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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Cultural Shift

What are some of the things you notice when you travel, even in your own country? For convenience and safety there are some things which are standardized. Highway signs are pretty universal. The malls and shopping centers are fairly standardized, a few of the store names are different. The big chain grocery stores are the ones which will frequently have different names: Kroger, Publix, Giant Eagle, Piggly Wiggly and so forth. There are many dialects even to the same language. It is not difficult to tell the difference in the spoken language between a person reared in Connecticut and a person from Mississippi. Except for chain restaurants, the taste of food can be significantly different. The local cuisine has a distinctiveness across the country.

Customs of the local populace are often different. Driving can be confusing and sometimes dangerous if you do not know the local patterns. Roundabouts in Boston can perplex a person whose driving has only been in the open spaces of Texas. In some places, when the traffic signals changes from green to red, the facing drivers give way to the remaining vehicle seeking to make a cross traffic turn. In other places one dare not try to make that turn because the facing traffic already will be moving forward in anticipation of the light change.

When I was in college my minor was in speech and drama. The college was small and did not have all the latest sets, props, lighting and sound equipment. We has to make our own set flats, from framing, covering with fabric, sizing with glue, base coating and then decorating. We built our own rheostat lighting board. Our coach, Bob Franks, knew many of us would be going to serve as teachers in smaller poorer school systems. He said, “If you had everything of the latest equipment here, you would be lost when you go where they have nothing. If you learn to improvise and make your own here, and go someplace where they have everything you will do fine.”

If one has been a long time member of a larger church the shock of moving to a radically smaller one can be overwhelming. Many you go to seminary are from mid-size to large congregations, but are often called to serve much smaller congregations. They may be used to a situation where program development and implementation was the primary expectation. In many smaller congregations they have neither the person nor the financial resources to support an unending string of programs. What they want most is a pastor who will love and care for them.

As a general presbyter, I used to say to new pastors coming into the presbytery, “Welcome to the mission field. If you were to go to serve in any other country would you expect things there to be the same as they were at home? Unless you are native born and reared in this particular culture of western Pennsylvania, do not expect things here to be the same as where you are coming from.” Even within the local cultural context each congregation will have its own culture and ways of doing things. Unless pastors take the time to learn the local ways, the pastorate can come to a premature screeching crash.

This is another example of where a coach can be of significant help to the minister. The coach can help the pastor reflect on and adapt to the new culture in which they are serving. Every time a minister relocates there is a new local and congregational culture to learn. The coach can be a valuable to the pastor as a guide through a new terrain in a distant land. Every time a minister relocates they enter the new congregation needing to learn the ways of the local inhabitants. A coach can facilitate the cultural adaptations necessary for a fruitful pastorate.


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