Cross Cultural Missional Partnership

Cross-cultural partnerships in today's global environment are both challenging and necessary. Misunderstanding and miscommunication often lead to conflict between culturally diverse groups. Christians must understand and evaluate their own culture, the culture of others, and the text of Scripture itself, while remaining faithful to Scripture and relevant to culture. Unmediated tensions combined with relational isolation lead to a myriad of problems. This study proposes cross-cultural missional partnership as a relationship that mediates these tensions, thereby encouraging mutual, faithful engagement in the mission of God. Cross-cultural tensions may never disappear, but within a healthy partnership, partners can assist one another in understanding and responding faithfully to Scripture. Partners help one another more faithfully interpret and apply Scripture, leading to obedience to God's will and engagement in God's mission within unique and diverse contexts.

Cross-cultural partnerships in today’s global environment are both challenging and necessary. Misunderstanding and miscommunication often lead to conflict between culturally diverse groups. Christians must understand and evaluate their own culture, the culture of others, and the text of Scripture itself, while remaining faithful to Scripture and relevant to culture. Unmediated tensions combined with relational isolation lead to a myriad of problems. This study proposes cross-cultural missional partnership as a relationship that mediates these tensions, thereby encouraging mutual, faithful engagement in the mission of God. Cross-cultural tensions may never disappear, but within a healthy partnership, partners can assist one another in understanding and responding faithfully to Scripture. Partners help one another more faithfully interpret and apply Scripture, leading to obedience to God’s will and engagement in God’s mission within unique and diverse contexts.

Cross-cultural specialist Mary Lederleitner brings missiological and financial expertise to explain how global mission efforts can be funded with integrity, mutuality and transparency. Bringing together social science research, biblical principles and on-the-ground examples, she presents best practices for handling funding and finance.

Once upon a time, Moses had had enough. Exhausted by the challenge of leading the Israelites from slavery to the Promised Land, Moses cried out to God, "What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? . . . If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me" (Exodus 11:11, 15). If that sounds hauntingly familiar to you, you may be the senior pastor of a contemporary church. The burden of Christian leadership is becoming increasingly unbearable--demanding skills not native to the art of pastoring; demanding time that makes sabbath rest and even normal sleep patterns seem extravagant; demanding inhuman levels of efficiency, proficiency and even saintliness. No wonder pastors seem and even feel less human these days. No wonder they burn out or break down at an alarming rate; no wonder the church is missing the mark on its mission. In Creating a Missional Culture, JR Woodward offers a bold and surprisingly refreshing model for churches--not small adjustments around the periphery of a church's infrastructure but a radical revisioning of how a church ought to look, from its leadership structure to its mobilization of the laity. The end result looks surprisingly like the church that Jesus created and the apostles cultivated: a church not chasing the wind but rather going into the world and making disciples of Jesus.

In this new Urbana Onward minibook, Nikki Toyama-Szeto and Femi Adeleye look at how we can partner across cultures to address tricky issues like power, finances, transparency and trust, and develop new models for ministry that reflect the servant heart of God.

Study Guide to equip individuals and small groups with the knowledge, skills and attitudes for fruitful cross-cultural relationships and partnerships