Why do cross-cultural church planters so often miscommunicate—sometimes without realizing it until years later? In this fresh presentation from EXPLORE 2021, Steve Stanford of Ethnos360 gives clear examples of the necessity of understanding a people's worldview. He tell stories from his time...
Culture
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
"Every missionary path has to find the way between these two dangers: irrelevance and syncretism. And if one is more afraid of one danger than the other, one will certainly fall into its opposite." —Lesslie Newbigin
Tuesday, December 1, 2020
"Christianity lives – one might say it survives – by crossing the boundaries of ethnicity, language and culture. Without that process, it can wither and die." —Andrew Walls
Sunday, November 1, 2020
"Those who like to feel they are always right and who attach a high importance to their own opinions should stay at home." –Aldous Huxley
Tuesday, September 1, 2020
MJM writes from Colombia—
Oh the joys of language and culture acquisition! What does it mean when someone sends a Whatsapp message and asks, “Hey, could I come and stay with your family for a couple days?” In light of the fact that the last “couple days” visit ended up lasting a...
Saturday, August 1, 2020
"One of the abiding values of language acquisition is developing the capacity to listen well. Most missionary training programs focus almost entirely on teaching missionaries what to say with very little emphasis on learning to listen well. However, as anyone who has been a missionary knows,...
Friday, May 1, 2020
by Aaron Crider, with a response by Steve Sanford
This writing was provoked by the book Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes, where former Bible translator Daniel Everett tells about his life and language work among the Pirahá people in the Amazonian...
Saturday, February 1, 2020
“No one can penetrate very deeply into the minds and hearts of the people till he has learned to speak to them in their own mother tongue. A missionary is incapable of knowing the thoughts, ambitions and deepest throbbing of the native heart without first knowing his manner of speech”. —John G....
Friday, November 1, 2019
"Having good, methodical teaching over an extended period of time is important...You cannot breeze into a community, hold a seminar showing better techniques, and instantly move their community into prosperity. Until you form strong relationships with them, they will find it difficult to trust...
Friday, November 1, 2019
"Just as each culture brings something new to humanity, so does every language. Each language is capable of expressing some things better than all other languages. Why else do coffee shops sell cafe latte rather than milky coffee? On a deeper note, each language has the ability to express itself...