Culture has been called the rules by which the game of life is played. If cross-cultural ministers desire to evangelize and teach in ways that will communicate to others and penetrate to life change in their hearts, cultural functionality is hugely important. One of the key tools for functioning as an effective culture learner is learning and employing the skills of participation observation.
Learning Culture through Purposeful Observation is a one week online course which reviews some basic principles of culture understanding and acquisition and then through a series of learning activities builds upon a cross-cultural minister's knowledge, beliefs and skills for culture learning through observation. The course employs reading, audio, class discussions and a field project to accomplish its stated learning outcomes for its participants.
This learning module is best
experienced 1-6 months after a new cross-cultural worker has arrived to his or her field of service. Included are opportunities to interact with other
learners who are in a similar stage of ministry, dialog with an
experienced course facilitator, engage with flexible and transferable content which
remains accessible to you even after the course is completed, and complete some
assignments that will challenge you to get started putting your new skills into practice right away. Everything concludes with a challenge to map out a plan for orderly and purposeful future exploration of the cultural realities of one's new ministry context.