A PDF COMPANION to the AUDIOBOOK Chapter 1: Adopting God’S Heart for the Nations Reflection
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A PDF COMPANION TO THE AUDIOBOOK Chapter 1: Adopting God’s Heart for the Nations Reflection 1. How do the desires of your heart—and the actions of your life—match God’s desire for people from every nation to worship him? 2. Which ideas could you try this week to meet people from other countries living right where you live? 3. What do you need to do to foster a deeper relationship with Jesus in your personal life so that your character, actions, and words reflect his? 1 Chapter 2: Interacting with Other Cultures Well Try It! Habit #1: Be intentional about where you invest your time and energy. Write down all your spheres of influence or your networks, circle them, and see which ones overlap. Mark which spheres of influence give you access to people from the cultures you wish to befriend. Brainstorm how you can combine some of the groups. If circles can’t overlap, ask God to show you which activities should stop for a season, especially ones that don’t include multicultural friendships. Then you can focus on making new habits that put you in cross-cultural contexts as a more regular, integrated part of your schedule. Habit #2: Plan “unplanned” time. Take a calendar and color in blocks, showing how you generally spend your days each week. Include time spent on things such as social media and regular television shows. Notice which activities take up chunks of space but bring little value to your emotional, spiritual, or physical well-being, and make a plan to cut them out. Write in when you’ll spend extended time with God. Write in planned “unplanned” areas, intentionally blocking off parts of your calendar to be with people from other cultures. If you already live overseas, you will aim for a much higher percentage of your time in these categories. Habit #3: Eat together. Invite a neighbor or a coworker and his or her family from another country over to your house for dinner this week. Research the kinds of food that will not offend them, and tell them ahead of time what you’ll serve. For example, a Hindu will eat vegetarian, and a Muslim will not eat pork. Serve your very best meal that costs you something in time and resources and might include a trip to an ethnic grocery store. Or, if you don’t know someone from another culture yet, choose someone you’ve never invited to your home before. Watch how eating together brings you closer together. 2 Chapter 2: Interacting with Other Cultures Well (cont.) Habit #4: Cultivate extreme hospitality. Practice extreme hospitality by inviting a family you are not related to for an overnight visit or weekend with your family, in your home. Tell them you’re trying to practice communal living. Another idea is to ask your church to let you host the next field worker coming through town. Or, the next time your family is planning a vacation, rent a cabin in the woods with a few others to save money and practice cooking and living together. As you begin to let others into your everyday lives, notice what areas of communal living are difficult for you and where you need to let go of selfishness, personal space, and private time. Habit #5: Go with the flow. This week, choose the longest line at the grocery store to check out. Take the longest route to work or school. Plan something with the family, and then com- pletely change it five minutes before. Then, when you get to where you’re going, completely change it again. When you’re doing something with your multicultur- al friends and things don’t go as planned or don’t happen when they are planned, tell yourself it’s all part of the journey and you’re learning cultural flexibility. Habit #6: Honor everyone, and don’t bring public shame on anyone. In your home, try letting the oldest person in the room sit first, eat first, enter the car first, and make the decision about what you’ll do that evening. Anytime you greet your cross-cultural friends, ask them, “How are your mother and father?” And if you are tempted to disagree with someone in a group setting, hold your tongue, smile and nod, and talk to them another time, alone, about your differing opinion. Notice how lifted up the person you are serving feels. 3 Chapter 2: Interacting with Other Cultures Well (cont.) Reflection 1. Think of someone you know who grew up in a different country. How are your concepts of things such as time, decision-making, hospitality, family involvement, and personal space different from his or hers? 2. Which of the four tips for entering a new cultural situation might be easiest for you to apply? Which would be hardest? Why? 3. Which of the six habits of cultural practice would be easiest for you to try? Which would be the hardest? Why? 4. How could you upgrade your personal interactions with people from other cultures to honor them? 4 Chapter 3: Engaging International Students and Welcoming Refugees Types of Comers ACROSS THE STREET AND AROUND THE WORLD Willingly Field workers International moving to students studying unreached at universities in people groups Christian countries Comers Goers Slaves or conquered Refugees Christian peoples who are resettled deported to non- in Christian Christian countries countries Unwillingly InternationalReflection Students 1. How hasOut your of perceptionthe world’s four of internationalmillion international students students, changed? almost Whata million are strategic and spiritualstudy reasonsat American to become universities, friends half awith million international in the United students? Kingdom, and a quarter million in Australia. Nearly half of all international 2. How has your perception of refugees changed? What is the difference between students who study abroad come from China and India— with South internally displaced persons and refugees? Korea and Saudi Arabia sending the next largest representations.2 3. What is GodHigh asking concentrations you to do inof responsepeople without to what access you’ve to Jesus listened Christ live to in in this chapter?China, India, and Saudi Arabia— coming from nonreligious, Hindu, and Muslim backgrounds. Astonishingly, almost 60 percent of all inter- national students come from countries where the Christian population is less than 2 percent. Students like Chongan are willingly showing up at a university near us, eager to make a new Western friend! This offers us the chance to shape an international student’s 405 AcrosstheStreet_5P.indd 40 6/29/18 12:57 PM Chapter 4: Cultivating Intentional Cross-Cultural Disciples The Spiritual Intentionality Checklist Have I prayed a blessing over their home and family? Have I mentioned the name of Jesus and established in a natural way that I’m a spiritual person? Have I told a story of Jesus or the Bible in relation to something happening in everyday life? Have I prayed with them about an immediate need, asking in the name of Jesus Christ? Have I shared any Scriptures from my daily time with God that might be encouraging? Do I know where they are hurting most or feeling lost? Do I know what things from their past need to be addressed to remove barriers to God—“rocks” that lie on their path that prevent them from being able to trust God? Have I helped them get access to the Bible in their own language, in a version that is easy for them to understand? Have I invited them and their family to read the Bible with me? Have I encouraged them to obey the scripture that we are reading together? Have I encouraged them to share with others the scripture that we are reading together? Have I praised evidence of change in their lives and hearts and in those of their family? Do I ask about evidence of change in the lives and hearts of those they are sharing with? Have I encouraged them to meet on their own to study and obey Scripture as a community? Am I coaching them as they start to take responsibility for other people’s spiritual growth? 6 Chapter 4: Cultivating Intentional Cross-Cultural Disciples (cont.) Reflection 1. What would keep you from asking non-believing and believing friends to read the Bible with you? How can you overcome those barriers and try to ask someone? 2. Which principles of discipleship are new for you, and how will you try them out with some of your friends? 3. With one cross-cultural friend in mind, complete the checklist on the previous page. Looking at the first blank checkbox, decide how you will do that activity with your friend the next time you see him or her. 7 Chapter 5: Offering Jesus in a Winsome Way to Other Cultures Reflection 1. What cultural practices do you need to shed from your concept of Western Christianity in order to build bridges and offer Jesus Christ in a winsome way? 2. How would you explain the gospel using kingdom-of-God language? What is new about that idea for you? 3. Write down the names of the people from other cultures whom you know. Put a plus sign next to those you know are true followers of Jesus. Put an empty checkbox next to those you know are not true followers of Jesus. Put a question mark next to those you don’t know about. 4. For the + people, when you see them next, talk with them about how their cultural identity meshes with their spiritual identity. Share some of your new learning about offering Jesus in a winsome way.