The “Dishonest” Teacher and the Foreign School Principal

One day a teacher at the fictitious Worldview SDA Elementary School somewhere in Africa went to talk to his principal, a foreign missionary.

“Sir, my father has died,” the teacher told the principal. “I would like to attend his funeral.”

“I am so sorry to hear that,” the principal replied. “Please go and take the three days as stipulated in the rules handbook.”

Thanking his principal, the African teacher left to attend his father’s funeral.

Three days passed. Then five, then 10. Not a word from the grieving teacher.

Two weeks later, when a puzzled principal was wondering whether to find another teacher to replace his mission employee, the teacher arrived from the funeral and resumed his job in the classroom as if nothing had happened.

The foreign principal decided not to say a word.

Church leaders watch a skit that sought to help them reflect on the joys and challenges of cross-cultural mission service during the intercultural workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, August 11. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

A couple of months later, however, there was another knock at the principal’s office door.

“Come in,” the principal said.

It was the same teacher.

“Sir, my father has died, and I would like to attend his funeral,” the teacher told the principal.

What is going on here? the principal asked himself. How can his father die twice? Is he being dishonest just to get free days?

The principal decided to confront his teacher, but when asked about it, the teacher seemed unconcerned. “This time it’s my sixth father who died,” the teacher told the principal. “Last time it was my ninth.”

Something’s not right! the foreign principal asked himself: What am I missing here?

Challenges of Intercultural Mission Service

The eye-opening skit took place during the recent intercultural workshop in Bangkok, Thailand. The event brought together division officers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Adventist Mission experts from August 4 to 15 to learn about the opportunities and challenges of intercultural mission service. It also opened ways to discuss how Adventist administrators and executives can better serve missionary families serving in often challenging and even dangerous environments.

“Sir, my father has died, and I would like to attend his funeral,” the teacher told the principal. The principal was puzzled, as the teacher had used the same argument a few months before to skip classes for two weeks. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

One of the key elements along this process, church leaders said, is to seek ways to understand cultural differences and worldviews better. The drama performance during one of the morning segments sought to do precisely that.

What the Principal Didn’t Get

The August 11 skit—which pitted Ronald Kuhn, associate director of the Institute of World Mission (IWM) against IWM director Oscar Osindo—made clear that the two men were interacting based on incomplete knowledge and completely different assumptions. The school principal read the situation with his Western eyes and reacted accordingly. But the teacher from Africa was coming from a completely different place.

“In my culture,” the “teacher” later explained, “it’s not so important who your biological father is. And there are no uncles. Many in your community are your ‘fathers,’ those who bring you up, feed, and discipline you. The whole community is responsible. It is the reason that in many African communities there are no orphanages.”

The Institute of World Mission team seeks to help cross-cultural missionaries develop greater sensitivity to cultural differences as they serve people around the world. [Photo: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists]

Within that context, if you attend the funeral of one of your “fathers,” you must attend the funerals of the rest of them, or people will interpret it as a flagrant sign of disrespect, the “teacher” explained.

At the same time, events such as funerals “are not time-oriented but event-oriented,” he added. “There’s not a set schedule or timetable. You leave only when the event is done, no matter how long it takes.”

The Role of Cultural Differences

During the intercultural workshop additional presentations sought to help Adventist leaders understand various types of communication between cultures and how understanding and respecting these differences can help advance mission.

Erich Baumgartner, codirector of the Global Leadership Institute at Andrews University, invited attendees to reflect on cultural understandings which are “obvious to an insider but invisible to an outsider.” Working in pairs, leaders from various backgrounds contrasted their cultural expectations and how misunderstanding them could lead to embarrassing or puzzling experiences.

Róbert Csizmadia, secretary of the Trans-European Division, reports on the findings of his discussion table during the intercultural workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, August 11. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

The same applies to leadership, added Baumgartner. “We are effective in our culture because we know our culture well. We know how to use it . . . to influence people to help fulfill God’s purposes, which is the heart of our leadership.”

Jesus’ Style of Leadership

Beyond significant cultural differences, Baumgartner suggested there are ways of narrowing those gaps, as he invited church leaders to reflect on Jesus’ style of leadership. The key question is, he said, “What kind of leader can enter another person’s world without losing truth, identity, or mission?”

Working in small groups around tables, attendees reflected on specific Bible stories and were called to complete one sentence: “Jesus leads across differences by . . .”

Every table eventually shared their suggestions. “Jesus leads across differences by modeling presence and being in relationship with all people,” one said. Other tables soon added their suggestions, including “. . . by breaking all barriers,” “. . . by becoming one of us irreversibly,” and “. . . by challenging norms and creating a diverse movement of followers.” Another table summarized it as “Jesus leads across differences by loving people and bringing them . . . into a community where love is stronger than their differences.”

Attendees enjoy a light moment during the August 11 discussion of cross-cultural differences and Jesus’ style of leadership during His earthly ministry. [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]

In the following minutes Baumgartner invited every table to try to find patterns in Jesus’ ways of leading and connecting with people beyond their cultural differences, including “how He served” and “what He challenged as a cross-cultural missionary.” “How did He create an atmosphere where people felt that they belong?” Baumgartner asked.

Baumgartner summarized Jesus’ style of leadership by explaining that when we look at how Jesus entered human culture and how He worked with us, we see five movements. “Jesus moves toward us, sees things differently, serves by redirecting power, challenges assumptions and religious distortions, and then creates belonging,” he said. “We see Jesus doing something amazing,” Baumgartner continued. “He forms a new community, develops that community through the disciples [so people] become disciples, His true followers that He can send out . . . This is the movement that I want you to keep in mind as we think what it means to lead cross-culturally.”

Erich Baumgartner, codirector of the Global Leadership Institute at Andrews University, invited attendees to finish this sentence: “Jesus leads across differences by . . .” [Photo: Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review]