Cultural Engagement

Goal & Reflection

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Definition for Cultural Engagement

DTS values relationships with diverse individuals, cultures, and ideas that result in acts of evangelism, dialogue, application, and service that are biblical, courageous, and compassionate

CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT GOAL

Because the Kingdom is an inherently diverse Body made up of individual, unique image bearers I will help build a cross-cultural, cross-denominational, cross-church Youth Ministry between Hope Community Church and Church of the Cross.

STRATEGIES

1. Maintain monthly check-in meetings with the lead pastors of each church to discuss goals and progress of the ministry specifically.

2. Maintain monthly touch points with the Kids Ministers at Hope & COTC to keep a pulse on what the children at each church are learning.

3. Maintain communication and equipping of Youth volunteers through the monthly prayer/exhortation meetups.

4. Create communal opportunities for engagement between youth of the different churches (and cultures) to form deeper relationships with each other.

RESOURCES

1. Pastors Aaron, Peter, and Kimberly as support.

2. Mitchell Clouse's connection to his 5 high school guys and experience in the community.

3. Reading Mission Between the Times with Michelle Reyes & discussing cross/multi-cultural ministry.

4. My meeting agenda and prep notes for developing leaders from my time at the Stone.

MEASURES

1. By December, I will have an understanding of the unique cultures of both Hope Community Church and COTC.

2. The Sol Life leaders will have a culture of their own through the joint Youth Ministry.

3. Teens from each church (covid allowing) will have an understanding and knowledge of safety and unity in their joint/shared space.

Artifact #1: Fun & games are a legitimate and important way to help build community & culture amongst a group of strangers. This is an image of when I first introduced the game "Spicy Uno" to Sol Life. This was also the day that the Middle School girl group had their first deep, truly engaged small group discussion time (which was after this time of communal fun.) Correlation? Absolutely. They felt safe and comfortable to let their guard down. I introduced Spicy Uno to our youth ministry intentionally.

It's a fast-paced game and easy for anyone to pick up. We only had one student who didn't engage, but even she was locked into watching while she was talking with a leader. The shared experience of (1) learning a new game together, (2) playing it together, and (3) all trying to beat me together created a solid foundation to build on relationship-wise.

OVERALL REFLECTION STATEMENT

Never underestimate the power of play to build and grow community.

Learning Reflection

For my cultural engagement goal, I am submitting artifacts that represent different shared experiences, games, trips, etc that all helped build community within our cross-church, cross-denominational, cross-cultural youth ministry. Through the Fall and Spring semester, we were limited with when we were all able to meet together. However, I operated out of a place of highly valuing group activities and gatherings in order to intentionally build community and shared experiences through a theology of play. Whether that was games during a Sunday gathering, group games during our Spring Break trip, or at our Friendsgiving...play is powerful. I would say we successfully built a community where every student, no matter his or her background, could walk in and feel comfortable, safe, seen, and known.

CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT ARTIFACTS

Artifact #2:

Below are pictures from our Friendsgiving gathering. This was our first intentional "event" outside of a regular Sunday gathering.

On top of it being our first event together outside of a regular Sunday gathering, I also gave them all the common challenge to try to beat me at Super Smash Bros Melee: a common cause around which to rally. They were all encouraging each other to beat me, and had the shared experience of being beaten. On top of that, there is something sacred about eating a meal together prepared communally. Youth from both churches brought food, and everyone got to enjoy food that had been brought by their peers.

Artifact #3:

Below are images from smaller, discipleship gatherings. Throughout the semester, leaders created shared experiences with their inherently multicultural groups (HS girls/guys; MS girls/guys). These outside gatherings were imperative for building community through a theology of relationship. These experiences supported each youth in feeling known, seen, and loved by adults within the ministry and within their churches. This relationship building was important as we continued to gather together as a joint youth ministry.

Artifact #4:

During our Sunday gatherings, we shifted away from trying to intentionally create more involved group games. Instead, we shifted to leaning into eating together, talking with each other, and playing lower stake, opt-in games like Spicy Uno, ladderball, or the Oreo face challenge. I've included pictures of different Sunday gatherings during the time before our lessons where we're focused on engaging with each other through eating, playing, and talking with each other.

The beauty of this focus on relationship before beginning the lesson portion of our Sunday gatherings is that it creates an environment where the youth can step in and simply breathe and be themselves without anything required of them. Additionally, our youth leaders all had the same vision and values in mind, so no youth was ever left alone. Whether that was because the youth themselves invited people from the fringes into different group conversations or because the leaders checked on youth by themselves to bring them into community...no youth was left unseen during these times, which helps in building trust and community cross-culturally.

LIFELONG DEVELOPMENT STATEMENT

As a result of the experience documented by these artifacts, I will continue to focus on building community "from the ground up" so to speak by creating multiple, informal, low stakes touchpoints for people of different cultural, SES, familial, etc backgrounds to have a shared experience to build relationship with each other.

Building community is not easy, and building (much less strengthening) cross-cultural relationships is not linear or easy. Especially with teenagers. However, I am confident that providing multiple opportunities for people of different cultures, backgrounds, etc to come together over food or a game is an effective manner to build relationship.

The right game (Uno, duck-duck-goose, checkers, Throw Throw Burrito, even Spicy Uno) doesn't require a shared language. Rather, the right game provides a common language from which everyone in a group--no matter the strength or weakness of connection to the group as a whole--can communicate. I think a lot of youth ministries operate from this general concept as far as getting as many youth involved in a particular game, but I also think that a number of youth groups forget the main goal of playing any game: creating connection and building community & culture. With that in mind, I feel challenged to think about how I can introduce an element of play into lessons I teach to adults: whether in an equipping class setting or even a sermon. This particular goal has reminded me that engagement should never simply be for the sake of getting a response from a group of people. Engagement is a tool that can be used in a sermon, in a meeting, in a class, anywhere to build community.

If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”

1 Corinthians 12:17-21

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