This is the first in our final series of podcasts, called 'Continuing'. Here we are looking at resources for individuals and faith communities who have been engaged in the process of intentionally opening outwards to welcome cultural diversity. These episodes are perhaps a bit more complex/technical than earlier ones. The way we 'continue' as open communities is not by maintaining, simply holding on to what we have - it is by continuing to challenge ourselves. In this first episode ...

This is the second of two episodes exploring the vital role of music in creating and sustaining intercultural / intentionally open faith communities. Once again we draw on our conversation with Scottish hymn-writer and global music pioneer, John Bell, but in this episode we focus on specifics: specifics about the music itself, about the process of learning, and best ways to introduce this music into a community in transition. Host Bill Millar also draws on insights from C ...

This is the first in a two-part series exploring the vital role that music plays in building both intercultural community and cross-cultural connection. More than simply a pretty add-on to a worship service, music is a language of the heart itself, expressing all the struggle and triumph of simply moving through life, the complexities and beauty of being in relationship with One we can know only by faith. Universal yet highly specific to cultures, linked so deeply to our memories and em...

While group decision-making is never easy, when the group making decisions is diverse - with some collectivists, some individualists, some direct communicators, others indirect, some top-down, and others bottom-up - it's a mix that regularly leads to misunderstanding, frustration, and communication breakdown! Why is this? How can people who are good at making decisions in their personal lives stumble so often when they try to do it together. We explore this question, and possible solutions,&...

The third in our Commencing Series looks at "place" in our faith communities. As we open to people who are somehow different than those who have been there in the past - what are we offering them? Just space? Or a place? Placemaking involves design [or re-design] processes for transforming public spaces into community places, places that belong to the people, the heart of the community. How can placemaking help our faith communities intentionally open outward, give grit and gravitas to ...

"The more words you use, the less sense you make - how does that help anyone?" (Ecc 6:11). Apparently most intercultural researchers, theorists and trainers missed that wee verse. Intercultural competency. Cultural intelligence. Cultural humility. Constructive marginality. Intercultural sensitivity. . . This episode wanders into the swirling stream of concepts, hoping to find out how all these can work together to give us some practical insights and tools to help us ...

We begin our second season by looking at the critical elements in the lives of folk who are part of communities that are opening out, actively engaged in the process of opening themselves to welcome those who are somehow different. In our first episode we look at The Edge Effect in faith communities that are currently asking 'what could happen when strangers meet?'. The Edge Effect describes the fertile and creative zone created when two or more ecosystems meet, unique biological envi...

This last episode in our Committed series looks at the challenge of re-opening our churches in the midst of the racial tensions that have been pulsing through our cities over the last number of weeks. How do Black Lives Matter and Intercultural Church connect? The title was originally The Power of Invitation, but Bill changed it to The Problem of Invitation. Why? What is the problem with inviting? Along the way we explore both intersectionality and the matrix of domination -two important the...

This episode, a bit more technical, drawing on the wisdom of Michael Blair (Director of Church in Mission for national UC) and others, looks at the challenge of creating worship that can engage North American born folk [individualist culture] and newcomers & indigenous [collectivist]. The church finds itself in ambiguity. Mainstream protestant churches have been shrinking - as the traditional white cultural majority is giving way to a racially and cultural diverse population. How c...

This episode, # 5 in our Committed series, was published during Pentecost 2020, the festival of intended inclusion, just as America is rocked by racial pain that can no longer be contained, the reality of exclusion. We are are beginning consider how we will, sometime soon, de-shutter our churches - open them again,[but to whom?]. Perhaps it is time not simply to re-open, but to re-imagine. We have, over the last few months, utterly transformed worship - moving in from in-person to on-...

Have you noticed? Even greeting each other can be tricky... should we bow [who first?], shake hands, kiss [one cheek or two? How many times?] Often the things we stumble over in our cross-cultural relationships aren't the big things - but the myriad little things. We are expecting one thing to happen, and something altogether different happens - this is hard for our brains. They can start to pull back, or collect resentments over this expectations that are not met. This episode explores a va...

Is your 'me' a 'we'? It's an important question! This episode is the first of two looking at key differences in the ways people from different cultures think, feel, and make decisions - how they act and react. Today we focus on that core question: What does your 'me' look like? An individual? Or a group? Individualists include most of the people in Europe and North America, but they actually make up a small part of the world's population. Most (over 90%) of the people on the planet are ...

This is our second podcast exploring Implicit or Unconscious Bias, the stereotypes ad shortcuts that our brains create to help us. Except it's not always such a big help. Sometimes they're just kind of odd, and sometimes they can even be dangerous. Fortunately many are easier to change than we might expect. In this second exploration we dig a little deeper, examine a number of biases and how they can impact our relationships. Often we try hard to get rid of all biases - sort of like abstinen...

Why do more people die in hurricanes with female names? Why are so many male CEOs so tall? What's height got to do with being a CEO? Why do bosses give lower performance appraisals to workers who are overweight? Why indeed. . . This is the first episode in our Committed series, where we are really trying to get to the down and dirty, the very practical parts of intentionally opening ourselves and our communities outward to welcome all - including those with vastly different cult...

In this episode we explore the vital role of vulnerability in opening ourselves to folk with different cultural backgrounds. Humility and giving up control are key factors when a community wants to welcome newcomers – but how do we do that? Perhaps by leading out of our own insufficiency rather than sufficiency? Much of this episode is based on insights from a conversation with Damber Khadka, a brilliant leader in the Nepali church in Canada. Damber was a key leader and lay minister at Knox ...

This episode picks up on some of the thoughts of last week's "Rebooting", but in today's we focus specifically on the actual mechanics of how we change. Our brains are hard-wired to resist change, yet and this is so evident on a global scale at this point in the Covid-19 crisis, humans have a remarkable ability to change, to adapt - and to do so quickly. Why can we do it, if not effortlessly, at least effectively, sometimes - yet at other times change can be so difficult? At this point...

When our computers stop doing the things we want them to, we reboot the system. How can we reboot our thinking? Our relationships? Our churches? Our brains naturally perceive anything ‘different’ as a potential threat – so how can we help our brains adapt? This episode helps us prepare by understanding how privilege works & how it limits us, as well as what helps people’s minds open out. This episode was written and produced as the full impact of Covid-19 was just begin...

After these days of shuttered churches, our time of sheltering in, once more will come a time for opening out. It will not be a return to what was, but some kind of new time for churches - we will need to decide how we open out and to whom we want to be open. Same old, or new people, different people, all people? This is the first in our 'Considering' series. Here we dig a bit deeper, get a bit more into the specifics, the messy and wondrous nitty-gritty of opening our communities of f...

Episode recorded before full effect of Covid-19 pandemic In this episode we continue to explore why faith communities and other groups might want to intentionally open outwards, welcome the new diverse folk who are the new Canada. Today we look specifically at the impact of both the declining birth rate in Canada and the dramatic rise in immigration on the church itself. Rather than lamenting the declining attendance in our churches as a bad/sad thing, what if we see it as a Divine i...

In this second episode of the "Curious" series, we look at reasons why faith communities (and other groups) might want to consider opening themselves to welcome greater cultural diversity - because Canada itself has changed, and is changing - dramatically. We look at the extraordinary transformation that is going on in the cultural make-up of our land - by looking specifically at census data, and at projections by Statistics Canada of what we are likely to look like in 15-20 years. Much of ...