Communicating with national leaders

Short Term Teams can be a tremendous help and blessing to the missionary and national church alike. This blessing and help is assured when there is good communication between the team and the national leadership.

 

Important Attitudes:

 

As a team you are going as invited guests. You are crossing into another culture. Much will be different. Your role is not to change them, but to be open to learning new things yourself.

 

  • Go with an attitude of a learner
  • Be flexible
  • Always be gracious, courteous and polite.
  • Eat what is offered by nationals (Luke 10:8)
  • Be aware of cross-cultural considerations, if in doubt ask!
  • Pray that God will accomplish his purpose and plans in and thorough the national church and its leadership; pray that your team will be a blessing to them; pray that you will have servant hearts, willing to serve in whatever capacity is necessary.
  • Learn and follow the cultural norms about appropriate interpersonal interaction (If it’s not culturally appropriate for men and women to touch, it is not okay for you to hug team members in public.)
  • Always respect the national leaders – they do know more about their country and context than you do.
  • You may not agree with the restrictions they have on who can minister to whom (e.g. they may believe that women can’t teach men) but you need to be subject to their authority and graciously observe their practice.
  • Wearing appropriate clothing is a way you bring honor to the Lord Jesus.  Many cultures ‘dress up’ much more for church than we do, if you are leading public ministry make sure you understand if you need to wear a coat and tie; liturgical robes or if you are a woman if wearing a dress is more appropriate than wearing trousers.
  • Don’t promise to do things upon return to Australia that you are not prepared to follow through on.
  • Learn some of their language and use it as much as possible when speaking with people.
  • Do your homework before you go so that your teaching and conversation shows some understanding of the local ministry and social context.
  • Always be on the lookout for what you can learn about this ministry context that may help you reflect on your own ministry at home – consider the question ‘what can these leaders teach me?’