Right Color, Wrong Culture

Right Color, Wrong Culture PDF

Author: Bryan Loritts

Publisher: Moody Publishers

Published: 2014-08-27

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 0802490646

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Increasingly, leaders recognize the benefit of multi-ethnic organizations and are compelled to hire diverse individuals who will help them reflect a new America. In his address at a Global Leadership Summit, Bryan Loritts challenged leaders to have a vision that is about more than the stuff that perishes—to have a vision for making sacrifices that make a difference and help to bring about transformation in the lives of others. He brings a similar challenge to leaders in this fable of self-discovery and change, as he explores the central, critical problem leaders often encounter when transitioning their church, business, or organization to reflect a multi-ethnic reality: finding a leader who is willing to immerse themselves in the environments and lives of people who are different from them. In Right Color, Wrong Culture you enter into a conversation between individuals who are grappling with changing neighborhoods while struggling to remain relevant within communities growing in diversity. You journey with Gary and Peter as they challenge those around them to reach beyond what is comfortable and restructure their leadership team. Known for his passion to build diversity in organizations, Bryan Loritts equips you to identify the right person needed in order for your organizations to become multi-ethnic.

Third Culture Faithful

Third Culture Faithful PDF

Author: Mario Melendez

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-12-15

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 1538147270

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"It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o'clock on Sunday morning." Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1960. This quote remains true and begs the question “How do we heal the church divide?” Mario Melendez presents an engaging introduction to the experiences of multi-ethnic believers and a path by which church leaders increase engagement and service to these diverse communities. Finding a model in Saint Timothy, Melendez reveals that multi-ethnic believers have always played a crucial role in Christian fellowship. Having experienced the mixing of their parents' heritage during their upbringing, third cultures kids are invaluable cultural and religious ambassadors. Embracing the unique gifts of third culture congregants and leaders, churches can embody the kaleidescope of their communities and bring about healing amongst the people of God. Church clergy and lay leaders, as well as members of multi-ethnic households and those looking to increase the engagement of diverse groups within their congregation will find Third Culture Faithful an inspiring call to action.

Preaching with Cultural Intelligence

Preaching with Cultural Intelligence PDF

Author: Matthew D. Kim

Publisher: Baker Academic

Published: 2017-10-17

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 149341142X

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To preach effectively in today's world, preachers need cultural intelligence. They must build bridges between listeners who come from various denominations, ethnicities, genders, locations, religious backgrounds, and more. Experienced preacher and teacher Matthew Kim provides a step-by-step template for cross-cultural hermeneutics and homiletics, equipping preachers to reach their varied listeners in the church and beyond. Each chapter includes questions for individual thought or group discussion. The book also includes helpful diagrams and images, a sample sermon, and appendixes for exegeting listeners and for exploring cultural differences.

Uncomfortable

Uncomfortable PDF

Author: Brett McCracken

Publisher: Crossway

Published: 2017-09-15

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1433554283

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Does your church make you uncomfortable? It’s easy to dream about the “perfect” church—a church that sings just the right songs set to just the right music before the pastor preaches just the right sermon to a room filled with just the right mix of people who happen to agree with you on just about everything. Chances are your church doesn’t quite look like that. But what if instead of searching for a church that makes us comfortable, we learned to love our church, even when it’s challenging? What if some of the discomfort that we often experience is actually good for us? This book is a call to embrace the uncomfortable aspects of Christian community, whether that means believing difficult truths, pursuing difficult holiness, or loving difficult people—all for the sake of the gospel, God’s glory, and our joy.

So You Want to Talk About Race

So You Want to Talk About Race PDF

Author: Ijeoma Oluo

Publisher: Seal Press

Published: 2019-09-24

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1541619226

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In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a revelatory examination of race in America Protests against racial injustice and white supremacy have galvanized millions around the world. The stakes for transformative conversations about race could not be higher. Still, the task ahead seems daunting, and it’s hard to know where to start. How do you tell your boss her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law hang up on you when you had questions about police reform? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend? In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from police brutality and cultural appropriation to the model minority myth in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race, and about how racism infects every aspect of American life. "Simply put: Ijeoma Oluo is a necessary voice and intellectual for these times, and any time, truth be told." ―Phoebe Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of You Can't Touch My Hair

The Sisters Are Alright

The Sisters Are Alright PDF

Author: Tamara Winfrey Harris

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Published: 2015-07-06

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13: 1626563535

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GOLD MEDALIST OF FOREWORD REVIEWS' 2015 INDIEFAB AWARDS IN WOMEN'S STUDIES What's wrong with black women? Not a damned thing! The Sisters Are Alright exposes anti–black-woman propaganda and shows how real black women are pushing back against distorted cartoon versions of themselves. When African women arrived on American shores, the three-headed hydra—servile Mammy, angry Sapphire, and lascivious Jezebel—followed close behind. In the '60s, the Matriarch, the willfully unmarried baby machine leeching off the state, joined them. These stereotypes persist to this day through newspaper headlines, Sunday sermons, social media memes, cable punditry, government policies, and hit song lyrics. Emancipation may have happened more than 150 years ago, but America still won't let a sister be free from this coven of caricatures. Tamara Winfrey Harris delves into marriage, motherhood, health, sexuality, beauty, and more, taking sharp aim at pervasive stereotypes about black women. She counters warped prejudices with the straight-up truth about being a black woman in America. “We have facets like diamonds,” she writes. “The trouble is the people who refuse to see us sparkling.”

Playing Favorites

Playing Favorites PDF

Author: Rodger Woodworth

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2021-11-30

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 1666730424

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According to recent research, our brains prefer the path of least resistance when it comes to engaging people who are unlike us—in fact, our brains tell us to perceive anyone different than us as a threat. That is a nice way to say that, despite our best intentions, we all have our prejudices and preferences. In biblical terms, we show partiality toward people who resemble us; we play favorites. Much of our identity, community, and power are established by the measurement of our differences from others, justifying our need to categorize people. Even when we attempt to engage other races and cultures, we see it as a one-way bridge, taking our way of life across the river to enlighten those different than us. It assumes we are on the bank of the undistorted view of the world and our understanding of the other side is not important. The proper response is to encourage two-way traffic on the bridge, not only by having dialogue with people over the bridge but more importantly listening to them. Overcoming our prejudices and bridging the cultural divide is the result of living out the gospel and it is the most significant way to communicate the gospel.

Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes

Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes PDF

Author: E. Randolph Richards

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2020-10-13

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 0830843795

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The Bible was written within collectivist cultures. When Westerners, immersed in individualism, read the Bible, it's easy to misinterpret important elements—or miss them altogether. In any culture, the most important things usually go without being said. So to read Scripture well we benefit when we uncover the unspoken social structures and values of its world. We need to recalibrate our vision. Combining the expertise of a biblical scholar and a missionary practitioner, Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes is an essential guidebook to the cultural background of the Bible and how it should inform our reading. E. Randolph Richards and Richard James explore deep social structures of the ancient Mediterranean—kinship, patronage, and brokerage—along with their key social tools—honor, shame, and boundaries—that the biblical authors lived in and lie below the surface of each text. From Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar to Peter's instructions to elders, the authors strip away individualist assumptions and bring the world of the biblical writers to life. Expanding on the popular Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes, this book makes clear how understanding collectivism will help us better understand the Bible, which in turn will help us live more faithfully in an increasingly globalized world.

Equally Yoked

Equally Yoked PDF

Author: Matthew R. Akers

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2016-03-03

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1498229492

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During the past fifty years, Western culture has experienced a significant shift in its overall stance regarding multiethnic marriage. As a result, more North Americans than ever marry spouses whose ethnicity (or culture) differs from theirs. This trend also is observable in Christian circles. Unfortunately, few resources exist to help multiethnic couples maneuver through the potential minefield of cultural collision. The purpose of this volume is to provide such a resource. Equally Yoked examines the subject of multiethnic marriage from a biblical perspective, before considering a history of the practice in North America over the last four centuries. Additionally, this book surveys the challenges that multiethnic Christian couples frequently encounter, and offers premarital counseling propositions that will prove valuable to both counselors and couples who originate from diverse backgrounds.

Crossover Preaching

Crossover Preaching PDF

Author: Jared E. Alcántara

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2015-10-08

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 0830899022

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As society becomes more culturally diverse and globally connected, churches and seminaries are rapidly changing. And as the church changes, preaching must change too. Crossover Preaching proposes a way forward through conversation with the "dean of the nation?s black preachers," Gardner C. Taylor, senior pastor emeritus of Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York. In this richly interdisciplinary study, Jared E. Alcántara argues that an analysis of Taylor?s preaching reveals an improvisational-intercultural approach that recovers his contemporary significance and equips U. S. churches and seminary classrooms for the future. Alcántara argues that preachers and homileticians need to develop intercultural and improvisational proficiencies to reach an increasingly intercultural church. Crossover Preaching equips them with concrete practices designed to help them cultivate these competencies and thus communicate effectively in a changing world.