Mid-Term ch. 1-4 Flashcards
List three biblical insights related to cultural differences.
- When God created the world, he created it to be diverse through our DNA and announced that “it was very good.”
- All people are created in the image of God. To learn of them and from them with an open mind allows us to discover how God reveals of himself through their distinct world and life view.
- Love is culturally defined. It’s important to learn and understand a culture so that we know how to love them.
Explain the concept of “losing face.”
Humiliation or personal embarrassment. Strongly avoided in some cultures.
What does the author mean by “Most cross-cultural conflicts are not intentional”?
People naturally look through the lense of their own cultures and sometimes that causes them to create stereotypes or assume things. Sometimes they even go as far as to create predjudices based on their assumptions.
What does the author mean by “God cannot adequately be revealed in a creation of similarities”?
Only in His immense and grand variety could we begin to capture the character, grace and glory of God.
Explain: “My experiences suggest that the large majority of conflicts resulting in brokenness are caused neither by core theological values being threatened nor by overt sin.”
Most conflicts that disrupt our lives grow out of…
innocent misunderstandings
unmet expectations
failure to get all the facts
or minor irritations that fester and become problems.
What problems can arise from the American concept of “individualism”?
It can cause a failure to preserve unity in the church.
It can foster an impatience with people.
It can bring an “easy way out” and cause people not to struggle to bridge differences, reconnect, forgive, reconcile and heal.
The author points out that unity in the body of Christ is a major aspect of glorifying God. What critical or foundational aspects of the unity of believers does the author overlook?
He overlooks the work of the Spirit. The Spirit of God in us works and when we allow it to, helps smooth over personality irritations.
What did the author identify as the number one need of overseas-based missionaries?
To help them deal with conflict by building positive interpersonal skills.
Briefly define the “win-lose strategy.”
Everything should be seen as right or wrong, there’s no room for flexibility or negotiation.
Briefly define the “avoidance strategy.”
Trying to manage conflict by avoiding because they think that differences are bad, and always cause hard feelings and broken relationships, and no good can come from confronting conflict.
Briefly define the “giving in” approach to conflict management.
Give in, accommodate or smooth over the differences, yielding, most things are negotiable, differences are rarely worth fighting for.
Briefly define the “compromise” strategy as outlined by the author.
It’s impossible to have every thing, so everyone should give a little and get a little. Sometimes you may get a little less, other times you may get a little more, but it will all even out over time.
Briefly define the “confrontational” strategy and what is needed for it to be successful.
Neither party loses anything important and the relationship does not suffer.
Conditions that need to be met:
1. the two parties can come together, meet face to face and talk with open honesty.
2. They each make a commitment to preserve the relationship and dispassionately explain the values/goals that each wishes to protect or achieve.
3. They can creatively find a solution in which they can be equal winners, with negative giving up anything of value, and thus preserve the relationship.
4. They can do this with reason, keeping emotions under control.
5. They are both able to separate the person from the issue and speak objectively to that end.
6. Neither will be satisfied with a solution until the other is also completely at peace with it.
How can directness in language, common in most Western cultures, cause offense in some cultures?
In many cultures of the world, individuals are not singled out and identified as being responsible for a problem. Rather, problems are seen as a communal affair.
Why is indirectness important in many non-Western cultures?
Most people in the world do not place a high value on direct, face-to-face confrontation to solve a conflict. Such directness is considered crude, harsh, uncultured, and certainly disrespectful if not cruel.
