique way. However, we do want to understand each other and work together effectively and peacefully to bring the kingdom of God as proclaimed by Jesus to many in our city. Culture matters whether in the national, ethnic, generational, organizational, or socioeconomic class. This book explores many themes within cultural intelligence. This study guidebook can be used as a read alone or within small groups and mission groups. It can also be used as part of a campaign, building a culturally intelligent church by the power of the Holy Spirit. We encourage every team, church, and small group not only to use this book for improving their cultural competence but also to carry out a campaign within their churches for maximum impact and transformation into a cross-culturally competent church and Christian community. The campaign begins by carrying out an individual and also a team cultural Intelligence assessment. Secondly, a workshop to debrief the assessment and how you can improve specific areas that need improvement. After the workshop, we follow up through coaching and mentoring, as the case maybe. A final assessment is then taken to ascertain any improvement gained over the period. Whether you are -in a church that wants to connect with other cultures in your community; -ministering in a very diverse congregation; -in a ministry where you are reaching out to teenagers, young adults, and seniors; -in a church with people from different organisational/denominational church backgrounds; or - working in a cross-cultural workplace. This book, together with the cultural intelligence online self-assessments, debriefing, and improvement workshops, is a helpful tool in increasing your cross-cultural competence in mission, ministry, and the workplace. To take part in our cultural competence campaign, e-mail info@ccsld.net.