Can We Work Together?

1 September 2007




	Missionaries from many cultures are rebuilding Southern Sudan together (Dave Bremner photo)

Multicultural teams are our norm and our desire. Multidirectional mission brings people from opposite ends of the cultural spectrum to serve on a ministry team. We prize our diversity. Yet, as Dr. Jonathan Ingleby of Redcliffe College in England says, “Anybody who has tried it will know that working together in multicultural teams is one of the biggest challenges that we have to face in mission” (from Encounters Mission Ezine, December 2005).

At the risk of over-generalizing, here are a few of the realities that can rough up the road towards godly teamwork:

Decision making—Some workers are accustomed to shared leadership and consensus building, while others are used to obeying the person at the top.

Conflict resolution—Some like to argue; others prefer to keep the peace, at least on the surface.

Relationships—Americans are often individualistic; many Britons treasure their privacy; African and Asian cultures tend to emphasize extended family values.

History—One team member might be from a nation or group that in the past humiliated and tortured the ancestors of another team member.

Language—Power tends to flow, subtly or overtly, to those who are able to debate in their mother tongue. Historically in SIM, this has been the privilege of those from English-speaking backgrounds.

A Culture of Grace




	The Sudan team is a study in diversity.

How, then, can SIM develop teams where each person is honored, where all are working hard to understand one another, where it’s safe to change and adapt, and where relationships lead to trust? Here are some recommendations that came out of recent workshops on multicultural team training:

Include issues of cultural differences in pre-field and field orientation.
Don’t assume that the language of the majority of the team will be the team language; consider team interactions.
As far as biblically valid, let the host culture lead in forming the values and habits of team life.
Play together.
Share food, customs, and holiday traditions of members’ homelands.
Give priority to education for missionary children from non-English backgrounds.
Encourage compromise in cultural preferences; discourage (even confront) extremes.

Jenny Fallon (an Australian working in Burkina Faso) said at a recent workshop, “The goal is to encourage a positive attitude to our differences, rather than allowing them to cause friction.”

Pray

that team members will be “like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose” (Philippians 2:2, NIV).

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