Currently ReadingMinistering Cross-Culturally: An Incarnational Model for Personal Relationships
By Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, Marvin Keene Mayers
I am reading this book for my Intercultural Communication class. It is a Missions class. This is an excerpt from it that I could resonate with due to my personality.
"Some people simply do not fit into their culture because their basic personalities are in some way different. Unfortunately, many well-meaning Christians label the discordant person as rebellious or carnal. A child may be chided, threatened, and coerced and thus build up deep inner frustration, self-rejection, and a despairing sense of inability to please others and God. An adult may be accused of rebellion or may be denied a useful role in a group primarily because of the frustration others have with his or her attitude toward utilization of time. The critics fail to see tha these same persons may often be out of step because they have taken time to help their neighbor (notice Luke 10:30-37). The qualities that make them poor time-oriented personalities allow them to give other people high priority in their values. We may well wonder how Jesus would have responded to the demands of many church and mission organizations today for detailed weekly or monthly reports. What modern preacher can adjust his schedule and stay an extra two days in a town where people show an unusual interest in his teaching?" (pg. 48)
"Americans and Germans, on the contrary, have a very short time-fuse and experience anxiety when there is a delay of five or more minutes. The concept of being late varies significantly from one culture to the next and from one individual to the next.....Most North Americans will begin to experience tension when others are fifteen minutes late; most Latin Americans will experience tension when others are more than one hour late; the Yapese people group will not experience tension until the expected party is about three hours late." (pg. 38)
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
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