EM018: Ministry in a Culturally Diverse Context

Section A: Principles

1. Culture and ethnicity, unity and division, and individuality and community in the Bible; in particular within the context of New Testament teaching on evangelism and the body of Christ.
2. Theological perspectives: Trinitarian implications for ministry in a culturally diverse context, theology of such ministry in the context of diversity, church and culture in the New Testament.
3. Australia: immigration and refugees; ethnic communities; history and directions of government policy.
4. Models of ministry in a context of cultural diversity; relevant biblical and modern examples, including multi-congregational, mono-ethnic and culturally diverse churches; homogeneous unit and other church growth principles; relational, leadership, learning style, worship preference, language, areas of tension and conflict, and other cultural variables.
5. An introduction to the concept of cultural distance and its implications for the structure and ministry of a local church; case studies of different models being used by churches seeking to overcome cultural distance.
6. Strategies and resources for making the transition to a local church model that reflects the demographic realities of the locality; research, design, implementation and evaluation.

Section B: Practice

Candidates are for a minimum of 20 hours to:

1. Participate in either a culturally diverse congregation or mono-cultural congregation of a culture other than the student’s own; and
2. With the help of members of that church, observe non church attending people of that culture in their social and family contexts.

Discern the challenges with regard to cultural variables, such as leadership patterns and processes, learning style and worship preferences. Consider possible strategies for the future ministry of the congregation.

This unit expects 150 hours of work from you in total, or around 10-12 hours each week over the semester. This volume of learning includes working through the learning materials and required learning tasks, additional reading and self-directed study, and working on assessment items, and for online units this includes participation in any online forums.

EM018 is available at level 9 as EM206-912: Specialised Studies in Evangelism and Missiology – Ministry in a Culturally Diverse Context which is a Category C (advanced unit).