Cultural class is the one class the interns have collectively and Greg McKenzie is our teacher. Today we had an introduction to Cultural Intelligence. Cultural Intelligence is the capability to be effective across a variety of cultural contexts (e.g. national, ethnic, organizational, generational, etc.).
When interacting with people for m another culture the way we may usually interact will most likely be read differently in another culture, and the most, I repeat the MOST ignorant thing a person can say or think is that this culture you are "imposing" on should adapt to you. Cultural Intelligence is mucho importante when doing mission work in another culture because you want to be very effective and to be effective you need to not only learn about the culture, but live in the culture, and acculturate to the cultures ways of thinking and interacting. It is also important to know when to adapt and when not to adapt. This is important especially, when it comes to Christian culture according to Christ (not to be confused with traditions of man imposed into the Christian culture, some of you know what I mean).
As Greg shared in class (I will paraphrase and integrate my reflection as well), Jesus came into this world as an infant (a very very humble state and a very strong statement God made in that fact alone). As an infant, Christ had to be dependent on others for his well being and was raised in a particular culture by parents that were a part of that culture. Jesus the Christ, was a Jewish man and a divine entity of the Godhead. being raised as Jewish, it allowed for Jesus to be more effective when sharing the will of his Father and bringing truth and fulfillment to the law. Jesus had an understanding of the culture (communication styles, gestures, social ranks, etc) and because of this he was able to maneuver in the culture in particular ways. When it came to traditions that balked against his Fathers will that is when Jesus made the very clear decision to not only adapt but to almost...dare I say it...REBEL?
At the end of class we took a personal profile that generally analyzed our basic models and what motivates us. There are six areas that the profile touched on and in class we touched on two: Time Orientation in relation to being Event Oriented and Task Oriented in relation to being Person Oriented. Kayla and Greg were traditionally more American in these two areas as they were more task and time oriented. Lisette, Parker and I were on the event and people oriented side of the grid. My task and person score was closer which means that I can be pulled either way, it depends on the task or the people that would cause me to lean a particular way.
Greg shared that a year or two years ago when the interns interviewed the Peruvians of Arequipa asking the 10 questions to determine what part of the grid they were on, that when in the area of time and event they were usually in tension with one another, because for school and work they were on time, however for family events and church they are stereotypically late (there are those few people that will be on time to everything due to their personal values). So when they are late for church is it because they do not think it is as important as work? No, but it is because they view going to events that consist of the body of Christ as family events, therefore they are late but will stay until the very end.
Some preguntas (questions) that Greg mentioned for us to think about and we will re-visit in subsequent classes are the following:
How do we "do" church? How do we view church?
Is it an institutional/business model (Time, quantity valued)? Or is it a Family Oriented model (event and quality valued?)
I am aware that some Christians that are avid church goers would most likely state, "Of course we are a family! The church is the body of Christ! We are brothers and sisters through the blood of Christ!" My response to these people is, "Yes, you are correct because that is what the Bible communicates to us, however if we sincerely and humbly look at the way the church is "run" (eek that phrasing), how we communicate the model of the church (verbally and non-verbally), we may see that we send mixed messages.
We say that we are a family but we act as if church is an institution. Now don't get me wrong my fellow CoC'ers and other Christian groups, I believe in order and healthy boundaries, because healthy functional families has healthy rules and boundaries, however those families still feel like a family. So what is the difference?
Some of you may think that I am being brain-washed but please understand I have felt this way for a looooooooong time however with my education and my so far brief experience here in Arequipa I am equipped in a way that allows for me to better express myself with facts, studies and simple experience.
As I am writing this I am somewhat listening into a meeting concerning the academic aspect of CUDA. One thing that is important to understand is that with all of the initiatives that are under CUDA is that they do not come to CHANGE, they come to LEARN and see in what ways they can utilize their expertise, gifts and knowledge to IMPROVE and/or RECOMMEND ways that the business and school systems can be more effective for them. It is arrogant and ignorant to come into a place with the idea to "help those poor people", as soon as that thought crosses one's mind count the work done on that mission trip to be short lived (first order) or be met with a lot of resistance.
