In Cultural Competency, Getting Back in the Game for Ministry with Your Neighbors, Paul Nixon explores how a church can regain a sense of cultural competency for ministering to the world around it. There are different strategies that impact how we do this - no single strategy is right for every church. But there are also baseline principles that are universally applicable. Paul Nixon looks first at a few baselines of culturally competent ministry, and then considers the varied strategies churches employ to get back in the game, in terms of effective ministry with their neighbors. These baselines include:
The Christian Good News transcends culture
Your church belongs to God, not to you
The Good Ole Days are in front of us, not behind us
Authenticity is essential
No church can serve everybody
Friendship first, then ministry development
Spiritual readiness
Social privilege often gets in our way
Community partnerships are priceless
Good listening may lead to Un-learning
A lot of what we try will go about as well as a Wile E. Coyote scheme; God is alive and at work in every neighborhood. Our challenge is to show up to what God is doing; Regardless of strategy, spiritual collaboration with new people is essential!
What Readers Are Saying:
In a world of converging cultures, clashing ideologies and competing priorities, leadership in the church today can feel like trying to build on shifting sand. In Cultural Competency, Paul Nixon offers leaders Terra Firma. With a call to the timeless and timely work of partnering with God in every place and with every people, Cultural Competency lays the groundwork for the construction of God's preferred future for the church and the world. The Good Ole Days are ahead of us!
C. Greg Moore
Senior Pastor, Edenton Street UM Church, Raleigh NC
Cultural Competency is filled with deep thoughts, spiritual grounding, and down to earth approaches to effective ministry. As a veteran church planter, I highly recommend this book to all Christian ministry leaders, especially those who seek to be relevant participants in the Spirit-led Gospel movement.
Bener Agtarap
Executive Director, Path 1 at Discipleship Ministries
If your church finds itself at a ministry crossroad as it tries to be relevant in our rapidly changing world, this book is for you. Reading Cultural Competency is like sitting down with one of the best church consultants in North America to pick his brain about what your church should think about to thrive in the 21st century.
Beth Ann Estock
Co-author of Weird Church: Welcome to the 21st Century
Cultural intelligence is a learned practice, one needed now more than ever. Understanding the social context of our ministries is imperative, making Paul Nixon's book a vital tool in this endeavor. Filled with relevant insights and engaging examples, his words are for anyone desiring to make an impact for Christ in their unique community. As we shift our hopeful hearts toward ministry in a post pandemic world, this book is a must-read.
Ken Nash
Lead Pastor, Watermark Wesleyan Church, Buffalo, NY
Paul Nixon has the capacity help us see the church as though looking through a retro View-Master toy, enabling readers to take trips to places they have never been or to help us see something in a series of different angles or lights. He offers this very gift in Cultural Competency as he takes a complex subject and allows you to see it through thirteen different lenses or screens. Packed with practical tools for reflection and conversation, this book will be a gift to all congregations who are seeking new ways of loving their community and being church together.
Donna Claycomb Sokol
Pastor, Mount Vernon Place UMC, Washington DC
