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Gospel Communication Project
Student's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name and Number
Instructor's Name
Assignment Due Date
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Gospel Communication Project
Introduction
My chosen person of interest in this project is my twenty-three-year-old friend of
Canadian origin and ethnicity. For this project, we will assign my friend the name Mike, which is
not his actual name in real life. Mike has been born and raised in a cross-cultural family
throughout his childhood and early adulthood life. Their family believes in Christianity, although
they still adhere to their traditional ethnic beliefs postulated by their culture. Consequently, Mike
has adopted Christianity as his religion and sometimes attends church when he is at their
Canadian home. Mike speaks fluent English and French, with full-level proficiency in both
languages. He currently resides in Canada with his family, although he often visits the United
States during the summer vacations and sometimes for part-time work. Mike is a student,
pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Control and Automation Engineering.
Mike and I first met in Virginia about five years ago during a youth-driven community
service project that we both participated in. Our interests in giving back to the community are
quite in line, which was the initial basis of our interactions. Since then, Mike and I have been
close friends. Due to the distances between our countries of residence, we often interact virtually
on social media platforms. However, we have interacted in person a couple of times as well. That
said, Mike and I just meet periodically rather than regularly. Given our cultural differences due
to our different countries of origin, there exist some differences in Mike's worldview and mine.
These differences and perhaps more profound when viewed from a religious lens. Mike comes
from a liberal culture that supports diversity and multiculturalism. Some of these cultural
practices, however, may not be in line with Christian and Biblical beliefs and practices.
Consequently, Mike's adherence to them affects his worldview on Christianity and issues of
faith. However, he is open and receptive to hearing the story of God.
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Cultural Systems
From Livermore & Soon (2015), the three cultural systems chosen for the analysis of my
friend's scenario are the educational systems, marriage and family systems, and religious
systems. In each of these systems, one of the two cultural orientations presents itself in Mike’s
daily culture, having a profound influence over his way of life, interactions, aspirations, and
openness to issues of faith. The systems both individually and collectively contribute
significantly to the approach taken when handling issues of faith in Mike’s setting. We will
analyze each of the cultural systems in greater detail to establish their impact on Mike’s life.
Mike’s culture has a mixed educational system, where both formal and informal
education exists. However, formal education is more prevalent as most people in his culture have
access to formalized education where they are taught through books, schools, and professionally
trained teachers. As a result of the interactions with culturally diverse people especially at the
university level, Mike has more exposure to the various cultures and how they influence people's
perception of life (Azzolini et al., 2020). This aspect would make them more open and receptive
to the issues of faith. Further, Mike's formal educational system encourages critical and
analytical thinking, which boosts the learners' ability to observe and analyze issues of life from
various perspectives, which is a crucial element in matters of faith and religion.
Mike comes from a nuclear family setting, with both of his parents and two younger
siblings. The knowledge of his family is critical to understanding the impact it has on his culture
and his interactions with other people. In this setting, Mike’s identity is predominantly derived
from his immediate family, and their way of life has a profound influence on him. Since the
family practices Christianity, it makes it easier for Mike to understand the issues of faith more
clearly. Finally, Mike’s main religious system can be termed as mystical rather than rational, as
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there is a considerable belief in supernatural powers, both in the traditional practices and
Christianity. This foundation is core to understanding Christian teachings and issues of faith.
Cultural Value Orientations
On individualism versus collectivism, Mike’s culture can be defined as predominantly
individualistic, where a person is allowed and encouraged to make their final decision on issues
that affect them directly, without much influence or pressure from external entities (Livermore &
Soon, 2015). For instance, in his school setting, students are encouraged to select the schools,
courses, and career choices based on their unique abilities and preferences, with minimal input
from the teachers and parents. This approach promotes responsibility from an early age and
encourages individuals to take charge of their own lives (Kim, 2015). When this approach is
extended to issues of faith, Mike would feel more confident to make his decisions more
independently without being influenced by external factors which may corrupt his judgment.
When it comes to power distance, Mike’s culture is based more on equality and shared
decision-making in the academic and workplace setting, which corresponds to a low power
distance setting. This cultural setting allows for the voices of the people to be heard, which
contributes to better decision-making and implementation of policies that affect the majority of
the people at the workplace or the society (Zagenczyk et al., 2015). It also helps to boost the
people's confidence and liberalism, encouraging them to speak their minds freely. This is
important in discussing issues of faith with Mike at the individual level as their response on the
subject matter is important.
Mike, as well as his culture generally, is more inclined to high uncertainty avoidance,
seeking to minimize ambiguities as much as possible by analyzing the root cause of phenomena
around him (Livermore & Soon, 2015). This is often evident in his analytical nature as portrayed
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in the engineering field that he is pursuing. This culture would promote critical thinking and
inquisitive nature which would be important to evaluating and understanding the matters of faith
(Van Assche et al., 2021). Additionally, the society around Mike demonstrates a cooperative
rather than a competitive culture. For instance, in academic and professional settings, individuals
are encouraged to work together, preferably in teams, to work on a particular task and obtain the
required results. This approach fosters healthy working relationships at the personal and
corporate levels, as opposed to individual competition and personal achievements as a means of
attaining the required objectives (Livermore & Soon, 2015). Having this cultural orientation in
mind, it would be easier to conduct religious discussions in the case of a group setting.
Finally, Mike’s culture can be termed as short-term, with more emphasis being placed on
the present rather than on the future. Their culture is fast-paced and focuses more on obtaining
results soon than waiting for long-term results. If some measures that have been put in place do
not yield results as soon as is expected, they will likely be reformed or eliminated (Gasher et al.,
2020). This indicated considerably low levels of patience, which would pose a challenge on
issues of faith as they are a long-term commitment.
Elements of Communication
According to Samovar et al. (2016), communication is an important aspect of culture as it
directly influences how people interact with one another both within a single culture and across
different cultures. With reference to Livermore & Soon (2015), we will analyze three elements of
communication that are predominant in Mike’s culture, that is, apologies (verbal), gestures (non-
verbal), and facial expressions (non-verbal). In Mike’s culture, most people are likely to
apologize often when their actions come off as offensive to others, especially in formal or
professional settings. This promotes a culture of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence.
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Additionally, Mike's culture portrays high levels of expressiveness through non-verbal elements
of communication such as gestures and facial expressions. However, these non-verbal cues may
be interpreted differently across different cultures, leading to misunderstandings and
communication breakdowns (Burgoon et al., 2021). Therefore, in the discussions that cut across
cultures, it would be advisable to limit the use of gestures and facial expressions to minimize the
occurrence of such issues.
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References
Azzolini, D., Campregher, S., & Madia, J. E. (2020). Formal instruction vs informal exposure.
What matters more for teenagers’ acquisition of English as a second
language?. Research Papers in Education, 1-29.
Burgoon, J. K., Manusov, V., & Guerrero, L. K. (2021). Nonverbal communication. Routledge.
Gasher, M., Skinner, D., & Coulter, N. (2020). Media and Communication in Canada:
Networks, Culture, Technology, Audiences. Oxford University Press.
Kim, N. Y. (2015). Individualism-Collectivism and Reaction to Diversity. In Academy of
Management Proceedings (Vol. 2015, No. 1, p. 18041). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510:
Academy of Management.
Livermore, D., & Soon, A. N. G. (2015). Leading with cultural intelligence: The real secret to
success. Amacom.
Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. (2016). Communication between
cultures. Cengage Learning.
Van Assche, J., Bahamondes, J., & Sibley, C. (2021). Religion and prejudice across cultures: A
test of the threat-constraint model. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(3),
287-295.
Zagenczyk, T. J., Cruz, K. S., Cheung, J. H., Scott, K. L., Kiewitz, C., & Galloway, B. (2015).
The moderating effect of power distance on employee responses to psychological
contract breach. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 24(6), 853-
865.
