Gospel Communication Project: Elements of Culture Paper Assignment
Instructions
Overview
The Gospel Communication Project allows you to apply the principles of
Cultural Intelligence to a specific cross-cultural evangelistic encounter. As a
cumulative project throughout the course (through 2 papers and a video
presentation), you will research cultural elements which will affect a person’s
understanding of the gospel message, create a plan for communicating
effectively with a person from a specific culture, and present the story of God
through video as you would if you were able to share the gospel with that
person. This project will allow you to practice evaluating a person’s culture,
determining the best ways to communicate with them, and adjusting your
communication to be most effective. Also, as you craft a story of the grand
narrative you will gain a deeper understanding of the story of God and gain
confidence in sharing the gospel with others.
Instructions
Choosing a person for your Gospel Communication Project
For this project, you should write about someone who is an unbeliever and is
from a significantly different ethnolinguistic macro-culture than your own (look
for differences in things like country/region of origin, ethnicity, language,
religion, time orientation, etc.). You will use the cultural background of this
person to complete all three assignments in this project. If you do not know a
person who fits this description, you may use a fictitious character, or for the
purposes of this assignment, adjust the cultural background of a real person.
Scenario 1: You have a friend from another country. They already believe in
Jesus, but you know that many aspects of their cultural identity are
significantly different than your own. For the purpose of this project, you will
discuss the cultural background of your friend, but you will pretend that they
are not a believer. Your description of their religious beliefs will be based on
your research of the majority religion of their home culture, and your
presentation of the gospel will be crafted as if you were going to share it with
someone who is not familiar with the Bible.
Scenario 2:You do not know anyone from a significantly different
ethnolinguistic macro-culture than your own. You will choose an
ethnolinguistic macro culture to research. You will make up a character with a
background story based on the cultural research and craft your gospel story to
communicate effectively with the majority religion of that culture or with
someone who is not familiar with the story of the Bible.
Scenario 3: You have a friend whose family is from a significantly different
macro-culture than your own, but that friend seems to have enculturated into
a mainstream culture similar to yours and the need for adjusting
communication to match cultural systems and cultural values seems to be
minimized. For this project, you will use your research of your friend’s home
culture and practice adjusting your communication as if that friend was not
enculturated. Most people who have crossed cultures and adjusted still have
deeply rooted values in their home culture that affect their world view, and
often have a blend of cultural values between their home culture and their
