Recommended Reading: Cultures

Loving the Stranger: Welcoming Immigrants in the Name of Jesus, by Jessica Udall: This book is short and simple, yet packed full of encouragement, Biblical truth, and practical ideas to reach internationals in our communities. It addresses some of the common misconceptions and concerns that Americans might have about reaching out to internationals, such as "Won't it be awkward?" (Probably.) and "What will we do together?" (Anything you do in your daily life!) This is especially a great resource for someone wanting to reach out for the first time to his or her community, although it can be an encouragement for anyone working cross-culturally. You can also subscribe to the author's blog Loving the Stranger.

A Beginner’s Guide to Crossing Cultures: Making Friends in a Multicultural World, by Patty Lane: This book is an excellent resource for understanding the differences in worldviews of different cultural groups, such as conflict, values, authority, and time. It also includes a number of appendices about cultural characteristics, sharing your faith with different cultures, and tips for churches of different cultural backgrounds partnering together. This book would be a great item to study in groups or read individually and can be read a chapter at a time.

Foreign to Familiar: A Guide to Hot- and Cold-Climate Cultures, by Sarah Lanier: This short book (128 pages) provides an understanding of different types of cultures, delineated by "hot-climate" (relationship-oriented) and "cold-climate" (task-oriented) cultural worldviews. Sarah Lanier explains in an engaging way how these viewpoints affect views on communication, privacy, identity, hospitality, time, and other factors to help anyone with cross-cultural relationships better understand and engage with others of different cultural backgrounds.

Bridges - Online, one-day, or small-group training on relating to Muslims and building relationships in order to share the Good News of Christ.

Culture Navigator blog: This blog is written by a cross-cultural worker and discusses types of cultural orientations and viewpoints, as well as the different layers of each culture. It is a great accessory to developing cultural understanding.

Honor Shame: Much of the Western world operates under a innocence-guilt worldview, in which those who are guilty should be tried for crimes and punished by a justice system, and guilt is usually borne by the individual who committed the crime. However, in an honor-shame culture, a whole family, religious, or ethnic group bears the shame for wrongdoing, and keeping harmony and avoiding disgrace are of the highest importance. This worldview is especially prevalent in many cultures of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. This site has resources for sharing the Good News of Jesus in honor-shame based cultures. It includes a Culture Test to help you determine your own cultural background and beliefs about honor-shame, fear-power (animistic), and guilt-innocence worldviews, which could also be used to have interesting conversations with your friends from different backgrounds. Honor-Shame even includes resources in languages from Arabic to Vietnamese.