Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – Demands of the Kingdom of God in Relation to Ethnic Diversity

By Victor Cuartas
May 2010

5. Flexibility. Frustration and resistance arise when team members are not willing to be flexible. This is a humbling process that allows us to grow and understand different perspectives. There needs to be a common ground that facilitates the communication and dynamics within the group. Working with Majority World missionaries requires being flexible. For instance, the sense of time is different in every culture. We cannot assume that everybody will react in the same manner we do.

My hope is that as we continue to interact with those of other ethnic backgrounds, we will increasingly see God grow his kingdom around the world.

Endnotes

1. Breckenridge, James and Lillian Breckenridge. 1995. What Color Is Your God? Multicultural Education in the Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Baker Academic, 89.

2. Nissen, Johannes. 1997. “Unity and Diversity: Biblical Models for Partnership.” Mission Studies 14: 1-2: 140.

3. Cuartas, Victor H. 2009. “Implicaciones Éticas y los Desafíos de los Negocios Como Misión en los Países de Acceso Creativo.” Global Missiology in Spanish (July). Accessed 15 February 2010 under “Settings” at http://www.globalmissiology.org/espanol/.

Victor H. Cuartas, D.Min., has been involved in pastoral ministry and church planting for nearly twenty years. He is originally from Cali, Colombia. Cuartas is an instructor in practical ministry and global missions at Regent University (Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA) and has partnered with different denominations to advance God’s kingdom internationally through sharing the urgency for training and equipping emerging leaders. He also serves as director of research for COMHINA, a missionary movement that mobilizes Hispanics in the United States and Canada for ministry to unreached people groups. Cuartas is author of Empowering Hispanic Leaders. He is married to Isabel, and they have one daughter, Eliannah.

Comments on this article

You write, and it is true that “One of the challenges (to ethnic diversity) we may face is to be driven by personal interest rather than kingdom principles.” In addition to personal “interest,” we could be driven by an inner need (to succed, to appear successful), a personal bias, or even a personal sense of (self) sufficiency. “I am not like you (an eye, an ear) or “I have no need of you” (I can do it alone, better).

Jose :: 1 May 2010