Unit 3 Objectives

  • Recognising individuals’ cultures and how they differ from others.
  • Developing inter-cultural identity and inclusive interactions within the team/community.
  • Begin thinking about how to interact in healthy ways across cultures for service.
  • Gaining skills in decision making and conflict resolution and learning to act interdependently.

Unit Length: 8-10 weeks

Unit 3 Breakdown

Here is a suggested program that your facilitator can work through with you – you may think of ideas and resources that apply to your specific situation as well!

Spiritual Disciplines

  • Continue with your daily Bible reading plan, making note of your thoughts and what you have learned during these devotional times, answering the following questions:
    • How is God calling me to think differently?
    • How is God re-ordering my affections, what I love?
    • What is God calling me to do today, how can obey Him?
      Regularly share some of your reflections with your prayer partner or facilitator.
  • Continue memorizing prayers found in the Bible. Incorporate them into your own prayers
  • Do a Bible study on fasting, reviewing the discipline resources from Unit 1.

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. What’s bringing me life/refreshing my soul these days?
  2. Where is my spiritual nourishment coming from?
  3. What spiritual disciplines am I practicing regularly?
  4. What fruits of the Spirit seem to be evident or lacking in my life?
  5. What have I been learning about God, others and myself from my Bible reading?

Personal Development

  • Review Personal Development Plan and Personal Assessment resources.
  • Review your Personal Care Plan (PCP) with your facilitator.

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. What am I doing to keep healthy physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually?
  2. What has culture stress meant for me? Who am I talking to about it?
  3. What am I learning about myself from my new experiences?
  4. How am I affirming, listening to, encouraging and respecting others?
  5. How am I demonstrating the priority of relationships over daily tasks?
  6. What do I find the most rewarding, and the most challenging?

Language Acquisition

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. What motivates me to continue in language learning?
  2. How much time am I devoting to language learning each day? Each week?
  3. What am I learning about the culture around me by practicing the language?
  4. What progress am I making?
  5. What am I enjoying most? What am I struggling with? Who should I talk to about this in order to get help?

Cultural Discoveries

  • Learn about the various religions in the area around you.
  • Learn what some of the local issues are regarding justice and poverty.
  • Discuss ways in which you see different religions influencing the local government, its leaders and key people.

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. What am I doing to actively seek out cross-cultural relationships and experiences?
  2. Who do I consider a friend in my host culture?
  3. How am I building relationships through gender appropriate ways?
  4. How am I actively seeking and acting upon cultural advice from local relationships?
  5. What do I find the most rewarding, and the most challenging about living in this new culture?

Team and Intercultural Identity

  • Read and discuss The Culture Map. (Resources)
  • With your facilitator select from the following:
    • Read and report on a book or article about conflict. (Resources)
    • Read and report on the selected chapters from Cultural Intelligence. (Resources)
    • Listen to the sermon, watch various videos, and read articles on this topic. (Resources)
  • Discuss interculturalism in the context of conflict management and decision making.
  • Discuss the differences between multi-cultural and intercultural. What’s the Difference?

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. What have I learned about the other cultures of teammates?
  2. What common ground do I share with each teammate?
  3. In what ways am I honoring and showing respect for teammates’ cultures?
  4. Am I insisting on my own way? How open am I to doing things differently?
  5. What organizational values am I exhibiting?

Partnerships

  • Continue attending your local fellowship, serving and learning how it functions in the local context.
  • Learn about the vision, strategy, and activities of your local fellowship.
  • Continue with regular communication with prayer partners.

Reflection/Accountability Questions:

  1. How often am I praying for my local fellowship and its leadership?
  2. In what ways am I actively participating in my local fellowship?
  3. In what practical ways could I participate with the local fellowship to demonstrate the love of Christ to others?
  4. How am I communicating with and praying for my prayer partners?

Discipleship Models

  • Participate in and/or observe how discipleship is done in context.
  • Join a prayer walk.

Reflective/Accountability Questions:

  1. What does it look like to live out my faith effectively in a culturally appropriate way? How have I done this recently?
  2. How am I modelling Christ to those around me?
  3. What does it mean to be a servant of Jesus in my new culture?

By the end of Unit 3, new members will have:

✔ Learned about alternative methods and activities and had language assessment. They will continue to receive support for ongoing learning.

✔ Learned about and practiced the spiritual disciplines of biblical fasting and prayer

✔ Recognized individuals’ cultures and how they differ from others

✔ Started developing inter-cultural identity and inclusive interactions within the team.

✔ Begin thinking about how to interact in healthy ways across cultures for service

✔ Gained skills in decision making and conflict resolution and learning to act interdependently.

✔ Increased local fellowship participation and understanding.