THE CHALLENGES OF CROSS-CULTURAL MINISTRY RELATIONSHIPS

Last week, I shared some of the joys of cross-cultural ministry. This week we look at eight challenges that these relationships bring. Again, these are generalisations, and I am fully aware of how delicate and awkward these conversations can be. My prayer is that it can generate some fruitful discussions among those in cross-cultural relationships. 

The Zambians general perception of themselves

The first challenge to cross-cultural relationships and ministry is the general tendency among some Africans to perceive themselves as inferior. This partly springs from viewing the Westerner as the messiah and also as an opportunity for easy money. But it also comes from seeing ourselves as poor and needy and therefore recipients of other people's giving. People with this attitude end up been yes men and men-pleasers. They will do anything as long as they are in the bwana's good books. This makes it extremely difficult to have meaningful relationships with such men. Their default mindset is to be recipients. They receive knowledge and resources, but they never dispense. Hence the relationship becomes one of the horse and rider.

Westerner's general perception of themselves

Conversely, the westerners have a tendency to have a messiah complex. They come in with the mindset that they know everything, and they have the money. As a result, they do not want to learn or admit that they do not know. They somewhere have to be the master and cannot be taught or lead. Even people with zero experience, fresh from the classroom, will portray themselves as masters of the art.

It is no wonder that it is generally very difficult and rare to find a westerner serving under a local. If they do, they are somehow pulling strings in the background. The moment you do not do their bidding, they leave. The African's inferiority complex and the Westerner's superiority complex combine to present an extremely difficult challenge to develop relationships cross-culturally.

The establishment of personal kingdoms

The modern-day mission's philosophy seems to be, do as many things as you can manage in the shortest possible time. Massive projects, glamorous programs and a lot of salvation testimonies. This creates a temptation for many to produce results like yesterday. This often leads to treating people like projects to pursue and accomplish. However, meaningful discipleship relationships do not work like that. You cannot build meaningful relationships overnight. This takes time, but if you are pressed for time, you will settle for projects and programs with shallow and superficial relationships. The sad result is Africans and westerners end up uniting to simply accomplish projects, and those relationships end with the projects.

Navigating different cultural practices

One of the challenges missionaries have faced throughout the history of missions is resisting the temptation to present Christianity in the form of their culture. It is common for a western missionary to copy and paste the traditions and practices of their church in South Carolina or Dublin and present it as the biblical way. What that does is that it then pits the western culture versus the African culture. Therefore, anything African is not Christian and anything western is Christian. Sadly, most Africans will not challenge such faulty reasoning openly, they will simply live double lives and express anger privately. Trying to equate Christianity to western culture is, in the

long run, a hindrance to thoughtful Africans as they can see through the inconsistencies. 

Lack of transparency with money issues

This is a hard and touchy one. The accountability model, in such cases, is one way. The westerners will demand accountability from the Africans who work under them on how the money is used but the African cannot hold the Westerner accountable. So you find that the western missionary will be working closely with African colleagues, but only he knows the nitty grits and working with him is working for him. And as such if a missionary leaves, so does the money. The how much came, from where and who is top secret. Not all the cards are laid on the table even in the context of co-labourers.

 

But there is also the African challenge, where honesty and integrity in the handling of money are sadly missing. The misuse of funds and the desire for selfish gain is prevalent. Further, it is common to find Africans who are not willing to give and simply want to be on the receiving. This creates a rather unhealthy dependency syndrome.

Challenge of insincere relationships

One of the toughest challenges in a cross-cultural ministry relationship is that of developing a meaningful relationship. Such relationships will require a lot of humility and a willingness to learn and understand. Unfortunately, pride stands in the way, and most people regardless of their cultural background, struggle to open up and be vulnerable. It is not uncommon to find western missionaries live in an area for a long time and not develop meaningful relationships with the locals and the same is true of locals who will work with westerners but only pursue superficial relationships with them. This always creates a barrier and a gap which with the passing of time seems impossible to bridge. 

Wrong perceptions & stereotypes

Perceptions and stereotypes abound in cross-cultural relationships. Some may be real or have elements of truth, but most are generally false and over generalisations. Working through these requires honest and often awkward conversations taking place. Building trust and pursuing biblical loving relationships. The challenge of perceptions and stereotypes is that you may live with people and never really know what and how they think about you and then worse still, it takes years to undo perceptions.

Differing standards of living

One awkward reality when serving in a cross-cultural ministry is that they will generally be a massive difference in the standard of living between the locals and the westerners. Those who raise support from outside will always be able to afford things that the locals cannot. That in itself is perfectly fine and understandable. However, it presents a potential challenge that, unfortunately, most people do not know how to handle. Some will try to pretend that it does not exist. Others will grow bitter and frustrated. Others have tried to create equality with mixed results.  However, one chooses to handle it, this is a reality. And ignoring it does not mean it does not exist.

In bible school, our lecturers will often talk about suffering in ministry and how that means that you usually live below the standards of living. Which was perfectly sound and biblical advise. The only problem is that our lecturers had better and bigger cars and lived in the best homes in the community! Now I am not for a moment suggesting they lived extravagantly nor been insincere. It is just so happened that they had higher standards of living based on their income. That is a reality you have to grapple with in cross-cultural ministry relationships. 

Conclusion

One could go on to highlight many other challenges. In many ways, how people handle these challenges will come down to how Christ-like they are. These relationships give an opportunity for the fruit of the spirit to be evident. Because to relate and serve with and alongside brethren from another cultural setting requires love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.