Rick and Anji Zook
  • Home
  • About
  • Give
  • Photos
  • Subscribe
  • Contact


Rude Cultural Signal OR Is”Christ Is More Important”?

August 18, 2018 by Rick & Anji Zook

Are rude gestures universal? The simple answer is no. Even with movies, and cellphones, and more things connecting cultures around the world, what is seen and communicated as shocking and offensive in one culture, doesn’t necessarily mean it will carry the same meaning in another. I recently had a moment during a team meeting with my citizen co-workers, where I was reminded of this. Our team was all sitting around the room debriefing after a conclusion of an outreach which ended with drama about the death and resurrection of Christ.

Jesus side pierced by spear
Jesus is important

Kosam had the floor and he was talking about about what we do when we teach and preach and act should not distract from the main point about Jesus and who he is. He reinforced his point with visual demonstration. I will try and put his actions in parenthesis to help you picture this. As he sat there across from me, he said something to this effect, “Jesus is the important character, He needs to be bigger and above the others.” (He held up his hand, palm facing himself, back of his hand outward, towards me).

He continued, “If all the other characters have big parts or are ‘on stage’ for a long time, then people will see the other characters as equals to Jesus, and this is not good.” (He continuing to hold his had like he had, he made sure the tops of all his fingers were at equal heights).

“But it needs to be like this. Jesus is the most important. And He should be seen more. And he should be seen as more significant than the other characters.” (Here he kept his middle finger high, and yes, lowered all the rest.)

So yes, there I was in Team Meeting with one of my co-workers, how shall I say, innocently ‘flipping me the bird’ – or however you care to put it in English. Which as you can see, was not his intention at all. Far from it! Well, even though I know that he has no idea what it is that I am seeing, nor what it means to me or someone from an American culture, it still takes everything within me not to ‘say something’. Even after all these years, when any number of my co-workers will ‘point’ to something with their middle fingers, . . . well, we still get little shocks to the system. Some cross-cultural things you just never get used to! But it gives me a good opportunity to remember while we are from different cultures, we are one in Christ.

Let me re-iterate, I was in no way offended by what he was doing, because he had no idea and he was doing it completely innocently – in fact, he thought he had a pretty good illustration, and for his culture, he did! It is just that some cultural signals are pretty deeply ingrained in us. We all tend to interpret things through our own filters (the cultural grid we were raised in).

Sometimes it takes a little shock to the system to remind me that indeed Christ is the most important. So the next time you see someone trying to insult someone else in our American culture, just use it as a reminder. Yep, Christ is still the most important! And he died for that person too.

Filed Under: Culture, Ministry, Purposeful Partnerships Tagged With: acting, Aiding local churches, body language, Citzen co-workers, cross-cultural signals, cultural shocks, Lusi, Mouk, One in Christ, Outreach, Papua New Guinea, PNG, rude gestures, Zook

More Posts:

« How Do You Start Training New Believers To Be Bible Teachers?
Slow Down! You’re Going Too Fast! »

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Archives

  • December 2020 (1)
  • September 2020 (1)
  • September 2019 (3)
  • February 2019 (1)
  • August 2018 (2)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • January 2017 (1)
  • November 2016 (1)
  • September 2016 (1)
  • February 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (1)
  • October 2015 (1)
  • October 2013 (1)
  • September 2012 (1)
  • March 2012 (2)
  • September 2011 (2)
  • June 2011 (4)
  • April 2011 (1)
  • March 2011 (2)
  • February 2011 (2)
  • January 2011 (3)
  • December 2010 (1)
  • November 2010 (4)

Recent blogs:

August 2018
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  
« Jul   Feb »

Categories

  • Anji (4)
  • Books (1)
  • Culture (4)
  • Daily Life (12)
  • Family (6)
  • Keane (2)
  • Kira (1)
  • Language (8)
  • Ministry (25)
  • Purposeful Partnerships (3)
  • Rick (4)
  • Support (1)
  • technology (1)
  • Translation (4)
  • Uncategorized (5)
  • About
  • Blog
  • Home
  • Give
  • Photos
  • Subscribe
  • Contact

Disclaimer: This personal ministry website is provided by Ethnos360 as a courtesy to its members. Ethnos360 makes no warranty regarding the accuracy of the information on these pages. Opinions expressed are provided by members in good faith, but are entirely those of the member and do not necessarily represent policy, doctrinal position, or opinions of Ethnos360. If you encounter information that you consider questionable, please e-mail the Ethnos360 web team.

Rick and Anji Zook

© Copyright 2023 Ethnos360. All rights reserved.

Log In

  • 