The Joys and Challenges of Multicultural Teams
A growing number of Christar workers are serving on multi-cultural teams! Below, a worker serving in South Asia shares what’s encouraging and challenging about serving on a multinational team, as well as what helps this team serve God in unity.
In the past, my husband and I have worked on teams with Americans, but now our team consists of an Indian couple, Chinese ladies from Hong Kong and my husband and me from Canada—however, we were both raised overseas, so that complicates matters.
So, what is encouraging about working on a multicultural team?
- We see a small glimpse of what the body of Christ looks like: those from every tongue and nation.
- We have learned about far more than just the country and culture of the place where we have moved.
What is challenging?
- The process of team building takes a lot more effort and work; therefore we may feel things don’t move ahead very quickly.
- Expectations, communication and leadership are areas that are valued differently in different cultures, so this may cause frustration, misunderstandings or anxiety.
- As Canadians, we like to be viewed separately from the Americans. Though our cultures are very similar, there is enough uniqueness, especially in values, that misunderstandings can result.
What is helpful?
- Grace!
- Patience.
- Good, clear communication.
- A willingness to listen and learn from each other.
- A willingness to celebrate one another’s cultures.
Related Projects
Help workers in the Middle East run a language school and build relationships through which they can share the gospel.
Help us serve the Body of Christ as its members invest their gifts, skills, vocations, time and resources to mobilize the gospel to the least-reached.
Provide Christian education in English for children in South Asia with few opportunities.
Help a South Asian church finish constructing a building and increase its ability to reach out.
Equip spiritual leaders for planting and strengthening churches in the Arab World.
Help meet the physical, psychological and spiritual needs of refugees and other marginalized people in the Middle East.
Help recruit and prepare workers from throughout the world outside of North America to serve in Muslim communities.
Equip Filipino believers to plant churches among some of the hardest-to-reach people groups in the world.
Provide refuge and counsel to Middle Eastern women and their children who are victims of abuse, and introduce them to Jesus.
Meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of refugees and those impacted by disaster.
Introduce people to Jesus Christ in places where there is little or no Christian witness.
Help mobilize new workers and equip them to share the message of Christ.
Equip Christar workers to provide short-term assistance in the wake of natural disasters or other crises, laying the foundation for future ministry.
Your gifts empower Christar Workers to share transforming hope
with communities around the world.
Enable a Persian to hear the gospel or help train Persian believers for ministry.
Equips South Asian believers to plant reproducing fellowships in small villages and support the ministries of their churches.
Help workers and local believers continue to serve and thrive in hard places.
In a community with no known believers, a new multipurpose building will provide opportunities to grow connections, meet needs and share Christ.
Help Middle Eastern followers of Christ learn how to apply and share biblical truth.
SESaMe disperses bite-sized pieces of the Word of God to least-reached people in a country with little access to this good news.
Help cultivate Christ-honoring transformation through medical care in Albania.
Equipping pathways help prepare aspiring cross-cultural workers for life and ministry in least-reached communities.
Ministry in least-reached communities is hard. Our Member Care team invests heart and skill to help workers serve to the best of their ability.
Related Stories
Yuko didn't think she'd find a believing husband. Takashi wasn't interested in Christ. But as people far away prayed, God changed their stories.
_1724957011_600x400.png)
Amy and Ravi* may be the only people proclaiming the gospel in a rural village in South Asia. But they’re not doing it alone.
How Christar’s partnership with The Go Fund, a program of AIRO, enables workers to reach the field sooner and focus more fully on ministry
Years before God led Ginny and her husband to serve among South Asians in the Midwest, He was equipping them--and preparing others as well.
Moving to serve overseas with your family is one thing. But as Sue shares, leaving grandchildren behind required a different kind of surrender.
How Switchboard volunteers use their gifts and experience to participate in what God is doing across the world.
Robert* shares how he discovered that God had been working through him and his wife, decades after they left South Asia.
Danyal* delved deep into Islam, seeking meaning in life. He never expected who would change his life instead.
Any one of the challenges Paul and Shelley faced could have been enough to end their ministry in South Asia. But God provided a catalyst of hope.
Amid the devastation caused by the February 2023 earthquakes, Selin and Adem testify, "What we could not do in 22 years, God did within four months!"
You may have heard that when it comes to missions, “You’re either a goer or a sender.” But what if that’s not true?
As a group of 20-plus volunteers among refugees has seen, God can use every believer's story as a pathway of grace.
God uses us to carry others to Him so they can experience His goodness. And when we do, what would otherwise be a burden becomes a blessing.
Mental health challenges don’t mean exclusion from the Great Commission! Leora shares how God has used her as she’s dealt with a mental illness.
Where Solomon* lives, converting to Christianity is a capital offense. He's been held captive, interrogated and beaten. But he's remained faithful.
Sometimes God’s answer looks like a long wait for a chicken. And sometimes that answer is months or years in the making.
Sharing the gospel isn't about our ability, but about keeping in step with God as He moves—like He did in the heart of a Kurdish woman named Gulnaz.
NorthRidge Church, Christar and the Richardsons beautifully illustrate the three-way partnership between the agency, the church and field workers.
Praise God with us for the blessings and answers to prayers that He has brought about through the Deaf Initiative!
After just a year, Christar workers saw a church form in a North African community that hadn't had one in a millennium. How did it happen?