Welcoming people from all cultures

Culture is a strong part of people's lives. It influences their views, their values, their humor, their hopes, their loyalties, and their worries and fears. If you are from New Mexico or Montana, if your parents are Cambodian, French Canadian, or Native American, if you are Japanese, Chinese African-American, Central American or Hispanic, if you are Methodist or not , if you are a mixture of cultures your culture has affected you. So when you are working with people and building relationships with them, it helps to have some perspective and understanding of their cultures.

But as we explore culture, it's also important to remember how much we have in common. A person who grew up in Tibet, will probably see the world very differently than someone who grew up in Manhattan--but both people know what it is like to wake up in the morning and look forward to the adventures that of the day. We are all human beings. We all love deeply, want to learn, have hopes and dreams, and have experienced pain and fear. God calls us to be ONE in Him.

Although every person is unique, some of us have been mistreated or oppressed because we are a member of a particular group. If we ignore these present-day or historical differences, we may fail to understand the needs of those individuals. Often people are afraid that recognizing differences will divide people from each other. However, learning about cultural differences can actually bring people closer together, because it can reveal important parts of each other’s lives. It can show us how much we have in common as human beings. Culture is diversity in action. We serve a living God full of different cultures. Let's never forget the bible verse that pulls us to a culture diversity:  

Go therefore and make disciples of ALL nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:19

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