Global/Intercultural Fluency — How to Make Ministry Experience Matter in Any Job

By Jeff Eads, Co-Executive Director of Muncie Fellows

Part 9 of 9 in a series about workplace competencies. Read Part 1 here.

Transferable Skill #8 — Global/Intercultural Fluency

Global/Intercultural Fluency: Value, respect, and learn from diverse cultures, races, ages, genders, sexual orientations, and religions. The individual demonstrates openness, inclusiveness, sensitivity, and the ability to interact respectfully with all people and understand individuals’ differences. (Source)

Global and Intercultural Fluency is at the very core of a biblical worldview. This is the final competency that NACE lists in their report. It is last but certainly not least. As I began writing this post I had to pause. There are plenty of examples that are easy to apply here. However, in ministry, a lot of work has been done with good intentions and yet with damaging results. The key to walking through this is to start where NACE’s definition starts; “value, respect, and learn from diverse cultures.” Too often missions, whether local or abroad, have been done with little intention of learning from other cultures and the root of this is, unfortunately, a place of lack of respect and value for others.

You may think it seems contradictory to think that you can do missions without valuing or respecting others. After all, missions work takes a great deal of sacrifice and intentionality so we might conclude that this comes from a place of value and respect for others. Historically, this has not always been the case. A great deal of missions has been done from a desire to “fix” or “rescue” others without actually giving time to understanding others. I do not have time to dive into the deep end on this topic. If you would like more I suggest that you pick up a copy of “When Helping Hurts” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert

For the sake of this post and the examples that I’ll provide, I am assuming that the motives of missions come from a place of valuing, respecting, and seeking to understand others. I believe this is supported by the biblical text and is perhaps seen most evident in Paul’s approaches to missions in each of his sermons in Acts. Paul takes the time to understand his audience and what they value, evident in how his messages are tailored. But the ultimate picture of this, of course, is Jesus himself who “did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage….and taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:6–7). These are not simply ministry strategies, they are genuine desires to understand others.

Assuming these motives are the underpinning, there are lots of examples of global and intercultural activities within student ministries and churches that have likely prepared you well for the workplace. Here are just a few that come immediately to mind:

• Short-term international missions trip
• Short-term domestic missions trip for a service project
• Conversational English class with international students
• International student meals
• Trips to nursing homes
• Serving as a mentor to another student from a different background

These activities typically come with some training regarding how to love someone different than ourselves.

In my work as a career coach, I have found that students, more times than not, do not take the time to consider how to translate their missions activities away from insider Christian language to language the makes sense in the general employment world.

For instance, when communicating about a missions trip to South America or Africa over spring break students will list evangelism and Vacation Bible School (VBS) on their resume. When I ask more specific questions about these activities, I learn that “evangelism” involved the student meeting strangers for coffee and talking about their culture and their worldview. “VBS” meant that they organized a soccer camp for children ages 8–15 and followed the practices with a prepared values-based curriculum where they discussed things like honesty, integrity, empathy, and courage.

The students that I work with have grown as individuals after having seen and talked to people that do not have the economic opportunities that an average American does. They are humbled by another culture’s extreme hospitality and value of family. They are struck by the joy of the children and their eagerness to learn. And, they are saddened that the children do not have what we may consider basic resources for learning.

All of these outcomes are the richness of what an employer would want in an employee. Therefore, a resumé needs to touch on the transferable skills and provoke questions that will allow the applicant to talk more about the value of their cultural experience in an interview. “Evangelism” and “Vacation Bible School” will likely not provoke this dialogue and could potentially stir a negative response.

In reality, the job search process, which includes cover letters, resumes, interviews, networking and thank you cards, is really about the art of storytelling. When you consider your global or intercultural experiences, keep asking yourself questions like, “What did I learn from this? How did I grow? Why was this meaningful?” or “How am I different as a result?” These are the stories that you need to tell.

Understand the context in which you are telling these stories. The employer wants to know “If I put you on a team of people who aren’t like you, how will you respond?” Or, “If you have to interact with clients who are different from you (which you will), how will you treat them?” You are not telling stories about how you are the hero that came in and saved the day by building a house or giving away shoes. You are telling stories about how, having the experience that you had, you are now more equipped with empathy, patience, humility, and listening skills than you were before.

Here’s an example to consider. Let’s say you are on an international mission trip and you are the designated photographer. When you return you have some pictures of your team but you also have lots of pictures of the locals that you served. Think through the photos of children and their parents. What is that child’s story? Is there anything that saddens you? Is there anything that encourages you? What will you be praying for them in the years to come? In what way would you like to be more like him/her? In what way are you more fortunate than them? What are they thankful for? What are you thankful for? Working through exercises like this with your own global and intercultural experiences will help you get away from the “what did I do” question and move towards the “how did it change me for the better” question.

We live in a global society and it is critical that employees are able to function well within it. This is not just an employment value. It is a biblical value.

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